As interest in entrepreneurship continues to grow across Europe, a persistent challenge remains: how do we build stronger foundations for startup ecosystems, especially outside major tech hubs?
One approach gaining traction in Romania is Bright Labs, a program based in Oradea that shifts the focus from scaling startups to shaping founders—starting from zero.
Now in its fourth edition, Bright Labs is a 100-day, in-person program designed to give aspiring entrepreneurs the space, tools, and pressure to find out whether they’re truly ready to build a company. Run by Make IT Oradea, and supported through a mix of public funding and private contributions from exited tech founders, the program deliberately targets the earliest stage of entrepreneurship—before a company exists, and often before a clear idea has even taken shape.
“Bright Labs is our commitment to reigniting the optimism and innovative spirit of the next generation of founders. It’s an experience built around them, with a clear goal: to inspire them to dream big and create solutions for seemingly impossible problems,” says David Achim, the project director of Bright Labs.
To join the experience, applicants go through a multi-stage selection process designed to assess how they think, learn, and respond to feedback. The program then brings them together for 100 days in Oradea, where they are given the conditions to build—free housing, daily meals, a modern co-working space, and hands-on support from designers and developers.
But none of that guarantees success. In fact, failure is part of the model.
Embedding entrepreneurial skills in the ecosystem
The premise is simple: not everyone who dreams of starting a company should. But in order to discover that, they need access to a real testing environment—something few programs offer, especially without financial barriers to entry.
By removing those barriers and focusing on learning through doing, Bright Labs hopes to plant more seeds at the bottom of the startup funnel. The long-term goal is to normalize experimentation, cultivate entrepreneurial skills more broadly, and create a larger pool of capable founders who can contribute to the ecosystem—even if their first startup doesn’t succeed.
“To develop companies with real potential, we shouldn’t give so much space to mediocrity. Founders should be confident to build solutions for real problems and focus on clients before they go for funding,” believes Achim.
The participants—mostly in their late 20s and drawn from countries across Europe—work on ideas ranging from AI tools to SaaS platforms, media products to automation solutions. But what they’re really testing is themselves.
A local bet on european innovation
Taking place in Oradea’s medieval fortress, Bright Labs also reflects a larger ambition: to decentralize innovation and develop new startup hubs outside the traditional capitals. The hope, says David Achim, the program director, is to attract talent to Romania and help build an ecosystem with staying power.
“The idea and goal of this project is to attract talent to Oradea and Romania in order to build a meaningful tech development hub here. We want to contribute to the revival of the European innovation spirit.”
Rethinking the role of incubators
Bright Labs works with a few objectives in mind: focus less on acceleration, and more on activation. Invest in early talent. Offer support without expectations of immediate return. Accept that not every participant will start a company—and measure impact in seeds planted, not exits achieved.
In the end, helping a startup ecosystem grow may mean doing the less glamorous work at the beginning of the pipeline: creating environments where ambition can be tested, skills can be built, and futures can be decided—with honesty.
Applications for the 2025 edition of Bright Labs are open until May 16. Around 30 selected participants will relocate to Oradea for a fully in-person, immersive experience starting on June 30.
