Mentors

Emmett King is long-term entrepreneur from American where he founded or was part of the founding team of 10 companies within 8 different industries. For the past 17 years he has been practicing his entrepreneurial skills in Romania. He who loves living and working in Cluj-Napoca, knows Romanian history and even speaks the language!
An experienced business mentor who enjoys meeting with great teams to discuss their excellent plans and projects. An angel investor who is continuously looking for new startup partners and projects to support with his knowledge, connections and financing.
He is the co-founder of the angel investor group, Transylvania Angels Network (T.A.N.), which has made connections with the other angel groups throughout Romania and many within other countries around Europe.

Cristin is the co-founder and CEO of Salt & Pepper, a full-service software development company, and Co-founder of #defineSchool. His passion for technology and passing on knowledge is already a trademark. He worked restlessly to get the company he manages to where it is now and create a cozy work environment.

Salt & Pepper is a full-service software development company dedicated to building digital products that matter. We do this by providing a complete range of services required for building great products: consulting services, business analysis, UI/UX design, web and mobile development, quality assurance, and maintenance.

Cristin is also passionate about education and helping the local startup scene, through #defineSchool (www.defineschool.ro), a program dedicated to students and young professionals who are interested in launching a startup.

My name is Daniel and I’m the founder and lead product designer at Durran.

I help startups go from idea to validation with real users in just a few days and design awesome digital products faster by running Design Sprint workshops.

In the last 9+ years I worked with companies ranging from early stage startups to enterprise businesses, in domains such as Technology, Healthcare, Education or Professional Services.

Wanting to help and give back, I also started to coach junior designers and gathered a local community where designers can learn and grow together.

Passionate in helping startups scale through partnerships, sales and operations efficiencies

Bianca Muntean is the manager of Transilvania IT Cluster, gold-labeled by ESCA, with over 20 years of experience in ecosystem development.
In 2019 she was awarded by the European Commission (EC) the title of EU Cluster Manager of the Year and she is also the recipient of the Open Innovation Award in 2017.
As Manager of Transilvania IT Cluster, she founded and coordinates Transilvania Digital Innovation Hub, one of the most important Digital Innovation Hubs in Southeast Europe. Her activity is mainly related to policy making, vision and strategy for the IT sector, business support, mentoring, project management, networking, community building and representation of the IT sector from Transilvania region.
Bianca is a member of the European Cluster Expert Group, a group coordinated by DG GROW, European Commission, and also actively participates in various Advisory Boards focused on digital transformation at local, regional and national level.

I’m a highly curious analytical person, (almost) always looking for a new challenge where my problem-solving skills can be of use.
Used to wearing multiple hats in the same project (product owner/manager, UX designer, whatever is needed).

Former banker, now entrepreneur, co-founder of SeedBlink, aiming to support other tech entrepreneurs to get knowledge in order to get de appropriate funding for scaling-up

Ella has an intrinsic motivation to support people interested in entrepreneurship, that are coachable and have growth mindset, a global vision, looking to solve specific problems with their solution. She is a devoted community builder and a continuous learner.
Ella is experienced in managing and implementing projects financed by the European Union.
As part of the Rubik Hub team, she has coordinated Rubik Garage pre-accelerator program. Furthermore, she has designed & managed the educational program RubikEDU – for future entrepreneurs.
Her startup expertise is Business Idea Evaluation, Business Model Canvas, Vision-Mission-Values alignment, PSF Validation

Startup community & programs builder at Rubik Hub.
Co-coordinator Rubik Garage pre-accelerator

In the past 12 years I have been building and working in social & educational projects, coordinating NGOs, projects and volunteers. I believe in positive impact by empowering people to step forward and have initiative.
I have experience in community building, early stage startups & HR. I want & like to be part of/find the solutions to problems, I love creativity and love to help others to grow and to build startups & projects with impact.

Experience in:

– Community Building
– Product development and creativity/ideation
– Team alignment & development strategy for your startup
– Mission, Vision, Values for your startup
– Digital Marketing and Design
– Coaching & mentoring teams
– Philanthropy, social good & crowdfunding projects

#techforgood #givebeforeyouget #positiveimpact

Marius Mitroi is the CEO @ RIDESAFE Technology and co-founder @ Thinkstitute. As former head of innovation at UEFISCDI, he managed projects in areas like entrepreneurship, protecting IPR, clusters and technology transfer. He designed and implemented funding programs for research and innovation and developed new support policies for innovation. Marius is also a board member @ Innovation Labs

Marketing and management consulting experience. Entrepreneurship.

Tech-savvy traveler, Techstars Startup Weekend Global Facilitator, and running all over the place.
Co-founder at Coworking Timisoara, Startup Survivor true believer, on the lookout for a good espresso. Always open to chat about startups, tech & motorcycles.

Making things happen. Dedicating the past 15 years to build reliable teams, products and businesses, Cristi is all about putting all the right pieces together to make it work. Currently he is focused on scaling ThinkOut globally and promoting entrepreneurial culture through Iași Startups and TBNR Accelerator.

