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37 Businesses, Zero Days as CEO: The Remarkable Story of Radu Georgescu
The Recursive Podcast - Ep. 75
Today The Recursive podcast is live from Bucharest, meeting one of the most prominent founders and investors on the Romanian tech scene.
Radu Georgescu is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the tech industry.
He has successfully exited several companies, including the acquisition of RAV antivirus technology by Microsoft, the ePayment business by Naspers, Avantgate by Francisco Partners, and VectorWatch by Fitbit.
Radu is currently the founder of Gecad Ventures, a family office that invests in high-growth potential companies.
He is also a Board Director and adviser to numerous technology companies, including the equity management and financing platform for tech startups SeedBlink.
In this conversation with Irina, we get a sneak peek into the mind of a strategic thinker, a prolific entrepreneur, and a passionate investor.
Radu shares his learning experiences gained from founding 37 companies, both successful and failed, and his revelation that the operational roles are not well suited for him.
Radu Georgescu explains that he has always been focused on identifying market niches and the problems that need to be solved. By not being involved in execution, he managed to maintain a broader perspective and use his network to gather information and deliver it to the team that is better equipped to create and build the product.
In the episode, he also talks about:
- Why pivoting is one of the most important tools in a founder’s bag; (“Just pivot and figure out where the market goes as you roll.")
- The Danger in Treating Your Business as Your Baby;
- What really makes a company stand out;
Time Stamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:40 How Radu Got His First Taste of Entrepreneurship
5:58 Do You Get Born With the Entrepreneurial Mindset?
8:46 What Was It Like to Start a Company in the Early 90s
12:45 Failure Lessons: The Importance of Understanding the Market, Predicting Future Trends, and Adapting
16:15 Why Pivoting is One of The Most Important Tools of a Founder
21:07 How Does Radu Stay Informed in a World of Abundant Content
26:07 The Secret Behind Co-Founding 37 Companies: The Excitement of Early Stages of Creation
31:35 The Very Good Strategist Vs. The Very Bad CEO
35:42 “The Business Is Not Your Baby”. The Different CEO Personas Needed For Different Stages of the Company
42:33 Is Ego Important in Entrepreneurship?
44:02 Never Have I Ever… Been In an Operational Role
46:32 Flawless Execution is What Makes a Company Stand Out
49:44 The Longterm Vision Behind SeedBlink
55:18 The Fulfillment Behind Making a Meaningful Impact on the World
1:02:10 Outro
PublishedJune 15, 2023
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Tudor Goicea
Co-founder of Aqurate
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As a startup founder, I am happy to witness SeedBlink’s dedication to expanding their support for early-stage companies beyond funding, towards a healthy equity management via Nimity. A solution to help better navigate relations with stakeholders, employees and future investors is needed in Europe. Less admin work and bringing transparency to the cap table are immediate benefits I was able to test.
Delia Iliasa
Managing Partner
SanoPass
SeedBlink is a transparent solution that connects entrepreneurs with great business plans, with investors, at different stages in their development. It is a great tool for us, a democratization of access to funding, I would say.
Ioan Iacob
Founder
FLOWX.AI
We really loved the SeedBlink journey. We reached our fundraising goal within hours of launching. About 100 investors joined our vision and invested almost $2 million in FLOWX.AI through the Private Deal Room. At the same time, working with SeedBlink to prepare for the funding round was an excellent exercise for our entire team, and we received and felt the support from the SeedBlink team members who took on an advisory role.
Dan Vidrașcu
CEO
VOXA
SeedBlink made the (investment) process run smoothly. We appreciate all the support SeedBlink's professional team has provided.
Tinu Bosinceanu
Founder and CEO
Upgrade Education
It's important to look for and choose a platform that you resonate with, that shares your mission with, a platform & its people with which you feel you can have good working relationships. we got an excellent relationship going forward; we talked a lot and we were in touch on a lot of matters and I think this was important. Having people who believe in your idea is of great help.
Kimmo Rytkönen
Founder and CEO
Income
Running the financing round was like any other fundraising; we had to be active in our community as well as in SeedBlink's investor community. After the launch, everything happened very quickly, and SeedBlink organized several pitch events for investors, which we found very useful for the round momentum.
Svilen Rangelov
Founder and CEO
Dronamics
We immediately clicked with the SeedBlink team as their fundraising expertise was immediately obvious and their no-nonsense approach really appealed to us. After all, fundraising is only a means to an end, and we liked how the SeedBlink team was really focusing on supporting us and on getting things done.
Mihai Darzan
Founder
Procesio
Our main expectation has been to raise the amount we were aiming for, and both rounds launched on Seedblink exceeded our targets, so we’re very happy with that! Even though the launched funding campaigns have been purely crowdfunding rounds, we are thrilled to actually receive extra support from some of the investors, who have chosen to get involved and help us generate product awareness, whenever they can.
Catalin Mester
Founder
Voxa
I am recommending SeedBlink without hesitation, to every founder that raises capital, especially early-stage tech startups. SeedBlink is a crowd investment platform that will also provide their startup with visibility, for Angels and VCs.
Dragoș Iliescu
Founder and CEO
Brio
In the early stages, we have been funded by several early (angel) investors, and one and a half year ago through an equity crowdfunding campaign on SeedBlink. Of course, this impacted our growth in many positive ways, partly due to the cash influx that, evidently, was sorely needed, but in a larger part due to the fact that our responsibility towards our shareholders has become more stringent and explicit, becoming embodied in our market approach.
Costin Tudor
Co-founder and CEO
Undelucram
Given the accelerated growth we observed at the end of last year and the beginning of 2021, we want a new capitalization, quickly. This is a bridge round that we will use for one year, and the advantages that SeedBlink offers are the speed at which we were able to list for financing and the experience that we gain as a result of this public listing, similar to a listing on the stock exchange.
Diwaker Singh
Co-Founder & CEO
Crikle
As a platform that only serves technology ventures, SeedBlink can connect the start-up with more than just money. SeedBlink investors are primarily technocrats who understand the objectives of the fundraising company and are also able to post-funding contribute with business opportunities. The minimum investment threshold, and technology focus, differentiates SeedBlink from other fundraising platforms. A perfect fit for a technology start-up seeking intelligent funding.
Florin Stoian
Co-Founder & CEO
Milluu
SeedBlink boosted our brand exposure and facilitated the financial support we were seeking. Having a campaign on the platform allowed us not only to meet a team of professionals - that guided and helped us prepare the necessary materials - but also opened doors for increasing our brand awareness and have discussions with VCs & angel investors we have never reached before. This campaign gave us the encouragement we needed to push the product further, while the record-breaking fundraising (only 2 hours from the launch of the campaign!) was a great confirmation that our product is needed in this market and that we should continue innovating.
Raluca Jianu
CEO & Co-founder
Epic Visits
SeedBlink has created a vital ecosystem for startups at the beginning of their journey by equipping entrepreneurs with expertise, encouraging honest and sometimes uncomfortable but necessary discussions about risks and vulnerabilities through a suite of tools, and facilitating connections with investors who share the founders' vision and can contribute to their success. I have greatly appreciated the constant support of Eric and the entire team at all stages of the campaign. Thank you so much!
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