Upcelerator Mentors

In each Upcelerator edition we have more than 30 mentors and experts who are sharing their knowledge and expertise with program founders.
Many of them became advisors or investors in the startups they’ve mentored.

Mentors 2024

  • Letitia Stefan

    Letitia Stefan

    Co-founder, Nifty Learning

    Since October 2016 I've been part of the Nifty Learning family and it's been the most rewarding professional and personal growth experience so far. I'm happy to offer my support to founders and teams that want to know more about the journey of founding a startup, how to pitch their business idea, how to validate it and what to look for when speaking to potential customers or investors.

  • Nick Himowicz

    Nick Himowicz

    Innovation & Business Coach

    Nick isn't just an innovation coach; he's a strategist, a mentor, and a visionary. His resume boasts collaborations with giants like Google, American Express, and Lego. Nick's arsenal of strategies, including the renowned Strategyzer methodology, is unmatched. Mentored by Alex Osterwalder himself, Nick's insights into creating enduring business models are nothing short of revolutionary.

  • Sergiu Matei

    Sergiu Matei

    Founder, Index | Forbes Technology Council

    Sergiu Matei is co-founder of Travod, the startup with one of the most impressive growth in the translation industry. Travod adapts content for brands such as Amazon, Forbes Group, British Council, and many more. He is now working on new startup – Index, which helps top companies to hire remotely world-class software developers.

  • Gabriela Georgieva

    Gabriela Georgieva

    Senior Product Manager @Uber

    As a Senior Product Manager at Uber, she collaborates with cross-functional teams to deliver user-friendly, scalable, and cost-effective product features. Gabriela have a proven track record of innovation and customer-centric solutions, having led the end-to-end product ownership for the Tax Invoices team, resulting in estimated savings of $1M+.

  • Patrycja Maksymowicz

    Patrycja Maksymowicz

    Founder @Sclr Labs

    With over three decades of experience since starting her entrepreneurial journey at 17, Patrycja possesses a diverse skill set and a genuine passion for fostering thriving business environments. She has collaborated with esteemed blue-chip clients, including Lego, Scania, Carlsberg, armed forces, and government agencies.
    Founder of London Business Academy, and Sclr Labs, a boutique firm that specialises in venture scaling, market expansion, and transformation.

  • Dumitru Slonovschi

    Dumitru Slonovschi

    General Director @Magenta

    Dumitru Slonovschi is the founder and director of Magenta Consulting – the first and largest marketing consulting company in Moldova. With over 16 years of professional experience in the field, his expertise id in marketing research, digital marketing, SEO, marketing audit, project and team management, strategic marketing, and coaching.

  • Szymon Kubicki

    Szymon Kubicki

    Head of Talent @Inovo.vc

    Szymon have a vast experience, 10 years of business with 5 years in leadership roles: Expertise in Global Talent Acquisition & Recruitment; Member of unicorns' Senior Leadership Teams; Angel Investor & Talent Advisor (partnering founders, C-levels, executives, and managers in building hiring strategies & diverse, high-performing teams); Entrepreneur and Start-up, Scale-up Advisor.

Mentors 2023

  • Cameron Manwaring

    Cameron Manwaring

    CEO AT CONSULTING VIRALITY | Forbes 30 Under 30

    In 2015, Cameron was awarded by Forbes 30 Under 30 for his contributions in Marketing and Advertising. He has developed successful strategies for an array of notable brands including Dreamworks, Turkish Airlines, Freshpet, Pizza Hut, Sony, Pepsi, ESPN, Cristiano Ronaldo, and YouTube themselves. After selling his company, he has shifted his interests and focus towards international Viral Strategy and has consulted for some of the largest firms across the United States, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, KSA, India, Dubai, and Singapore.

  • Rodica Belocosov

    Rodica Belocosov

    Vice President of People Operations at MoneyLion

    Rodica Belocosov has international work experience in companies with a presence in USA, Sweden, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and over 6 years of start-up experience both in B2B and B2C platforms. Her main focus is on operations, finance, people, strategy and management within a variety of industries, such as F&B, Mobility, Fintech. Since 2020 she has also built her own e-commerce business with a retail presence in Malaysia.

  • Vasile Granaci

    Vasile Granaci

    Head of EMEA Sales at Oyster

    Vasile Granaci was the Technology / Business Leader at ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Largest Start-up in the World. His experience spans various stages of a company's growth, from pure concept to prototype and initial sales ($0 to $1M, team <20 people) through market expansion ($5M to $20M and team >20 people) and high growth scaling ($300M and team of >125+ people).

  •  Niket Desai

    Niket Desai

    VP PRODUCT, Ping

    Niket co-founded Punchd, a mobile loyalty startup, which was acquired by Google and recently was Chief of Staff at Flipkart in Bangalore. He’s worked on mobile computing systems for Motorola and Google, with a focus on connected devices and ambient computing. Niket holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley.

  • Dana Muntean

    Dana Muntean

    Head of International Sales at Plan A

    My team at Plan A is supporting organisations to decarbonise. I am a founder at heart. I launched the first online HR community in Moldova and the global mentorship program, MentorMe.
    Focused on impact at Facebook, Google, Next Jump, UNICEF, the Government of Moldova, the Royal Society of Arts, The QED Group, The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, etc.

  • Natalia Sleptov

    Natalia Sleptov

    CPO & CMO at Langly Ltd. - EdTech startup

    Former Marketing Director at StarNet
    More than 10 years of Marketing experience in B2C and B2B (FMCG, retail, telecommunications and industrial and trade companies).

  • Yrjö Ojasaar

    Yrjö Ojasaar

    Founder & Partner of Change Ventures Fund

    Yrjö is the founder and partner of Change Ventures Fund I&II. He has invested in over 33 startups including Veriff, Aerones, Printify, Eurora and others.