Entrepreneur, trainer, business consultant and coach, mentor and adviser for both traditional business organizations and startups.
With a background in human resources, business administration, real estate and innovation, I believe that magic comes from connecting people with opportunities, facilitating the access to clients, investors and international ecosystems for the startup teams and companies I work with. The more technology and digital transformation are touching important corners of our lives, the human touch, communication and empathy are becoming more important.

Tudor has over a decade of experience in building innovative businesses. He can help you figure out what makes people adopt your product, as he is both a researcher and practitioner in the field of Behavioural Science

As part of Digital 2 Law, I help digital entrepreneurs solve their legal issues through services & tech products. Currently, we run a distributed law firm for digital & tech entrepreneurs, and supporting products that aim to make compliance more accessible for SMEs

Serial Entrepreneur with extensive experience in digital markerting and crowdfunding. Andrei is now the CEO and co-founder of Stailer.ro a Market Network connecting beauty saloons with the costumers.

Stock Exchange Enthusiast | Angel Investor | Business Mentor | Startup Advisor | Traveler | Nature Addicted | Father | Giver
Sunt Florin şi activez de peste 20 de ani în industria investiţiilor şi a consultanţei de business. În ultimii ani am mentorat mulţi tineri antreprenori în dezvoltarea lor şi a afacerilor pe care le gestionează, pentru că îmi place şi pot să ajut oameni. Sunt orientat către independenţă financiară, asumare de riscuri, precum şi o gestiune atentă şi permanentă a finanţelor personale.

Om de Marketing, specializat pe Content Marketing, lucrez cu antreprenori si creatori ca sa ii ajut sa scaleze ceea ce fac deja sau sa isi construiasca o fundatie pe baza careia sa dezvolte o afacere sau o idee.

I help SaaS companies deliver better quality products to their customers.

Liviu is a Program Manager at StepFWD, the pre-accelerator for tech startups with diverse teams and the Event Manager of TechHub Bucharest, the co-working space and meeting place for the Bucharest tech community.

He has co-founded We For Real, the simple no-bullshit approach to help kick start your community. Liviu has been part of 3 startup projects, which, although unsuccessful, have proved to be the fastest learning curve in his career.

Computer Vision Engineer turned startup founder, I’ve been going through a crash-course in the startup world for the past two years. I’m keen to give back to the community I’ve grew up in and help others grow in a direction they are passionate about.

My long term goal is to apply my knowledge in solving real world problems, specifically through the use of Machine Vision and Reinforcement Learning.

Marketing, technology, and product executive focused on science, evolution, and education, interested in strategic leadership and innovation management in eCommerce, iGaming, fintech, biotech, renewable energy, transportation, and robotics.

Cristian has more than 15 years of experience in digital marketing. He is the founder of Canopy, the largest performance marketing agency from Romania and the founder of Aggranda, a company that builds software robots for clients all over the world.

Philip Choban is the founder and CEO of the company, and the one leading Telios with all that entails: strategy, finance, implementation and marketing. His experience is rich and complex: investments, finance – banks, private placements, real estate, trade and manufacturing. Philips has been involved in successful start-ups all over the world, and has lived in Hong Kong, Indonesia, India and Romania.

Philip moved to Romania from the United States in 2009. He came to the country at the request of his wife Carmen, who was Romanian and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease since 2005. He cared for Carmen until her death in 2015. It was during this time that Philip made a commitment to stay in Romania and do something to improve the access of ordinary people to a high-performance health system. Thus, Telios was born.

Philip Choban is, among others, the ambassador for Romania of the Purple Angel organization in Great Britain. The purpose of the association is to provide information and support to people who have relatives diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He continues to be involved in Alzheimer’s education and awareness projects today.

He is also the ambassador for the HEART (Health Education and Research Talks) in Cluj-Napoca. This organization is part of UMF-Cluj and is dedicated to educating and opening the minds of future doctors. It is Philip’s belief that the students of today are the leaders and innovators of tomorrow.

I help entrepreneurs to achieve their highest potential.

Serial entrepreneur and business angel with 15+ years of experience spread across several sectors.

Daniel has close to 20 years of experience as an IT enterpreneur. He manages Arxia and coordinates several product-based startups in various markets and domains: PlanningWiz is a globally sold online floor planner, while ProcessPlayer is targeting the Romanian public sector.

Mircea is involved in various projects and communities related to startup ecosystem. He founded Cluj Startups community in 2013 and later on FreshBlood.Health and Cluj.AI as domain focused organisations/communities. He is involved also in Spherik Accelerator, Fintech.Camp and Romanian IT. The day to day job is related to Activize.Tech, company focused on consultancy for corporates, startups, accelerators and VC funds. He is working with startup teams on various topics such as idea validation, product shaping, product metrics, go-to-market strategy, business development and investment. In the software sector, he is part of TechMatch, a company focused on business development and lead generation/referral for software development companies.

Did a lot of mistakes building healthcare startups and projects, happy to share my experience to help you minimise/avoid yours. Also built a few things and helped a few more people.