Browsing the web looking for fresh new startups in Romania doesn’t end with a satisfactory result.
From an investor’s point of view, there is no way you can find an opportunity for investment in an easy manner. Also, even if you may discover an article or two presenting a startup on a website, getting in touch with company owners can be complicated if they do not provide contact details.
On the other hand, from an entrepreneurial point of view, presenting a new business can be a tough thing at first, when financial resources are limited and you can’t afford marketing campaigns. With no public display of your idea, you will never get an investment to get you on track.
Naturally, a way to solve the above problem is to bring both investors and entrepreneurs together in the same place. The solution translates into a platform that both sides will have access to, tailored to the needs of each.
Therefore, an entrepreneur is encouraged to present his idea of business, along with essential details on the financial status of his startup. He can present the financial developments over a recent period of time, if he makes profit or just covers his expenses, and also if he needs other kind of resources, not necessarily money.
The more companies are registered, the higher the offer will be for investors, increasing the chances of investing in a startup that suits their desires. Moreover, all the investors can leave feedback to any company or help with various tips, which is an opportunity for companies to evolve in the right direction.
Before we start having conversations with potential customers, we will define the idea of the problem we believe we are solving with our product. Then, we try to find our customer segment, the people that are directly affected by the problem. Once we have a basic outline of the problem and our solution, we’re ready to test our hypothesis. With all the feedback that we gather from potential customers, we will figure out if our original hypothesis about the problem and our solution were correct.
The problem that we have discovered affects directly people who work or are interested in the IT industry, therefore we chose our customer segment based on this observation. Since all the members of our team are working in this field, each of us asked our colleagues from the faculty or workplace to help us with some feedback. To get an entrepreneurial perspective, we asked for help from our SE colleagues, since all of them have to build a startup this semester :). Looking for investors was a tougher job to do, but we will continue working on that aspect.
We have created an online form that we shared with people through emails, social media and group chats. The questions that we asked were the following:
For the first question, 51.9% of the interviewed believe that the visibility of a startup on the market is very important, the other answers being found in the range from 6 to 9.
We found out that, in Romania, it’s not so easy for a startup to show its product or idea to an investor. Most people voted 4 or 6 on the scale, and no one chose 9 or 10.
Opinions were divided on the third question and all of the suggested answers have been voted to a certain extent.
We wanted to see what people think about the problems that all the startups are facing. Among the answers we found: lack of visibility on the market, dependence on a single client, insufficient funds, the need to reinvent or improve the product and services to keep it relevant on the market, scalability, transition from a small business mentality to one that involves standardization, creating efficient processes, team conflicts, lack of experience, lack of a long-term financing plan.
All the feedback gathered has validated our initial business idea. We will keep in mind the details about the startup that have been voted and we will try to turn all of them into features on our platform.
We are ready to take the next step and move to the Customer Validation stage. Considering all the feedback we have received, we are certain that our product has a place in the market and will be targeted by clients.