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In this episode, meet Peter Cowley - serial entrepreneur and angel investor, board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN) and President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) - as he walks us through the lessons he learned while founding and running 14 businesses in technology, property and publishing, over the last 40+ years, and while building a portfolio of 76 angel investments over the last decade - 11 positive exits (one of which at 107X, paying back all invested cash), 14 failures, 51 still living. Peter explains his investment criteria (The Team and the CAC CLV Ratio, The Product and The Finances) and talks about the importance of trust and chemistry not only between investors, but also between investors and the investees. He also describes what a good relationship between founders looks like and points out the reasons why investors leave. In addition, Peter gives us his honest point of view about the advantages and disadvantages of university spin-outs, the implications of not having enough financial knowledge as an entrepreneur or about his energy and drive resources, that help him push his limits and do so many things in life. “I really enjoy learning. And particularly, I enjoy spending time with people of all sorts of age or younger. The Millennials, I just absorb so much from them”, Peter says. Listen to this episode to learn more about: 🌐 How did he get to his investment criteria and why are they so important for him? (04:45) 🌐 The second criterion - The Product (10:15) 🌐 The third criterion - The Finances (14:00) 🌐 Reasons for failure that he discovered through his portfolio (20:00) 🌐 Why do investors give up founding a team (26:15) 🌐 His favorite company or investment (29:00) 🌐 What makes for him a good relationship between founders? (32:00) 🌐 The main differences between university spin-outs and non-university spin-outs (34:30) 🌐 How does one become better at business? (41:30) 🌐 Peter as a book author (48:30) 🌐 Where does he take the energy and drive to push his limits and do so many things? (57:00) Follow Peter Cowley on his: 🌐 Website - https://www.petercowley.org 🌐 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/plcowley 🌐 Twitter - https://bit.ly/3vNF0kR You are invited to read Peter Cowley’s: 🌐 A letter to my 29 year old self - https://www.petercowley.org/a-letter-to-my-29-year-old-self 🌐 The Invested Investor: The New Rules For Start-ups, Scale-ups and Angel Investing - https://www.investedinvestor.com/book 🌐 Founder to Founder: Tips and Tales From 100 Entrepreneurs and Investors - https://www.investedinvestor.com/founder-to-founder Listen to this podcast episode on your favorite podcasting platform and SUBSCRIBE in order not to miss any new one!

This episode of Techtalk features Jan Smejkal, better known as #YourChinaGuy, who resides in Shenzhen and is the founder of YCG, a boutique cross-border business expansion firm working with a selected group of companies to supercharge their operational and business development capabilities in China. Jan is a venture partner at Black Panther Capital (BPC), founded by established and influential family offices around the world. And he is also Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) at Stacks Accelerator, which is investing in outstanding startup teams building on the Stacks Blockchain. Nevertheless, Jan is the one who scaled Startup Grind (the world's largest startup community) in Asia. In this interview, Jan talks about the beginning of his new life and entrepreneurial journey in China, back in 2018. And also about how he manages to facilitate the next generation's cross-border success in China by going much deeper than the past generations of entrepreneurs and by truly trying to understand the culture, in order to play a long-term game and to build sustainable entrepreneurial bridges. “If you have that comprehensive approach - the next generation approach - that you want to understand the culture, you want to meet a lot of people, you want to build your network locally, not just in your specific area, but you want to go broad,” Jan says. “Those are the things that can save you eventually.” Listen to this episode to find more about Jan’s point of view over the following topics: 🌐 How did he get to China and build his #YourChinaGuy brand? (04:30) 🌐 How does he facilitate the next generation's cross-border success in China? (14:45) 🌐 On the other hand, how does he help the Chinese companies that want to expand especially in Europe? (19:45) 🌐 How does he see the supply chain at the moment? (22:00) 🌐 Can we have high-quality products made in China? (26:00) 🌐 Will the manufacturing balance the supply chain problems and come back to Europe? (32:00) 🌐 What was his experience at Foodpanda, where he was part of the founding team? (37:30) 🌐 How do you get to be on the LinkedIn Power Profiles List? (40:45) 🌐 Where can people find him if they want to learn more about China? (46:00) Connect with Jan Smejkal on his: Website - https://yourchinaguy.co LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourchinaguy Twitter - @yourchinaguy Instagram - @yourchinaguy Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jsmejky Listen to the podcast episode on your favorite podcasting platform and SUBSCRIBE in order not to miss any episode!