  • Siim Teller

    Siim Teller

    Investor, Managing Partner at Lemonade Stand

    Siim Teller invests with Lemonade Stand fund in pre-seed and seed stage Baltic and Eastern European startups. He seeks B2B ideas with a positive impact to the world, and solutions that accelerate innovation often through Machine Learning. Ticket size: €25-300K. Made 11 investments in 2022, inlcuding companies like Koos.io, Deepflare, Solid World, Ligence and Kwota.

  • Patrycja Maksymowicz

    Patrycja Maksymowicz

    Founder & Director, Open Solutions Global

    With almost 30 years of growing businesses under her belt, Patrycja is now supporting the growth of other businesses.
    Blue-chip companies include Lego, BMW, Scania, as well as the armed forces, and government agencies. Her expertise lies in leveraging technology to enable growth. She founded Open Solutions Global, a boutique consulting firm, to assist growth-oriented companies and innovative start-ups.

  • George Teodorescu

    George Teodorescu

    REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MIXBOOK

    Born in Romania, George Teodorescu moved to the United States with his family at age 12. He graduated from Binghamton University with a degree in International Relations and Spanish, and later studied law at Syracuse University and Columbia. He was admitted as a lawyer in New York, and specialized in international commercial arbitration. Since 2016, George moved into the IT industry and manages the Chisinau office of Mixbook, a Silicon Valley-based image publishing start-up.

  • Victoria Ous

    Victoria Ous

    PARTNERSHIPS & TALENT LEAD, CODAM COLLEGE

    Currently on a mission of bridging the gap of talent in the Netherlands by making a difference in computer science education. As Partnerships & Talent Lead at Codam, she is connecting the graduate software engineers with companies in search for young tech talent, be it through job opportunities or different events (like coding contests, hackathons, CodamX sessions etc).

  • Simon Obstbaum

    Simon Obstbaum

    TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE

    Technology executive. Strategic focus, cutting-edge product vision. Effective at building high-performance teams in distributed environments. Proven track record within the highly competitive software development industry with a focus on innovative product development.

  • Sergiu Matei

    Sergiu Matei

    Founder at Index

    Sergiu Matei is co-founder of Travod, the startup with one of the most impressive growth in the translation industry. Travod adapts content for brands such as Amazon, Forbes Group, British Council, and many more.
    He is now founder of Index, which helps top companies to hire remotely world-class software developers.

  • Andi Stan

    Andi Stan

    VP Product Strategy & Finance, Index

    I aim to help mature startups enhance their competitive position by innovating their business model, deploying technology, and reinforcing network externalities.In addition, I have a 'dark force' in numbers and data with 16 years of leading audit & consulting assignments across various industries from Telecom, Banking, and Insurance to Technology startups.

  • Elena Bersadschi

    Elena Bersadschi

    Head of Growth & Marketing at Learnerbly

    Elena is a growth marketer with more than 8 years of experience in both B2B and B2C industries. Her professional experience spans across multiple marketing disciplines, from customer acquisition, up to churn prevention and user re-activation.

  • Aryk Grosz

    Aryk Grosz

    Founder at Tribefy

    Aryk Grosz is the Founder and CEO of Tribefy, a web3 social platform that connects people locally based on shared interests. During his 14 years at Mixbook, Aryk architected the core product, recruited key technical talent, opened development offices in developing countries, and managed key product initiatives, all while serving as CTO, President, and Board Member.

  • Eugen Garla

    Eugen Garla

    VP of Talent at Index

    Meet me at the crossroads of HR & Technology. Since 2012, involved with the biggest Career Events and Online Job Fairs in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2016 entered in HR Automation & Startups world. Working for 2 years as an ambassador and enabler of recruitment automation with the power of AI and chatbots. Currently Sourcing & Recruiting Software Engineers from Eastern Europe to join Index – a global talent platform of vetted full-time remote engineers.

  • Nurken Rzaliyev

    Nurken Rzaliyev

    CEO Rahmet app, ChocoFamily Group

    Nurken founded and built the biggest e-commerce holding in Central Asia region (ChocoFamily) with $250M+ in gross-billings. I’m part of this journey since 2011 as an Executive and later as a shareholder

  • Dumitru Slonovschi

    Dumitru Slonovschi

    Founder & CEO, Magenta Consulting

    Dumitru Slonovschi is the founder and director of Magenta Consulting – the first and largest marketing consulting company in Moldova. With over 16 years of professional experience in the field, his expertise id in marketing research, digital marketing, SEO, marketing audit, project and team management, strategic marketing, and coaching.

  • Elena Oprea

    Elena Oprea

    Founder at Selftalk

    Elena is the founder of Selftalk – a behavioral health app that improves self-regulation and performance. She previously worked as a department manager at startup innovify.com – London-based digital product studio with an enviable track record of launching startups such as payzilch.com (valued at £500M+), gener8ads. com (valued at £10M+), landbay.co.uk (raised £1.7B investment) and many more. Over the past 4 years, Elena has mentored early-stage startups in several accelerators.

Mentors 2022

  • Vasile Granaci

    Vasile Granaci

    Vice President of EMEA Sales at MessageBird

    Vasile Granaci is a Technology / Business Leader at ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Largest Start-up in the World. Vasile is a founding team member of the ByteDance Enterprise and Partnership team, responsible for launching Machine Learning and Deep Neural Network AI to consumers and businesses. Previously to ByteDance, Vasile was a Regional Director at Nexmo that was acquired by Vonage for $230 million.

  • Rodica Belocosov

    Rodica Belocosov

    Director of Finance and People Operations at MoneyLion

    Rodica Belocosov has international work experience in companies with a presence in USA, Sweden, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and over 6 years of start-up experience both in B2B and B2C platforms. Her main focus is on operations, finance, people, strategy and management within a variety of industries, such as F&B, Mobility, Fintech. Since 2020 she has also built her own e-commerce business with a retail presence in Malaysia.

