David Achim, Make IT in Oradea: ”being naive about big dreams helps, but it can be dangerous too”

Make IT in Oradea is one of the great examples in the country where the public administration can collaborate efficiently with the founders, investors and professionals in the startup world with only one clear result in mind: to grow the ecosystem.

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.

Cum arată ecosistemul de startups din Republica Moldova

Situated in a triangle between Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Budapest, cities that attract larger companies, Oradea is not benefiting so much from the power of having an established tech ecosystem. A few visionaries saw the advantage in growing the startup community in the city. 

Make IT in Oradea is a non-profit organization founded on the initiative of Oradea City Hall, together with local companies.

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”The behind the scenes mission is to transform Make IT in Oradea into a destination for tech founders. That is the goal”, David Achim, executive director at Make IT in Oradea told us for the Romanian Startups: Roaring Tigers of Europe interview. 

David himself came back to Romania with the goal of helping founders. Despite studying management at university, David found a significant gap between academic knowledge and real-world entrepreneurial experiences. What Make IT in Oradea aims to do is to empower founders. The organization's initiatives are built in three directions: to develop entrepreneurial skills and strengthen the startup community, financing and tax facilities for IT companies, and retaining talent by awarding scholarships to pupils and students while integrating them into the local startup community.

"Trust the entrepreneurs; founders should do it and the municipality should support it—and that’s it", says David, emphasizing the need for mutual trust between public institutions and startup founders. 

Instead of micromanagement, founders need room to innovate and lead, while governments must provide support and infrastructure without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Key insights from our conversation with David Achim 
  • Trust over control: Municipalities must trust founders and ecosystem builders, avoiding bureaucratic micromanagement.
  • Collaboration across sectors: Success depends on the triple helix model—academia, government, and private sector working in concert.
  • Founders as leaders: Ecosystem leadership is most effective when led by those with entrepreneurial experience.
  • Agility and process: Public sector can learn agility from founders; founders learn discipline and process from the public sector.
  • Avoid fragmentation: National coordination is essential to prevent duplicated efforts and accelerate innovation.
  • Talent retention: Addressing brain drain and IP loss is critical; creating attractive conditions for diaspora returnees and locals is a priority.
  • Cultural strengths: Leveraging unique regional cultures and communities, especially creative talents, enriches the ecosystem.
  • Positive storytelling: Media and branding efforts must shift from negativity to showcasing opportunities and successes.
  • Resilience and passion: The Romanian entrepreneurial spirit is a core asset, enabling founders to overcome adversity and persist.
The mission and vision of Make IT in Oradea

Make IT in Oradea started as an incubator program designed specifically to empower first-time tech founders across the Southeastern European  region.

The overarching mission is to transform the city of Oradea into a premier destination for tech founders.

David describes this mission as ambitious—initially perceived as “Mission Impossible”—but emphasizes the importance of naivety and big dreams as drivers of innovation.

"I have a trait called naivety—being naive about big dreams helps, but it can be dangerous too."

The municipality’s role is a supportive one: to trust and empower founders and ecosystem builders rather than control or micromanage them. This trust is vital to overcoming a persistent distrust between entrepreneurs and the public sector. 

How can founders and the public sector collaborate 

David Achim stresses that successful startup ecosystems require collaboration, not control. The municipality’s role should be to support founders by providing resources and removing obstacles, not by dictating terms. He notes that many founders complain about lack of support, but emphasize that effective communication and well-prepared proposals can secure cooperation.

From the public sector’s perspective, procedures and processes are necessary to build trust and predictability, but founders bring agility and the ability to execute quickly. This complementary relationship needs careful nurturing to balance bureaucracy with innovation speed.

Challenges and dangers: ”reinventing the wheel” and fragmentation

A major risk for regional ecosystems is duplicating efforts unnecessarily, leading to slow innovation. David urges better collaboration and openness to learning from each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

There is a call for a central Romanian agency with authority to coordinate ecosystem efforts nationally, similar to models like Startup Estonia or Startup Greece. This agency would provide legitimacy and structure, fostering coherence across regions.

Leadership in ecosystem building should come from founders or ex-founders themselves, who understand the challenges firsthand, paired with trusted public sector champions who can navigate bureaucracy and politics.

Progress and future outlook 

At the national level, progress is acknowledged, with foundational work laying the groundwork for future exponential growth. Although growth has plateaued recently, there is optimism that acceleration will resume with sustained effort.

As the manager of Make IT in Oradea, David outlines a clear regional goal: to have 100 startups in Oradea by 2025, reflecting a focused and ambitious growth strategy. Community belief and momentum are growing, transforming skepticism into enthusiasm.

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.

Watch the full documentary in the video below:

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