What can stoicism teach you about entrepreneurship with Ciprian Borodescu from Algolia

It’s a new year, and a new episode of The Recursive podcast. Our first stop for 2022 is Bucharest where we meet an entrepreneur who is as keen on technology and AI as much as he enjoys talking about philosophy and leadership. 

Ciprian Borodescu is the co-founder of MorphL, a start-up that developed an artificial intelligence-based solution to help online stores increase sales, and optimize their product metrics. His startup was acquired by the French company Algolia before they even managed to raise a seed round. Ciprian now serves as the Head of the R&D center of Algolia in Bucharest.

In the episode Ciprian reflects on his entrepreneurial journey and the lessons learned from his childhood in Romania, through successes and failures with different startups, to trying to raise a seed round amidst a global pandemic. 

He shares how they came to the decision to sell their startup MorphL to Algolia and explains why aligning on values was key for him. Chip also talks about his own transition from being an entrepreneur and CEO into a Head of R&D of a global company and how it affected his way of thinking.

In his conversation with Georgi Nenov, Chip ponders on the importance of his relationship with his life and professional partner Alexandra Anghel. “She’s one of my role models. I do the talking, but she’s the one making things happen”, he explains. 

You will also learn how Chip came across stoicism philosophy and how he applies it to startup and business life. 

Watch the previous episode where the co-founder and CEO of the Bulgarian fintech startup Hristo Borisov shares his playbook for building scalable products.

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