  • Cameron Manwaring

    Cameron Manwaring

    CEO AT CONSULTING VIRALITY | Forbes 30 Under 30

    In 2015, Cameron was awarded by Forbes 30 Under 30 for his contributions in Marketing and Advertising. He has developed successful strategies for an array of notable brands including Dreamworks, Turkish Airlines, Freshpet, Pizza Hut, Sony, Pepsi, ESPN, Cristiano Ronaldo, and YouTube themselves. After selling his company, he has shifted his interests and focus towards international Viral Strategy and has consulted for some of the largest firms across the United States, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, KSA, India, Dubai, and Singapore.

  • Igor Ovcharenko

    Igor Ovcharenko

    FOUNDER & CEO, SCAL8R

    Igor is a startup enthusiast and tech-savvy professional with over eight years of experience in developing startup ecosystems in emerging markets. He has extensive experience in business development, strategy, infrastructure development and seats on the advisory board of 5 startups.

  • Marina Cucer

    Marina Cucer

    EMEA Lead Recruiter at Amazon

    Marina is working in the HR field for 10 years, mainly in recruitment, training, and process optimization.
    During this time she managed to explore different markets in Europe: Moldova, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia. Marina is part of the Operations & Technology team at Amazon since 2016

  • Alexander Naydenov

    Alexander Naydenov

    Head of Direct Sales at GraphCMS

    Alex Naydenov is the Head of Sales of GraphCMS, a market-leading API-first content management system based in Berlin, Germany. His background is in economics, data analytics and computer science. For co-founding the academic collaboration platform PaperHive, he was awarded a place in the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list (2017).

  • Sergiu Matei

    Sergiu Matei

    Founder at Index

    Sergiu Matei is co-founder of Travod, the startup with one of the most impressive growth in the translation industry. Travod adapts content for brands such as Amazon, Forbes Group, British Council, and many more.
    He is now working on new startup – Index, which helps top companies to hire remotely world-class software developers.

  • Vladyslav Yarovoi

    Vladyslav Yarovoi

    Founder & CEO at RIKK LLC

    Vladyslav is a Founder&CEO of Rikk LLC law firm, more than 6 years working with Hi-Tech industries (IT, E-commerce, Crypto, High-risk), Co-founder of an IT startup, Co-founder of a marketing agency, Investor and Startup mentor.

  • Răzvan Crăciunescu

    Răzvan Crăciunescu

    Angel Investor, Building innovation

    Razvan is ex-UiPath and Professor at University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest where he has been coordinating the first 5G R&D Lab in Romania, and he is also an Angel Investor at TechAngels Romania.

  • Eugen Garla

    Eugen Garla

    Director of Sourcing, Index

    Meet me at the crossroads of HR & Technology. Since 2012, involved with the biggest Career Events and Online Job Fairs in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2016 entered in HR Automation & Startups world. Working for 2 years as an ambassador and enabler of recruitment automation with the power of AI and chatbots. Currently Sourcing & Recruiting Software Engineers from Eastern Europe to join Index – a global talent platform of vetted full-time remote engineers.

  • George Carey-Simos

    George Carey-Simos

    Co-Founder & COO, WeRSM

    George is the co-founder & COO of wersm.com – We are Social Media. He is an experienced digital strategist, and consultant, with over 15 years of experience in marketing communications and related roles, digital consulting, events production, and journalism. He is also a startup mentor and advisor, speaker at industry events (pre-COVID), and frequently a judge / panel member in startup pitch competitions, and social media / digital marketing awards.

  • Nurken Rzaliyev

    Nurken Rzaliyev

    CEO at Rahmet app, ChocoFamily Group

    Nurken founded and built the biggest e-commerce holding in Central Asia region (ChocoFamily) with $250M+ in gross-billings. I’m part of this journey since 2011 as an Executive and later as a shareholder

  • Victoria Ous

    Victoria Ous

    Partnerships & Talent Lead

    Currently on a mission of bridging the gap of talent in the Netherlands by making a difference in computer science education. As Partnerships & Talent Lead at Codam, she is connecting the graduate software engineers with companies in search for young tech talent, be it through job opportunities or different events (like coding contests, hackathons, CodamX sessions etc).

  • Dima Albot

    Dima Albot

    Startup Tracker and Product Manager

    Dmitrii is a certified Startup Tracker and Product Manager. Graduated from MIT in Boston, acquired New Venture Leadership certificate in Brazil, and worked as a FabLab coordinator in Jordan. With experience in technology and entrepreneurship, he builds innovative tech startups that have a positive impact on the society

  • Mihai Stipanov

    Mihai Stipanov

    Founder & Investor, Dreamups

    The founder of Dreamups, an innovation and entrepreneurship accelerator. Mihai is an experienced Managing Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Market Research, Management, Sales Promotion, Business Development, and Marketing Strategy. He is also a Angel Investors.

  • Adrian Plesca

    Adrian Plesca

    Serial Impact Founder

    Serial impact Founder with gov & non gov experience. Currently developing a greentech startup and enabling other startups to reach consistent traction.

  • Letitia Stefan

    Letitia Stefan

    CO-FOUNDER & CEO OF NIFTY LEARNING

    Since October 2016 I've been part of the Nifty Learning family and it's been the most rewarding professional and personal growth experience so far. I'm happy to offer my support to founders and teams that want to know more about the journey of founding a startup, how to pitch their business idea, how to validate it and what to look for when speaking to potential customers or investors.

  • Patrycja Maksymowicz

    Patrycja Maksymowicz

    Founder & Director, Open Solutions Global

    With almost 30 years of growing businesses under her belt, Patrycja is now supporting the growth of other businesses.
    Blue-chip companies include Lego, BMW, Scania, as well as the armed forces, and government agencies. Her expertise lies in leveraging technology to enable growth. She founded Open Solutions Global, a boutique consulting firm, to assist growth-oriented companies and innovative start-ups.

