Accelerating Innovation: Meet the 20 Promising Startups Joining StepFWD Together

In the bustling tech landscape of CEE Region, innovation is thriving, and a new wave of startups is ready to reshape various industries. StepFWD Together accelerator has just announced the selection of 20 exceptional early-stage tech startups for its Phase 1 program. Spanning the next two months, these startups will embark on an accelerated growth journey, gaining invaluable skills and mentorship through StepFWD Together’s structured curriculum. As the initial phase

Lessons learned from MorphL’s acquisition

My experience as a founder consists of two startups: the first one, Appticles, which we closed in 2018, and the 2nd one – MorphL, which Algolia acquired in January 2021. The first startup was … let’s say that my co-founder Ciprian Borodescu and I made many mistakes. After raising a small seed round at the beginning of 2014, we failed to generate enough revenue or secure a follow-on investment. After

What to expect when joining a (pre-)accelerator program

As I prepare to join Techstars Montreal AI 2019, I realize that setting the right goals before beginning the journey of going through an accelerator is mandatory. This is my third experience of participating in an accelerator, having been through Startupbootcamp (Copenhagen / 2010) and Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (U.S. / 2016) with my previous startup. So I already have a set of expectations and assumptions that will be refined at

How to find the right co-founder for your startup?

A startup is a mix of team, product and market. It all starts with the team – the base on everything else is built. In this case – how do we choose the right co-founders for our startup? Are they friends, family, colleagues or complete strangers? If you’re here, you definitely thought about it and maybe planned to start a business. Maybe you have found the problem you want to

What I’ve learned from my failed startups

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

The story behind StepFWD

At the beginning of 2015, me and my co-founder decided to rent a couple of desks at TechHub Bucharest. It was our first time trying out a co-working space and I was skeptical I could make the switch after working from a private office for so long. Frankly, I wasn’t in the mood to get out of the house. After securing a seed investment at the beginning of 2014, we