WHAT IS #defineSchool?
With #defineSchool we want to help create the next generation of tech entrepreneurs for Romania! Therefore, this is a 14 day program dedicated to students and young professionals with ages between 20 and 26 years who are interested in launching a startup. Hence they will have the opportunity to learn directly from the experience of well known IT leaders and successful entrepreneurs.
MAIN ACTIVITIES
Trainings
Each day will have a training session focused on different themes: Market Research, Marketing, Financing, Human Resources or Pitching.
Guest talks
The participants will have the chance to talk and learn directly from well known IT leaders and successful entrepreneurs
Team work
Throughout the program, the participants will have sessions of teamwork where they will apply the lessons learned from trainings
Social evenings
Each day will end with a social event that will help participants get to know each other and also to relax and have fun
WHY ATTEND?
Learning experience
Learn from the best trainers everything you need to know about launching a successful startup
Networking
Network and share your ideas with other creative and ambitious young people
Open talks
Engage in open discussions with well known IT leaders and successful antrepreneurs
#defineSchool 2020 is ON!
2020 SPEAKERS
Voicu Oprean
CEO @ AROBS
Voicu started AROBS Transilvania Software with the main goal to promote the Romania IT software specialists and their ability to work from Romania and not be forced to emigrate to meet their IT software development career goals.
„My goal is to make AROBS become a global player delivering innovative software, hardware, and services solution for business all around the world.”
Marian Goia
Software Engineering Consultant & Digital Nomad
Cristin Iosif
CEO @ Salt&Pepper
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.
Gina Lupu
CEO & Founder @ Wolfpack Digital
Alin Pausan
Founder @ Actable100
Alin Pausan is the founder of Actable100, whose mission is to help 100 startup and tech companies founders solve real-world problems. He helps startups and companies with dedicated and distributed development teams, builds tech products, and helps them scale their business globally.
He has more than 10 years of social entrepreneurship experience, being a board member of a few NGOs. He is also a startup community builder and a board member of the Cluj Startups tech ecosystem. He’s working to offer support, resources, access to different events, group discounts, and investment opportunities to startup founders.
Laurentiu Balasa
CEO @ Underline
Poetry, 3 Exits, and 8 Companies Launched and now building The Most Impactful App on Your Reading Habit. He started his career as an entrepreneur since he was young adult, at the age of 18, and he never lost his optimism, motivation, and enthusiasm for building more. Currently, he is focused on building a Book App called Underline.
Alexandru Bogdan
Co-founder @ Linnify
Matei Pavel
Co-Founder @ T-Me Studios
Matei Pavel is a serial entrepreneur & investor, he founded several successful companies and built one of the world’s largest mobile app publishing companies (close to 1B downloads) together with a team of 70, and now he’s looking at ed-tech/career development. T-Me Studios, konkurs.ro, cautareduceri.ro are some of the successful businesses that make us think about him.
Ligiu Uiorean
Director & Founder @AirportLabs
& a few other surprises for the ones that already registered
Magnoliu Stan
CEO @ Smart HR
LAST EDITIONS
Speakers & Trainers
Vlad Ciurca
Co-Founder of Techsylvania (leading technology event in Eastern Europe) and Codiax (Deep Tech Event)
Vlad is passionate about building events and communities, having been a Startup Weekend Organizer and Facilitator and co-founding one of the biggest online and offline communities of managers and entrepreneurs in Transylvania, Romanian Managers CLUJ, with close to 900 members.
In 2011, Vlad was named a Technology and Entrepreneurship Expert in the “Young Romania Forum”, a project organized by the League of Romanian Students Abroad, with the aim of getting the younger generation involved in the future of Romania.
Botan Adrian
CMO @ Salt & Pepper
Curious about how everything works, the mechanics of the world and especially how humans react and interact with the new, it’s safe to say that marketing appeals best to Adrian.
In the last 28 years, he has been a communication specialist (from 0, “blubla” to 29, communication strategy), graphic Designer for 10 years, while in the last 6 six years, Adrian has been focusing more on the marketing side of Things. Event communication, product marketing, and branding are no strangers to him either.
Cornel Amariei
Inventor, Entrepreneur & Head of Innovation at Continental
Cornel Amariei is a 25 year old Romanian-born inventor, author, and entrepreneur, known as the founder and inventor of .lumen, a blind assisting system which partially regains the spatial awareness of the visually impaired.
For his work, Cornel is recognized by JCI as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, an award previously won by personalities such as John F Kennedy or Elvis Presley, and as one of the 10 Standout Members by Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe.
Ștefan Szakal
CEO @ Homefresh
In the past 15 years, I have built a few successful companies, and also failed with many more. I blog about these experiences on my site, stefanszakal.com.
