21 Sep QUALITANCE CEO Ioan Iacob opens CESA Romania 2018

On September 19, Impact Hub hosted the Romanian event of the 2018 Central European Startup Awards (CESA). CESA, which is part of the Global Startup Awards, brings together the best ideas and best minds in 45 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit and startups ecosystems across 5 regions.

The Romanian national event awarded 12 innovative startups, entrepreneurs and investors for their courage to dream big and shape the future. Before heading for the Grand Finale Day scheduled on October 24th in Poland, the Romanian finalists and their guests had a chance to hear QUALITANCE CEO Ioan Iacob talk about what it takes to build a successful business from scratch and expand it on 3 continents in less than 10 years.

Ioan’s energetic and empathic narrative offered the audience valuable insights he wished he had known back when he started QUALITANCE together with his all-time friend Radu Constantinescu. From the first intuitive growth-hacking strategy and the change of perspective gained in Silicon Valley, to the years invested in building innovation for global brands, Ioan told the QUALITANCE story and gave helpful advice along the way.

Here are 5 of his most inspiring insights on key areas that every startup owner should focus on:

#1 Scalability

No business can survive without scalability. “How will it scale?” is probably the most important question for your business.

#2 Defendability

Any scalable business needs an unfair advantage. It’s what keeps your business afloat and guarded. Your defendability grows from that unfair advantage.

#3 Framework

Iterations are a powerful ally. Every week, if not every day, you need to make your business at least 1% better. A test-and-learn, agile approach generates a natural, solid accumulation of knowledge and experience.

#4 Technology

Technology is no longer an unfair advantage – that was 10 years ago. Today it’s a default condition. If what you’re building does not make use of it, as you scale, your business will slow down, it will get exponentially more expensive and inefficient.

#5 Ownership & accountability

Take ownership and hold yourself accountable, because everything around you is a consequence to how you interact with the environment. You can’t complain if you don’t do anything about it. And if you do complain, you’re only pointing fingers at yourself.

For more inspiration on how to take on the global market, build an innovation culture, handle mistakes and measure success, check out the full video of Ioan’s keynote.