Life is Hard and other things you need to understand about Romanian Startups
We like to see stories of underdogs making it big.
Entrepreneurs building an empire.
Hard work paying off.
These stories empower us. We want to be like that someday.
Seeing someone that made it is fuel for our dreams.
That’s especially true when you consider the communist heritage shared by Eastern European countries.
Imagine your life with no internet, with no computer. — Erik Barna
Someone that went through the same thing is Erik Barna, Founder and CEO at Life Is Hard, a company that helps Insurtech Startups improve their digital performance.
He was born in Petrosani, he got educated there and… he found his passion there while searching for information.
He was eager for information.
In a time when the information was hard to come by.
But that didn’t halt Erik’s dream.
He had a knack for computers.
And he used that to plow out of a hard life.
When I saw it, I was convinced this is my passion. — Erik Barna
People who are self-educated and learn more by themselves, tend to be more successful.
And that’s exactly what happened to Erik.
Moving to Cluj.
He wanted to create computer programs that can help small businesses work efficiently in our digital world.
But the technical knowledge wasn’t enough.
Erik also had a passion for numbers.
When you put those two together, you get a recipe for success.
It’s better to act even if the action is not appropriate, instead of doing nothing. — Erik Barna
All in to entrepreneurship
Erik founded his own company in 2008.
Between 2004–2008 he worked for another company, but in 2008, pressed by his partner, Cătălin Chiș, he decided to take the risk. He was a programmer, team leader, project manager and finally, technical manager. He had the experience he needed to step into and run a company with his partner.
They decided to focus on programs. The first product, a platform for real estate companies, was developed for a French client. Romanian needs were different, they’ve noticed the Romanian companies back then were not so interested in buying licenses. Back in the days, the mentality was different and limited, they didn’t have the nerve to take risks.
They were trying to be in front of the new technological changes. They had a very strong competition on the market, but somehow, they succeeded to be the first.
Why?
They have always anticipated some new things. They were always one step forward.
Then, they came up with another project focused on small and medium businesses. They had products for the health industry, public transport, and their newest product is a platform in the cloud, to help small businesses work more efficiently.
They are a 100% product-oriented company
Was it difficult to grow as a company in Cluj?
Some other companies did grow faster than they did, but Erik is happy with this difference.
I think we grew organically. We have a company culture. — Erik Barna
It is very hard to find product-oriented people. For them, the process of hiring someone takes anywhere from 6 to 8 months. But their turn over is under 1%, which proves that this formula works.
In 2014 a hiring-boom disturbed the organic growth they were used to. In time, this decision was difficult to handle in order to calibrate the needs and their approach regarding product development.
How could they make people trust them?
It’s easy, the team hires you.
Convince people you’re a great employer and you can make due, even after a hiring boom.
Each department represents a product, the company is split into a number of departments. The quality of the team improved through the technique of “watching and caring for each other’s work”.
By this point, you might wonder..
Were there failures?
How did they affect the business?
So far, the recruiting process they externalise was the most unhappy move.
They thought they could save some time.
But no one did the recruiting as well as they did.
Unfortunately, there’s more.
Romania is not the best place to run a company.
What do Romanian entrepreneurs lack when it comes to doing business or building companies?
The most common problem is the constant change of laws. It’s not very friendly.
On top, Romania doesn’t have many initiatives that incentivise the growth of new businesses.
To add insult to injury, Romania’s economy is not the fastest growing in the world.
Simply put, there’s little money being passed around.
Investments are usually a small fraction of what startups would get in the West.
And clients don’t have the buying power to through money at you, even if they absolutely love your product.
Is that enough to make life hard?
Why “Life is Hard” and not “Life is Easy”?
2014 was indeed Erik’s year, by far.
They rebranded, which was a bold initiative.
They took the risk and changed their identity to emulate the reality of their business.
Life really is hard. Especially for Insurtech Startups, which they now provide consulting for.
And that’s what they roll with.
Top three things that made “Life is Hard” survive, and three important motivational aspects that had quite an impact on him:
- ambition
- perseverance
- a little bit of good luck
But was a rebranding and a shift in mindset enough to increase sales and grow their business?
Nope.
Other things mattered a lot too.
They found the right clients, they were customer-centric, and their valuation kept on growing.
Our main focus is to empower the people and to create a self-organizing team and improve the company culture. — Erik Barna
To end this on a positive note, we give you a “top three things” that are useful for a start-up nowadays in Cluj:
- as an entrepreneur you need courage,
- after you decided you are brave, you need capital,
- and, if you want to grow, you might need to call some people to help you shape your vision.
This is a retelling of the Startup Grind fireside chat in Cluj-Napoca with Erik Barna.
Check out the full video interview with Erik, at the link above. You might like it. :)
