After the 1989 Revolution that toppled the Communist regime in Romania, very few people understood what a business was. It was during those very times that Marius Ghenea built one from scratch. He was an engineer in the Autonomous Power Company (RENEL), but knew he wanted so much more. He didn’t like finance and didn’t actually know how to create a startup. He had been a tourist guide in college and later taught English at a high school in Craiova, his hometown. Also in college he discovered he liked to play with hardware components and, at 25, he bet it all on an IT project.

Flamingo Computers, the company he started in 1994 together with two colleagues, configured personal computer systems. The three associates were buying motherboards, cases, CPUs, plus all other components, and assembled the whole thing based on their clients’ needs and wants. None of the three guys invested money in the beginning, but they all contributed with small elements that allowed them to carry on with their business. “I had my parents’ car which I borrowed without any costs; another colleague already had two PCs which we were using as assets, meaning we would use their hardware components for our business or we would actually use them for different activities.” Flamingo owed its success to the complementary abilities and skills of those involved in the business. “We were a great team. One guy was the technical guru because he knew everything about computers. The other one had strong sales skills. I was good at everything that had to do with communicating our message, market and financial analyses, and projections.”

Above all that, he says he was also very lucky. “Back when we started in 1995, when we began getting our first distribution contracts with our partners abroad, we went to Taiwan. They thought Eastern European markets were weird and they compared Romania with Russia and the former USSR countries. They weren’t really decided and asked me, ‘How’s Romania? We don’t really trust it. We know nothing about it and we fear it might be a strange market. Do you have McDonald’s?’ This was May or June. We didn’t have the McDonald’s from Unirii Shopping Center yet (the first one in Romania), but the company already announced they would be opening a restaurant, so I told them that. They said, ‘Ok, now we can come too’.”

In 2001, Flamingo Computers reached a sales figure of 50 million dollars and became the leader of its niche in no less than seven countries in Southeast Europe: Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, and Croatia. Later, it conquered the Netherlands.

That same year, Ghenea decided it was time to step aside and move forward with other projects. He’d spent eight years at Flamingo and reached his goals. He then got involved in Flanco, one of the biggest companies in Romania that distributed electronic products and appliances. Flanco was owned by foreign investment funds. Ghenea became a minority shareholder and was named CEO in 2002. In just three years under his management, Flanco’s sales figure increased six times, reaching 120 million Euros and registering the highest ROI in the history of the company. In 2005, Ghenea left Flanco and became a business angel, investing in various companies, including startups. He developed an e-commerce platform, PCfun.ro, and later a whole chain of online stores that included PCfun.ro, PCgarage.ro, ElectroFun.ro, shopIT.ro, and fashionUP. The latter recently expanded into Bulgaria and Hungary. Ghenea invested in multiple projects in IT, oil and gas, construction materials, equipment, and green energy. He helped small companies grow and offered consultancy for big firms.

Although being an entrepreneur brought him satisfaction and a fortune of around 10 million Euros in 2010 according to Forbes, he also likes being an investor. This implies strategic thinking, he says, and the ability to foresee a good result or a failure. That’s why he’s always investing in different activities. “You should never put your eggs in one basket. If you do, you have little chance of compensating the loss in case you fail.” Ghenea is also mindful of the company’s cycle of life and how he can actually contribute to its development. He knows a startup has a high growth potential, but also a high risk. “If you, as an investor, can only bring money, meaning if you cannot influence the company’s performance with your experience, network, strategy support, and so forth, it’s better to invest in businesses that are more developed, even though you might make less money.”

What Ghenea learned throughout this time is that, apart from all those financial aspects, the most important assets for a successful business are the people involved. They can build on or completely ruin a very good plan. If he thinks the associates are capable of great things and are serious about their tasks, he will invest in their projects. If not, he lets it go. Also, he never did business with family members because he knows close relationships can cause problems.

Now he would continue to invest in the IT sector, as he still thinks this is a very profitable industry. He would also go for anything related to bio-agriculture. He wouldn’t go back to entrepreneurship because, at 45, he doesn’t have enough time and energy to dedicate to a startup. Entrepreneurship is wonderful for people who have little to lose and their lives in front of their eyes to keep on gaining. “When you’re young and by yourself, you have two options: either you develop a business that doesn’t work or you develop a business that works.”

Photo credit: Camil Dumitrescu/Esquire Romania