Inside the Journey. Our First Scale Up Cohort
In September, we launched a new chapter at Endeavor Romania: the first cohort of our Scale Up program. 8 companies. 19 founders. All in different industries, but at similar stages, and united by the same hunger to scale with clarity and purpose.
Too many founders at the growth stage are expected to have all the answers, when in reality, that’s exactly when the questions get harder.
“From the first meeting I was challenged with our go-to-market strategy, which helped me think of other opportunities and ways of scaling, and the fact that each mentor had a lot of experience in the particular area that we were looking to grow was very important. We think it’s relevant to talk to people who’ve gone through this journey and know what it looks like.” – Alin Rosca, RepsMate
They don’t need generic playbooks. They need context, trust, and a space to think and rethink.
From the very beginning, we knew one thing for sure, this couldn’t be a one-size-fits-all program. Every company had different challenges. Every founder had a different destination in mind, whether that was expansion into Western Europe, the U.S., or simply regaining clarity on their path forward.
“The most important thing is to figure out what your objectives are, as the clearer you know what you want to accomplish the more you’ll take from it, because it’s not a one-size-fits-all program.” – Bogdan Litescu, Plant an app
So we tailored it. Each founder received a personalized support plan, rooted in their context, ambition, and current inflection point.
Over the course of the program, we’ve delivered:
- 100+ hours of 1:1 mentorship,
- A high-intensity bootcamp to zoom out and reframe,
- 5 one-to-many sessions led by world-class operators,
- Countless peer-to-peer moments that turned into real breakthroughs.
“I appreciated the truly global scale of the program, it gave us a very wide range of knowledge, connections and opportunities and, more valuable than anything, it gave us choice, the tools to follow our path and choose the way we want to grow towards” – Evelina Necula, Kinderpedia.
Some founders pivoted. Others restructured teams, consolidated go-to-market strategies, or refined their roadmap for international expansion.
Everyone left with something different, because they came in with different truths.
But what we all walked away with?
A deeply connected, generous, and unfiltered community of founders.
A space where it was safe to say “I don’t know,” where real stories mattered more than polished pitches, and where ambition and vulnerability finally coexisted.
“Learning from peers was one of the most valuable components of our experience, and I can’t single out one piece of advice, but their cumulative experience, everything that was shared in our peer group in the scaling journey. We all have our challenges and it was interesting to see what worked best and what didn’t work for every one of them, and we distilled this experience and looked at it through our own lens to get our learnings out of that.” – Andrei Cretu, Pluria.
To our Cohort 1 founders: thank you. For your courage, your openness, and trust. You’ve helped shape not just the program, but a new kind of founder culture in Romania, and set the tone for what Scale Up stands for.
Cohort 2 launches in May. If you’re building something bold and want to scale with clarity, leave your details here, and we’ll get back to you.