Product Weekend: Bridging the gap in product management education

Date March 31, 2025
Federico Guerrinifederico.guerrini@eitdigital.eu
Sergiu Adrian Lazar Angelescu
Sergiu Adrian Lazar Angelescu

When Sergiu Adrian Lazar Angelescu graduated from the EIT Digital Master School in Data Science in 2018, he knew he wanted to start his own company—but assumed it was a distant future. Fast forward to today, and he's leading Product Weekend, Europe's most intimate product conference dedicated to product management education and community-building.

Angelescu’s journey began in earnest during his studies at EIT Digital, where he co-founded his first venture, SpotYet, an innovative platform to enhance networking at events. This early entrepreneurial experience became pivotal, revealing a significant gap: practical, relevant education in product management was scarce, often too generic, or absent altogether from formal education.

“I was always curious about the bigger picture—why we were building certain products, not just how,” Angelescu explains. "During my master's with EIT Digital, SpotYet was an intense learning experience, showing me firsthand how crucial and underserved product management education truly was.”

After graduation, Sergiu joined Amazon as a Product Manager, yet continued nurturing entrepreneurial side projects. These side hustles allowed him to experiment, learn, and clarify what truly mattered to him. In 2022, he founded Jungle Retreats, transformative events aimed at helping professionals align their careers with their passions. Around the same time, his friend João Moita had launched Product Weekend in Portugal.

Their visions naturally aligned, and soon, the two founders merged their initiatives under the Product Weekend brand. Angelescu describes this as a turning point: “What started as a side hustle quickly became my full-time focus. Today, Product Weekend is a platform dedicated to bridging the gap in product education and empowering product professionals.”

Scaling through community and innovation

Since its inception, Product Weekend has rapidly expanded across Europe, organizing 16 impactful events in seven countries in 2024 alone. Beyond conferences, the startup is evolving into a comprehensive hub for product professionals, offering webinars, podcasts, blogs, and an active online community.

Moreover, Product Weekend is tackling the challenge of team effectiveness by promoting psychological safety in workplaces through B2B training programs. To complement these trainings, they’re launching a unique corporate board game aimed at making psychological safety practices fun, easy, and sustainable for businesses.

As the company prepares to launch a global franchise model in 2025—starting with the USA, Canada, and Brazil—it faces challenges in scaling sustainably without compromising quality. Angelescu admits that giving up some control and building genuine user advocacy are their current strategic priorities. “It’s a continuous learning process,” he notes, “but it’s rewarding as we strive to grow while preserving what makes Product Weekend special.”

Angelescu credits much of his entrepreneurial mindset to his experience at the EIT Digital Master School, emphasizing how it reshaped his thinking and gave him the confidence to pursue entrepreneurship much earlier than he had anticipated.

“Before EIT Digital, I believed I needed at least ten years of industry experience to start my own company,” Angelescu says. “But the program changed my perspective. It provided me not just with entrepreneurial foundations but with a network of colleagues who shared a similar mindset. Starting SpotYet during the master's program showed me I could build something meaningful immediately—I didn't need to wait.”

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

Reflecting on his journey, Angelescu encourages others not to delay their entrepreneurial ambitions: “I hear students often say, ‘I want to start a business, but I need more experience.’ I used to think the same. But sometimes, the best opportunities come unexpectedly.”

He continues, “Ask yourself: ‘What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?’ Fear holds people back more than inexperience. You’ll never feel completely ready, and that’s okay. Taking the first step, learning as you go, and adapting along the way might just be the best decision you ever make.”

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