We are starting a new mini-interview series! The aim is 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 try to debunk some of the most common startup myths.

Our first interviewee is Oliver Auerbach founder and CEO at GloriaFood, the startup that is helping 4000+ restaurants with their website and online ordering system. Oliver is one of the original TechHub Bucharest residents, back when GloriaFood was a 1 person startup, so he has been part of the tech startup community for almost 6 years now.

Describe your startup life

Life in a startup is unique. You need to be willing to wear several hats if you want your business to succeed, more so during its incipient stages. You should be able to develop new skills and adopt a fast-learning mindset. And that’s exactly what I felt comfortable doing. With time passing, I’ve experienced an accelerated learning process, just like everyone else in the team. But what I’ve enjoyed the most is seeing how the people I work with become true innovators, committed to growing the business, and finding original ways of addressing the problems that arise.

What’s it like to work from TechHub Bucharest and be part of the tech community?

TechHub is a great close-knit group and working in this coworking community enhances your entrepreneurial spirit. Everywhere you turn, you see people putting in time and effort to do much more than simply doing their jobs; they want to excel. And this entrepreneurial bug is contagious and energizing at the same time. You experience a great feeling when you come in to work in the morning, and you see everyone so focused on creating a useful product, which really improves people’s lives. And time just flies.

Tell us an unusual interview story with a candidate that applied to GloriaFood

When I started the company in 2013 I had an interview with a very talented engineer. I mapped out the entire product vision I had at the time and he said that it would take 6-12 months to build it. We started working on it, but as we had more and more clients, the vision turned from just being a restaurant ordering system to an entire restaurant online marketing platform. We then realized that things wouldn't be finished within 6-12 months. Now, almost 6 years later we're still working together and from time to time we have a laugh about our estimation in 2013.

You can meet with Oliver on April 11 at the first Startup Matchmaking Meetup where we will discuss “What NOT to expect from working in a startup?”. He will be in throughout the evening to meet you and figure out if you are a fit for one of their startup jobs: SaaS Marketing Manager, Product Manager, and Customer Support Specialist.