Marius Istrate was Chief People Officer at UiPath between 2017-2020, setting up and running the company’s people and talent function during its rapid growth from 100 to 3,000 employees across the globe, and from 4 to more than 50 offices worldwide. Prior to his role at UiPach, he was the CEO of SkillValue, and today he is advising and investing in tech startups that wish to go global, while partnering with venture capital firms to help accelerate their portfolio's growth. This is a conversation to listen from the beginning to the end, because you will discover some great insights not only about the hyper-growth of UiPath, but also from my guest’s experience as an investor, growth adviser, tech business angel and venture partner at 3VC. Marius brings incredible passion and expertise in explaining why it is so important for leaders to be not only culture fit and eager to learn, but also capable of bringing something extra to the table, not just of fitting into the mold of a company. And you will find out why lack of ambition, being risk-averse, not being able to articulate a vision about the future, or not thinking at marketing as a critical function are some of the reasons that can make it difficult, or even impossible for a start-up to scale or expand internationally. Moreover, Marius describes how the UiPath success was considered an inspiration and why it brought a higher level of energy, a positive vibe. However, he points out that the next success story does not have to be a UiPath or a new unicorn, and he recommends us to adjust our lens to what a great company really is in order to see more success stories. Curious to see where the next disruption will happen? Tune in to discover his point of view about this topic and to learn more about: 🌐 Key areas of development he is proud of having build as a Chief People Officer at UiPath (03:30) 🌐 The founding team's influence over the set of values UiPath has today, as a company (07:10) 🌐 The main challenges of recruiting the right new leaders within the UiPath values (09:15) 🌐 The key differentiator for good CEOs and leaders (13:50) 🌐 What made it possible to scale the company, from a HR perspective? (15:10) 🌐 The most common mistakes startups make at the scaling phase and trying to expand internationally? (22:00) 🌐 The Romanian start-up ecosystem after the UiPath success (27:00) 🌐 Is a technology transfer and a public policy framework possible today or in the near future? (34:00) 🌐 Key differences between Romanian and foreign startups, from an angel investor point of view (37:00) 🌐 How the financing landscape changed over the year and the nowadays opportunities (40:00) 🌐 Key areas Marius is looking into as an investor and a partner at 3VC (45:30) 🌐 Where the next disruption is about to happen? (50:00) Follow Marius Istrate on: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marius-istrate-b8ab0566/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/mariusistratex Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/marius.istrate.54 3VC Venture Partners - https://three.vc/news/3vc-venture-partners-introducing-marius-istrate Listen to the podcast episode on your favourite podcasting platform and SUBSCRIBE in order not to miss any new one!

Xenia Muntean is the CEO and Co-Founder of Planable, a content review and marketing collaboration platform used by over 5,000 teams behind brands such as Hyundai, Christian Louboutin, Viber and United Nations. Prior to launching Planable, at 20 y.o., she built a digital marketing agency and led social for clients such as Coca-Cola. Xenia joins Ștefan Koritar in a friendly and honest discussion about content marketing and building Planable, a platform that allows agencies and social media marketers to collaborate with their clients. She offers us deep insights on Planable’s early days in Cluj-Napoca, on the fact that getting customers, building a team and the co-founders relationship were the main challenges encountered prior to the first founding round, on Planable’s main functions and functionalities, and on how saying “No” and risking to lose customers was a major decision in developing Planable as a product. Xenia also gives us a glimpse into the Planable’s future and her life outside of being a tech entrepreneur and a start-up founder. Xenia Muntean has been nominated on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and she spoke on the Innovation Stage at Cannes Lions in 2018. She graduated Tim Draper's startup academy in Silicon Valley and she took Planable through the Techstars London accelerator in 2017. She is also a writer, as she published a book – "The Manifesto on Content Marketing Teams", and the podcast host of "People of Marketing". Having her on the Techtalk podcast was inspiring. That is why this episode is also a call to action to all the Techtalk listeners who are invited to send us names of women that are building great things in business and in the tech community, in order to have them as a guest, because we believe that a greater number of women in business would change the game for the better. Tune in to learn more about: 🌐 The top 3 challenges Xenia had encountered before the first founding round (03:00) 🌐 The early days strategies and practices used to build homogenous relationships with the whole team (05:00) 🌐 The story behind Planable (08:00) 🌐 What is Planable and what Planable does? (12:30) 🌐 The main challenges in developing Planable as a product (14:45) 🌐 When did Xenia and her team know that they had achieved a product-market fit? (18:00) 🌐 Features that Planable is building in the future (24:00) 🌐 No. 1 growth driver for Planable (26:00) 🌐 The AppSumo campaign and how it added value to the overall growth of Planable (29:20) 🌐 Challenges of being a woman founder in the start-up ecosystem (36:40) 🌐 How Xenia disconnects from work and the start-up world (41:30) 🌐 Reasons of being grateful when looking back at her entrepreneur journey so far (46:15) Follow Xenia Muntean on: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/xeniamuntean/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/xeniamuntean Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/xenia.muntean Listen to this podcast episode and SUBSCRIBE! in order not to miss any new one! Planable (https://planable.io/) is a platform that allows agencies and social media marketers to collaborate with their clients. Planable created a tool that speeds up the way social media campaigns are managed and it makes planning, visualizing and approving social media posts easy and fun. The tool works like a live mock-up of the social feed, giving a familiar feel to both clients and social media managers. You can add posts, visualize them and how the social media feed will look, invite teammates and clients to collaborate in real time, receive quick feedback right where the posts are and get the posts approved. With Planable the approval workflow is simple and fast. Planable empowers agencies to manage all their clients and social media pages in one single epicenter. Special Guest: Xenia Muntean.

