Romania: Startarium launches a crowdfunding initiative, with 10 entrepreneurs to launch and finance businesses simultaneously

Startarium, a complex platform dedicated to start-ups, launches Startarium Crowdfunding Makeathon, the most extensive project dedicated to financing via crowdfunding in Romania. The entrepreneurs at the start at their journey who have an idea but lack validation or funding are receiving access, via Startarium Crowdfunding Makeathon, to all resources needed to launch their product or service via crowdfunding.

The initiative brings in entrepreneurs’ reach all resources, experts in different sectors and the budget they need in order to start their own crowdfunding financing campaign for their business. The project also allows the enlisting for those who aren’t yet entrepreneurs but are decided to make their first steps in entrepreneurship world and have already a clear idea they want to launch, but also to those who are already in the game and want to achieve market’s validation for a new product or service.

Taking place between August 19th – December 15th and will include an intense week-end aimed to simultaneously launch the crowdfunding campaigns for the entrepreneurs part of the project, the project brings together over 50 mentors, business consultants, digital marketing experts, designers and graphic designers, video producers, copywriters and media specialists, forming the biggest team ever built in order to help entrepreneurs to develop a correct business plan and apply it via crowdfunding campaigns. Moreover, after launching the campaigns, Startarium will invest over €20,000 in order to promote them, so they would have the chance to achieve their objectives when it comes of testing and financing.

Startarium Crowdfunding Makeathon is a first through which we are bringing together an impressive task force of business consultants, graphic designers and experienced communicators, in order to advise and work side by side with entrepreneurs during their first big moment in the entrepreneurship path: the launch. We chose crowdfunding from the same reason we decided to give it a dedicated section on Startarium platform: it is an instrument in which we believe, a mechanism that democratizes the financing process and, in the same time, it runs people through a complete learning experience: from idea and prototype to branding, marketing and sales’

Adina Cretu,

Project Manager Startarium

Entrepreneurs wishing to participate to Startarium Crowdfunding Makeathon can enter the project between August 19th – September 25th, on project’s website. The projects respecting the eligibility criteria and the general terms of crowdfunding will start, between October 1 – 18, to work with guidance to prepare their own campaign. More exactly, during the mentioned period, entrepreneurs will work to their business idea and will draft the financing campaign, having access to mentorship sessions in order to clarify the business aspects and build the commercial model, to guides and examples, and also to webinars on how to prepare a crowdfunding campaign. At the end of this period, the entrepreneurs who joined the program will have a clear, logical and detailed shape of their business, respectively the prototype for the product or service to be delivered, the business model and monetization strategy, clients segments and a draft of the crowdfunding campaign, including the rewards structure and a draft for their video presentation.

On October 21st, the 10 entrepreneurial initiatives to finalize their crowdfunding campaign within Startarium Crowdfunding Makeathon will be announced and, by the end of the month, the 10 entrepreneurs behind those ideas will be helped by specialists to make the first steps to launch their crowdfunding campaign.

The final stage for the launch of the crowdfunding campaign will take place on November 2-3, in Bucharest. The actual campaigns will take place between November 3rd and December 15th and will be officially presented during Startarium PitchDay, a big start-up competition with over 1,000 attendants and tens of thousands of followers. After the crowdfunding campaigns launch, the 10 ideas launched via Startarium Crowdfunding Makeathon will be heavily promoted at national level in Romania, with support from Startarium.

Startarium Crowdfunding Makeathon rounds up Entrepreneurs’ City and comes strongly to support those who have the courage to reach from idea to operational and financially sustainable start-up. This way, three years after paunch, platform’s financing pylon becomes relevant for more entrepreneurs at the beginning of their journey and completes PitchDay, an initiative for startups between 1-3 years that already achieved validation and need resources for scaling

Alexandra Maier,

Sr.Corporate Social Responsibility Specialist ING Bank

Launched in 2016 under the umbrella Entrepreneurs’ City, Startarium is the most complex platform for Romanian entrepreneurs at the beginning of their journey. An initiative Impact Hub – ING, Startarium is the place where entrepreneurs or soon to be entrepreneurs have access to everything they need to launch and raise a successful business. The platform is built on 3 pylons – learning, testing and financing – and structures the benefits in several functional modules: business instruments, online classes, interviews with Romanian entrepreneurs, own crowdfunding platform, mentorship, networking and pitching. Since launch, Startarium gathered a community of over 32,000 members and 50 mentors with which entrepreneurs can work for free, published over 350 materials and open access to financing worth over €470,000.