Mentoring from famous entrepreneurs for young people starting their own business

An important chance for young people starting their entrepreneurial path: they can receive support from top Romanian businessmen to develop their business.

This time, “Tinerii în Arenă”, the biggest business event for young people in Romania returns with the autumn edition. Successful entrepreneurs such as Dragoș Anastasiu, Dragoș Petrescu, Felix Pătrășcanu or Cristian Onețiu come to mentor young people who want to follow the path of their own business.

Young people in the Arena bring entrepreneurs, mentors and motivated young people to open their own business. The previous edition of the event brought together over 2,600 young people from Romania and six entrepreneurs who mentored seven business ideas: Dragoș Petrescu, Dragoș Anastasiu, Cristian Onețiu, Camelia Șucu, Felix Pătrășcanu, Bogdan Micu. The aim was to increase the number of young entrepreneurs and to provide examples of good practice in entrepreneurship.

This project aims to support the development of entrepreneurship in Romania and to highlight models of entrepreneurs, both early and experienced, to provide confidence, financial education, good practices and to increase the possible future unicorns of Romania.

“Youth in the Arena is a Romanian Business Leaders project for young entrepreneurs. We have here a cocktail of emotions, exceptional ideas, planning and presentations absolutely necessary at the beginning of the road “said Dragoș Petrescu, President of Romanian Business Leaders and project leader I want to be an Entrepreneur and Insights

The desire for entrepreneurship among young people

The “Insights PulseZ” study, now in its second edition, highlighted the growing interest of young people in entrepreneurship for the second year in a row. According to him, 53% of young people in Romania intend to open a business, while only 2% already have a business. The intention to take this step is 14%, being higher among boys (19%) than among girls (10%). The study also shows that the biggest challenge for young people is the lack of financial resources (74%) followed by the need for mentoring (59%) and the need to surround themselves with other entrepreneurs (55%).

“Young people are a great resource for our country. Their intention to start a business reflects an entrepreneurial trend in which we are and which we can turn into a source of added value and prosperity for our country. The fact that there are few young people who have started a business, compared to the number of those who want to do so, speaks about the potential we have to increase the number of entrepreneurs. It is currently half the European average. We have an opportunity to invest in these young people and support them to develop an area that generates added value, jobs and well-being for all of us. ”, Points out Alin Claudiu Apostu, coordinator and host of the Youth in the Arena project

What do young people in Romania want?

In addition to the needs of mentoring, access to funding and community support, the Insights PulseZ study also highlighted that the areas of interest where young people start a business are in the food industry (bars, restaurants, pastries – 35%), real estate (21 %) and marketing (20%). In an e-commerce market, internet commerce ranked in the middle of the industry ranking by 16%.

The Youth in the Arena program comes to cover some of these needs that young people have and proposes to connect them as much as possible with the business environment. They will have:

weekly meetings with mentors from the Business Mentors program – whose mission is to train a new generation of entrepreneurs;

a community of 14 other young people who will go through the same process in order to support each other and increase the collaborative spirit between Romanian businesses;

a series of workshops applied on important topics in the development of a business (lean canvas, jobs to be done, customer empathy map);

more inspiration, motivation and access to entrepreneurial models;

access to a business course worth 1,000 euros

the chance to present his business idea for mentoring and support to top entrepreneurs such as Dragoș Anastasiu, Dragoș Petrescu, Felix Pătrășcanu or Cristian Onețiu

What does the application process look like for interested young people?

The program is free and is aimed at young people between 16-24 years. To register, they must complete a presentation of the business idea and make a 90-second video. The deadline for applications is September 19, 23:59.