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The company’s vision is to become a major player in Romania business incubator field for entrepreneurs who do not have the knowledge , experience or resources to promote their ideas and to connect investors to good investments.

Rome wasn’t built in a day – but builders were laying bricks every hour. The same is true of software development.The bi...
14/05/2021

Rome wasn’t built in a day – but builders were laying bricks every hour. The same is true of software development.

The biggest and most indispensable apps you use today didn’t start their life as polished, expansive products. They all started as something much simpler, and it took the work of multiple teams over multiple years for them to mature into the slick solutions you now know and love.

But if large-scale apps take years to craft, how can developers ever hope to push out a release? Here, we investigate the benefits of building an MVP, or minimum viable product.

Gates-tinted glasses
It’s often woefully underestimated just how much money and time (let alone luck) it takes to develop and release a successful software product. Developers set out to create the product that will make them the next Bill Gates, only to lose sight of their original product goal, procrastinate away their release dates and waste time on expensive bug fixes.

This is where the minimum viable product (MVP) becomes essential. Think of the MVP as a process rather than a product – a process that allows developers to test, optimise and grow their solutions over time. Rather than aspiring to Gates-level greatness from version 1.0, the MVP makes software development manageable, scalable and hyper-focused.

Defining the MVP
Before we launch into some specific benefits of building an MVP, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of what we’re really referring to. An MVP – contrary to some opinions – is not a wireframe or an early proof of concept. It’s a release that’s fit for customers: but one that’s stripped right back to the core.

Your MVP is your product without extras. It’s comprised of the minimum amount of features it takes for the core functionality of your product to be met. You can think of it as the bread and butter of your software: its only function is to solve the one utmost problem you want your product to solve. If the feature doesn’t directly contribute to simply solving that problem, it doesn’t belong in your MVP.

But why should you start so small? What exactly are the benefits of building an MVP?

1. Your product does what it says on the tin
Beginning with a minimum viable product keeps team focus on the core functions and value of your software. In this regard, the benefits of building an MVP are threefold:

Reduces procrastination and prevents the fear of underbuilding
When your product goal is highlighted and kept clear, any excess features are kept at bay and your developers won’t get side-tracked working on distractions. Plus, knowing that the main goal of the product has been met reduces anxiety about the product being underdeveloped.

Helps avoid feature creep for a better user interface
Building an MVP helps prevent your initial product from becoming cluttered with unwanted and unneeded features. This means that your new customers will get a simple product that does what it says on the tin. They’ll be able to start using the product for its core purpose right away, and won’t abandon the app because it’s too fussy or complicated.

Reduces rework time
All new products find bugs and hiccups along their way to becoming great. While a small, simple product makes bugs easier to find and fix, feature-rich software packed with layers of functionality is much harder to remedy.

2. Faster release
The benefits of building an MVP also extend to the fast-paced marketplace. Because building the MVP prevents feature creep and procrastination, your clean, simple and functional product will get released sooner.

By releasing your MVP so swiftly, you put an early stake in the ground for your solution and its specialty. Even better, you start to build the relationships with customers that will form the base for later success. Your customers can interact with your brand early on and help shape the future development of your software through feedback.

‘Doing extended development of an unreleased software product is building a tower of hope on a foundation of assumptions.’ – Shawn Crowley

The faster release of your software also gives you the opportunity to test the market. You’ll avoid any costly mistakes by ensuring that there’s actually a demand for the solution you are offering. (Microsoft Zune, anybody?)

3. There’s room for evolution
The benefits of building an MVP continue into the later stages of your software development. The prevention of feature stuffing early in the development process creates room for updates and new features that customers ask for. Because the MVP kept the focus on the core function, it’s easier to tell when new features you are adding later are relevant to the value of your product.

Also, because your MVP made the growth of your product gradual, your product can benefit from newer technology as it becomes available. Being able to update your product by integrating new features and technology, while keeping the core functionality in mind, helps you keep your product relevant in a competitive market.

