Startup Grind Journal: Recent Episodes
Stefan Koritar
Startup Grind Journal is your go-to podcast for business tips and motivation. We publish new episodes every month and we're eager to share insights from industry-leading experts with you.
Startup studios are interchangeably known around the globe as venture studios, venture builders, or company builders. These venture builders are getting a lot of attention these days. If ten years ago, there were fewer than a handful, today, there are more than 500.
Studios are incredibly effective in building early-stage startups. These unique companies go beyond financial capital and the usual 3-month of acceleration to provide founders with full support throughout the lifetime of the venture. So the founders can focus on scaling the business: design, engineering, finance, marketing, HR, IT, and recruiting.
Venture building studios will begin to outpace traditional venture returns as asset classes in the next 5 to 10 years. But the capital needed to get up to speed is high, and they are often overlooked by investors who continue to invest in traditional VC funds.
So, why should investors start considering backing the startup studio model?
Listen to this fireside chat and find out more from out panel of experts.
Change in the business world is happening faster than ever. Key trends are shaping how we work, where we work and the skills we need to work.
As we are looking ahead to 2021, we started to think about how we move from business as usual to future business.
The panel discussion features:
- Mădălina Racovițan, Partner and Head of People Services for KPMG;
- Jamie Qiu, Founder and Managing Partner of Studio Zao;
- Daniel Zinner, Founder HRGlobal & Kiez Digital, HR and Communication Consultant;
- Tomek Milozs, Founder and CEO of GIGLIKE, HR Leader, and Executive Coach.
Enjoy the conversation and let’s explore how innovation can be applied intelligently in a time of crisis to help us recharge the CEE economy leveraging the region’s key advantage - its strong talent pool.
Startup Grind Local features incredible talks with entrepreneurs from Startup Grind’s worldwide network. Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs.
We host monthly events in more than 100 cities and 40 countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators, and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead.
Sergiu Biriș a fost invitatul din Octombrie la Startup Grind. Ne-a povestit despre startup-uri, ecosistemul românesc și cel mai important - cum arată un startup de succes care atrage finanțare de la investitori.
Și-a început parcursul antreprenorial de pe băncile facultății, când a fondat Trilulilu împreună cu niște prieteni.
Trilulilu a devenit primul nume românesc ușor de recunoscut în online, cu cifre de afaceri de milioane de euro și un exit de succes.
După Trilulilu, Sergiu și Andrei Dunca au fondat LiveRail, o platformă de monetizare a conținutului video, platforma care a devenit încet-încet populară. Pentru că a fost un produs calitativ, LiveRail a obținut până la urma un exit către Facebook de câteva sute de milioane de dolari.
După LiveRail, Sergiu și-a început și cariera de investitor. A susținut proiecte cunoscute precum Seedblink și Revolut, eforturi care l-au învățat și cum gândesc investitorii. A continuat cu Zonga, un start-up de streaming de muzică.
Acum, Sergiu se ocupa de Eventmix, o platformă prin care organizatorii de evenimente își pot continua activitatea și în timpul pandemiei.
A învățat foarte multe din tot ce a făcut și își dorește să dea mai departe altor fondatori ceea ce știe azi.
George Roth’s story is fascinating.
He was a part of the first generation that graduated from the Cluj High School for Informatics. In 1980, he graduated from the University Babeș Bolyai in Cluj, the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, and then he moved to the US in 1991, to work as a software architect for a company that was building software solutions for investment companies.
That’s when he had his first breakthrough. He built a financial data “cleaner” (SUMS - Securities Universe Management System), which was implemented in multiple investment companies in the US and Europe.
In 1999 he started Recognos in Cluj, a company that develops software for investment processes. Up until 2018, they were working on a system that extracts data from unformatted documents using AI and NLP.
People started to take notice, so in May 2018 UiPath bought the technology along with a few employees, including George, who started working as a Senior Manager for the successful startup.
George is also very involved in the community, since the 90s. Building, offering support and being the co-founder of Romanian-American Business Network Silicon Valley. This is an organization with hundreds of members, that helps Romanian businesses get in touch with US-based companies.
Eusebiu este pasionat de domeniul antreprenoriatului și aduce lumină asupra nevoii de a trece de la angajat la antreprenor. Este experimentat în coaching financiar, consultanță financiară și e speaker la nenumărate evenimente offline și online.
Este fondatorul Burcash - primul program independent de educaţie financiară din România, a cărui scop e bunăstarea ta, pe termen lung.