  • Evgeny Frolov

    Evgeny Frolov

    Senior Startup Tracker

    Evgeny Frolov is a Startup Tracker at Startup Moldova. Evgeny has international experience, working with projects in Russia, Kazakhstan, the region of Central and Eastern Europe, with an experience of over 10 years in the field. He is a certified startup tracker, who passed the program in the Internet Initiatives Development Fund. Since July 2020, Evgeny has been a member and consultant of the Startup Moldova team and brings to the Moldovan ecosystem the best practices from international communities.

  • Stefan Vladimirov

    Stefan Vladimirov

    Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer at Question Base

    Stefan has a keen interest and a healthy obsession with design. He has spent the past 10 years in designing brands and products for his startups and for clients. Most recently he led the rebrand of Payhawk before becoming the first Bulgarian unicorn. Early in his career he Co-Founded Swipes designing a brand & product loved by more than 1.5 million users. Currently he is Co-Founding Question Base product that helps teams work better together.

  • Olga Melniciuc

    Olga Melniciuc

    Managing Parner, Investitii.md

    Olga is expert and trainer in the field of access to funding helping start-ups and SMEs to get preferential financial resources for business development. She manages consulting company “Gradient Consulting” SRL, brand name “investitii.md”, which aims to connect investment opportunities with those looking to launch and grow their businesses and to help entrepreneurs to absorb available financial resources. As of today, her company helped local companies get more that 10+ million MDL in grants and subsidies.

  • Andi Stan

    Andi Stan

    MBA, FCCA

    I like the joy of that extra-mile for a great customer and team experience. I am a Fellow ACCA and I have an MBA from Oxford Brookes. I invest my time with passion and always work hard and research smart.

  • Silvia Cebanu

    Silvia Cebanu

    Chief Financial Officer at Payall

    With over 12+ years of experience in banking and fintech, highly skilled in finance and leadership in a startup role, key member of executives and advice companies heads on strategic financial growth initiatives.

  • Diana Aladzhova

    Diana Aladzhova

    Partner at Silverline Capital & Founder at CFO Insights

    Diana Aladzhova is a financial executive and investor. She is a partner at Silverline Capital, a private equity fund, investing in growth equity and quasi-equity. She is also founder of CFO Insights, digital CFO-as-a-service provider for startups and scaleups in Europe and USA. Diana has graduated from the London School of Economics and has successfully completed the CFA program.

Mentors 2021

  • Cameron Manwaring

    Cameron Manwaring

    CEO at Consulting Virality

    In 2015, Cameron was awarded by Forbes 30 Under 30 for his contributions in Marketing and Advertising. He has developed successful strategies for an array of notable brands including Dreamworks, Turkish Airlines, Freshpet, Pizza Hut, Sony, Pepsi, ESPN, Cristiano Ronaldo, and YouTube themselves. After selling his company, he has shifted his interests and focus towards international Viral Strategy and has consulted for some of the largest firms across the United States, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, KSA, India, Dubai, and Singapore.

  • John Stamler

    John Stamler

    Fundraising Specialist , Distressed Debt Investor, Angel Investor

    John has 20+ years of international value/distressed debt investing experience, having worked at firms such as HBK, BlackRock, Citi and other large firms. He is a board member at a few companies and over the last years he advised and mentored well over 100 companies globally.

  • Igor Ovcharenko

    Igor Ovcharenko

    Founder & CEO, Scal8R

    Igor is a startup enthusiast and tech-savvy professional with over seven years of experience in developing startup ecosystems in emerging markets. He has extensive experience in business development, strategy, infrastructure development and seats on the advisory board of 5 startups.

  • Letitia Stefan

    Letitia Stefan

    Co-Founder & CEO of Nifty Learning

    Since October 2016 I've been part of the Nifty Learning family and it's been the most rewarding professional and personal growth experience so far. I'm happy to offer my support to founders and teams that want to know more about the journey of founding a startup, how to pitch their business idea, how to validate it and what to look for when speaking to potential customers or investors.

  • Tudor Tarlev

    Tudor Tarlev

    Product Manager, onesevenx

    Tudor is a former tech entrepreneur and current designer of educational programs for sustainable development goals. After a life as a digital nomad, who has traveled and developed projects in over 45 countries, he settled in Amsterdam and works to reform the education system with UN agencies and top universities around the world. Also, he develops the company onesevenx – a small laboratory for entrepreneurial experiments.

  • Andi Stan

    Andi Stan

    Partner with MOORE in Romania and R. Moldova

    I like the joy of that extra-mile for a great customer and team experience. I am a Fellow ACCA and I have an MBA from Oxford Brookes. I invest my time with passion and always work hard and research smart.

  • Sergiu Matei

    Sergiu Matei

    Angel Investor & Founder, Index

    Sergiu Matei is co-founder of Travod, the startup with one of the most impressive growth in the translation industry. Travod adapts content for brands such as Amazon, Forbes Group, British Council, and many more.
    He is now working on his new project – Index, which helps top companies to hire remotely world-class software developers.

  • Mihai Stipanov

    Mihai Stipanov

    Investor & Founder, Dreamups
  • Bogdan Colceriu

    Bogdan Colceriu

    CEO Frisbo

    Bogdan has over 10 years of experience in the Romanian startup scene, as co-founder of Trilulilu, the most popular video streaming service, co-founder of Okian, the largest online bookstore, and co-founder of Risky Business, the first accelerator pre-seed from Romania.

  • Artiom Cociu

    Artiom Cociu

    CEO, SPARK Research Labs

    Artiom is working in consulting industry for 10 years and delivering turnaround projects, applying system approach to clients’ issues. As a co-founder of a consulting company, along with delivering consulting projects, Artiom was designing algorithms and managing IT team for development of in-house IT products.

  • Elena Bersadschi

    Elena Bersadschi

    Head of Growth at DAME

    Elena is a growth marketer with more than 6 years of experience in both B2B and B2C industries. Her professional experience spans across multiple marketing disciplines, from customer acquisition, up to churn prevention and user re-activation.

