Bogdan Nicoară, Bright Spaces: ”The biggest successes always start in a crisis”

The documentary "Romanian Startups: Roaring Tigers of Europe", made by the start-up.ro team, spans across 33 years of history, from the first entrepreneurs in the transitional years to the initial technology company transactions that brought Romania into the international spotlight.

Romanian Startups: Roaring Tigers of Europe - The Extended Series will present the people who built the Romanian ecosystem and who discussed with the VideoCorp and start-up.ro team for this documentary. In this series you will find the extensive interviews and find out the stories of those who built entrepreneurship in Romania.

Bright Spaces, a startup that automates, optimises and digitalises marketing, leasing and selling for office spaces, originated unexpectedly from a software development and digital marketing background rather than a direct real estate focus.

The founders initially entered the real estate tech scene via a proptech hackathon in Eastern Europe in 2019, where their team won a challenge on digitizing retail short-term leasing. This success inspired a decisive pivot from their previous agency work to focus entirely on Bright Spaces, aiming to revolutionize leasing through technology. 

"When my colleagues came back from the hackathon with two big checks, I almost dropped the pastas on the floor—it was the perfect aha moment for me. I realized if we managed to convince the jury in 48 hours that we can change the leasing process, imagine what we could do if we put all our energy into this. I told my partner, ‘I want to exit everything we’re doing now and start Bright Spaces as a real thing.’ We never saw failure as an option", says Bogdan.

Bright Spaces’ strategic vision involves rapid product iteration, global expansion from the outset, and building an ecosystem of partnerships to embed their 3D digital twin technology into various real estate processes beyond leasing, such as construction, planning, and asset management.

Tune in for the video or read some conclusions from our interview with Bogdan Nicoară, the cofounder and CEO of Bright Spaces for the Romanian Startups: Roaring Tigers of Europe documentary, and find inspiration for your own startups in a story about long-term vision, agility and adaptability. 

• Bright Spaces was born from a hackathon win, pivoting from a digital marketing agency to a proptech startup.
• The company embraced a global mindset from day one, aiming to scale beyond local markets.
• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated real estate’s need for digital innovation, especially in commercial spaces.
• Bright Spaces develops 3D digital twin technology to modernize leasing and other real estate processes.
• Strategic partnerships are key to embedding Bright Spaces’ solutions across the real estate tech ecosystem.
• Romania’s startup ecosystem matured rapidly since 2019 but faces challenges amid a global downturn.
• The founders predict a 7-10 year horizon to reach global leadership in proptech, with steady growth in Europe and the Middle East.

• Serendipitous beginnings can pivot entire business trajectories: Bright Spaces’ origin story underscores how unplanned opportunities—like a hackathon invitation—can lead to major strategic pivots. This highlights the value of openness and adaptability in entrepreneurship, where a chance event can reveal a highly scalable and impactful market opportunity.
• Real estate is ripe for disruption due to low tech adoption: Despite being the world’s largest asset class, real estate has historically been slow to adopt technology compared to fintech, e-commerce, or medtech. This creates a fertile ground for innovative startups like Bright Spaces to leapfrog traditional processes and capture significant market share rapidly.
• Timing and market readiness are crucial but difficult: The founders stress that timing is the most important factor in startup success but also the hardest to predict. Their entry into proptech coincided with a broader industry awakening and was dramatically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which acted as a catalyst for real estate digital transformation.
• A global mindset from inception enhances scaling potential: Bright Spaces deliberately studied startup methodologies and sought international mentorship early on, realizing that succeeding as a tech startup required aggressive global expansion rather than local or regional focus. This approach aligns with modern tech startup best practices and VC expectations.
• Ecosystem building through partnerships is essential for proptech success: Instead of competing in isolation, Bright Spaces aims to embed its 3D digital twin platform into larger real estate software ecosystems via partnerships with resellers, consultants, and other startups. This reflects a trend in enterprise software towards modular, interoperable solutions and increases adoption potential.

• Downturns challenge startup ecosystems but also create opportunities: Bogdan acknowledges that economic recessions and funding crunches slow new company formation and raise barriers to entry. However, they also believe that startups founded during crises tend to be more resilient and well-prepared for long-term success, as they learn to operate under constraints and adapt quickly to market realities.

"The biggest successes always start in a crisis because if you start during a crisis and are resilient, when everything starts booming again, you’re seasoned and ready to grow fast. Even though it’s harder now to raise money and start new companies, the best startups will find ways to succeed. I’m generally optimistic that Eastern Europe will see growth in the next few years, despite the slowdown."

• Expanding internationally is challenging but vital for growth: The experience at the London accelerator program exposed the founders to global standards and competitive pressures, highlighting gaps in their initial understanding and pushing them to adopt a more rigorous approach to scaling. This underscores the importance of continuous learning and mentorship in startup growth.
• Product strategy must be agile and modular to meet evolving market needs: Bright Spaces rewrote their product architecture to enable flexibility, modularity, and integration capability, reflecting modern software development principles. This adaptability is key to responding to fast-changing customer demands and integrating with partner platforms.
• Long-term vision is essential in deep tech sectors: The founders now realistically anticipate 7-10 years to achieve global leadership in proptech, highlighting that deep tech and asset-heavy industries require patient capital, sustained effort, and long-term planning, contrasting with the “move fast” mindset common in consumer tech startups.

Roaring Tigers of Europe is a production by start-up.ro and Videocorp, part of the Romanian publishing company InternetCorp, active for almost 20 years on the market. The documentary was made with the support of partners BCR, Orange, and 2Performant. Community partners included Guran Consulting Global, How to Web, Launch, Impact Hub Bucharest, Flaviu Simihaian, Rubik Hub, SoftServe, and the Romanian-American University.