About us
Startup Founder 101 brings together aspiring and experienced tech entrepreneurs to discuss, meet, and collaborate to build great new startups, and to push the local startup ecosystem forward.\
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This group hosts numerous free events throughout the year where you can learn the best practices of starting a company from people who have been there and done that. You’ll have the opportunity to meet local founders and investors, exchange ideas with experts, get feedback on your idea, participate in startup workshops, and more.\
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Typical startup event topics include:\
• Coming up with a strong startup idea\
• Startup legal basics\
• How to pitch your startup\
• Starting a company without quitting your day job\
• How to raise funding for your startup\
• And much more!\
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Join the group to be invited to our next event!
Upcoming events
13
Turn Your Expertise Into an Audience on LinkedIn
·OnlineOnlineYou've spent years building real expertise. You see the problems. You know what works. And yet, online, you're invisible. Meanwhile, people with less experience are posting consistently and attracting the opportunities that should be coming to you. The difference isn't knowledge. It's a system. In this session, brand strategist Daniel Francavilla will give you the exact content framework to turn what you already know into a LinkedIn presence that builds your authority, grows your audience, and opens doors. Whether you're thinking about your next career move, exploring entrepreneurship, or simply want to be known for what you actually know.
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23990 to get your link and join us live!
❯ What You'll Learn:
- How to identify your one clear content angle based on what you already know
- The 3-post formats that consistently generate reach and start real conversations
- How to build an audience of future customers, collaborators, or co-founders before you have a product
- A weekly content rhythm that takes under 2 hours, built for people with full-time jobs
- How to turn LinkedIn visibility into tangible opportunities: partnerships, clients, and inbound interest
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Daniel Francavilla - Founder & Strategist @ Clarity Content: Daniel is a marketer, educator and founder obsessed with community, brand and impact. He is a Certified Brand Strategist, a professor at OCAD University, a member of the Canadian Marketing Association and RGD, and recipient of a 40 Under 40 Award. Daniel works with founders and leaders on aligned branding and content through Daniel Does and Clarity Content. As an advocate for social good, Daniel founded The Good Growth Company to provide training for social good organizations to upskill their teams and scale their mission. He continues to support ACCESS, a nonprofit he founded as a student in 2006, which provides funding and mentorship for youth-led initiatives. Previously, Daniel was an agency owner, founding Now Creative Group in 2013, which was acquired by King Street Media in 2021, where he was a partner.
❯ Who Should Attend?
- Experienced professionals who want to build a personal brand but don't know where to start, and have been putting it off
- Aspiring founders with an idea who want to validate it publicly before committing fully
- AI-curious professionals who want to position themselves as voices in their field as the industry shifts
- Professionals exploring entrepreneurship who want to start building an audience now, before they make the leap
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❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23990 to get your link and join us live!6 attendees
How to Overcome the Fear of Starting Your Own Company
·OnlineOnlineYou have the experience. You see the problem. You've been thinking about starting your own company for years. So what's stopping you? Join Jonathan Greechan, Co-Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute, for a live session on the psychology behind entrepreneurial action. We'll unpack the four mental excuses that kill momentum, why they feel so convincing, and how successful founders push through fear and take action. You'll leave with the clarity and tools to take your next real step, plus a networking session to put your new mindset to work.
❯ What You’ll Learn
- How to move from hesitation to action and stop waiting for the "perfect time"
- The 4 core mental barriers that keep experienced professionals stuck in "someday"
- The key mindset shifts that separate employees who dream from founders who build
- Why you don't need to quit your job, find a co-founder, or wait for the right moment
- Practical exercises to leave with clarity on your next concrete step
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/24248 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Jonathan Greechan - Co-Founder & CEO at Founder Institute: Since 2009, Jonathan has grown and scaled the world's largest pre-seed accelerator to chapters in over 200 cities and 100 countries, producing over 8,900 portfolio companies with an estimated value of $2BN. He also serves as an Advisor to Oxford Entrepreneurs (Oxford University), Horasis, and the USC Incubator (University of Southern California). Previously, Jonathan was a Partner of TheFunded, the first website for founders to rate and review venture capitalists, and an Executive Producer of the Founder Showcase. This leading Silicon Valley startup conference hosted speakers like Elon Musk. Jonathan’s writing has been featured in Fortune, TechCrunch, and Entrepreneur Magazine, and he has spoken at startup conferences on four continents.