Grow with your customers
The benefits of building an MVP are as simple and fundamental as the product itself. Built properly, an MVP reduces cost while increasing efficiency, customer relationships, and product quality.

Like Rome, you won’t be able to build a worldwide software product in a day. But you can start laying the bricks of your enterprise empire with an MVP. So, remember to start simple. After all, the bells and whistles can always come later.

Before 1989, quite a few countries in Central and Eastern Europe had their own car brands. Today, car manufacturers have...
26/04/2021

Before 1989, quite a few countries in Central and Eastern Europe had their own car brands. Today, car manufacturers have located their production facilities across the region, and only two countries can still boast about their own brands: the Czech Republic’s Škoda and Romania’s Dacia.
Over the last two decades, Romania has attracted foreign manufacturers and has proved to have all the right ingredients required of an automotive hub.
“Many successful stories began here. Renault and Ford, two great global manufacturers chose Romania as a destination for their projects, and approximately 600 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) producing automotive components in Romania, for local producers as well as for export,” Harry L. Laufer, state secretary in the Ministry for the Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship and head of Invest Romania tells Emerging Europe.
According to ACAROM, the association of automotive manufacturers of Romania, 387,000 cars were produced in 2015, showing a positive trend compared to the previous years, while 203,600 people were employed in this sector, in 2016.
Taking it further
Nowadays, many investors are establishing and developing more complex operations in Romania, thus shifting the focus of their employment policies from ‘cheap labour’, towards a highly skilled, diverse and globally competitive workforce. Renault and Ford are the biggest players on the market, but there are more. There is Porsche with its R&D centre for the region, Suzuki, Opel and others.
Opel Romania is the oldest investor in the country, having been active in Romania since 1998. It has grown its presence in the country, and is one of the most popular car brands internally.
“Romanian customers like our philosophy,” explains Cristian Milea, country director at Opel Romania and a board member of the Association of the Automotive Manufacturers and Importers in Romania (APIA). “We make the innovations of premium vehicle classes available to a wider customer base. Democratisation of high-tech technologies and high quality features are very much appreciated by the Opel fans here. In 2014, the market in Romania started to recover from the global economic crisis and we are once again on an ascending trend. We started 2017 with excellent results, increasing our sales in the first four months by 37.8 per cent compared to the same period last year,” he adds.
The signs of recovery are visible in many sectors of the Romanian economy, but every company was hit by the crisis, in 2009. Suzuki, for example, invested in the country right in 2007, just before the economic crisis. But this did not stop the industry which managed to develop a good and efficient dealer network, so that their figures even increased during the crisis.
“Slowly the market has started to recover,” comments Suzuki’s General Manager Alin Radu. “It dropped from 305,000 new cars, sold in 2007, to less than 100,000 in 2016. 2017 is expected to be above 100,000 passenger vehicles, with the near future potential of the market being around 150.000 new cars. In 2016, we had our best year in Romania with a 2.1 per cent market share and a strong year-by-year increase of 63 per cent. My expectation is that we will continue to increase and will set a new record, this year, with 2.5 per cent of market share,” Mr Radu adds.
Generally speaking, a survey released by PwC, showed that 4, 9 million cars were in circulation last year, even if three quarters of the vehicles sold in Romania were second-hand.
New trends arriving
Ford started production in Romania, in 2009, after the company bought the majority of shares from Automobile Craiova, becoming the owner of the facility.
“After nine years in Romania, we are happy to see that the plant is preparing for the start of the production of the new EcoSport, a project where an important transformation has been made and an additional workforce has been hired. Progress is visible, both in terms of technology band in regards to the people, as Ford has one of the most modern production facilities in Europe, and certainly in Romania,” Ford’s general manager, John Oldham, tells Emerging Europe.
“Obviously the market has changed and one of the most important aspects is that customers are deeply concerned about safety features, fuel efficiency and new technologies,” notices Suzuki’s Mr Radu.
Invest Romania’s Mr Laufer confirms this trend. “An important factor that is shaping the automotive, aerospace, chemicals, agriculture and many other sectors in Romania, is the development of the IT sector. Over the last few years, IT has become one of the most dynamic economic drivers, making massive development, both in volume and complexity. These transformations, as well as our consistent efforts to build and strengthen the partnership between universities and the business community, are placing Romanian companies in a position where they can fully benefit from the Industry 4.0 revolution,” he says.
“We all know how much the economic downturn impacted our industry, several years ago, and indeed we saw important changes in our customers’ behaviour,” agrees Ford’s Mr Oldham. “Nowadays customers prefer to have more equipped vehicles, with lots of assistive technology, and in this respect Ford is one of the most innovative manufacturers, especially as Ford makes technology available for everyone.”
Other car manufacturers, including BMW, are also looking at the Romanian market, which is why the government has offered to support BMW to find Romanian IT companies that could be involved in developing software for the German group. Although the process is still ongoing, more than a dozen companies have been selected to participate in the BMW’s newest project in Romania.
so what made some of the world’s leading car manufacturers come to Romania in the first place? The answer is unanimous: a big market potential.
Opel exported cars to Romania, prior to 1998, and Suzuki strongly believes in the great resources of the country. “Despite the fact that Romania is one of the poorest country in the EU, the population is almost 20 million,” says Mr Radu. Many people means more sales. APIA reports that 32,874 cars were sold in the country in 2016, and 2017 already shows interesting figures with 11,121 cars having been sold in just the last five months.