Adoră natura pentru că poartă semnătura divinității. Iubește oamenii pentru că își pot reconstrui măreția primită de la Dumnezeu. Și îi place să citească pentru că este ceea ce îl crește.
Ascultând episodul, vei afla:
- cât de mult influențează mindsetul felul în care acționezi;
- primești sfaturi despre managementul banilor și importanța acestuia;
- înveți cum să-ți crești veniturile și să reduci riscul de faliment personal;
- ai șansă să vezi cum să investești și să nu mai pierzi bani;
- observi nuanțe emoționale ce se traduc în comportamente ce te fac să pierzi bani și poate ai să alegi să te oprești din ele; ... dar și multe altele care cu sigurață îți vor prinde bine.
Enjoy!
Special Guest: Eusebiu Burcas.
Our inspiring guest is Ștefan Koritar and our courageous interviewer - Mădălina Vasiu, our Team Coordinator.
Stefan is an entrepreneur, an experienced product development and business management professional with an enormous passion for technology and also Chapter Director at Startup Grind Cluj-Napoca.
He is skilled in building strategies from the ground up, has strong analytical skills, is a true hard-working man always shooting for the moon.
Stefan honestly believes in the yet unreached potential of Eastern Europeans. This is mirrored in his actions, for example the TechTalk - a podcast dedicated to bringing the Eastern European ecosystem together.
He is also working on developing a different way of building, launching and growing companies in Romania.
So we sat down, get something to drink and enjoy this interview.
Imagine this journey:
Born in Bucharest, Romania, relocated to London for 14 years, the last 8 year working in investing…
And last year joining the Silicon Valley Bank as a SVP of Early Stage Investment.
That’s Flavia’s story.
Flavia Richardson is the SVP on Early Stage Investment at the Silicon Valley Bank. She helps early stage startups grow, and that’s especially important in these hard times.
So we sat down with her to pick her brain and get some idea of how to navigate the seemingly horror situation we’re in.
What you'll learn about in this episode:
- How Flavia Got To Where She Is Today
- What Flavia's Driving Force Is
- How To Grow In The Early Stage
- How To Manage Periods Of Economic Downturn
- Analyzing Startups
- The Romanian Ecosystem
Enjoy and don't forget to subscribe!
Experimentată în turism, HoReCa, dar și în mediul ONG, Nina Moldovan, una dintre cele mai de succes femei de afaceri din Cluj vine la Startup Grind Cluj Napoca să împărtășească din cunoștințele și experiența ei în afaceri și în viață.
Te-ai gândit vreodată cum pui pe picioare o afacere?
Cum faci să găsești oamenii potriviți?
Cum ieși în evidență în piață?
Dacă da, n-ai voie să ratezi acest eveniment!
Nina e una din cele mai de succes femei de afaceri din Cluj. Și astea nu sunt doar vorbe.
În 2001 a început să lucreze la o agenție de turism, și a ajuns repede Managing Partner. După o carieră de succes în turism, a devenit și CEO la Liberty Technology Park, primul parc Tech din România.
Azi Nina lucrează din greu să aducă Radisson Blu în Cluj, ca și President of The Board la Winners S.A.
Dar Nina Moldovan n-a lucrat doar pentru ea.
A fost și membru în boardul director la Spherik Accelerator, un proiect pentru care a luat la pas Europa că să vadă ce funcționează în acceleratoare de business și de ce are nevoie Europa de Est ca să prospere.
Totuși, nicio poveste nu e plină doar de reușite.
Dacă vrei peisajul complet, ascultă acest episod.
Despre Ce O Să Afli În Episod:
- Cum A Ajuns Nina Unde E Azi
- Cum Să Avansezi Într-o Companie
- Diferențele Dintre un Manager și un CEO
- Cu Ce Se Confruntă Femeile În Afaceri
- Ce Poate Face România Mai Bine În Turism
- De Ce Are Nevoie Ecosistemul Românesc
Florin Pop is a seasoned business angel.
He’s a member on a lot of boards of directors.
He invested in famous Romanian startups while they were in the early stage.
And he’s a fun guy to be around.
But it’s more than just work and great times.
Florin Pop understands what it takes to build a community. And he works hard to give back what he learned, and that’s why he took some time to share his story with us.
Because he wasn’t always an entrepreneurial veteran.
So let’s dig deeper and find out his story.
What you'll learn about in this episode:
- What Stock Exchange Was Like Back in The '90s and early 2000's
- How Florin Pop Built Such An Impressive Resume
- What being an investor is like
- What's important when you invest in startups
- What Florin thinks about before investing
- Some lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs
Paul Brie is the CEO of Teleport, he's an experienced UX engineer, he's a partner to the Romanian School of IT...
