Program
Tech startups with diverse teams go through our 8-weeks pre-accelerator program when they need guidance and support to grow.
Applications will open soon for the 2022 Cohort
Mission
We support tech startups with diverse teams through the first stages of their growth.
How
Get a personalised, hands-on experience, with your lead mentor guiding you like an advisor and StepFWD PMs acting as an extension of your team.
Focus
First-time founder in need of a confidence boost? We got you! Achieve focus by talking to experienced mentors and investors who understand what you're going through.
What’s in it for you?
Practical steps
Work side by side with seasoned entrepreneurs and industry experts in hands-on workshops where they guide your steps, share frameworks, give you feedback, and answer your questions.
Entrepreneurial mind-shift
We teach you how to talk with your customers to validate your startup! Do the work, get out there for feedback, iterate, and build the right product!
Tailored Mentorship
We pair your startup with a lead mentor who will advise and guide you for the duration of the program. You’ll also have 1-on-1 discussions with 10s of entrepreneurs, investors and corporate partners.
Master your pitch
Craft the best pitch for your startup through direction, feedback, and practice, practice, practice.
Community for life
You’ll be forever part of the StepFWD Community and have access to the TechHub Bucharest and Google for Startups communities.
We're here for you
StepFWD is a support system that offers guidance not just during the program but also after it. Once you “graduate”, you can attend recurring Office Hours sessions with the StepFWD team.
Program Schedule
For 8 weeks, you become part of a program that gets your startup into shape, from product to pitching and everything in between. Each week packs a workshop and mentoring sessions focused on specific topics where you get to work with founders who’ve been where you are, plus industry pros who give you their best advice.
A lead mentor will be by your side every step of the way.
The schedule below is subject to small changes.
Week 1: Intro
Monday, 10:00 - 17:00
Program Kickoff (Orientation, elevator pitch practice)
Meet the lead mentors
Meet Google for Startups
Thursday, 14:30-17:30
Online tools training with PMs
Speed mentoring practice
Roundtable: Meet the StepFWD alumni
Week 2: Legal Mechanics & Customer Development
Monday, 09:30 - 14:00
Workshop: Startup legal mechanics with Tudor Stanciu
Workshop: Customer development with Raluca Apostol and Letiția Ștefan
Thursday, 10:00 - 16:30
Hands on*: Startup legal mechanics
Hands on*: Customer development
All-hands sessions
Week 3: Business Models & Product Development
Monday, 09:30 - 14:00
Workshop: Business models with Mircea Vadan
Workshop: Product development with Monica Obogeanu and Alexandra Anghel
Thursday, 10:00 - 16:30
Hands on*: Business models
Hands on*: Product development
All-hands session
Week 4: Sales & Marketing
Monday, 10:00 - 14:00
Workshop: Product marketing with Irina Scarlat and Andra Zaharia
Workshop: Sales with Gv Freeman and Ciprian Borodescu
Thursday, 10:00 - 16:30
Hands on*: Product marketing
Hands on*: Sales
All-hands session
Week 5: Fundraising & Pitching
Monday, 09:30 - 14:00
Workshop: Fundraising with Ciprian Borodescu and Daniel Dragomir
Workshop: How to pitch with Bogdan Apostol and Liviu Cadariu
Thursday, 10:00 - 16:30
Hands on*: Fundraising
Hands on*: How to pitch
All-hands session
Week 6: Break & Speed mentoring
Thursday, 10:00 - 18:00
Roundtable: Serial entrepreneurs share their story
Speed mentoring
All-hands session
Week 7: Pitch practice & Speed mentoring
Monday, 09:30 - 15:00
Pitch practice: Refine pitch deck with mentors
Pitch practice with the StepFWD team
Thursday, 13:30 - 18:00
Speed mentoring
All-hands session
Week 8: Pitch practice & Speed mentoring
Monday, 13:30 - 18:00
Speed mentoring
All-hands session
Thursday, 09:30 - 15:00
Pitch practice with mentors
Pitch practice with the StepFWD team
Week 9: DemoDay
Monday, all day
Pitch practice: Final rehearsal
Demo day
* During hands-on meetings, each startup will have a 20-minutes slot for discussing the assignment with the mentors and can also (optionally) listen to feedback give to other startups from their group.
Lead mentors
Talking with an experienced mentor can help you validate your assumptions and avoid common pitfalls, which cost you both money and time (you don’t have).
Achieve your goals
Lead mentors help you make sure you achieve the goal you set at the beginning of the pre-accelerator. They're there to help you build towards you goals but also break them. As you'll soon learn, sometimes you have to let go of old beliefs to embrace new ones in order to innovate and stay ahead of competitors.
A perfect match
In the first week of the program, we pair each StepFWD startup with a lead mentor. We look for both a professional and a personal match, to make sure you have a smooth, rewarding experience throughout the pre-accelerator.
How does it work?
You get a 30-minutes office hours session with your lead mentor and one of the program managers each week. Use this time to: talk about your last week’s progress, set up the plan for the following week, ask for help from your lead mentor and the program managers.
Your dedicated coach
We believe that a lead mentor is like a sports coach: they “train” you for the match day, but it’s up to you to put in the hard work and perform at your best when the time comes.
Activities Overview
We designed StepFWD with first-time founders in mind – as a journey that takes you through all the topics that are fundamental for a start-up.
Workshops
Get a 360-degree view on topics related to building a startup, such as customer and product development, business models, marketing, sales, startup legal mechanics, fundraising, and pitching.
Hands-on Sessions
Startups assemble into 2 working groups, each with 1 mentor. All startups get 20 minutes to collect feedback on their workshop assignments and can (optionally) learn from the feedback other startups from their group receive.
1-on-1 with Lead Mentors
Every Tuesday or Wednesday, startups meet with their lead mentor and StepFWD PMs for a 30 min call to talk about last week's progress and set up the plan for next week.
Pitch Practice
Rehearse and improve your pitch with mentors and the StepFWD team. These sessions help master the process of building and delivering the perfect presentation at (any) Demo Day.
Speed Mentoring
Engage with multiple mentors in a back-to-back meetings format. Short and focused, these meetings push you to showcase your startup's potential as effectively as you can.
All-hands sessions
This is when all the participants and the StepFWD team get together and share their highs and lows of the week.
Roundtables
We also include social activities for building connections with mentors and StepFWD alumni in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Virtual Coffee
We start the week with a 30 min virtual coffee where you get to know your fellow participants and also meet up with our community partners.
Demo Day
Mentors, investors, community partners, corporates, press attendees are invited together with the broader community to the final event. Each startup gets to showcase their business in a 5 min pitch.
What’s StepFWD like?
25% of the startups that have been through the StepFWD pre-accelerator have gone on to raise investment
Cristina Oprea
COO, LopiAI
Ovidiu Stegari
CEO, Helperz (former Sitter)
Simina Stancu
CPO, Quandary Systems
Demo Day
The program wraps up with Demo Day, an event where participating teams showcase their business in a 5 min pitch, get feedback and connect with the audience.
Applications are closed
Applications for the 2022 Cohort will open soon.