  We show that it is possible to construct explicit models of electroweak
symmetry breaking in which the number of techniflavors needed to enter the
conformal phase of the theory is small and weakly dependent on the number of
technicolors. Surprisingly, the minimal model with {\it just} two
(techni)flavors, together with a suitable gauge dynamics, can be made almost
conformal. The theories we consider are generalizations of orientifold type
gauge theories, in which the fermions are in either two index symmetric or
antisymmetric representation of the gauge group, as the underlying dynamics
responsible for the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak symmetry. We first
study their phase diagram, and use the fact that specific sectors of these
theories can be mapped into supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory to strengthen our
results. This correspondence allows us also to have information on part of the
nonperturbative spectrum. We propose and investigate some explicit models while
briefly exploring relevant phenomenological consequences. Our theories not only
can be tested at the next collider experiments but, due to their simple
structure, can also be studied via current lattice simulations.