My current full-time position is being CEO at Homefresh, one of the pioneer meal kit delivery services in Romania. We’re on our way to grow the service to a national and international market, which makes this experience rewarding on multiple levels.
Sandu Băbăşan
CEO @ Blugento
Sandu Băbăşan, an entrepreneur with more than 14 years of experience in IT, is currently CEO of Blugento SA, a SaaS (Software as a Service) eCommerce, launched in 2016. He is a shareholder in iVox (market research), CashControl (financial management application) and has been a partner since 2009 in the MindMagnet Software development agency from where he did his full-exit in 2018.
Voicu Oprean
CEO @ AROBS Transilvania Software
Voicu started AROBS Transilvania Software with the main goal to promote the Romania IT software specialists and their ability to work from Romania and not be forced to emigrate to meet their IT software development career goals.
„My goal is to make AROBS become a global player delivering innovative software, hardware, and services solution for business all around the world.”
Philipp Kandal
Engineering VP @ Telenav
He is in charge of the 250+ engineering team in Silicon Valley, Romania and China and spending most of his time in airplanes between Europe and the US. Before skobbler was acquired by Telenav in 2014 he was co-founder and CTO of skobbler, a pioneering navigation company. Philipp is deeply passionate about how autonomous vehicles will transform transportation and save millions of lives. He is an expert in emerging markets and offering regular coachings and trainings there.
Daniel Metz
CEO @ NTT DATA Romania
Daniel Metz is the businessman who founded 18 years ago EBS Romania SA, a company that was acquired in 2013 by the Japanese company NTT DATA, considered today one of the most important suppliers in the local and international IT industry. As an economist, Daniel Metz has previously served as Development, Quality Assurance and Technical Services Director, but also as an ERP Implementation Manager in a German company. At the moment, Daniel Metz continues to hold the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) position at NTT DATA Romania
Steve Jackson
Co-Founder, Group COO and Chairman Technology Outsourcing Xoomworks
Steve is an entrepreneur and business strategist, and has over 16 years experience starting, building and selling companies. His businesses have spanned consulting, outsourcing, recruitment technology and on-line games. He is currently Co-Founder and Group COO of Xoomworks – a niche technology consulting and outsourcing business based in the UK, France, Romania and Bulgaria.
Peter Barta
CEO of the Post Privatisation Foundation
Highly experienced management professional, with over 17-years international experience. Mr. Barta has been involved in different management positions within national and international organizations. Currently is CEO of the Post Privatisation Foundation (FPP), a VC Fund jointly managed by the European Commission and the Government of Romania.
Bogdan Herea
Owner of PITECH+PLUS
Bogdan Herea has over ten years of experience leading his own group of digital consultancy companies. PITECH+PLUS. Recently he started mentoring young generations in the area of tech innovation by launching ACADEMY+PLUS.
Cornelius Brody
Founder, Chairman of the Board iQuest Group
As founder and long-time CEO of iQuest, Cornelius has had a central role in shaping the company´s vision and direction for the first 16 years of its existence. During this period, he has built iQuest into a robust player in the software solutions and services market with a strong international client portfolio and an exceptional talent pool of 600 people. Along the way he helped establish a powerful company culture based on excellence, commitment and trust.
Roxana Rugină
Founder Simplon Romania & Cluj Makers
Technologist and communication expert engaged in social and disruptive innovation. She is passionate about creative technologies and innovation in education. Her entrepreneurial drive determined her to move from Paris to Cluj, where she co-founded Simplon Romania and Cluj Makers. Today she is managing various web projects and mobile applications like Skin Vision. With 10 years of experience in project management, marketing and education, she wants to help more people to learn how to code, develop digital & entrepreneurial skills to solve real problems
Florin Șomodi
Owner SDI Network
Florin has more than 12 years’ experience in B2B consultatives sales of products & services for industries, horeca, or retail networks. Also, more than 12 years of voluntary work in civic organizations in leadership positions, training and projects coordinator.
Over 7 years’ experience in sales, leadership and teamwork training , for more than 1000 participants.
Licensed in the LIFO Method, with implementation in sales & negotiation, leadership, teamwork, personal development. He is an independent sales trainer, mentor & coach.
Iulian Pădurariu
Co-Founder and CEO at PONY Car Sharing
he is one of the most outstanding strategy consultants in Romania and the Co-Founder of the first Car-Sharing service in Romania, based on a trust exercise – PONY Car Sharing. In his vision, Iulian thinks that only using these exercises we are able to get out from the vicious cycle of the „in our country it is not possible” thinking model. By this vision, Cluj-Napoca has been chosen as the FIRST CITY IN ROMANIA to try this exercise.
