The Inception Phase is the essence of the Open Horizons journey. Why? Years of high-level entrepreneurial experience are distilled into a month of high-impact training.
This phase enables selected ideas to take shape and founders to turn ambition into strategy. Over just a few intensive weeks, startups receive concentrated knowledge from our mentors and the project partner InnovX. Get to know the people behind the process. Meet the mentors whose distilled experience and insights form the key ingredients for a successful preparation to pilot their structured ideas.

The recipe for a plan ready to scale up

The Open Horizons’ mentors bring together an exceptional mix of backgrounds: from global tech leaders at Microsoft to venture investors, legal experts, corporate executives, and founders. All of them have built and scaled their own companies.

Their combined expertise spans every corner of the innovation ecosystem – from artificial intelligence, cloud solutions, and finance, to marketing, design thinking, and intellectual property.

Throughout the Inception Phase, they guide startups in understanding both the mechanics and the mindset required to transform a concept into a market-ready solution.

Corporate partners also step in to provide feedback grounded in real operational needs, ensuring every idea is tested against practical, business-driven perspectives.

Together, these interactions ensure that the programme delivers the most valuable outcome of all: clarity.

Key steps and guidance of the inception programme

Business Model Canvas workshops

Before growing, you need to know who you are and what you can do. The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a tool that helps startups define who they are, who they serve, and how they create value.

Maria-Luiza Jipescu, Design Thinking and Innovation Facilitator, will lead these sessions with Mădălina Ciinaru, Nicu Iancu, and Bodó György. They are bringing expertise in strategic design, partnership building, and digital transformation.

As the programme advances, a broader circle of mentors – Steliana Moraru, Liviu Munteanu, Ana Bobircă, Bogdan Năforniță, Melinda Muresan, Daniel Dumitrescu, Raluca Nicolescu, Aimen Aldahash, Robert Pufan, Madalina Dobre, Delia Necula, Adina Saniuta, Dorina Torje, Sergiu Pop, Carmen Dibuș, Sonia Fedorovici, Diana Dumitrescu and Suleiman Arabiat – will join us to help refine each startup’s approach. Their feedback sessions will resemble a collaborative studio, where investors, entrepreneurs, and innovators will combine perspectives to ensure every business model will be sound and scalable.

Co-Design workshops for pilot planning

These sessions, co-led by InnovX and Open Horizons corporate partners, focus on turning ideas into actionable pilot plans.

Startups will work hand-in-hand with corporate innovation teams to tailor their solutions to real-world operational contexts. Moreover, they will identify measurable outcomes, and set up frameworks for collaboration. This is learning applied at its best – pragmatic, goal-oriented, and driven by dialogue.

Proof of Concept (PoC) legal readiness workshop

Legal clarity is essential to kick off on a solid ground. Bogdan Coraci, Legal and IP expert, guided founders through the essentials of collaboration frameworks: Non-Disclosure Agreements, Intellectual Property rights, confidentiality agreements, and the evolution from Proof-of-Concept to licensing.

His session provides not just legal theory but negotiation practice, helping teams recognize each party’s red lines and build balanced, trust-based partnerships.

Microsoft Power Lab

Innovation thrives with technology thanks to the Microsoft Power Lab. It will showcase how cutting-edge tools can accelerate growth and ensure security at scale.

Aimen Aldahash will illustrate Microsoft’s support journey for startups — from pre-seed Azure credits to global go-to-market partnerships.

Ovidiu Pismac, Senior Security Cloud Solution Architect, will share insights on data protection, cybersecurity, and compliance in the age of AI.

Robert Pufan, Senior Partner Solutions Architect for AI Business Solutions, will introduce Microsoft 365 Copilot as a catalyst for smarter, safer workflows.

Sergiu Pop, EMEA Data & AI Specialist, will follow with a deep dive into the new “agentic AI” paradigm, showing how data and automation empower innovation.

Individual reviews and the final rehearsal

The final stretch of the Inception Phase is where everything comes together. Startups enter one-to-one review sessions with InnovX mentors and corporate partners, validating Business Model Canvases and Proof-of-Concept plans before delivery.

Then comes the final evaluation seen through two complementary lenses:

Mentors act as directors, ensuring the storyline is coherent, strategic, and compelling.

Corporate representatives take the role of critics, assessing feasibility, alignment, and real-world impact.

It’s the last acting rehearsal before the show. Here, every detail is refined, every performance perfected, and every team ready to take the stage for pilot implementation.

Looking ahead: New horizons and pilots

As the selected startups move toward their pilots, they carry with them the insights, discipline, and inspiration distilled from Europe’s most experienced innovators. They create a collective compass guiding them through the open horizons and the Pilot Phase ahead.

Follow us to learn how Piloting looks like in our programme.

As a EU-funded project, Open Horizons is well connected to a vibrant network of initiatives shaping a more inclusive and innovative deeptech landscape across Europe. After exploring Women TechEU, EmpoWomen, and WEgate in our first article, we are happy to introduce you to new projects contributing to the same mission: empowering women entrepreneurs and strengthening innovation ecosystems across Europe.

The word “inception” comes from the Latin “inceptio”, meaning a beginning, an undertaking. It signals the starting point of something meaningful. For Open Horizons, the Inception Phase marks the real beginning of the journey for selected startups: when applications evolve into structured pilot plans.

The first open call of Open Horizons was a success. We received 256 applications. This is just the first step of a short but intense journey, where women-led tech startups will walk side by side leading corporates and mentors. The common destination: scaling up real-world solutions to boost innovation in Europe.

The countdown is on: the first Open Horizons Open Call closes on 21 August 2025 at 17:00 CEST.
Before submitting, many startups have reached out with similar questions. We collected them to help you avoid common mistakes, to fully focus on delivering a great application on time.

Open Horizons is built around real industry challenges defined by leading corporate partners.
This challenge-based framework means that from the very beginning, selected startups work on solutions with direct market demand, guided by the companies who asked for these innovations.
This approach means that your product can find immediate market appeal, as your pilot is designed to meet a real, validated need. The uptake on the market is also improved by the strategic mentorship provided by industry leaders: you will work directly with corporate partners who know the sector inside out. After realizing your solution, you get the key to a powerful network for scaling: Gain EU-wide visibility and connections that extend beyond the pilot.

Missed the second Info Day of Open Horizons? Don’t worry! Here’s a recap of some of the most important questions raised by participants. The session on July 16 brought together dozens of innovators eager to better understand how to successfully apply to the Open Call and how to align with the programme’s unique challenge-based approach.

Submitting a successful application to Open Horizons is not just about presenting a great idea. It is about showing that your startup is eligible, prepared, and aligned with real market needs. Many applications fail due to small but avoidable mistakes, which can be prevented by following a few essential tips from our team.

Before you apply to Open Horizons, it is essential to understand whether your startup meets the programme’s eligibility criteria.