Blog
How to Choose a Co-founder and What to Do When You Want Different Things
Choosing a co-founder is the most important decision in a startup. What to discuss before you sign: vision, risk, money, time, vesting, deadlocks and exits.
E-commerce personalization: from “Hi John” to real recommendations
Personalization is not putting the customer’s first name in a newsletter. It means recommendations based on real history, emails sent at the right moment and respect for people’s data, just like the corner shopkeeper who knew what you buy.
Marketing automation is no longer a luxury for small online stores
Abandoned carts, welcome series, win-back, recommendations: what marketing automation means for a small online store, why it is no longer just for big players, and how to start in a week.
Seven Years of Good News: What I Learned About Positive Journalism
From 2009 to 2016 I ran Știri de Bine, a Romanian site that published only good news. Here is what I learned about sharing, Facebook and the economics of independent media.
Facebook Ads or Google AdWords for an Online Store in 2016?
Google captures demand that already exists, Facebook creates new demand. How I choose between AdWords and Facebook Ads for a small online store, how to measure properly and how to split the budget.
Romanian E-commerce in 2016: What Comes After the Boom
After the boom years, Romanian e-commerce is growing up. Mobile, cash on delivery vs cards, couriers, marketplaces, personalization and foreign competition: what to expect in 2016.
What I Learned from 20 Years of Entrepreneurship in Romania
Over 20 years in business, from a popcorn factory to ecommerce and marketing automation: ten lessons paid for with money, sleepless nights and a few grey hairs.
Retargeting + ecommerce = LOVE
Announcing Retargeting.biz, a personalization and conversion service for online stores, built with Rares Banescu: why a 1% conversion rate is unacceptable and how talking to each visitor individually changes that.
One Prepared Person Is Worth 10 Unprepared Ones (Sometimes Even 100)!
Romanians have plenty of native intelligence; what we lack is know-how. Why I recommend the free courses of the Online Business School to anyone who runs or dreams of running their own business.
A Guide to Negotiation
Most people negotiate to get the maximum for themselves and the minimum for the other side. For long-term partnerships that strategy backfires; here are five rules for negotiating deals that last.
How Does an Online Store Go Bankrupt After 82 Years?
Quelle, the German mail-order pioneer founded in 1927, went bankrupt in 2009. A look at how failing to fully commit to online commerce, plus a costly online-offline merger, sank an 82-year-old retailer.
The Search Algorithm in Online Stores
Why searching for “batteries” in an online store shouldn’t return a USB bunny that runs on batteries, and two practical algorithms that make on-site search return what shoppers actually want.