Integrating all your business applications in one easy to use platform with EasySales

Hey everyone. I am so excited about our guest today. It's Ciprian Cazacu co-founder of easy sales, which is a single dashboard for marketplaces. It's a simple application that integrates different systems like invoice software. Websites, IE fulfillment, SMS services and more all in one place. We had such a great time chatting in debt. Let's go ahead and dive in. We're ask chip Rian some quirky questions. 

Better. All right, let's jump right in. guys could get to know him.  

Okay. So let's start off with doing an ICL round. These are a few like quirky questions that reveal some interesting things about you. Are you ready? 

Yeah.

Okay. First question. Does pineapple belong on pizza? 

Yes.

God chip Rian. I thought we were going to be friends. Chip yawn. 

Sometimes. Yes. I had the girlfriend that led me to discover new Tasty's.

Okay. Okay. So it wasn't you who initially liked it? You put it on beats just to get the 

no,

Yeah. 

he asked you must try this.

Yeah. See my wife, when we were dating, she tried doing the same thing with liver, but. 

No, 

No. 

some limits.

Exactly. Exactly. I'd rather have pineapple on pizza delivery any day of the week, any day. Okay. Next question. What songs do you completely have memorized? 

No, sir. No, sir, 

no, song. There's not one that you can home, 

Not even a recent one. That's out there right now. 

I did not. I did not learn the songs. I'm not a good day. 

Okay. Maybe in the office, maybe as some homework, you can think of a song you like played in the office a few times, memorize it, And then you can come back on the show and sing it.

And I am not a singer. That's the problem. When I was younger at the school that they who is next on the paper to, to sing Ciprian R I know next one. Next one. Please know, Cipriani, not singing

you get to 

butcher 

a bad singer.

Hey, I'm the same way. When people want to do karaoke, I dread it. I dread it. I try to hide. I try to 

too. 

disappear. I hate it. It's not that I hate getting on stage or in front of people because I can do that. That's no problem. 

me too. 

I'm not the good singer.

Yes mutable. I think I, I make a problem to others when I sing. So not the good thing for them.

The party stops. Okay. Okay. Last ICO question for you. The zombie apocalypse is coming, who are three people that you want on your team. of course, these are people that are going to help you survive. They're going to help you fight zombies, help you fight against other people if necessary. And these people, three people. 

Jeep people. Ooh, interesting.  probably. 

He's a bit old now. Just keep that in mind. He's a bit up there. 

My brother probably. And oh I, we must replace  my two kids and my brother.

Okay. Okay. Two kids. Huh? All 

Yeah, 

All 

little kids for now, but maybe for the future. 

Hey, there they'll keep it interesting and fun, right? 

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You'll have to pretend that every day is like an adventure oh, let's go kill some zombies, right? Yeah. 

Yes. 

Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Chip Rian. Let's rewind. Go back to your childhood a little bit.

Where did you grow up and what was it like? 

I grew up in a small city near Bucharest,  60 kilometer away. Yeah, it's a simple childhood with, of course some, things that you do do not tell the parents everything or to try to run away or

Did you ever get into trouble or did the school ever have to call your parents and say, we need to speak with you about 

Few times, 

What did 

usually they they learn from the meetings that I, they had the parents RGP and again, they do that and again, they do other things. Come on now. He 

For example, do, for example, what? What's something you did. 

Slight example my I throw in something and I broken the glasses of the, 

Oh, okay. 

The school for example 

property. I see. 

Yeah, for example, we had in the winter, some some food bowl and it, because it was winter, I was wet everywhere. And after I've changed I left my underwear on, in the classes to be thrown.

And when other people come in inside, especially girls, they were very, I'm pleased by my dresser. 

What grade was this? Was this like a 12th grade? Your senior year? 

No, seven I did a fierce, I think something like that. 

Okay. Was it like Superman underwear? Was it, do you remember a Batman or anything? 

Writing Batman.

Yeah, it does. It does very interesting. Yeah. I do not the, not hard things, but a lot of little things, but yeah.

Okay. Now your brother is also the co-founder of of easy sells. Now, was he also getting into a little bit of trouble at school? What kind of student was he? Was he very different? 

It was a very different here, especially I do not have so high notes, let's say my brother, it was a plus let's say it's an Olympic one. So it was it was a. Better seen the knee first, the, in the first thing I wasn't mediocre. So no, I did not. I wasn't the best in school. Of course, but he has other other activity.

It is or he jumps from different buildings from different floors and the, yeah, it was a little bit scary even for him. 

Yeah. 

When I see him doing some different, dangerous things.

I've seen those videos on YouTube of people doing that. I think it's fascinating. I made the mistake of showing them to my son. He's four. They were both looking at It and we're both going well. And then it realized me, why am I showing him this? He's going to want to do this. 

I

did not know. 