  • Adrian Pica

    Adrian Pica

    Director of Product, Bolt

    Adrian is a Product Management expert that has crafted products used by hundreds of millions at 2
    unicorn companies. An entrepreneur at heart, Adrian founded and sold 2 companies started from scratch, managed 2 companies with more than 100 employees and 1mil+ revenue/year. Currently, he’s a director of product at Bolt, building the future of transportation.

  • Matt Rutter

    Matt Rutter

    CEO, Enspire Creative Agency

    An effective leader and communicator, Matt excels when designing and implementing strategic solutions in fast-paced and complex environments. Having become known as a Lean Startup guru, Matt helps everyone from small-scale farmers to tech-startup colleagues identify customer problems and systematically test solutions until they have achieved product-market fit.

  • Razvan Craciunescu

    Razvan Craciunescu

    Lecturer, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest

    Razvan is a former founder of an IoT startup for Ambient Assisted Living, startup for which he raised more than 200.000 EUR and that he sold early 2019. He was also a project manager for R&D projects in different companies and as an innovation consultant for national or international companies, banks, or public authorities.

  • George Carey-Simos

    George Carey-Simos

    Co-founder & COO, WeRSM

    George is the co-founder & COO of wersm.com – We are Social Media. He is an experienced digital strategist, and consultant, with over 15 years of experience in marketing communications and related roles, digital consulting, events production, and journalism. He is also a startup mentor and advisor, speaker at industry events (pre-COVID), and frequently a judge / panel member in startup pitch competitions, and social media / digital marketing awards.

  • Arturas Didika

    Arturas Didika

    IT Project Manager & Coach

    Arturas has been managing large-scale high-impact IT projects in Europe and Middle East. He has a lot of experience in complex digital transformations, e-services and custom software development, specifically in the following domains: eGovernment, Finance, Telco, eCommerce and eHealth. He is a firm believer in coaching approach in personal life and organizations.

  • Elijah Toh

    Elijah Toh

    Marketing Director, Wolt

    Elijah led brands such as P&G, Now TV, Unibet and Uber across disciplines such as product marketing, CRM and acquisition. Elijah’s experiences also included a memorable stint as an entrepreneur running a craft beer distribution.

  • Sanda Condratiuc

    Sanda Condratiuc

    MARKETING & PRODUCT CONSULTANT

    Sanda is a marketing professional with seven years of experience in delivering 360 marketing for B2B/ B2C start-ups such as fin-tech, e-commerce for fashion & electronics, and creative workspaces. Experienced in developing brand identities, defining, testing, and executing marketing strategies using a mix of elements that convert and increase ROI.

  • Alexey Dobrusin

    Alexey Dobrusin

    Marketer and Entrepreneur

    Alexey Dobrusin, marketer and entrepreneur. Develops startups since 2010. Tracker and mentor of Generation S accelerator, Astana Hub, etc.CEO&founder of Personatika, a platform of step-by-step instructions for small businesses.

  • Sebastian Gabor

    Sebastian Gabor

    Founder & CEO, Digitail.io

    Founded Digitail to solve the gap between the ever-growing expectations of millennial pet parents and the experience offered by veterinarians with their current tools.

  • Vadim Sokolowski

    Vadim Sokolowski

    General Director, Digital Ego

    Vadim is the owner of Digital Ego, a full-cycle creative agency specializing in e-commerce solutions, branding and packaging, custom web development, prototyping and interface design – UI / UX, as well as the development of communication and digital marketing strategies. His love for space and futurology developed a passion for design and innovation, and his interest in Lego influenced the formation of a systemic thinking, motivating him to create and change the world around him.

  • Lidia Alexa

    Lidia Alexa

    Lecturer at Gheorghe Asachi​ Technical University of Iași
  • Gabriel  Paunescu

    Gabriel Paunescu

    CEO and Co-founder of Naologic

    I've worked in the startup space for over ten years and lived in 3 countries. I was the CTO of a medical e-commerce company in Paris (exited), an IoT company in Silicon Valley, and served as a consultant for large banks and real estate companies in the US and UK.

  • Vasile Granaci

    Vasile Granaci

    Angel Investor, Technology Leader, ML & AI, API Economy

    Vasile Granaci is a Technology / Business Leader at ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Largest Start-up in the World. Vasile is a founding team member of the ByteDance Enterprise and Partnership team, responsible for launching Machine Learning and Deep Neural Network AI to consumers and businesses. Previously to ByteDance, Vasile was a Regional Director at Nexmo that was acquired by Vonage for $230 million.

  • Eugeniu Girla

    Eugeniu Girla

    EMEA Region Director at XOR

    Meet me at the crossroads of HR & Technology. Passionate about People, Recruitment, Training, and Technology since 2005, started with 4 years in the NGO sector, promoting Youth Employment and Career Orientation, also been working in the Corporate Sector as a business trainer and recruiter for 10 years in more than 7 countries. Since 2016 entered the HR Automation & Startups world. Currently an ambassador and enabler of recruitment automation with the power of AI and chatbots.

  • Olga Melniciuc

    Olga Melniciuc

    MBA, PMP

    Olga is expert and trainer in the field of access to funding helping start-ups and SMEs to get preferential financial resources for business development. She manages consulting company “Gradient Consulting” SRL, brand name “investitii.md”, which aims to connect investment opportunities with those looking to launch and grow their businesses and to help entrepreneurs to absorb available financial resources. As of today, her company helped local companies get more that 10+ million MDL in grants and subsidies.

  • Rodica Belocosov

    Rodica Belocosov

    Director of Finance and People Operations at MoneyLion

    Rodica Belocosov has international work experience in companies with a presence in USA, Sweden, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and over 6 years of start-up experience both in B2B and B2C platforms. Her main focus is on operations, finance, people, strategy and management within a variety of industries, such as F&B, Mobility, Fintech. Since 2020 she has also built her own e-commerce business with a retail presence in Malaysia.

