Between the Builders and the Bonfire

Friendships were made. Discussions happened. The same familiar tech and entertainment faces sat at the same café tables like every year.

Getting there is still a bit of a mission if you don’t have a car, or if your friends aren’t informally “selling” spare seats for a donation to some cause. It’s far from Yerevan. No doubt. But it’s also close to Vardenis. And if not for SSS, I probably would have never spent this much time in Vardenis, as embarrassing as that is to admit.

So who actually shows up?

There are real startups. Young teams. Focused. Brave. Working on specific problems they genuinely want to solve.

Then there are the rushed cases. Idea-stage projects that came together a bit too quickly. People who mostly wanted to spend a week by the lake, feel the camp energy, sit by the bonfire, and then return to their regular jobs.

Both groups exist. And that mix is part of the culture now.

The management is always present. Visible. Solving problems on the spot. Credit where it’s due. Logistics improve every year. Even the food gets noticeably better.

And yet something feels missing.

It’s hard to name. Not a structural issue. Not programming. Not the setting.

Maybe it’s a question of depth versus presence. Of being there versus building something there.

Because the tents, the lake, and the late-night talks are all still working. But the summit is now big enough that the energy splits. Between builders and visitors. Between momentum and atmosphere.

And somewhere in that split sits the thing that’s hard to define.