source: https://emerging-europe.com/intelligence/driving-the-romania-automotive-industry/

"*Mentors and mentees have a lot to gain from each other.*1.Mentors are integral to founders' success because they can p...
26/04/2021

"*Mentors and mentees have a lot to gain from each other.*
1.Mentors are integral to founders' success because they can provide different opinions, a helpful community and valuable connections.
2.Mentors have as much to gain from mentorship as their mentees.
3.A strong mentorship network strengthens the global startup community.
4.To lend a helping hand to those looking for mentorship, get personal, give advice at the right time, and place and create connections.
In business, the line between success and failure is often paper-thin. The more you learn from those who've walked both sides of that line, the better your chances are of staying on the right side of it.
Entrepreneurs know this instinctively. A recent survey by global finance, technology, and data firm Kabbage Inc. revealed that 92% of small business owners acknowledge the impact of mentors on their businesses' long-term viability. Yet nearly two-thirds of owners lack any professional guidance when launching their businesses.
It's not difficult to see why there's a disconnect. While many seasoned professionals acknowledge the impact of this gap, those professionals aren't necessarily offering up their time to other growing companies. If more experienced individuals could truly see the benefits and far-reaching effects of mentorship, though, more would be quick to accept – and offer – guidance themselves.
Mentorship molds careers.
I believe there are three primary reasons mentors are integral to founders' success:
Different opinions: If entrepreneurs knew all the answers starting out, a greater number of businesses would succeed. Early on, you have to see your business from other angles, so having more voices in your ear means having more experience at your fingertips. At GAN Accelerators, startups have an average of 167 mentors, giving them access to more knowledge and ideas than they'd ever have found on their own.
A helpful community: From mentor relationships, startups often cement a few invaluable, long-term partnerships. These form a lasting community that will help them long after the startup phase ends. We've even found that many of our accelerator startups ultimately remain in the city where they went through a program. Why? Community has a strong pull, and their community is there.
Valuable connections: Mentors can do more than teach you the ways of business – they can connect you with clients. And there's no better connection than someone who already wants to see you succeed.
This access proves invaluable for any young startup facing the many land mines in their way during those early years of business.
Mentorship gives back.
Mentorship isn't a one-way street, though. In truth, mentors have as much to gain from the relationship as those they teach.
Sometimes, the give-and-take is direct. A mentor might work with a startup and land their next gig. But if landing a job is the mentor's primary motive, returns will be limited in the long run.
Psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant argues this in his book Give and Take. Grant describes three types of people in the world: givers, takers and matchers. Takers might give but only minimally and with the sole objective of getting what they want. Matchers, somewhat similarly, expect to receive in kind for what they give. But givers share their knowledge and connections freely without any expectation of return.
Which of these types do you think is most successful? While it might seem counterintuitive, Grant's data shows that it's the givers. Despite not directly pursuing returns, those who freely give are consistently rewarded with promotions, profits and more. Why? Because all those they've helped want to return the favor.
Mentorship strengthens the startup community.
The advantages of mentorship extend well beyond the immediate mentor-mentee relationship, too. A strong mentorship network makes for a stronger global startup community.
Sharing knowledge is a major part of this. As mentorship increases, more startups will launch with access to knowledge and expertise that the startups of earlier generations lacked. This makes for a better-informed startup community and one that is less likely to make the mistakes of those that came before.