  • Alex Naydenov

    Alex Naydenov

    Head of Sales of GraphCMS,

    Alex Naydenov is the Head of Sales of GraphCMS, a market-leading API-first content management system based in Berlin, Germany. His background is in economics, data analytics and computer science. For co-founding the academic collaboration platform PaperHive, he was awarded a place in the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list (2017). s

  • Manuela Capatina

    Manuela Capatina

    Head of Business Sales Division Head of Business Sales Division at Orange Moldova

    Manuela is currently managing the B2B national sales team both LA and SME within a multinational Telecom company Orange Moldova. From 2016 she is Certified COPC implementation leader, being also certified in PM and having numerous exchange of experience in Belgium, France, Greece, Romania and USA. Developing and implementing effective sales strategies to achieve sales targets and to ensure business growth.

  • George Teodorescu

    George Teodorescu

    Regional Director, Mixbook

    Born in Romania, George Teodorescu moved to the United States with his family at age 12. He graduated from Binghamton University with a degree in International Relations and Spanish, and later studied law at Syracuse University and Columbia. He was admitted as a lawyer in New York, and specialized in international commercial arbitration. Since 2016, George moved into the IT industry and manages the Chisinau office of Mixbook, a Silicon Valley-based image publishing start-up.

  • Vladyslav Yarovoi

    Vladyslav Yarovoi

    Founder & CEO, Rikk LLC

    Vladyslav is a Founder&CEO of Rikk LLC law firm, more than 6 years working with Hi-Tech industries (IT, E-commerce, Crypto, High-risk), Co-founder of an IT startup, Co-founder of a marketing agency, Investor, Startup mentor

  • Xenia Muntean

    Xenia Muntean

    CO-FOUNDER & CEO, PLANABLE

    Xenia is the CEO and Co-Founder of Planable, a content review and marketing collaboration platform used by over 4,000 teams at brands like Jaguar Land Rover, Viber, and World Food Program. Prior to launching Planable, at 20 y.o. she built a digital marketing agency and led social for clients such as Coca-Cola.

  • Dan Sturza

    Dan Sturza

    Partner at Fribourg Capital

    Involved with Elefant.ro since foundation. Full time since 2017 when the migration to a new eCommerce platform has been initiated. Upon completion in 2019, undertook the position of VP of Business Development. Currently sole focus is on marketplace development; With Fribourg Capital team since 2012. Did research, investment analysis, deal origination &amp, structuring before becoming fully operational at Elefant.ro.

  • Monica Obogeanu

    Monica Obogeanu

    Startup Programs Manager, Orange Romania

    With more than 10 years' experience in the tech startups ecosystem, Monica facilitates Orange's relationship with innovative startups, through the Orange Fab accelerator, and with the Romanian entrepreneurial ecosystem, through initiatives like Orange Fab Hub Pass.
    A Computer Science graduate with a passion for building products, she worked in startups in roles like software tester of product manager and has lead multiple startup support programs.

Mentors 2020

  • Aryk Grosz

    Aryk Grosz

    Co-Founder, Mixbook

    Aryk is the Co-Founder of Mixbook (mixbook.com), a web-based photo service with an emphasis on creativity, print quality, and customer service. He has been recognized by Inc Magazine's "30 Under 30" list of entrepreneurs for his contribution in founding and growing Mixbook to the 3rd largest online photo book provider in the US.

  • Elena Bersadschi

    Elena Bersadschi

    Growth Manager, Deliveroo

    Elena is a growth marketer with more than 6 years of experience in both B2B and B2C industries. Currently, she leads the function for the rider side of the Deliveroo business. Her professional experience spans across multiple marketing disciplines, from customer acquisition, up to churn prevention and user re-activation.

  • Simon Obstbaum

    Simon Obstbaum

    Founder, YOPESO

    Technology executive, founder and CEO at YOPESO. Strategic focus, cutting-edge product vision. Effective at building high-performance teams in distributed environments. YOPESO relies on proven processes and certified quality management, maintaining high product quality and development processes flexibility. The company delivers top-notch software development products, enabling customers business growth at a rocketing speed. Simon also was the CTO at Crunchyroll.

  • Mihai Stipanov

    Mihai Stipanov

    Founder & Investor, Dreamups
  • Lisa Gutu

    Lisa Gutu

    COO at Saltedge

    Lisa has co-founded Fentury – a personal finance advisor app, helping its user to get better at savings right after finishing her studies. For the past 5 years Lisa is working at Salt Edge, driving the company to new markets, growing b2b sales and ensuring the company is one of the leading brands in the fintech & open banking world.

  • Francisco Cordoba

    Francisco Cordoba

    NaaS Digital Banking, CEO & Co-founder

    Innovator under 35 by MIT, Master at University College London, Business administrator with more than 14 years developing technology business around the world. Founded Wesend in Singapore (Blockchain based app) and Seed Software (Colombia). Global Shaper alumni from the World Economic Forum and Fellow at the Westerwelle Foundation. Author of the book ´beat the robots´ and presenter of #PachoenVivo.

  • Mircea Vadan

    Mircea Vadan

    Partner at Activize and TechMatch

    Mircea is involved in various projects and communities related to the startup ecosystem in Eastern Europe. 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, go-to-market strategy, finding investment etc. In the software sector, he is part of TechMatch.

  • Zach Coelius

    Zach Coelius

    Angel Investor

    Zach Coelius is a four-time entrepreneur and now an investor in early-stage technology companies at Zeitgeist Partners. Zach is investing in private technology companies via a syndicate he runs on Angel List. He describes himself as a „pretty eclectic investor” who loves seeing just about any deal. First $1B exit with an AngelList Syndicate when General Motors bought Cruise Automation.