Bogdan is an entrepreneur with 13 years of experience in tech. 3 years ago he co-founded and became the CEO of Bright Spaces, the end-to-end digital leasing solution for commercial properties. Bright Spaces was one of the 5 startups participating in the 2020 PiLabs accelerator and already has important clients in Romania and the UK. *In this episode you can learn more about: * How does a high-school fashion business look like The role of mentorship and building new entrepreneurial talent in tech The effect of accelerators and competitions in the tech industry Moving real-estate spaces into the digital 3D space How to find your product niche in proptech Doing smart fundraising Listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform: Spotify: https://bit.ly/BogdanSpotify Apple: https://bit.ly/BogdanApple Google: https://bit.ly/BogdanGoogle Special Guest: Bogdan Nicoara.

For the past 10 years, Andrei has been a digital marketer and designer, freelancer, and at last he claimed the role of an entrepreneur. He developed projects and managed teams for clients all over the world and today he is building a startup called BRUNCH. Brunch is a software-as-a-service web app targeting digital experts building and optimizing live websites. In short, it saves you time and money if you are going through the feedback loop nightmare when you’re building a new website or upgrading a live one. Special Guest: Andrei Stoica. Links: Seedblink Crowdfunding CampaignBrunchAndrei on Linkedin

Michael Chaffe is the CEO of Wolves Summit. He spent a decade working up to 250m under the Ocean as a Saturation Diver in the Oil & Gas industry, before entering the European VC industry in 2017. Initially assisting UK-based startups in closing their funding rounds, he went on to acquire Central & Eastern Europe’s flagship innovation conference, Wolves Summit in 2019. Together with a rapidly expanding team, he is leveraging the summit to build valuable bridges between the CEE innovation ecosystem and global partners & investors. Special Guest: Michael Chaffe. Links: Distributed by Romania-Insider.comWolves Summit

David Timis is a keynote speaker focused on the impact that AI will have on the future of work. He has Master’s Degrees in Business Administration and Management and Public Policy, and work experience in the private, public and NGO sectors. He has guest lectured at renowned universities, such as Cambridge University in the UK and the College of Europe, and delivered presentations for a diverse range of clients, including Google, the European Commission, and AIESEC. David has been recognised as an Influential Leader by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List in Romania for his continuous work to promote education and digital skills. If you are interested in the future of work and skills then you shouldn’t skip this conversation: The Effect of Automation Today And In The Future What Skills We Need To Stay Competitive Covid And Its Impact On The Workforce The Role Of Institutions In The Workforce Reskilling And Upskilling Opportunities The Multilateral Effect Of Having A Job Unemployment And Its Impact How The European Market Will Change Enjoy my talk with David!

