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This article is one of the 8-part series of evergreen topics that all startup founders face. It is based on what the mentors actually teach startups during the StepFWD pre-accelerator. Our thanks go to Ciprian Borodescu, Head of Algolia (AI R&D) Romania, for helping founders efficiently raise their next investment round. Fundraising primer Before starting to think about getting an investment, you need to first decide why you want to
As we moved the program online for this years’ edition, we realized that we had to make the activities shorter, more focused, and tailored to each startup’s needs. One way we aim to achieve these goals is to work closely with lead mentors throughout the 8-week program, a role that I will better detail below. Who are the lead mentors? The StepFWD lead mentors are experienced entrepreneurs or people who
We at StepFWD strive every day to make one the best programs for tech entrepreneurs in Romania. And although our team has experience both with organizing and participating in acceleration programs, we are aware that we still have a lot to learn. So it seemed natural to go and shadow those that helped shape the concept of an accelerator, which are also one of the top 3 acceleration programs in
When I started thinking about writing this article, I faced a dilemma. Should I share some “classical” startup learnings packaged in a standard format that you can find in other million articles? Or should I risk writing bluntly and honestly about what actually happened? When faced with these 2 options, I took 10 seconds of hard thinking before I decided to go with the second approach. I am aware that