Mircea Vădan
Cofounder Cluj Startups & Startups Program Manager at How to Web
Keen on customer development and user acquisition, Mircea, co-founded 3 startups with which he participated in accelerators and raised investment. He is driven to help startups and is active in the local tech startups community (Cluj Startups). Nowadays he works as consultant for companies building tech products and he is organizing programs for startups (like MVP Academy, Startup Spotlight).
Adrian Pica
Founder and editor at 150sec.com, Product Manager at Telenav
Passionate about internet start-ups, product focused, social media, digital advertising, sales, on-line and off-line marketing, experienced manager and with great event organizing skills. I have dedicated many years of my professional career to the development of my expertise in these areas. Experienced entrepreneur and marketer.
Bogdan Oros
CEO of Onyx Beacon
Bogdan is the CEO of Onyx Beacon, one of the leading ibeacon technology providers with customers and partners in more than 70 countries. He is working right now at his 2nd startup, having failed the first one, a mobile customer feedback solution for retailers called TxtFeedback.
Tudor Rad
Owner of Transylgamia
Tudor is a serial digital entrepreneur being involved in online marketing since 2002. In 2007 he co-founded IDEA Studios, one of the largest independent game development and publishing studios in Romania. He currently leads his second gaming start-up. Transylgamia.
Gabriel Dombri
Founder at GROWTH MARKETING Academy & CEO tapptitude
He is now CEO at tapptitude, a full-stack mobile product studio. Last year he founded GROWTH MARKETING Academy as a private school in growth marketing. Previously: Co-founder @Startcelerate, Digital Marketing Manager @Palgrave Macmillan in London. Highly passionate about products and innovation, Gabriel is focused on helping smart entrepreneurs create value and grow their businesses using a growth mindset & tools.
Ciprian Pasca
Managing Partner @ Zoniz
Having over 15 years experience in business strategy, management, and entrepreneurship, Ciprian is passionate about technology and start-ups and he’s bringing this passion to us, at #defineSchool 2017.
Mihai Ivaşcu
CEO & Founder Modex
Mihai has developed several projects with 10 years of experience in project management, blockchain, FinTech, software development and start-up consulting. He is the CEO & Founder of Modex the world’s first DApp Store, a Smart Contract Marketplace and app ecosystem that allows for easy, user friendly access to crypto-currencies and smart contracts alike. He is also the CEO & Founder of the Fintech ‘wunderkind’ Moneymailme based in London, Founder of media company Ingenium Media Monaco, the software house Ingenium Software Solutions and various other online projects.
Matei Pavel
Co-Founder T-ME Studios
Matei is a serial entrepreneur and beginner investor. He is the Co-Founder of T-Me Studios, one of the leading global mobile publishers, having a strong technological component based on process automation from research to development, QA, marketing and reporting. konkurs.ro, cautareduceri.ro are also his online businesses, but he does not stop here. He believes that the best entrepreneurs are those who make major changes both for their lives and those around them.
Erik Barna
CEO, Founder @ Life is Hard
We started our company 10 years ago, with the dream of doing something big. And different. At the beginning it was e-ImmoPlus , a web platform that manages the activities of real estate agencies. In 2006 we became partner with Microsoft ISV Empower. Then we become a member of a leading software provider for the romanian insurance market. We were even more determined than ever to do amazing things… as a result, we became LIFE IS HARD.
Antonio Eram
CEO @ NETOPIA mobilPay
Starting with 1996 I am actively involved in the Romanian Internet and Telecom business. With focus on mobile technologies, mobile payments and marketing services. In 2003 have co-founded NETOPIA. Located in Bucharest and with a branch in Silicon Valley, is Romania’s premier mobile marketing and payments provider.
Ovi Negrean
Chief Executive Bee, Entrepreneur & Startup Advisor.
After 10+ years of experience working in various firms, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, having also some entrepreneurial ventures in between, Ovi jumped full time into the startup world with nugget (acquired) and is now focused on SocialBee. He is passionate about helping start-ups succeed in finding the appropriate lunch sequence and the best levers to grow.
Dragos Andronic
Engineer. Entrepreneur. Product Manager at 8x8
Having built software products all my professional career I’ve come to realize (the hard way) that there is more to (successful) software products than just the software so I’ve been focusing on improving my business acumen, product discovery & product validation techniques, roadmap management and go-to-market strategy. Business centric – software enabled
Lucian Cramba
CEO @ Fastorder
Lucian has experience with startups and mature businesses. Together with his team, they managed to create an application that is used in restaurants around the world: Dubai, USA, United Kingdom and Spain.