  • Christoph Sollich

    Christoph Sollich

    Pitch Coach, The Pitch Doctor

    Christoph is known as “The Pitch Doctor” in the Berlin startup scene and beyond. For the last 6 years, he's helped 1800+ startups (and an ever growing number of corporate intrapreneurs) improve the way they pitch to investors, partners, management boards etc. He's a mentor/coach for dozens of accelerators, incubators, corporate innovation labs and startup competitions around Europe.

  • Dumitru Vicol

    Dumitru Vicol

    CEEMEA FX & Rates Strategist, Citi, London

    Dumitru is an emerging market strategist at Citi in London. The team he is a part of is number #1 in the industry. He was also involved in projects based on the promotion and development of financial instruments in Moldova.

  • Artiom Cociu

    Artiom Cociu

    CEO, SPARK Research Labs

    Artiom is working in consulting industry for 10 years and delivering turnaround projects, applying system approach to clients’ issues. As a co-founder of a consulting company, along with delivering consulting projects, Artiom was designing algorithms and managing IT team for development of in-house IT products.

  • Victoria Ous

    Victoria Ous

    Incubation Lead, Odyssey

    Victoria is the Incubation & International Lead of Odyssey, an open innovation program that includes the world's biggest blockchain & AI hackathon. She builds ecosystems around the best performing teams from the Odyssey Hackathon that support the advancement & adoption of these prototype solutions.

  • Tudor Tarlev

    Tudor Tarlev

    Product Manager, onesevenx

    Tudor is a former tech entrepreneur and current designer of educational programs for sustainable development goals. After a life as a digital nomad, who has traveled and developed projects in over 45 countries, he settled in Amsterdam and works to reform the education system with UN agencies and top universities around the world. Also, he develops the company onesevenx – a small laboratory for entrepreneurial experiments.

  • Anton Perkin

    Anton Perkin

    CEO at FusionWorks

    Anton has 15 years of eхperience as a developer and 9 years as company manager and community builder. In 2011 he founded FusionWorks (IT outsourcing company) and DeveloperMD Community (the biggest one in Moldova) and since then is passionate about developing his business and organizing various IT-related events, the biggest one being the Moldova Developer Conference.

  • John Stamler

    John Stamler

    Mentor, Board Member, Angel Investor

    John has 20+ years of international value/distressed debt investing experience, having worked at firms such as HBK, BlackRock, Citi and other large firms. He is a board member at a few companies and over the last years he advised and mentored well over 100 companies globally.

  • Oleg Ciubotaru

    Oleg Ciubotaru

    Director of Engineering, Globality INC

    More than 15 years of experience in Software Engineering, over 8 years living and working in Silicon Valley. Oleg worked with many clients in Silicon Valley and the US in general, from startups to companies with market capitalization of hundreds billions dollars.

  • Igor Ovcharenko

    Igor Ovcharenko

    Founder & CEO, Scal8R

    Igor is a startup enthusiast and tech-savvy professional with over seven years of experience in developing startup ecosystems in emerging markets. He has extensive experience in business development, strategy, infrastructure development and seats on the advisory board of 5 startups.

  • Vitalie Esanu

    Vitalie Esanu

    Founder & CTO at VoteMeApp

    I’ve been programming in some form since I was 12 years old (1988). At College of Informatics and Technical University of Moldova, I gained a strong foundation in computer science theory in addition to experience in actual software development through several international companies, side projects, and a couple of entrepreneurial endeavors.

  • Sergiu Matei

    Sergiu Matei

    Founder & Angel Investor
  • Tudor Darie

    Tudor Darie

    Founder and CEO Fagura.com

    Tudor has 14 years of entrepreneurial experience as a co-founder and manager in a couple of business areas – fintech, online media, e-commerce, and online advertising. He has been involved in creating and developing teams, has held leading positions, negotiated investment and exit contracts.

  • Bogdan Colceriu

    Bogdan Colceriu

    CEO Frisbo

    Bogdan has over 10 years of experience in the Romanian startup scene, as co-founder of Trilulilu, the most popular video streaming service, co-founder of Okian, the largest online bookstore, and co-founder of Risky Business, the first accelerator pre-seed from Romania.

  • Sanda Condratiuc

    Sanda Condratiuc

    Marketing & Product Consultant

    Sanda has 10 years experience in delivering 360 marketing strategies for start-ups in fin-tech, e-commerce and workspaces, helping businesses grow from 0 to generating revenue. Founder of the food brand DEUKES & APINATUR and Co-Founder of the first Moldovan mentorship platform MentorMe. She is also involved in diaspora led projects to improve social wellbeing in Moldova.

  • Niket Desai

    Niket Desai

    VP Product, Ping

    Niket co-founded Punchd, a mobile loyalty startup, which was acquired by Google and recently was Chief of Staff at Flipkart in Bangalore. He’s worked on mobile computing systems for Motorola and Google, with a focus on connected devices and ambient computing. Niket holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley.

  • Anastasia Miron

    Anastasia Miron

    Mompreneur, Innovator, Social Impact oriented Startups Advisor

    Anastasia is Co-Founder of GlobeIn and TEKEDU, she worked to improve technological access and literacy to increase opportunity in today’s increasingly digital marketplaces. As Founder of Child Proof Yourself, her current interest lies in leveraging VR and AR to address human centered problems like parenting and provide new approaches to prevent stress and anxiety in children.

  • Cameron Manwaring

    Cameron Manwaring

    CEO at Consulting Virality

    In 2015, Cameron was awarded by Forbes 30 Under 30 for his contributions in Marketing and Advertising. He has developed successful strategies for an array of notable brands including Dreamworks, Turkish Airlines, Freshpet, Pizza Hut, Sony, Pepsi, ESPN, Cristiano Ronaldo, and YouTube themselves. After selling his company, he has shifted his interests and focus towards international Viral Strategy and has consulted for some of the largest firms across the United States, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, KSA, India, Dubai, and Singapore.

