„We’re good enough, why don’t we just put our minds together and…”
And then, there are a million of possibilities to continue the sentence, and also a very good chance for you to rock with whatever you choose. How comes?
Well, because starting a sentence like this denotes a lot of things, like awareness, commitment and, of course, confidence!
Otherwise, how would you believe that you’re ready to put in the work in order to make it?
But the most important thing is that it begins with „We’re” instead of an „I’m”. That means that you’re humble enough to realize that you can’t succeed alone. That you need people with the same values around you, the ones that believe in your work. Comrades ready to fight for the same purpose. Eventually, that’s what comrades do, and please correct me if I’m wrong.
The man I’m going to talk about fits very well what you just read. He had a dream and in order to make it happen, he started with that winning sentence.
His name is Sergiu Biris and he is a successful entrepreneur that chose Cluj-Napoca over Silicon Valley. He thinks that Cluj is a place full of opportunities and you will go global for sure if you have a good idea and a plan to make it happen.
Sergiu fell in love with computers at a very early age. He was studying informatics in high school when the internet came up and he became very keen about learning how to build websites.
He started small, building his own website on a free domain, and then the websites of different companies from his town. He got his first clients when he was in college. That’s when he decided for the first time that he needs a team. Seven people that were passionate about computers, ready to deliver websites for clients all over the world.
After a while, he realized that he got tired. Not about building web sites, but about clients. He wanted to do something for himself.
Alongside with his friend and business partner, Andrei Dunca, he started a brainstorm session. Looking at how well YouTube was going, they decided to do something similar, focused on the romanian market.
This is how Trilulilu started. A video-sharing platform where you can also find images or audio. Because they didn’t have marketing or management skills, they thought about asking some friends for help, giving them shares instead of money for their work.
An idea worth half a million dollars
In the same year when Sergiu and Andrei founded Trilulilu, a client named Mark Trefgarne came to them with an idea. He explained what he wanted, so the guys started to work on that project. But they reached a point where they realized that Mark won’t have enough money to pay their work. That was the moment where they were really inspired to ask shares in the business in order to continue developing the product.
Mark agreed.
„We worked on a product for free, just believing in it.”
That product was called LiveRail and it was a video supply-side platform. It helped publishers to sell their ad space to the highest bidder and provided analytics to help optimize the ads’ performance.
It started off as a technology that put banners under videos. A quite simple idea, comparing to what it became.
„How do we put ads inside the videos?” was the big question for our guys. But because it wasn’t possible yet, they decided to put ads under the videos.
In July 2014, after seven years since LiveRail started, the company was acquired by Facebook for about half a billion dollars.
It was the most spectacular sale of a startup in Romania, not only a successful exit for the founders.
The only romanian digital music library
Well, the kind of music library that puts over 36 million of songs in your pocket, to be more specific. A premium product launched in 2011, called Zonga.
Sergiu describes it as „a spin-off from Trilulilu”, because this idea came when they observed how much traffic Trilulilu generated on the audio part. The only way they could monetize that traffic was through ads, so they thought about a way to monetize through subscriptions.
This thing became very challenging for them. In order to deliver this premium product, they realized that they need a few things:
- a market (they didn’t know if it existed or not)
- deals with the music labels (in order to obtain the rights)
- the distribution platform (where the magic happens)
Besides those things, they also thought of having a telecom partner. It was a very important step of their strategy. But why a telecom partner?
Well, the idea was to bundle the product with the partner’s offerings. In this way they could boost its popularity and raise awareness about Zonga’s existence.
But hold on, because here it comes the best part.
They managed to negotiate with the labels and they even found a partner… without having the product done and ready for release!
And how can you sell a product without having the product? You sell its story.
They had two stories on which they relied.
The one for the music labels, presented the fact that they’re the biggest entertainment website in Romania and they want to build the product, so they need the rights.
The second one, for the telecom partner, simply said the fact that they are working on the product, they will be live soon and they proposed the telecom company to be the exclusive partner for Zonga.
„You can be successful faster now, but you can also fail faster.”
We asked Sergiu how easy it is now to start a company compared to the time when they started and this is what we got.
In terms of bureaucracy, he thinks, it may be a lot easier now, but it’s harder to focus on each and every platform. Back in the days when they started, they were focused a hundred percent on the website. Now you have to deliver an excellent mobile experience, then see what you can do about the app, then manage the right channels and so on…
It may be more complicated now, but the truth is that there are a lot more resources. Just think about the accelerators, the start-up programs. The mentors ready to share their knowledge in different aspects. The conferences waiting for enthusiasts to take part and grow.
„It doesn’t matter if you’re the first one that launched, it matters if you’re the first one that’s relevant.”
Because Trilulilu was a premiere for the local market when it launched, and later on Zonga was too, we asked Sergiu about the importance of being the first in a market.
He doesn’t believe that this is a very important aspect and he puts a very big accent on the relevancy. The consumers don’t care too much about a product which was the first in the market, as long as that product is not the first that satisfied their need. Whatever that need was.
But speaking about being at the top, not necessarily the first that launched, Sergiu believes that it’s important to be the one that owns the market in terms of customers or revenue, for example.
When you can’t rely on data, you have to rely on trust.
Of course that you need to gather as much information as possible for the decision you’re about to take. But things don’t always go like that.
Sometimes data is not enough. And you’re aware of the fact that it’s better to be a little wrong, than to be late.
That’s the point when you have to listen to your gut feeling. You have to go with your intuition and it’s also a good thing to see the things from another point of view.
Sergiu remembers there were a lot of times when he had an issue, but not a single answer for that. He chose to ask his wife for an advice or he talked with his friends. Of course, they were people he could trust, but they also worked in a total different area.
It may sound crazy to you. Especially if you’re a skeptical person. But you’ll be surprised how someone that has nothing to do with your business, nor with something related to that can come with the solution you were looking for. A great hint that will influence the future of your product, even of your company.
In the end, being a leader means to assume risks, to take decisions, to know your market, your consumers, and the list can continue… but first of all, being a leader means to know how to listen to your people. And when we speak about people, we speak about trust.
*This is a story with key takeaways from the Startup Grind fireside chat in Cluj-Napoca with Sergiu Biris.