More important than knowledge, though, are the connections that the best mentors help startups make. When mentors make not only their own knowledge accessible to young entrepreneurs, but also the experience of their entire networks, they strengthen connections across the whole startup community. New people are continually brought in from the sidelines and into the mix of supporting startups.
Our community of accelerators provides valuable services to thousands of startups with 9,692 mentors worldwide, and staff at those accelerators, much like me, see this as so vital because of the help we've all received along the way. It's the ultimate measure of mentorship success – those who've been mentored choosing to make mentorship available to others.
Good mentorship is not complicated.
If a thriving global startup community is the goal – and it is – more business leaders must take on the mentorship role. Becoming a good mentor doesn't have to be a burden, though. Here are three simple but powerful ways to lend a helping hand:
1. Get personal.
Anyone can write a blog post about scaling a new company. However, if you instead give specific advice on scaling to a company that puts cameras on the bottom of airplanes and operates in Denver, that takes skill and sets you apart as a helpful partner who is tailoring its expertise to meet the needs of mentees. Good mentors give particular advice to particular startups in particular industries and cities.
To personalize your style of mentorship this way, ask your mentees exploratory questions. What does success look like for them? What do you hope their development will look like? What steps will it take to get there? Be as specific as you can to see fantastic outcomes.
2. Choose the right time and place for advice.
Mentorship is a process, and overwhelming a new CEO with too much advice at once subverts it. It's unreasonable to expect anyone to receive and integrate all of your advice without time to try it out or weigh it with any other advice they're getting, too. Being a good mentor means knowing when the time is right to step back and when it's time to offer guidance.
To avoid over-advising, establish a regular rhythm of communication with your mentee. Set a regular meeting monthly, weekly, or otherwise for in-depth discussion. Outside of that, agree on parameters for what kind of communication works best. For example, be open about what kinds of questions you can tackle over email instead of through a true meeting. This will protect your mentee from too much advice and protect you from taking time to field a barrage of minor questions.
3. Create connections.
Once again, the best mentorship extends beyond mere knowledge sharing. As you grow to understand the company you're mentoring, think about your network. Who do you know that could help this company with its specific needs?
While you might be connecting your mentee with potential customers, there are many other helpful resources your network could provide, like strategic engagements or potential investors who'd be much more likely to take a referral from someone in their network seriously than someone outside of it. Connections compound the value of your mentorship 10 times over.
Mentorship is a long game.
We hear again and again that startups are creating jobs and building the future. But for them to do this, they need more support than just posts on Medium or even great books for guidance. Their success depends on strong, engaged startup communities, and those communities depend on actively involved mentors to make things thrive.
Creating that community doesn't happen overnight. It requires mentors who are playing the long game and not just looking for quick returns. In fact, it means acknowledging that returns aren't even guaranteed. But as more leaders accept the responsibility of mentorship, more startup success is sure to follow.
For the best mentors, that will be reward enough."
source: https://www.business.com/articles/startup-community-mentorship/ #:~:text=Mentorship%20strengthens%20the%20startup%20community.,-The%20advantages%20of&text=As%20mentorship%20increases%2C%20more%20startups,of%20those%20that%20came%20before.

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