Bogdan Herea — Hard Work and Smart Decisions
Bogdan Herea is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, running an IT services company in Cluj and a startup academy that teaches people how to think outside the box.
Photo credits Startup Grind Cluj-Napoca
He was raised in Bucharest, studied computer engineering with an international scholarship at INSA Lyon and relocated to Cluj after hard market research.
Bogdan is a geek at heart, that’s why he was able to study abroad in a time when Romania was isolated from the west. He believes in hard work and taking informed decisions and he’s got more than a few things to say about the IT industry in Romania.
Early Days
Growing up, Bogdan’s parents were teaching at the Technical University in Bucharest. Because of that, he was exposed to computers from a young age and developed a passion for everything technical.
He was a geek, which didn’t make him come across as “cool” but it got him on the right path. Growing up, he was playing a lot of video games and he had a lot of geeky friends like him, which further got him attached to the medium.
But it wasn’t all fun and games.
Although he didn’t get into programming from a younger age, he was really passionate about the hard sciences. When he was 15 he started tutoring his colleagues in math, which is also when he learned what hard work means.
Later down the line that would help him. Starting from his second university year, he had to work to support himself through university.
It wasn’t an easy path.
Nor was it a beaten path for the Romania of the 1990s.
But it paid off.
Days in France
Bogdan Herea left Romania right after finishing highschool, in 1993.
He went to study computer engineering in Lyon on an international scholarship. Besides the hard work required to graduate from INSA, Bogdan also started working to support himself in the second year.
After graduation, Bogdan worked as a computer engineer for a few companies in France and quickly climbed the corporate ladder.
Photo credits to Anthony Delanoix
France is also where he met his first mentor, which helped him make smart decisions in the future.
Perhaps most importantly, France is where he realized the potential of Cluj.
In the early 2000s, Eastern Europe was of big interest to western IT companies. The workforce was cheaper, but skilled. After researching the market in each region, he determined that Cluj showed the most potential.
His then employers didn’t end up investing in Transylvania, but that wasn’t a problem.
He kept the research in mind and relocated to Cluj with the first opportunity.
Coming Back Home
Three years after his initial research, Bogdan left France and came back home to start his own IT service company.
According to him, that was the plan all along. He always had dreams of coming back home, but he was only able to do it in 2004.
In Romania, Bogdan’s two biggest projects were (and still are) Academy +Plus and Pitech +Plus.
Academy +Plus
According to Bogdan, one of the most important things in the startup medium is to find people and ideas that challenge the norm.
Skills are important, and you can’t do without them, but in his own words: “It’s also about thinking outside the box.”
That’s why Academy +Plus trains their students to break the norm and innovate. The programme teaches young people how to respond to the unknown.
It goes beyond theory.
Bogdan’s plan is to get companies to present real-life problems to students, that are then to find solutions to the issue.
The next step is to actually push students to start their own companies.
The whole process is about passion, teamwork and thinking outside the box. This is what Academy +Plus teaches, but it’s also what they’re looking for.
“The other skills are complementary, but these are important.”
It’s not just wishful thinking either, the formula works.
In the first year, the Academy started with a class of 16 people and now they’re training over 100 students, including 37 highschoolers.
Sounds like a fun industry?
Then be aware of the difficulties.
Bogdan says the biggest challenge is to convince people that “we are doing this for real”. You need to market yourself in a way that proves:
- That the process works;
- That this will actually get people hired;
- That you’re going to be here for the long-term;
Pitech +Plus
Pitech +Plus is a consulting group focused on providing software solutions and business know-how.
While Academy +Plus only wants to solve parts of the problem in the startup medium, Pitech is aiming for a multilateral approach.
They want to empower romanian businesses (and businesses all around the world, since this is a multinational consulting group) to solve the complex issues they face.
What do they develop for that?
Solutions to modern problems.For example, in most romanian town centers, there is one parking spot for every six cars. The intuitive solution — make more parking spots.But it’s not that easy, especially when you need to consider preserving historical sites. So what’s the answer to the riddle?
Private parking.
Pitech is working on tackling this issue (among many other things) by making private parking available through an app.
It sounds easy in theory, but it’s a lot harder to put into practice.
