EA – The Entrepreneurship Academy and Romanian Business Leaders challenge the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders to contribute to the design of a sustainable support mechanism for entrepreneurship in Romania

• 24 Hours Challenge (24HC) is the end-of-semester exam for EA students – The Entrepreneurship Academy, an intensive educational format that faithfully simulates the reality of entrepreneurship
• Between 2019 and 2024, the number of economies in which at least 2 out of 5 people identify business opportunities but do not start a business due to fear of failure increased from 68% to 84% Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)
• The GEM report launches a call for education and awareness programs on the use of AI in entrepreneurship, as a critical factor of competitiveness.

In a context where entrepreneurship is under pressure from uncertainty, applied education remains a key factor for the economic future. With the mission of actively contributing to the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Romania, EA – The Entrepreneurship Academy (EA) organized a new edition of the 24 Hours Challenge (24HC), the first in 2026 and one of the most anticipated moments of each academic semester.

24HC represents the end-of-semester exam of EA students and has an intensive educational format that brings together teams from all four years of study, providing them with a real entrepreneurial challenge, proposed by a relevant company or organization, and only 24 hours to build viable solutions. The competition confronts students with real-world dilemmas of contemporary entrepreneurship – risk-taking, decision-making under pressure, responsible use of technology and building solutions with systemic impact – and supports the three fundamental pillars of the EA educational model: applying theory to practice, student autonomy and collaborative learning.

Entrepreneurship is an essential driver for a country’s economic development, directly contributing to GDP growth, job creation, innovation and economic resilience in the face of crises. However, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the largest international study on entrepreneurship, the number of economies in which at least two out of five people identify business opportunities but choose not to start a business due to fear of failure has increased from 68% to 84%. At the same time, the GEM report explicitly highlights the urgent need for awareness and education programs on the use of AI in entrepreneurship.

This year’s 24HC challenge was proposed by Romanian Business Leaders (RBL), one of the most important and present business communities in the country that brings together entrepreneurs, professionals and leaders from the private business environment in Romania with the aim of contributing to the development of the country and a sustainable and competitive economic environment. The theme proposed by them invited EA students to think beyond the idea of ​​a one-time business and to contribute to the design of a sustainable support mechanism for entrepreneurship in Romania, capable of reducing perceived barriers, encouraging initiative-taking and intelligently integrating technology and AI into models of growth and long-term impact.

During the challenge, EA students used all the skills acquired in the study program – from strategy, business modeling, finance and entrepreneurial research, to digital skills, the use of AI and the activation of the business network built over time. For RBL, the stakes are twofold: on the one hand, stimulating responsible entrepreneurial thinking, anchored in the current and future economic and social realities of Romania, and on the other hand, exploring new ideas and perspectives that can contribute to real directions of organizational development and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“Entrepreneurship is not learned from theory, but from direct confrontation with real and complex problems. At EA, students do not work on abstract case studies, but on current challenges of the business environment. 24 Hours Challenge is an instance of entrepreneurial reality. Students are evaluated against market standards, learning to deeply understand the needs of the client, the business context, the organizational culture and to support their solutions in front of experienced decision-makers,” declares Ioana Ceaușu, COO The Entrepreneurship Academy (EA).

“Bringing the young generation of experienced entrepreneurs from Romania closer brings value to both sides. For young people, it is an opportunity to identify authentic mentors and role models within an active community, and for us, Romanian Business Leaders, it is a chance to better understand the needs of the new generation of leaders and to build initiatives that support their development. We want to discover students who can think beyond one-off solutions, who understand how to build functional, sustainable and scalable systems and who can transform creativity into applicable solutions, responsibly assuming resources, constraints and impact. We see this collaboration as a bridge between generations and perspectives and as a constant space for dialogue, testing ideas and mentoring because only together can we develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Romania and contribute to increasing the prosperity of our society.” – says Alexandru Dincovici General Manager, Romanian Business Leaders.

A format validated by the business environment
In previous editions, the 24HC competition was supported by companies such as Fan Courier, Regina Maria, Red Bull, Neversea, Brand Minds, NN, Stil Diamonds, Meta Estate Trust, Porsche Finance Group Romania. The solutions proposed by the students were frequently integrated into the strategies of the partner companies, the feedback from top decision-makers being consistently extremely positive, both in terms of the quality of the ideas and the level of execution and presentation.

RBL sees this competition as a laboratory of ideas with real applicability: the jury, made up of members of the Board of Directors and RBL project leaders, selected the solution that best responds to the proposed challenge, with the objective of transforming it into concrete steps for implementation within the organization. The goal is not only to generate ideas, but to put them into action, so that they bring real value to RBL and contribute to a coherent development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Romania.

About the business university EA -The Entrepreneurship Academy
EA – The Entrepreneurship Academy operates in partnership with Team Academy Amsterdam/Stichting Schoolvision, following an educational model that has existed in Finland for over 30 years and has been successfully implemented in over 18 countries. The faculty is internationally accredited by Team Academy Netherlands, together with the Schoolvision Institute, through the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands. The diploma that students obtain at the end of the four years of study, by acquiring the 240 ECTS credits, is a Bachelor Degree – Business Administration in Entrepreneurship and can be equivalent in Romania at CNRED, according to the Ministry of Education.