  • Dana Muntean

    Dana Muntean

    Client Partner, Workplace by Facebook

    Dana is an idea hunter, originally from Moldova. She is growing Workplace by Facebook in EMEA. Dana founded the global mentoring program, MentorMe. She did her MA in Creative & Media Enterprises at the University of Warwick. She focused on impact at Google, Next Jump, UNICEF, the Government of Moldova, the Royal Society of Arts, The QED Group, The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, etc.

  • Marina Cucer

    Marina Cucer

    EMEA Recruiter- Tech Ops at Amazon

    Marina is working in the HR field for 10 years, mainly in recruitment, training, and process optimization.
    During this time she managed to explore different markets in Europe: Moldova, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia. Marina is part of the Operations & Technology team at Amazon since 2016

  • Matt Rutter

    Matt Rutter

    Sales Director, Enspire

    An effective leader and communicator, Matt excels when designing and implementing strategic solutions in fast-paced and complex environments. .Having become known as a Lean Startup guru, Matt helps everyone from small-scale farmers to tech-startup colleagues identify customer problems and systematically test solutions until they have achieved product-market fit.

  • Victor Horcasitas

    Victor Horcasitas

    CEO, Barcelona Metropolitan

    Victor is currently a partner in Confianz Capital which focuses on mid-market European M&A transactions with a focus on telecom, media and technology opportunities and his most recent acquisition in January 2019 is of a Barcelona based media publication which generates and curates content to a niche target in Spain.

  • David Lees

    David Lees

    CEO at Bottlebooks GmbH

    David owned and managed three companies. StoryHome launched an Internet of things family storytelling device on Kickstarter. Casting Central became the largest casting studio in Toronto (movies included: Chicago, Cinderella Man, X-men; and clients included: Disney, Sony and Fox). Key West Video won 6 Consumer's Choice Awards for Video Production in Toronto (clients included: Audi, Microsoft, General Motors, KIA, Canon).

  • Andi Stan

    Andi Stan

    Partner with MOORE in Romania and R. Moldova

    I like the joy of that extra-mile for a great customer and team experience. I am a Fellow ACCA and I have an MBA from Oxford Brookes. I invest my time with passion and always work hard and research smart.

  • George Teodorescu

    George Teodorescu

    Regional Director at Mixbook

    Born in Romania, George Teodorescu moved to the United States with his family at age 12. He graduated from Binghamton University with a degree in International Relations and Spanish, and later studied law at Syracuse University and Columbia. He was admitted as a lawyer in New York, and specialized in international commercial arbitration. Since 2016, George moved into the IT industry and manages the Chisinau office of Mixbook, a Silicon Valley-based image publishing start-up.

  • Olga Melniciuc

    Olga Melniciuc

    MBA, PMP

    Olga is expert and trainer in the field of access to funding helping start-ups and SMEs to get preferential financial resources for business development. She manages consulting company “Gradient Consulting” SRL, brand name “investitii.md”, which aims to connect investment opportunities with those looking to launch and grow their businesses and to help entrepreneurs to absorb available financial resources. As of today, her company helped local companies get more that 10+ million MDL in grants and subsidies.

  • Letitia Stefan

    Letitia Stefan

    Co-Founder & CEO of Nifty Learning

    Since October 2016 I've been part of the Nifty Learning family and it's been the most rewarding professional and personal growth experience so far. I'm happy to offer my support to founders and teams that want to know more about the journey of founding a startup, how to pitch their business idea, how to validate it and what to look for when speaking to potential customers or investors.

  • Roman Sorocan

    Roman Sorocan

    G Suite Consultant - Google Enterprise Collaboration

    Roman is a futurist and passionate about transforming organizations by empowering a deep change from within. Worked across several continents, in marketing, personal development, food and drinks, sales, cloud and now on a mission to Bridge the gap between Humans and AI.

  • Constantin Șarcov

    Constantin Șarcov

    Founder & Creative Director, Piko

    Constantin is founder of Piko, the most awarded creative agency in Moldova.
    In past years he worked with such brands and clients like Ducati, Call of Duty, EA Games, Soros Foundation, Parliament of Moldova, Dutch Embassy, KFC, TV8, Purcari, Bitfury and others.
    Member of Art Directors Club of Netherlands and Forbes 30 under 30.

  • Elena Oprea

    Elena Oprea

    Ventures Manager at Innovify

    Elena is working as a Ventures Manager at Innovify – a London-based early-stage startup studio with an enviable track record of launching high growth start-ups such as payzilch.com, gener8ads.com, landbay.co.uk, and others. Starting with 2019, Elena was involved in the launching process of 10 startups and also she was a mentor for the startup founders (7 cohorts) at Entrepreneur Lab powered by The Council on International Educational Exchange in London.

  • Xenia Muntean

    Xenia Muntean

    Co-founder & CEO, Planable

    Xenia is the CEO and Co-Founder of Planable, a content review and marketing collaboration platform used by over 4,000 teams at brands like Jaguar Land Rover, Viber, and World Food Program. Prior to launching Planable, at 20 y.o. she built a digital marketing agency and led social for clients such as Coca-Cola.

  • Elijah Toh

    Elijah Toh

    Growth & Ops Optimisation Head, WorldRemit

    Elijah’s currently heading growth at WorldRemit, helping the business to deliver growth and optimise its operations. Before this, he’s led brands such as P&G, Now TV, Unibet and Uber across disciplines such as product marketing, CRM and acquisition. Elijah’s experiences also included a memorable stint as an entrepreneur running a craft beer distribution.

  • Andrei Stalbe

    Andrei Stalbe

    CEO crawless

    Born and grown in Moldova I've always been attracted by computers even before I knew what they really were. A few years later I saw myself licensed in Microelectronics Engineering from the Technical University of Moldova but slowly transited to a Software Engineer. About five years ago I have co-founded crawless, an IT startup to automate business web processes. I'm also deeply involved in social and ecological projects meant to have a significant impact on the wellbeing of our citizens and the nature around us.

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