Startup Village, organized by Ambasada as part of the CyberSea Festival, brought together in Constanța over 80 founders, mentors, investors, and tech professionals from across the country — in a format specially designed to accelerate ideas with real product potential.
The first day was all about applied inspiration: conversations with founders who’ve been through every stage, from early iterations to scaling, and with investors who’ve reviewed thousands of startups to date.
🧭 Teodora Moraru and Cătălin Cenac, co-founders of Ambasada, opened the event by sharing the vision behind ambasada.pro: a community built by and for founders, providing resources, connections, and the right context for growth.
🎯 Sorin Amzu, CMO at Flaminjoy, brought a clear and practical perspective on how to scale a startup born in a small market like Romania while targeting a global audience. In his keynote, Beyond Borders: Scaling Startups in a Hyperconnected and Fragmented World, he spoke about creativity as the superpower of emerging markets, how to adapt products to entirely different cultural contexts, and the need for constant iteration to stay relevant.
💻 Ruxandra Gheorghescu, representative of the ECCC (European Cybersecurity Competence Centre), brought a much-needed dose of clarity on European support tools for tech startups:
Her message was straightforward:
“Startups from Constanța can compete at the European level, they just need to know where to find the right doors.”
🚀 Cosmin Sava, Project Manager of the national program Vreau să fiu Antreprenor, spoke candidly about unfiltered beginnings: failures, lack of balance, and the real process of validating an idea.“Don’t wait for the perfect idea. Test. Learn as you go. And accept that sometimes failure is just an intermediate stage on the way to validation.”
💰 The Investment Panel, moderated by Cristian George Farăuanu, brought an honest discussion about what investors really look for beyond pitch decks: trust, complementary teams, and execution capability.
The panel featured Cristian Negruțiu (Sparking Capital), Andrei Ostacie (OKAPI / Techangels)and Cosmin Pîrvu (Veridion), who shared real examples from their portfolios and highlighted the most common mistakes founders make early on.
🧠 Flavia Husar, Product Manager at FLOWX.AI and Co-founder & CIO at Innovation Labs, led a hands-on workshop on Customer Discovery, where founders worked on mini canvases to define who their real customer is, what real problem they solve, and how to test hypotheses quickly — without wasting resources.
“You are not your user. Learn to listen before you start building.” — Flavia Husar
💡 The evening wrapped up with Paul Burcă (Assista AI) and Cătălin Cenac, who delivered a live demo showing how to build a fully functional digital product in under an hour, using a mix of AI, APIs, and no-code tools.
If the first day was all about learning, the second day was about execution.
The morning kicked off with a Mentoring Marathon: four dynamic 15-minute rounds where 16 startup teams received hands-on, practical feedback from experienced mentors such as George Farauanu, Andrei Ostacie, Cristian Negruțiu, Flavia Husar, Dan Vasile.
Each mentoring session turned into an intense exchange of ideas, insights, and strategies for the founders’ next steps.
🗣 Octavian Panchici, co-founder of Partnerd, delivered a memorable workshop: Cold Calling for Startups. He showed participants how to capture a client’s attention in the first 27 seconds, how to handle objections gracefully, and how to turn a “not interested” into a “let’s talk.”
🎤 Ciprian Fraico, founder of Autoeducat & Speak Up, continued with a workshop dedicated to pitching: how to manage emotions, how to structure the message, and how to deliver it with impact.
“A good pitch isn’t about what you say, but about how you make it heard.”
The final pitch competition followed, in front of a jury composed of Radu Vucea, Cristian Negruțiu, Dan Vasile, Flavia Husar and Vasile Țiple, who evaluated the ideas from the perspectives of investment potential, product development, and scalability.
🏆 Startup Village 2025 Winners:
Beyond the competition itself, Startup Village was about connection and collaboration..
From Mentoring Marathon (where founders received hands-on feedback from industry professionals) to the informal sessions by Lake Siutghiol, every moment proved that innovation thrives best where community exists.
The success of Startup Village wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our partners:
CyberSea Festival, OKAPI, Lexters, ActionPoint, ECCC, European Accelerationism, and all the speakers, mentors, and jury members who contributed their energy, know-how, and trust.
📸 Special thanks toOlivian Breda for capturing the perfect vibe of the event.
Startup Village was more than just a section of a festival, it was a statement of intent: Constanța has the talent, the people, and the vision to become a true innovation hub.
For Ambasada, this event marks an important step in the mission to connect local founders to real opportunities and to place Constanța on Romania’s tech innovation map.
💬 What would you like to see at the next edition of Startup Village?
Share your ideas with us — the next step is one we’ll build together.