So I had to like, shut it down, but now he's jumping off the couch off tables. And I, I think I'm part of the problem there. That was my own doing. Okay. So what did you study in high school? Was there a specific program? 

In the high school, I for me, I was near the home. Let's say I find the high school that was closer than their home. And there I was, I go to there and they start being informed. And, it was nice because in five minutes I was in the high school and coming home and it was difficult from other parts because it, my parents who are very close to the high school.

And that was something that initially I didn't think about it. But after that yeah, you do have some problems.

Yeah. 

but I find a way, even that even in this situation I was going to another high school where I had my friends and visitors stay there. Yeah. 

Okay. 

That 

What did you decide to do after high school? I did. Where did you want to focus on. 

After high school, I was in a university in Bucharest at the Polytechnic. I study electronics and telecommunication in transportation. Even in this situation in the first time I've I entered on the construction and the construction university, but let's say, 

Construction versus telecommunications and informatics. 

Yeah.

but I stopped, but I stumbled upon, with a coin and let's say where the life heel goes yeah. And it was polytechnics. Okay. Let's go to polytechnics. 

That is that's. Wow. I've never heard that. That's crazy. Let me decide where my area of focus is going to be in university by flipping a coin. 

Yes. 

Hey, but the positive thing is that you had two different choices, you had two different things that interest you. So in that aspect, it's really good. 

Yeah. Also on on construction, I had a scholarship, and it was more cheaper for me and also in the construction. I There's the, I had my friends, my best friends there. I have some doubts when I do this change, let's say. And even my friends were a little bit upset on me because I didn't go with them, but, and in the polytechnics I was alone.

And then the new anyone I didn't. Okay. That's what I.

Okay. And so to attend the university, did you move to Bucharest? Full-time. 

Yes. I was in Bucharest, Steven from the first year I hired myself and it's an interesting story here because my first job it was veer to,  A minor, a Digger on Eve online game. Yeah. Someone hired me to manage their shifts and go and dig some asteroids and make him research this in order to have to play with others and have won some battles.

In galaxy. So my footage was a little bigger.

Okay. And so after that I saw that you became more and more of like an it systems analyst. Is that how your career started progress? 

Yes, after that, I was on the internet company provider and going on the buildings and connecting cables through different things. When the internet, at the beginning, after that I was in a data center or in a data center now, connecting servers. And after that time, the hiring a bank in a Romanian bank and starting like a level of support, going on advancing me bank like a business analyst, let's say, and that's changing on a consultancy company, like inter like a it consultant and going further on.

Telecom company from Romania by the vandalize consulting, a lot of things there.

Lots of different jobs and . What happened during your career, that sparked the idea of starting your own business and not just starting your own business, but the idea of working with your brother to launch a company, like at what point in your career was this when you were at the bank or was it before. 

It was a dream for me to work my brother from the childhood. Even then I was thinking, I must learn what I know when my brother, because it's a better learner than me. It was at the beginning, let's say like a geek, in order to work them, we work with them later, like now, and to help me to develop something together.

So it was a dream for my child from since my childhood let's see. And every time I dream to do something with him, of course, because I was the oldest brother. Not every time he shares the same vision with me. So

How many years difference? 

five in the Hough. 

Five and a half. Okay. Now, easy sales is a single dashboard for marketplaces. The application, which I think is great and integrates different systems like invoice, software, couriers websites, IE fulfillment, SMS services, and more all in one place. And as a result, you can now. A company or business owner can easily manage a large portion of their business activity.

And one easy to platform who came up with the idea, because I can't imagine both of you guys said, Hey, that's the thing that we want to do. Was it you or. 

It was a context let's say we start with some government program in order to develop a program. For a  sports betting companies to generate a feed real time where to deliver some statistics. And, oh, of course. It's a problem with the governmental farms near Romania, let's say because they came here.

Too late after our idea and everything changed, they came with a one and a half year delayed let's say. And we was in a strange situation that we had some people hired. We sat sound, we had some phones taken and we did not know what to do. My brother had another company of creating the web.

And we were thinking at the moment, okay. What we know to do, we know to do websites, let's make some website and here to make some money, to continue to not give money back to the government. So first Ryan came to us. He said that he wants to put has his products on marketplace. Come on, hire him and put that, put your products on one more time.

After the game on other one. Okay. We make websites  yeah, I have a website, but I want to take my products from website and put it on very strange. Also the second going into, as a small client, after that, it came a third client with more sales, a bigger plan with it that had also a warehouse. Wants the same thing.

Okay. My brother come here. He was a little bit late and he lived from the office and come back here to discuss, because I think we have we have here in Romania, some opportunities, three clients, one the same thing, I think it's something missing here in the market let's study. Okay. And we started after that what's happening in the us.

