Last Thursday I was invited to attend Romania Startup Awards 2026 by ROTSA. The event took place at Takeover Studios in Bucharest and celebrated the best startups in Romania, bringing together founders, investors, and operators under one roof.
A growing ecosystem
More startups applied for the prizes this edition, reflecting the steady growth of the Romanian startup ecosystem. Seeing more products being built and more initiatives taking shape is a real motivation factor. Even if competition might seem bigger, there’s plenty of room for developing great products – especially when going after real problems and looking into domains that might seem tough at first glance.
Another encouraging sign was the development of the ecosystem beyond Bucharest. New accelerators, investment funds, and events are being organized across different regions of Romania. Those first steps toward having real alternatives to Bucharest are important. The gap between the capital and other cities is still significant, but the direction is right.
What I took away from the event
I left the event with a renewed desire to improve RunningLog and Planaro, to keep pushing development forward, and with a few new ideas that might be worth exploring. However, the focus for the next period is on Planaro – and the timing couldn’t be better. Earlier that same day, I received the email granting access to LinkedIn’s Community Management API, which means new related features will be implemented for the next release.
