Ondrej Bartos, Credo Ventures: “I feel the ambition, but what’s bad about Romanian founders maybe is a lack of perspective”

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.

Ondrej’s reflections provide a comprehensive overview of Romania’s startup journey—from an overlooked market to a growing, ambitious ecosystem with global potential. His emphasis on leadership, team quality, solving real problems, and maintaining a global outlook offers a valuable framework for founders and investors navigating emerging markets today.

Ondrej Bartos, founder and general partner of Czech-based venture capital firm Credo Ventures, focused on early-stage investments in Central and Eastern Europe, first noticed Romania around 2005-2006, before Romania joined the European Union, recognizing it as an emerging market with untapped potential.

At that time, the startup scene was nascent, lagging several years behind Central and Western Europe, but the energy and emerging companies intrigued him.

His first Romanian investment came years later in 2012 with Brainient (a startup founded by Emi Gal, a Romanian entrepreneur that currently lives in the US and has founded medtech startup Ezra, which looks for potential cancer and 500+ conditions in up to 13 organs in less than 30 minutes and for only 500 dollars), followed by a landmark investment in UiPath, which he describes as a game-changing company that has since become a central pillar of Romania’s tech ecosystem.

During our discussion for the Romanian Startups: Roaring Tigers of Europe documentary, Ondrej explained how UiPath’s success is a unique advantage for Romanian startups today, providing local founders with a visible role model of global ambition and success.

He highlights that what attracted him initially to UiPath was primarily the exceptional team, particularly the founder Daniel’s vision and clarity, rather than the product or market conditions alone, as the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) sector was still undefined at the time. 

When asked about what the ecosystem needs to accelerate growth, Ondrej emphasized the absence of shortcuts. Success comes from having the right team, solving important problems, and building excellent products.

He believes investors and the ecosystem should focus on guiding founders toward these fundamentals rather than quick fixes.

• Ondrej discovered Romania as an emerging startup ecosystem in 2005-2006, before the country’s EU accession.
• The first Romanian startup investment by Ondrej was in 2012 with Brainian, followed by the groundbreaking investment in UiPath.
• UiPath’s success serves as a major inspiration and advantage for Romanian entrepreneurs today.
• Romanian founders are globally ambitious but sometimes lack international perspective.
• Ondrej stresses that fast growth requires solving big problems with the right team and product, with no shortcuts.
• The Romanian startup ecosystem is growing rapidly, gaining maturity and international recognition.

• Emerging market opportunity in Romania (2005-2006): Ondrej’s early attention to Romania was driven by its status as a European country on the verge of EU membership, yet with an underdeveloped startup scene. This timing was critical: Romania was several years behind Central Europe, presenting a ground-floor opportunity. Investors who entered early could leverage this lag as a growth runway, riding the wave of digital and entrepreneurial development that was about to accelerate. Ondrej’s experience underscores the importance of geopolitical and economic context in identifying startup hubs before they mature.
• UiPath as a decacorn and ecosystem catalyst: UiPath’s rise from a small, struggling team to a global leader in RPA is a landmark story for Romania. Ondrej’s investment was initially based on the team’s vision rather than market validation, highlighting how visionary founders can attract capital even in undefined sectors. UiPath’s success has a multiplier effect on the ecosystem, giving Romanian founders a credible success story close to home, increasing confidence, and fostering a culture of ambition and innovation. This demonstrates how a single “unicorn” can transform an entire ecosystem’s perception and potential.

“I think you guys have a huge advantage in actually minting the first Central Eastern European decacorn company. The huge success story of UiPath is now, I think, your biggest advantage because many Romanians have seen the UiPath story from very close or even from the inside, and that gives them a perspective that’s very, very valuable”.

• The central role of the founder’s vision and team: Ondrej repeatedly emphasizes that his belief in UiPath stemmed from the team, particularly Daniel’s clarity and focus. This insight reflects a core venture capital principle: investors back people, not just ideas. For startups in emerging ecosystems, strong leadership with a clear vision is often what differentiates winners from others, especially in nascent or rapidly evolving markets. Ondrej’s focus on leadership qualities such as fast learning and decisive personnel management provides a blueprint for founders aiming to scale.

• Global ambition vs. local constraints: Romanian founders stand out for their ambition to build globally relevant businesses, partly because Romania’s domestic market is relatively small. This proactive global mindset is a strength, encouraging startups to think beyond borders from day one. However, Ondrej points out a relative weakness: a lack of international perspective, likely due to Romania’s geographic and cultural distance from Western Europe and the US. Bridging this gap through exposure, mentorship, and international networks is critical for Romanian founders to scale effectively on the global stage.

“I feel like Romanian founders, more than Polish or Czech or Hungarians, they do tend to think globally and I like that. I feel like the ambition is there… What’s bad about Romanian founders maybe is a lack of perspective. Because Romania is a bit sort of remote from Western Europe or the US is far, sometimes I feel like they lack the sort of international or global perspective”.

• No shortcuts to growth: Ondrej rejects the notion of quick fixes or shortcuts in building successful startups. True, fast growth comes from cracking a significant problem with a strong team and a great product. This grounded perspective is important for emerging ecosystems where hype can sometimes overshadow fundamentals. The role of investors and ecosystem players, therefore, is to guide founders towards these core elements, fostering sustainable growth rather than chasing rapid but fragile success.

“I cannot think of easy fixes or shortcuts. I don’t believe in shortcuts much. I think fast growth comes when the right team cracks a solution to a big problem and they create a good product. That’s when fast growth can come. So I guess what we can help is to try to guide the founders more to crack those things, build a good team, focus on a good product that solves an existing problem. No quick fixes.”

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.