Western countries, we study what exists in the market. What is, where is the gap? We made some documentation of the trends in e-commerce and okay. That, that it is let's start with, we contact again, these three clients, and we start with them to develop the product. We tested them, we develop with them.

And after that, In few months we deliver the first bit of version and start finding other clients.

All right. Recently I read an article about what you guys did for Veeva day, which is the the huge furniture company that's got. Exposure in many different markets outside of Romania as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that? 

Yeah. We are in the middle of everything because we We developed the infrastructure for e-commerce let's say, and two, our subscriptions are based on order. And it's a continuously searching from our part to integrate more and more channel to sell. And V-Ray, it was one of these channels that generating sales for sellers, and we start discussion with them in order to integrate in our platform to offer for our sellers more and more sales.

Yeah, we were contacting in the first in the first time by them in order to make to come to us like an investors,  it wasn't to concretize 

it. 

fit. 

Yes, it wasn't a good fit. But after that, we continued the discussion in order to have them in in our platform.

That it was we started them and we will continue with others. Like we ran in order to extend our portfolio of marketplaces and to grow our sale, our sales for our our partners.

Okay. So this is really interesting because you and your brother, you're both, co-founders, what is it? The responsibilities that you are really in charge of and for Elion what is he overseeing at the time? 

oh, it's a mixed responsibilities and we try to cover each other. But I'm the CEO of the company and it is the. CTO of the company he take care of about the product and the way, how will we develop the product and the way that extend, let's say the product I develop the business and we I'm thinking how to develop the partners, the partnership to extend our influence to we extend about different opportunities that appear with our product.

Okay. I'm a little bit commercial part. He's a little bit the technical part.

Got it. Let's talk about management style real quick. Let's say there's an employee who doesn't have a good excuse and he's showing up late to work. Who's who is he more afraid of to see is even more afraid to see you or Iulian. 

Deep Ben's probably you Leon. But I'm trying to have a honest discussion with all our employees. At the beginning of this year, we were seven. Now we are 15. We want to keep a discussion with our employees. Okay. You late now, but tomorrow maybe will not do that because Luca, someone maybe.

Your help or, okay. We do not encourage that. It can happen, but I'm a very honest and open with them. So they do not afraid about me, but I think, and I hope that they are understand that responsibility in our cooperation. Okay. My brother probably is more a plastic card in the camera. Yeah.

It's a different opinion.

It almost sounded like you were going to do the the Arnold Nager accident or that he w or that he would do that. Okay.

Trippy last week. What skills have helped you transition to your entrepreneurship role, to the role as co-founder of 

Yeah, I had another company from 2007. But I was very young at that point of time and I do not manage very well the company in order to grow. It exists even now, but I do not take care of that company. But it was an opportunity even then I bought some vending machines and know Romania. It was very beginning with the vending machines.

I put it in some office buildings and start selling products through the new machines and at the beginning, because I had. Two or 23 years. Okay. I see a lot of money. My salary. It was I did not know 2000 platelets say at that point of time and from the vending machine earning 6,000 week, I bought a car.

I go to clubbing. No nothing. It's the space is everywhere and nothing to put apart. And after that in 2009 came the crisis and what to see, no one wants to buy from vending machines. They care more about their money and the incomes. Nothing.

What did you do with the machines after this? 

It takes this even now exist. As I said to you I pass the, I pass this this job to my father and in his free time he go and put some products in these vending machines. So it's even now, but do not Hey, thanks for that. Let's see. 

Think that's a great business. What are like the best selling items? I'm curious. Cause I think in the states you're probably going to have Pepsi or Coca-Cola right, 

Your media is the same in the world in the summer, in the winter exchanges on the crop. 

To the croissants. 

Yes.

Okay. Interesting. What about pool? 

No. We made a lot of floods. Good for chil Childs, especially, but for us, maybe girls buy more booklets. 

I think could be really good if there was some cheese added to it. 

There are some, there are some 

with the cheese or chocolate. 

chocolate too. I didn't know that I need to go look. 

Yeah, 

yeah, the mega image I go to, I don't think They have the the flavored ones. Interesting. But that's fascinating because that can be a very lucrative business, but obviously in 2009, when the market goes down, people, all of a sudden don't want to spend that extra dollar, get a Coca-Cola or whatever.

Anyway. 

pandemic. It was also the same the same thing because people didn't go to office.

Did you get upset with your dad when he wasn't bringing as much revenue back? Did you 

No, because I do not keep the revenue from there. So he use his pocket money. Yeah.

okay? Hopefully it picks back up. Things are starting to go back to normal a little bit. And maybe people would be using a vending machines more, but that's fascinating. Okay. Listen, chip Rian. Thank you so much for being on innovators can laugh and for everyone listening until next week, this is Eric Melchor saying goodbye and 

Thank you, Eric. Bye-bye.

La revedere