Ana Maria Udrişte
Founder U-Legal, Avocatoo | Co-founder Jurio
Ana-Maria Udriște is not only an entrepreneur, but a lawyer as well. In 2016, she left behind traditional law services, founding U-Legal (a law firm that offers boutique type of services and specializes in helping businesses that are just getting started, competition law, business law and intellectual property law) and Avocatoo (a platform for legal services where clients can find a specialized lawyers, molded to their needs and with a fixed cost). By the end of the year, she also co-founded Jurio, a juridical instrument in the form of a platform for case law, with an advanced search engine. Due to her entrepreneur qualities, she was listed in Forbes 30 under 30 (april 2017) and in Financial Times: New Europe 100: Easter Europe’s Emerging Technology Stars (november 2017). With a passion for technology and anything new, she and Ruxandra Sava launched LegalUp: the first complete KIT for GDPR compliance that companies can create themselves.
Ronald Borsi
Ideea generation & Validation
Ronald is a serial entrepreneur whose first projects were in telecom and IT. He is a self-confessed creativity-nut hooked on creating awesome products and solving complex issues in unusual and novel ways. His current projects include a training company that creates large-scale game-based learning solutions and an innovation studio.
Andrei Ursachi
Business Angel, Serial Entrepreneur
Until turning 26 years old, he founded dozens of business. Some of them failed, but the rest turned into successful companies with dozens of employees and millions of euros of turnover each year. In his current portfolio there are 13 companies and an impressive network. His goal is to help the entrepreneurs and young people in Romania to become successful. He wants to give back as a thank you for what he has become today!
Success Stories
The word that best describes the dynamic duo of Alex and Eduard is: #courage.
BEaTech started from a shared idea of Alex and Eduard, both of them participants at #defineSchool 2017 & 2015, an experience that convinced them to follow their entrepreneurial spirit.
What is BEaTech?
BEaTech is an IT recruitment platform, that connects the ideal candidates with the ideal companies by using different services: posted jobs on the platform, the ability for companies to take advantage of a pool of developers whilst offering the possibility to test the technical knowledge and soft-skills of developers.
This idea won them a lot of acclaim and prizes at several of the competitions where they participated, such as:
- 1st place @ JARomania- Company Of the Year 2018, and after that they represented Romania @JAEurope, in Latvia
- 2nd place @IdeaJam, late 2018
- Finalists @BusinessDrive Cluj-Napoca 2018
- 3rd place @DEMO DAY UTCN 2018
- They were also chosen at final bootcamp and mentoring for startups by Google- Atelierul Digital
Facebook: https://bit.ly/2HaZhtO
Alexandru Bodea and Eduard HantigFor Alex, #defineSchool came as a confirmation that he made the right choice to start his own business. Together with his team, he managed to define better their vision, they worked on two startups and now they started their own digital agency
deliverME is an online platform that connects large chains of supermarkets or hypermarkets with their customers, by giving them the possibility to sell their products through it. The business is based on the on-demand economy model, by introducing private contractors that shop and deliver the goods for the customers
NOTIFIER helps you be the first notified about the last advertisements posted online.
iLikeIT: https://bit.ly/2UvhQft
Linnify is a dedicated development agency that can help people with product strategy, UI/UX design, mobile and web development, as well as QA &testing.
www.linnify.com
Testimonials
What do you want to become when you grow up? I think you want to be an entrepreneur- a successful one.
#defineSchool is one of the best opportunities to put you in direct contact with a lot of successful entrepreneurs.
Their way of thinking made me braver when it comes to start-up ideas and implementing them.
They made me realize that having no money for your start-up is an opportunity, not a problem.
Moreover, here you will learn the basics of writing a business plan and how to validate your start-up idea. Apply now!
The energy of the team behind #defineSchool was one of the reasons that the event was an amazing “playground”. Both the trainers and the speakers contributed to our development in entrepreneurship, listening and giving advice molded to our ideas. I managed to discovered myself, but I was also free to share my ideas with other people. New skills, new friendships and fun would be the keywords that shape what #defineSchool2016 meant to me.
Diana StănilăI’m a student and I joined #defineSchool because I want to be an entrepreneur. The trainers and guests were inspirational and a great help. The exercises designed for team work were well designed and bonded us in the short week that we spent together. I highly recommend it to those who want to build a startup or are passionate about entrepreneurship.
Antoniu VulpeOne of the really cool things about #defineschool is that you meet relevant people from various business areas in a select location outside the city. Besides having entrepreneurs dedicate their time to you, you also get to hang out with people with the same interests as you, which only makes things better.
Patrick Halmagean
Institutional Partners
Digital Partner
Supporting Partner
Official Car
Event Partners
Media Partners
With #defineSchool we want to help create the next generation of tech entrepreneurs for Romania!
Say hello 🙂
Time until #defineSchool 2020. We can't wait to meet you!
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