We continue our founder mini-interview series with Ciprian Borodescu, CEO at MorphL. Ciprian is the organizer of the BucharestJS community, the co-organizer of JSHacks the first Javascript based hackathon in Romania and Alumni of Seth Godin's altMBA program.
With this interview series, we aim to give you an overview of what life in a startup is like for a founder, what it means to be part of a community of like-minded people and to debunk some of the most common startup myths. So let’s dive into Ciprian’s startup experience.
Please describe what your startup life looks like
For me, being part of a startup is a way of life. I've been an entrepreneur for as long as I remember, starting an outsourcing company while I was still in college and continuing by creating two tech startups. I'm a strong believer in having a growth mindset and what I have noticed is that the maturity of the companies I have created has improved in direct correlation with my entrepreneurial skills.
Life in a startup can be expressed in two words: "constant change". Although it is a difficult path, it is also highly rewarding on both a personal and professional level, and it has shaped me into what I am today as an entrepreneur.
What’s it like to work from TechHub Bucharest and be part of the tech community?
I joined TechHub Bucharest back in 2015 because I wanted to meet and learn from other fellow entrepreneurs. And I never looked back. Working from and being part of TechHub Bucharest has been one of the best decisions I took even before starting MorphL. The overall ecosystems with all the meetups that are taking place almost daily and all the startup teams that are swarming tirelessly is exciting, energizing & nurturing - some of the most important ingredients you need in a startup.
Tell us an unusual interview story with a candidate that applied to MorphL
You hear so many times that the team is the most important asset of a startup, that it almost becomes trivial and entrepreneurs often ignore how critical is to get those first hires right. One observation is that we hire for both soft and technical skills. In other words, at MorphL, while we do look at the technical skills, we base our decision mainly on soft skills.
I don’t have a funny story, but I have an interesting one. A few months back, I received a call from a fellow entrepreneur that wanted to work at MorphL because he was interested in entering the AI field. In the end, we decided it was not the right time for him to join the team, but I appreciated the direct approach of calling & meeting instead of the classic way of sending a CV.
About MorphL
MorphL is a platform that uses big data & machine learning to predict user behavior in digital products & services with the end goal of increasing KPIs (engagement, click-through-rate, conversions, etc.) through personalization. MorphL is funded through Google Digital News Innovation Fund and European Data Incubator.
They are currently looking for a Machine Learning Engineer, a Big Data Engineer and a Web Development Engineer.
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If you are excited about starting your own project and are looking a co-founder to do it with, then join us at the next Startup Matchmaking - Find your co-founder event!