SoftTechnica is a limited company founded in 2004. It employs 6 people and develops products and services for the IT industry.
This interview was conducted with Iulian Popescu, General Manager and Co-Founder of SoftTechnica srl.
Is this the first company that you have started, and what drove you towards it?
Yes, SoftTehnica is the first business venture we have initiated, although the shareholders have changed since then. In addition, last year we set up two niche companies with specific, well established activities.
How did you finance your start-up operations and how long did it take for the company to become self-sustainable?
Because it was our first company and we had no management experience, it took us almost a year to make the company self-sustainable. The initial investments were rather small, coming from the savings I have made in my former work as an employee of another company.
What are your major products and services and how are they unique? What is your competition?
We have 3 major directions with their own mix of products and services. First of all, we provide solutions for digital signatures and qualified certificates. for this, we have a package of applications called SignTech, which includes application for generating qualified certificates, signing digital documents, service for signing digital generated invoices, time-stamping authority and so forth. Second, we provide solutions for info kiosks and information points, which include solutions for managing bars, fast-food outlets, restaurants, beauty salons and hotels. We named this set of enterprise solutions Freya. Third, we offer very good solutions for developers in the real estate sector. This is a powerful Contract Management System, named Apollo.
How did you first launch the product?
Most of our products were initially projects requested by different clients, which had a high degree of potential, and therefore we developed further them into product lines and packages. In this way we were able to offer more than initially requested by the client, implementing the products successfully and promoting them to other clients as well.
How do you measure the success of the company?
Because we are a small company, we measure success not necessarily in financial terms, but rather by taking into consideration our market potential, the quality of our products, our potential market share and the advantages we offer compared to the competition.
Who are your clients and how many do you have? How are you focusing on expanding your user community?
Our clients come from a broad area. For example, the aim for the Apollo product is real-estate developers, whereas our applications in the so-called hospitality field are targeted to restaurants and fast food shops.
Are you planning to patent your product and do you see any obstacles in doing so?
For the moment, we are not planning to patent our products, as our innovations are merely technical and involve ideas of software application. Nonetheless, we have a registered trademark, and we have registered the name for one of our products. We have also registered the source codes for our applications at ORDA [Romanian Office for Intellectual Rights], thereby complying to a legal obligation in our country.
What was the biggest challenge in starting an innovative business in your country and how did you overcome that?
When you have innovative products, you must build the market and for a small and start up company this can be fatal, because you don't have the necessary resources.
Who are the shareholders in your company?
SoftTehnica is controlled by the brothers Iulian and Alin Popescu.
How have you benefited from business incubation?
First of all, the business incubation offered us space for offices at a good price. Furthermore, we participated in several seminars and formed a corporation for a few research projects.
Do you have some specific lessons that you know now and wish you would have known when you started your business, and which you would like to share with fellow entrepreneurs?
I don't have a specific lesson, as I accumulated a lot of experience in managing companies and people, and a lot of knowledge in economy and business. I would love to share new ideas, discuss about people motivation and building a creative medium with fellow entrepreneurs!
How do you plan to internationalize your product and if so, how?
Technically, we have developed a platform which enables multi-languages in our products, and about half of them are available at least in Romanian and English. In the development of our application, we have also taken into consideration the social and economic conditions in other countries, especially those in the European Union and their partners, insisting on a high degree of adaptability. For the moment, we are trying to export software in the area of tourism to countries such as Croatia, Moldova and Albania.
With hindsight, are there any particular lessons or messages that you wish you would have known when you started up your company?
We have learned a lot since starting up the company almost 4 years ago, and of course it would have been better to be prepared for everything to begin with. Among the most important things we learned are team work and the management of human resources, improvement of the relationship with our clients and our negotiation abilities.
Do you feel that you had the necessary advisory and support network when you started your company?
When we started up, all we had was the advice of friends who were managing companies of their own.
What is your message to founders/supporters and what is your message to the users of your product?
First and foremost, you need patience and faith in your business idea. Patience, because things in the beginning might be a little slow moving and thus you need to invest in the early stages, and faith because only by following your target and focusing all your energy towards it can you succeed!
For more information about the CITAf Technology and Business Incubator Centre , please visit their profile in the infoDev Global Network of Business Incubators.