Getting into Y Combinator: Why CEE Startups Need to Aim Higher
Last winter of 2024, 260 companies joined Y Combinator, as selected from over 27,000 applications. […]
“I go where I can win”, says our next guest – the serial entrepreneur and CEO of the online booking platform for the beauty industry Stailer Andrei Ursachi.
His entrepreneurship journey started with a Google search. A teenager asking: “How do I make money”. Andrei Ursachi figured this is а skill that can be mastered like riding a bicycle. And by the time he was 23, he already had three companies, making profits.
“For me winning means becoming the market leader”, he says in his conversation with Georgi Nenov. Andrei Ursachi utilizes his background in digital marketing and psychology to build fast-scaling companies.
He started with online advertising back when there was zero competition in Romania. “You could be bad or average, and you would still be successful in those early days”, he remembers.
During the pandemic, while his other businesses were struggling, Andrei saw the opportunity to digitize the beauty industry. That is how Stailer was born.
In the episode, Andrei Ursachi shares why the next 10 years will be all about market networks and how he utilizes them to build Linkedin for beauty professionals.
He also reflects on how he deals with negative answers or things going wrong which is almost every day in a startup business. Or as he puts it: “Business teaches you to stay anxious.”
What Andrei has learned is that getting up fast after a knockdown can be a big mistake. “Sometimes you have to stay down and reevaluate”, he says.
He deems integrity or doing what you say as his strongest leadership quality. And his advice for future entrepreneurs? “Follow your intuition. Experiment. Learn every day. “
Watch the previous episode to learn how thinking fast and slow is key in startup culture with Dimitrios Skaltsas from Intelligencia.AI.