But above all, he's a dreamer.
He buit his company in hopes of a future where holograms are a daily routine and landscapes can be digitally transformed into color palletes and elements with nothing more than a picture and his smart software. He's worked hard to build this dream, starting when he was 17 and discovered the world of programming, and he took a break from building our future to have this fireside chat with us and lend us some of his knowledge.
What you'll learn about:
- Why building products is important
- Why outsourcing can also help
- How Paul Brie got where he is today
- What the Eastern European ecosystem needs to flourish
- A tad bit more marketing insights than we expected
- What Teleport is
Lorand Soares Szasz is a well-known business coach and trainer here in Romania. He has decades of experience with the entire process of building a business, and he shared a lot of that with us.
But it doesn’t end here. Lorand didn’t limit himself to traditional business training - he took it a step further and founded Upriserz, an on-demand business training platform featuring lessons from the top names in everything from sales to finance.
With millions in turnover, he’s not only talking about what you could do, in theory. He’s talking from experience.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
The things you need to know when starting a business
How Lorand went from a bullied highschool student to being featured on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list
The importance of sales
How Lorand dealt with going bankrupt several times (and still managed to stay on top)
Why fear is a nemesis to success
How to overcome personal drawbacks to achieve more
How to sort through your life’s challenges
Special Guest: Lorand Soares Szasz.
Valentin Maior is the CEO of Techmatch, an up and coming lead generation startup focused on providing qualitative software solutions.
But he started from scratch. He was a software developer for a long time, mixed in with some business development practice in a few companies and an unwavering dedication for working with people.
All of his experiences also helped him to found Romanian IT, the first community for romanian developers, which is still active today and counting thousands of members all across the country.
He took a break from his daily tasks to have this fireside chat with us, and we couldn’t have been happier.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Valentin went from a simple developer to a successful business developer
Why mentorship and coaching is important
How to push through the hard times
Why teams matter so so much for an up and coming company
How feedback helps you grow
The importance of community building
How to shift your mindset to focus on what’s important
Sergiu Biris is an entrepreneur with more than 14 years of experience in digital businesses. He is passionate about creating and managing successful organisations and teams, and he’s capable of building successful online products used by millions of people.
His toolset is impressive too. He’s specialised in management, product development, online marketing, business development, branding and web design.
He helped build successful brands like Trilulilu or Zonga and he’s an angel investor always on the lookout for the next opportunity.
In our chat, we found out why he chose Cluj Napoca over Silicon Valley, and we managed to get some valuable insights out of him.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Sergiu Biris got to where he is today
Why the right team is so important
How LiveRail was born and sold to Facebook for half a billion dollars
Why negotiation matters
How the digital world will affect your success… and failure
Why data is important
Why trust is even more important
People growing up with a lot of books around are more likely to grow into a writer. Well, Vladimir Oane, one of the creators of uberVU and Deepstash, ended up being a writer, only a different kind: the one that writes code.
Perhaps more importantly, one that writes his own story.
He’s worn a lot of hats during his career, which involved starting several businesses, a small exit when uberVU was bought by Hootsuite, and a ton of projects of his own.
Through it all, one thing stayed constant: the willingness to break things up just to patch them up again after learning their inner workings.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Vladimir Oane built his career
How he discovered programming
Why it’s important to trust your instincts
Why you need to stay curious
Why you need to think globally from the beginning
How aspiring entrepreneurs should approach business
Philipp Kandal embodies hard work and perseverance. He’s the EU General Manager for Telenav, but he wasn’t always on top of the corporate ladder.
In the past, he was Head of Engineering at Grab, he was the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Telenav, he co-founded Skobbler, he used to work as Product Manager Content at Navigon and he’s also mentoring startups in developing regions.
The mix of tech and navigation changed our life. Just think about how your latest trip would’ve gone without Google Maps.
Philipp Kandal has been in the trenches of this change.
And he shared what he learned along the way.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Philipp Kandal got where he is today
How business theory is applied in the real world
Why he chose Cluj, Romania for hiring software talent
How the navigation industry changed throughout the years
What the aspiring entrepreneur needs to take into account
How the Romanian ecosystem will evolve
Loredana Padurean is resilient and fearless. She’s managed three startups in three different parts of the world, she’s a University professor at one of the biggest MBA programmes in Asia and she has a lot to say about startups, the Romanian scene and women in business.
She’s managed three distinct startups that were successful in one area or another, but each of them came with its own challenges and lessons.
And that’s a given. You start a business, you’re going to fail at something, at some point.