At the moment, the company is discussing with municipalities and other startups to get all the paperwork and network in order. This is the type of solutions they’re developing. If you want to do something similar, consider the investment type.
Bogdan thinks the biggest challenge for similar projects is working with european funds. They’re extremely hard to manage because of all the bureaucracy and reporting involved. It’s much easier to secure funds from an investor or business angel.
Tap Into The Wisdom
That’s Bogdan Herea’s story. Or at least part of it. What else can you learn from him?
“Do you have to be a jack of all trades as a CEO?”
Bogdan doesn’t think you need to have everything, but you do need to know everything about your niche.
He learned the technical and business facets while working for other people. Only after achieving a strong understanding of the medium did he start his own company. That was in his 30s.
Regardless, he doesn’t think you shouldn’t start a company if you’re in your 20s. It’s just that you need to make sure you understand your niche before jumping on a business idea.
On top, the learning part doesn’t stop when you sign your first contract. Being a CEO means learning everything else along the way.
A mentor helps with this too. It’s just that you need to know when a mentorship is necessary (i.e. while you’re still bootstrapping) and you also need to be aware of when it’s starting to take a toll on your time rather than helping.
Speaking of which, what are the important skills for leaders and managers?
Photo credits to Markus Spiske
Bogdan is good at helping people achieve their objectives. This is how he sees management, it’s important to notice the potential in people and help them grow.
When you set-up a Academy +Plus and manage a consulting group, you have a talent pool to work with and you can achieve that easier.
When it comes to your mindset, Bogdan thinks both long-term and short-term thinking are important.
You need a sustainable strategy to flourish.
But you also need to seize the opportunity to be competitive.
Bogdan trusted his gut a lot of times, and it worked out. However, always do your research. Your gut may be wrong sometimes, or there may be hidden risks that you couldn’t asses without the proper analysis. You should do research (at least a little bit).
Sometimes you need to make fast decisions and there’s no time to do proper research. Even then, gather as much information as you can, don’t go into a meeting uneducated and trust your gut.
This works the other way around too. Doubts are healthy and you should listen to them.
The Startup World
A lot of people say you shouldn’t blabber too much. Plan a bit and execute.
Bogdan says he did that, and it works (somewhat). He invested in things that failed, and he is still to get a return on some investments.
Because of the unexpectedness of this approach, their default now is to have more control over the projects they’re launching.
Do some planning, create an MVP and see what sticks. The approach is having a minimal investment and see if the project flourishes in that scenario.
It’s important to place eggs in more baskets, even if an idea is good. Sometimes it may not be the right time.
For example, at one point in the past Bogdan wanted to launch a taxi app, but the after calculating the cost they realized it wouldn’t be feasible. Taxi drivers weren’t connected enough.
Two years later, smartphones were widely available, so the idea worked.
It’s important to play with numbers and see if your idea is born at the right moment.
The same principle applies for his most important advice to newcomers in the medium: learn as much as you can about a medium and only start your thing after a comprehensive understanding of what you’re selling.
Another thing newcomers need to keep in mind, especially if they’re thinking about starting a BPO company is that clients aren’t hard to come by.
If your product is good, contracts can be signed.
What’s truly important is networking, both in Romania and outside the country.
Not for clients, but for resources. Finding the right employees is the biggest challenge for new startups, so do your best to identify talent.
Lastly, find a differentiating factor. Don’t do the same thing everyone is doing in your niche. Formulate a unique selling proposition and stick with it.
“What about the local startup ecosystem? What does it need to thrive?”
Bogdan considers it should have “more humans, more money”.
We’ve got talent, but it isn’t enough.
More importantly however, Cluj needs local funds. There are a few, because the market is starting to look interesting, but it’s not enough.
For example, if you were trying to raise a CVA, you’d need to go all around the place to get the cash flowing. It would be considerably harder than if you were living in Bucharest, let alone San Francisco.
If you’re thinking about the future of the market, Bogdan seems to have given it some thought.
According to him, the disruptions that will change all markets in the future are:
- Clean energy (or so he hopes)
- Artificial Intelligence — a lot of what we’re doing today will be taken care of machines
