Mihai Guran, investor & founder, on building the right products: ”Innovation is not just invention”

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.

Mihai Guran, who has spent nearly three decades working in large international tech corporations such as IBM, HP and Bitdefender, and has transitioned into entrepreneurship - he is he founder of SalesOMMO, a software tools that helps companies adapt each step of their sales process and perform more effectively core sales actions - and startup ecosystem involvement.

For the Romanian Startups: Roaring Tigers of Europe documentary, Mihai shared his journey with us, starting from a technical education in electrical engineering and artificial intelligence at Polytechnic University, moving into sales and business roles within tech companies, and ultimately becoming a consultant and startup founder.

Mihai explains that his choice to work in tech corporations was influenced by the socio-economic context of post-communist Romania, where independence and stability were found in large corporations.

Although he started with a strong technical foundation and even worked on neural networks and AI models, he gravitated toward business and sales because he preferred interacting with people rather than coding all day.

His unique blend of deep technical knowledge and business acumen has been a significant differentiator throughout his career.

His engagement with startups began around 2015–2016, initially through mentoring at How to Web, which introduced him to the vibrant startup community.

He later became an angel investor and consultant, contributing to several Romanian startups such as TypingDNA and SmartDreamers.

A significant part of the discussion revolves around growth strategies, especially sales and marketing alignment, go-to-market strategies, and the importance of adapting products based on market feedback.

Mihai stresses the value of disruptive innovation—products that create new markets or dramatically improve existing ones by changing customer habits and offering an order-of-magnitude improvement.

"Innovation is not just invention. Startups invent things, but users only use the product for a day or two if it doesn’t really help them. You need to take technology and incorporate it into something that gives you an order of magnitude of benefits and drives behavior change."

This quote underscores the importance of disruptive innovation that truly changes user behavior and delivers significant value, rather than just flashy new features.

He also discussed the shift in Romania from an outsourcing hub to a country producing its own innovative tech products and startups.

Mihai is convinced that more Romanian startups are on the path to becoming unicorns in the coming years.

At the same time, Mihai offered practical advice on common mistakes startups make, such as relying too heavily on star hires from big corporations without adapting to startup realities, or being overly dependent on a few large clients, which can derail product focus and scalability.

"The solution to growth is never just in sales or marketing. It’s always a blend of sales, marketing, and business. Business people need to drive sales and marketing because you cannot grow sales only from inside sales or only from marketing."

This stresses the holistic approach needed for startup growth, integrating multiple functions rather than relying on a single element. 

• Mihai Guran’s career spans almost 30 years, blending deep technical expertise with business and sales leadership in global tech companies.
• Transition from post-communist Romania’s corporate jobs to entrepreneurship and startup mentorship reflects socio-economic shifts.
• Early AI and neural networks background gave Mihai a unique edge in technical sales and business management.
• The Romanian startup ecosystem has matured significantly in the last five years, moving from outsourcing to product innovation and scaling.
• Disruptive innovation is key: startups must offer products that change customer habits by delivering 10x improvements.
• Startups and large corporations often compete but also collaborate; startups thrive by targeting underserved market segments.
• Mihai’s startup, SalesOMMO, aims to scale using AI to reduce communication waste and enhance sales and marketing efficiency globally.

• Technical background as a differentiator: Mihai’s early education in electrical engineering and artificial intelligence, including neural networks, provided him with a rare technical foundation that enhanced his credibility and effectiveness in sales and business roles. This combination is uncommon and highly valuable because it enables him to understand and communicate complex product features while aligning with business objectives. This insight highlights the importance of interdisciplinary skills in tech leadership.
• The evolution of the Romanian tech ecosystem: The Romanian tech ecosystem has evolved from a service and outsourcing model to a thriving startup environment with growing product innovation and scaling ambitions. His experience at Bitdefender, one of Romania’s earliest tech success stories, underscores how bootstrapped success and reinvestment of profits can fuel rapid growth. This evolution is critical for other emerging markets aiming to transition from outsourcing to product development and entrepreneurship.

"We are heading in 5 years to another two, three, four, five unicorns, I can bet on that. The ecosystem is growing, founders have more maturity, experience, and some even theoretical knowledge. It’s a virtuous circle; founders come back, invest, and inspire others." 

• Integrating sales, marketing, and product: Growth is not driven by sales or marketing alone but by their integration with sound business strategy and product-market fit. Mihai’s approach at Bitdefender involved repeatedly revising go-to-market strategies, segmenting customers, and incorporating field feedback into product development. This iterative and collaborative approach is vital for startups to scale sustainably and avoid pitfalls of misalignment between product and market needs.

• Disruptive innovation vs. incremental innovation: Mihai emphasizes the difference between invention and innovation. Many startups focus on new features or flashy products but fail to achieve lasting user engagement because they do not improve users’ lives significantly or change their habits. Disruptive innovation involves serving non-consumption markets or radically improving efficiency by 10x, creating new demand rather than just competing in existing markets. This insight is crucial for startups aiming to create lasting impact rather than short-lived hype.
• Common startup mistakes: Startups often make strategic errors, such as hiring senior executives from big corporations expecting immediate results without adapting to startup culture and resource constraints. Another mistake is over-dependence on a few large clients, which skews product development and drains resources. Mihai Guran stresses the importance of founders being involved in sales and marketing early on and maintaining a broad focus to build scalable, balanced businesses.

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.