But if you want to do your best to avoid that, make sure you listen to our chat with Loredana: we go deep into what she got wrong, what went right, and how you can learn from her experience.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Loredana Padurean became the person she is today
The importance of knowing your numbers in business
The importance of passion in business
The importance of aligning your values to your business
Whether signing up for an MBA is worth it or not
What the Asia School of Business is
How international business works
Why you need the right mentor
Robert Muresan is a pioneer for Romanian Game Development. He started his career as a freelance programmer in 2001 (yup!) and then he went on to build one of the largest indie game development studios in Romania: exoSyphen.
Robert has built well-received video games, some even making it on the top 10 best sellers list on Steam.
So it’s obvious that Robert had an unwavering passion for lines of code.
To find out how that came to be, we went deep into his past, present and plans for the future.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Robert Muresan went from an IT student to the head of an important indie studio
How freelance work can help you get started
Why the pursuit of knowledge is important
How remote teams work and why they’re important
Why you should breed creativity and interesting projects
What aspiring game developers should take into account
Why you need to think globally
Erik Barna has been around. He’s the Founder and CEO of Life is Hard, a Founding Member for FintechGuardian, and he’s on the board of directors at a lot of companies. He’s experienced, driven and passionate.
Above anything else, Erik believes in the value of digitalization. He sees how the digital medium is constantly changing our entire world, so he’s positioned himself to enable and encourage that change.
We sat down to talk about his journey. You’re listening to that conversation.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Erik got where he is today
How important hard work and belief in yourself are
What Life is Hard does
Why it’s important to be a product-first company
How they shifted to a product-first company
Daniel Tamas is a serial Entrepreneur based in Cluj Napoca. He’s been in the business for over five years and among his most famous projects are the Ideas Studio, Jellycs and Transygamia.
Moreover, he set up Digitap, which is building the first hypercasual mobile esports platform.
Daniel Tamas’ enterprises help develop and market videogames. It’s an emerging medium in Romania, but he’s been passionate about it for a long time.
We had a chat about his life’s work. Since some of us are video game aficionados, so we really liked it.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Daniel Tamas fell in love with video games and technology
How he used that passion to create a fruitful business
How freelance work can help you get started
What the video game industry wants from you
What entrepreneurs need to succeed
Frederic Lasnier is an entrepreneur, VC and relentless globetrotter, passionate about IT and the development of emerging markets.
He founded Pentalog together with four university mates in 1993 in Orléans, France. Since 1997 he has set up 8 branch offices in Europe, 1 in Asia and 2 in North America, enabling Pentalog to become a leading IT engineering service provider with global reach and high growth performance.
In 2010, he founded Pentalabbs (start-up accelerator and VC) and has been a VC partner for several French and US startups.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
How Frederic Lasnier grew up
How Frederic Lasnier built a successful company
Why Pentalog chose Romania for a few of their branches
How the tech market evolved throughout the years
How you value your company the right way
How Pentalabbs was born
What ecosystems need to grow
How engaging your customers works
Wouter Reijers studied Economics and Consumer science at Wageningen University in The Netherlands. He has vast experience in restructuring companies so they can become successful and profitable after something went wrong.
Here’s for a quick snippet of wisdom before you listen to our show:
According to Wouter, one of the key factors for a successful restructuring is a strong and good communication.
Wouter visited Romania for the first time in 1991. In 2010 Her Majesty, the Queen of The Netherlands, appointed him as Honorary Consul for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
And he shared his wisdom with us.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Wouter Reijers got where he is today
The importance of networking
Why believing in yourself matters so much
The differences between specific startup ecosystems
What up and coming entrepreneurs need to succeed
The beginning of something can sometimes be so overwhelming that you lose track of time. At least, that’s how Lukas Eder, the creator of Datageekery puts it. He was 10 years old when he had just discovered programming on his dad’s computer.
And it consumed him.
He went in deep, learning the ins and outs of programming languages and getting better every day. In the end, he was able to turn this hobby into a fruitful business, and that’s how his entrepreneurial journey began.
But it wasn’t all geeky programming for Lukas. He participated in an exchange program, he enrolled in the army for a year and all of his experiences molded him into the businessman you’ll hear talking on this episode of the Startup Grind Journal.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Lukas went from a mesmerized child to a successful entrepreneur
How his experience in the US blew his mind
What a year in the army taught him
Why focusing on solving problems is the way to go
The pros and cons of open source software
What you need to know when you get into tech
iQuest is a big name in the Central European tech market, and that’s not by chance. Cornelius Brody has spent a lot of time coaching big corporations on the ins and outs of good business, and he saw that we spend way too much time bogged down with company politics.
