European Startup Newsletter - Innovators Can Laugh
Plus from StarCraft Player to Maximizing CLTV with Valentin Radu
Over the last couple of decades, Valentin Radu has held a variety of jobs (and launched a few companies). Everything from selling cookbooks on the street to launching an internet service company just because he wanted to play Starcraft on broadband!
Then he launched one of Romania’s largest online car insurance companies doing 3-4M in annual turnover. But they weren’t profitable.
Based on that experience and discovering why determining customer lifetime value is critical for companies, he runs Omniconvert. His company powers over 20,000 websites including brands like Orange, Sephora and Decathlon. By helping brands be more customer centric through advanced segmentation, Omniconvert is able to help brands better acquire, nurture and retain customers.
🎙️📺 Catch this hilarious conversation on Spotify, Apple, other platform, or on YouTube.
Innovators in Sofia
I visited Sofia for the first time and had a great time. Not just because I enjoy traveling, but because I was able to visit with previous Bulgarian startup founders I had on Innovators Can Laugh.
I was able to meet in person several wonderful people including Zornitsa Nikolova, Blagovesta Pugyova, Boryana Levterova, Nona Dramova, Plamen Ivanov, Teddy Alexieva, Elitza Stoilova, Iva Ivanova, and Milena Pavlova.
In addition to the laughs, stories, and good times, we also shared some good recommendations for books, essays, and newsletters:
📘 Iva Ivanova: Time Shelter - opens a “clinic for the past” that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. Also Mark Manson who writes about practical philosophy and psychology called The Breakthrough.
📖 Teodora Alexieva -"The question to ask about an early stage startup is not "is this company taking over the world?" but "How big could this company get if the founders did the right things?"" taken from an essay by Paul Graham titled “Do things that don’t scale”
📙 Plamen Ivanov - Book read: Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Also Stoicism – Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic newsletter. Start with “The Obstacle is the Way”
Thank you to everyone who attended making my trip to Sofia memorable. And thank you to Alex and the folks at Move.bg for allowing me to host the event at their co-working spot. Catch the short video I created about the cocktail party here. 🎦
Fun & useful links
✏️ I am not an SEO guru by any means, but I found this video on how to make keyword research easy helpful.
🤓 A good reminder that people generally don’t remember stuff you posted more than 3 months ago.
🎶 The music playlist I am using this year during my cocktail parties.
Some Fav Quotes
➡️ “We suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
➡️ “While we wait for life, life passes.”
-
Seneca
Who do we resent more?
The End
When will this Teacher strike end?! 😢
I’m currently in day 4 of this Teachers strike happening now in Bucharest (juggling work and kids at the same time). The kids were out of school for two weeks just a few weeks ago and will be out of school next week for three days!
Combined with several calls in the evening, this makes for a really busy week. Just need to power through it : )
Thanks for reading today!
Eric M.
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See you all next week!
