Liviu Cadariu (1)
StepFWD
Romania
I’ve mentored startup founders from various industries to get them started with their business development or their community-building processes for accelerators & incubators (Rubik Garage, Bright Labs Incubator, StartupBootcamp, Huge Thing, VSFA, StepFWD). Some of these have been developing solutions for the events sector (such as https://b2b.tulipr.com/) or are supporting the business networking sector (ex: https://businessverse.eu/ who are also organizing physical events to expand their network). While working at TechHub Bucharest, I have organized several business networking events every year, so I know firsthand the challenges and needs of both the organizers and participants.
Experiences
Climate change and circularity: contributing to carbon neutrality, the circular economy and sustainable mobility.
I have been working with https://altreal.ro/ to build the first marketplace for solar solutions in Romania, the first step in their greater vision to become an ecosystem for self-sustainable communities. Another startup I’ve been helping is https://polymore.ro/, where they create a hardware and software solution for ecycling companies to determine and locate households where waste is wrongly sorted. As for the circular economy sector, I’ve helped the team behind Savables which was the solution for reducing food in Romania.
Talent and inclusion: upskilling and future capabilities, more accessible events and diverse participation.
I co-founded StepFWD, the first accelerator for startups with diverse teams in CEE. During the 5 cohorts, we had 60 startups participate, with 85% of them having at least one diversity marker on their founding team. Part of our mission is to add a layer of understanding when working with diverse founders, so we began gathering data to create the first diversity map of the Romanian startup ecosystem. The report assesses the impact of diversity on innovation and performance, showcases successful diversity practices, and discusses what can be done to foster it further.
Customer experience: hybrid and digital integration, immersive technologies and interaction, personalisation and community building.
I have co-founded We For Real, a training and consulting company that helps businesses build active communities around their products, services, or brands. I’ve advised 30+ tech and entrepreneurial communities in creating their strategies and planning their community activities. I have been working with https://trymorph.com/ in their mission to scale up the way your company generates ideas, and helped https://www.clientzen.io/ to automate feedback analysis.