Max is an entrepreneur turned investor, based in Sofia, Bulgaria. After co-founding and exiting an online legal services company in The Netherlands, Max was on the founding team of Eleven Startup Accelerator in Bulgaria, after which he turned to angel and private investments by co-founding an angel investment syndicate, called Teres Angels and he also pioneered several leading ecosystem initiatives like EIR Tribe, TRACTIONCamp, and SummitSummit. Currently he is a managing partner at Vitosha Venture Partners. He mentors with Seedcamp, LAUNCHub, Happy Farm, and other accelerators, and is passionate about expanding the regional entrepreneurship ecosystem in the CEE. Max started his career at the European Commission and worked in the publishing sector before launching his first venture. Raised in Russia, USA, Latin America, and Netherlands, and currently residing in Bulgaria, Max is fluent in six languages, loves to blog about start-ups, and is frequently found in art and creative circles. Max holds a Masters degree in International and European law from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and also attended Universita di Bologna (Italy) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (United States). Get ready for a conversation full of insights: What Max Gurvits Does The Importance of Accelerators How Max Got Into The World of Investments Why Max Relocated to Bulgaria How Max's Business Operates What Matured The Eastern European Scene Eastern European Startups Relocating To Grow What Makes Investors Put Their Faith in A Startup Innovation And Changes During Covid Enjoy my talk with Max :)

Louis Havriliuc is the founder and owner of Simbound, a digital marketing learning platform. While on the lookout for ethically designed technology, he has pioneered a simulation method for digital marketers to hone their skills. His work is inspiring, and his experience helped him learn the ins and outs of our startup ecosystem. *In this episode, you can hear us talking about: * What Simbound does; How understanding of the digital marketing world changed throughout the years; Why different cultures to business differently; Customer Care in the SaaS industry; Why learning by practice is important; Why Simbound is bootstrapped; How investments affect a company; How CoVid affected Simbound. And a lot more. Make sure you subscribe and drop a review if you liked what you heard today!

Boris is the Founder of presentation agency 356labs and a PowerPoint MVP. He has presented in more than 25 countries and has been rated as the top speaker numerous times. Boris has years of experience as a trainer, mentor and consultant and his team is working with companies like Deutsche Telekom, KPMG, Renault, Societe Generale, Roche, Publicis, Experian, Bosch, VMWARE, Adidas and many, many more to help them write, design and deliver truly effective presentations. His agency is also the only presentation agency in the world speaking at Microsoft Ignite – the biggest yearly event of Microsoft, attended by more than 25.000 people. In this episode you'll hear about: How Boris found the perfect niche; What 356 Lab does; How the presentation scene can be improved; How the first big contract felt; Tips for a succesful presentation, powerpoint, and pitch deck; How to find information for an upcoming presentation, whether it's an investment deck or a simple powerpoint; How to Present; Apple's presentations and why Q&A's are missing from them; The different types of presentations; What happens with the human body on stage; How psychology comes into play in a presentation; The importance of mingling before a presentation; Interesting events from presentations. Enjoy this episode! :)

This is our first episode in Romanian, and our guest is Florin Grozea. Florin calls himself simply an entrepreneur, yet he is the Founder and CEO of MOCAPP an Influencer Marketing Platform, Author of the ”Hit Yourself” book, and over 22 years experience in the media and entertainment industry. MOCAPP is a tech startup that has its own technology and the largest database in Romania and the Republic of Moldova: over 700 influencers. Companies and agencies use MOCAPP to automate processes and cut costs by 45% to 70%. This saves our most important resource: time. Currently, MOCAPP intends to invest 200,000 euros in accelerating business development, investment that will be financed through an active equity crowdfunding campaign starting yesterday, October 27 on SeedBlink. So, we promise we will bring back Florin and do one episode in English too, and discuss more about influencer marketing in Europe and their experience with SeedBlink. Until then, here is what you'll hear about in this episode: Ce este MOCAPP; Pe cine și cum ajută; Valorile MOCAPP; Descentralizarea lumii influencerilor; Piața de Influencer Marketing din România; MOCAPP vs Casting; Ce este un influencer; De ce companiile aleg MOCAPP; Calitate vs Cantitate; Elemente principale pentru un influencer bun; Următorii pași MOCAPP For all my fellow Romanian followers, bucurați-vă de discuție, eu unul sigur am învățat multe despre influencer marketing și nu uitați să dați subscribe pe platformele preferate de podcasting. Enjoy!