❯ Who Should Attend:
- Experienced professionals who've been thinking "someday I'll start something"
- Employees seeing their role disrupted by AI and considering the leap to entrepreneurship
- Aspiring founders who feel stuck between their idea and taking action
- Anyone waiting for the "right moment" to start building
❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/24248 to get your link and join us live!
4 attendees
Founder Meet & Greet: In-Person Startup Networking in Bucharest
Bruma Coffee & Wine, Bd Regina Elisabeta, 54, Bucharest, ROALWAYS LAST THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH
REGISTER 👉: https://fi.co/e/394614/viameetup
Since its inception, the Founder Institute Romania and CEE led by Alex M Dascalu for the last decade has been the gold standard for pre-seed acceleration.
𝐎𝐧 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 30𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐭 18:00, 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 - 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 67𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭.
AI has made building cheaper, but not conviction: in 2026, the startups that look investible are the ones that turn AI into durable advantage through proprietary workflow data, trusted execution, faster learning loops, and a clear path from prototype to measurable value.
This fireside chat brings together operator insight from Irina Raicu and investor pattern-recognition from Gratian Urcan to unpack:
1. what a real moat looks like now,
2. how AI is reshaping early-stage due diligence, and
3. why “AI-native” alone is not enough to make a company fundable.We will also test a sharper question: can AI-native startups from Bucharest and CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) win globally by pairing regional capital efficiency and deep domain knowledge with world-class speed, trust, and distribution before larger markets even react?
Host: Alex M. Dascălu (FI Director, CEE & Caucasus).Venue: BRUMA Coffee and Wine
This is not a community to show up passive. Come ready to pitch yourself.
Not your job title.
Not your life story.
What you are building, why it matters, where you are strong, how you can help, and what you need now.𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞
Please, use this format 👇
1. 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞
Who you are.
2. 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝
One line only. Your most useful professional context.
3. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧
𝙐𝙨𝙚 𝙖 𝙤𝙣𝙚-𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙥 𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝:
We help [customer] solve [problem] with [solution].
4. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫
What are you unusually good at?
5. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬
Be concrete: intros, co-founder support, customer discovery, validation, product feedback, mentorship, advisory, investment, distribution, infrastructure, hiring, partnerships.
6. Your ask
What do you need right now? Funding, co-founder, pilot customers, intros, product feedback, advisors, technical talent, distribution, media, legal, ecosystem access.❯ Who should Attend?
- FI Alumni Founders, Mentors, Investors & friends
- Anyone interested in entrepreneurship and starting a tech company
- Anyone who has a pre-seed tech company or a startup idea
- Anyone interested in joining a startup accelerator
- Anyone interested in being an active part of the thriving start-up ecosystem
- YOU
`REGISTER HERE: https://fi.co/e/394614/viameetup
19 attendees
How to Get Your First 10 Customers Without a Marketing Team or Budget
·OnlineOnlineYou have an idea. But no customers yet, and no budget to go get them. Here's the truth: the founders who get their first 10 customers fastest don't outspend everyone else. They out-think them. They find the right people, say the right thing, and convert conversations into commitments. Jonathan Greechan, Co-Founder and CEO of the Founder Institute, has helped thousands of founders crack this exact problem. In this session, he'll share what actually works at zero before you have a team, a brand, or a runway. Register now and come ready to take notes.
❯ What You'll Learn:
- A step-by-step framework to find your first customers in places you're already overlooked;
- How to write a three-sentence outreach message that doesn't read like a sales pitch;
- What a "validation sale" is and how to use it to de-risk your idea before building more;
- How to build a simple referral loop from your very first customer conversation;
- Which AI tools cut your customer discovery time in half without sacrificing quality.
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/24345 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Jonathan Greechan - Co-Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute - Jonathan Greechan is the Co-Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute, the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator. Since 2009, he has grown and scaled the organization to chapters in over 200 cities and over 100 countries, producing over 8,900 portfolio companies with an estimated value of $2BN. In his long career in tech and marketing, Jonathan has advised thousands of startups on marketing, growth, and product strategy and has spoken at startup conferences on four continents.
❯ Who Should Attend:
- Experienced professionals who know their industry but have never sold their own product;
- First-time solo founders who are stuck between building and selling;
- AI-curious professionals who want to use AI to accelerate their go-to-market from day one;
- Pre-revenue founders who need to prove demand before their runway runs out.
❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/24345 to get your link and join us live!
7 attendees
Past events
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