15/10/2026
🚀 𝟗𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 at How to Web , one of Central and Eastern Europe’s largest tech and startup conferences.
That’s what Marc Impact Network Programme brought to the stage last week. And the reason was simple: this room already knows how to build products and services with technology. We came to add a second question to that ambition:
💡 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭?
🔹 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 → 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 → 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟
Alexandra Dumitrescu (BCR Social Finance) and Sonia Oprean (Synerb) explored what Marc Impact Network Programme actually does for impact founders: six months across Central and Eastern Europe, working on the business model, financial model and impact model, with mentorship, pitch preparation and access to investors.
💰 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐱?
Three perspectives on impact, profit and what investors really look for:
🌱 Linda Vasilescu (Entropy Signal Ventures): Impact and profit aren’t opposites. More profit can mean more impact. She backs founders with a vision for systemic change, not just a product.
🤝 Rebecka Löthman Rydå ( Norrsken Evolve): “If you win, we all win.” When pitching, lead with the founder story and the obsession, not a list of features.
📈 Tic Nica (Growceanu): Impact is a genuine differentiator with investors. But it’s never an excuse for a weak business model.
🛠️ 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤
And then came the proof: two 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜 𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐧𝐢 from the 2025–2026 cohort, from Romania and Hungary, turning ambitious ideas into real-world solutions.
🦾 David-Alexandru Popescu (Origin BCI): Bionic prostheses at a fraction of the usual cost, now in their eighth generation. The journey involves long certification cycles and supply-chain challenges. Marc helped refine the message, business plan and pitch.
♻️ Julia Dalmadi (TransFoodMission): Turning brewer’s spent grain and food surplus into cereals and biscuits. When she started, none of the 32 products on that shelf were upcycled. Today, five are.
🏥 And a founder who arrived at the same destination by another route:
Sebastian Boncu (FourthSpace Labs, Tech Lead on Project Snow) is putting technology to work to find the people a health system never reaches.
✨ The capital exists. The support exists. The businesses exist.
What the room had to decide was whether to build for it.
🎤 In conversation with Zoltan-Cristian Bereczki (Synerb) and Alexandra Dumitrescu (Marc Impact Network Programme – BCR Social Finance).
Three sectors. Three business models. One pattern: the impact is real, and so are the fundamentals.
Both things at once. That’s the whole job. 🌍💚