His quest was to change that, and that’s how iQuest was born.
But this episode is not just a retelling of Brody’s story. Yeah, we took a deep dive into that as well, but we also talked about the Romanian ecosystem, what startups need to succeed and how to actualize your business for a digital world.
If you’re one for efficiency and growth, you can’t miss this fireside chat.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Cornelius Brody runs iQuest
How Brody managed to get where he is today
Why company politics are holding you back
What the Romanian ecosystem needs to thrive
What managers need to check off their list if they want to build something valuable
What the future of the tech market has in store for us
Ellie Cachette doesn’t back down in the face of adversity. She takes it in stride and makes the best out of every situation, and it shows.
She is the founder of Cachette Capital Management, a global trust fund focused on early-stage venture capital investing, which sometimes also dabbles in software development and mobile products.
But she wasn’t born managing a trust fund. She worked all around the SaaS industry, and she’s got hands-on experience both as a Technical Manager and a Marketing Manager.
She knows how the startup ecosystem works. And she was kind enough to sit down for a fireside chat and share her wisdom.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
The Quest of Ellie Cachette and how she got where she is today
The Entrepreneur Spirit and how to harness it
How the Romanian ecosystem works
How Investors think before they invest in your startup
How you need to adapt your expectations
The right mindset to succeed
The 21st century is quickly reinventing everything we know about life, business, money and technology. The rise of AI and blockchain technology have revolutionized every imaginable industry, and we’re only witnessing the beginning of this trend.
Mukul Pal is well aware of that. He’s the founder and CEO of Alphablock, a company that focuses on reconfiguring individual blocks from the blockchain into an intelligent market mechanism.
Oh yeah, we’re going deep on this one.
But we didn’t just talk about complicated financial technologies and the way they can change our world. Mukul Pal spoke at length about his journey and plans for the future.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Mukul went from studying the hard sciences to founding Alphablock
How restructuring and hard times affect your business
Why you need to build smarter systems
What the Orpheus risk management indice is, and how it helps
The importance of big data, the inner workings of big data, and how to predict changes based on big data
What the Romanian ecosystem can expect from the future
What Mukul wishes his 20-year old self could’ve been told
Fortech is a big name in the Romanian tech market. They build reliable software and IT solutions that help companies all across the globe, and he’s been on this path since 2003.
It wasn’t always easy, and Calin will share some thoughts on the hard times too. But he takes it a step further and, in our episode, touches on a lot of important aspects for the average (and successful) european entrepreneur.
Fortech didn’t peak yet. They’re constantly evolving, and with Calin holding the reins there’s no indication that the growth will stop. If it was, he’d put some of the wisdom he shared with us to good use.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Calin Vaduva founded Fortech, and his journey up to that point
Why you should always be on the lookout for opportunities to change
Why execution matters way more than ideas
How you’ll need to put up a fight for every customer
Why you should always think global
What the Romanian software market looks like
Bogdan Herea is a veteran businessman in the Romanian scene. He’s the CEO and Founder of Pitech +, a tech company empowering change through the latest technologies available, he’s on the Advisory Board of the ImpactIA Foundation, and he has a lot of experience developing ecommerce platforms for big names like Jaguar, Land Rover or Subaru.
But Bogdan is not content with building a brand for himself. In our episode, you’ll also find out a lot about Academy +, Bogdan’s project to prepare Romanian’s youth for an ever more competitive digital workforce.
If we’re to take his word for it: it all boils down to hard work and making the right decisions at the right time.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Bogdan Herea built his successful business
What skills employers are on the lookout for
How timing plays a big role in your projects
Why it’s important to give back to the community
The right mindset for success
Future prospects for the tech market
Asia Lindsay is a global citizen for real. She was born in Hong Kong, in a multicultural family, and she has lived in over 6 countries throughout her life so far. This made her aware of the human aspect of business, and it shows in her career path.
She was focused on community engagement, languages and forging intercultural connections, which made her dive deeper into the importance of the people surrounding you. After holding numerous positions in the events organizing department of various companies, she started the TED Coding Club, which made her focus on the tech industry more.
Asia’s story is a story about how to hire and how to manage a stellar remote team (yes, even if you’re organizing events). Definitely listen to this episode if you’re struggling to stay on top while managing a remote team.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How Asia Lindsay got to where she is now
The importance of community engagement
How languages help boost international collaboration
Why forging intercultural connections is important
The struggles and benefits of remote teams
As much as you can take in about the events organizing world