Vlad Gliga, RubikHub: ”The dream was to create opportunities at home, in Romania”

Since then, RubikHub evolved into a full fledged community dedicated to Romanian startups, not only offering them a space for work and events, but being alongside them for the complete journey, from self-discovery to fundraising with the help of mentors and a series of programs that tackle all the needs of the founders. 

We've discussed at length, at the end of 2023, about RubikHub, the programs that startup founders can access for international scaling and more, about the mentor network and about how the public authorities can better collaborate with the private segment to help businesses with Vlad Gliga, co-founder and CEO of RubikHub.

For more information watch the video or keep reading the following text.

How was RubikHub started

Vlad Gliga: We started from a small problem that we found in our region, in our geographical space. We had that problem in mind and we looked around how we can solve it and that was related to what access do people have in order to build businesses, businesses that can get global at some point. And we knew we started from not necessarily a promising land. We had some cultural challenges we were facing at some point. We were lacking some aspects in the ecosystem.

And these problems together were not supporting more founders to want to build startups or to help them grow and scale internationally.

So with this in mind, we wanted to find the solution that would inspire people, build solutions to the problems people have, people around them and actually in this world.

Also, we wanted to help them to learn how to start this process, how to keep going on this process.

Where is RubikHub at this point in the ecosystem

Vlad Gliga: We are where we dreamed and actually more than that. Each year we exceed our expectations. And we want to continue doing that. So what we were thinking a few years ago, basically when we started, we managed to accomplish a bit earlier.

We had some specific goals for five, 10 and 15 years, plus a longer one, 20 years plus. We wanted to have zebra style or type startups in five years. 

We wanted to have in 10 years an ecosystem that is starting to develop and grow, a program that actually would build RubikHub as an ecosystem.

In 15 years we dreamed of having a unicorn backed up by Rubik Hub. And in 20 years, coming back to the ecosystem, we wanted to live in an ecosystem that is actually important at a global level in the startup world. 

Things happened earlier than expected. So the zebras came in the third year. We started talking about the ecosystem program in our fifth year, two years ago. So hopefully in our 10th year we'll see the unicorn. 

Specific programs for the community

Vlad Gliga: We knew exactly who we wanted to help. Initially we were focusing on students or fresh graduates and we looked at what needs they have. And based on those needs, we designed programs together with the community of mentors you very well mentioned.

And we started from workshops, several hackathons, programs happening in universities mainly. And gradually, as long as we had people evolving and founders that needed more support from us, so did the programs.

And our first program probably was Rubik Hub, the incubation program, where you could spend two to three months together with us and our mentors. And from there we went to a pre-acceleration program, Rubik Garage that later on became an accelerator program. And now Rubik Garage has a specific program designed to help startups scale to the USA.

We also added the Ready to Raise program, which helps startups to find the right investors. And not only that, but we help them in the due diligence process. 

The importance of international development for startups

Vlad Gliga: In that specific small geographical space where we were, the dream was to help startups together with our mentors to build global successful businesses.

Because we believe startups are solving problems the world has, we believe that the startups will actually create a positive impact in the world by the problems they solve at global level. So not in our town, in our region or in our country.

And it was also an economical reason for doing that. In Romania, if we want to have a prosperous economy, we need to export more than we import and we are not necessarily in a positive trend on that equation.

So the idea was to help more startups to build products and services that would be appreciated internationally, and this way will sell actually added value products and services and bring back the value by bringing more money to the local economy.

The mentality of building a global solution

Vlad Gliga: In order to go abroad, we believe it's a matter of mindset, knowledge, and exposure. And we designed our programs based on these three experiences we believe you should have.

And we believe that these three are key based on our personal experiences and our mentors' experiences.

So mindset: we try to expose them as much as possible and as early as possible to international mentors, either through online workshops or all our programs since day one are including international mentors. So they're coming to Romania.

They are carefully selected by us, successful founders, or great humans with great personal and business skills that we meet around the globe. We bring them over.

And by having these office hours discussions or just casual talks over a coffee, our founders would be able to better understand other cultures, to better understand how someone from the Netherlands, from the US, from Israel, from Asia would think about the world in general and about their specific industry where they're acting.

So mentoring online and offline was one key factor. Then we go together with startups. We do that not very often, but with some of them we are going to international experiences, either attending conferences, but also specific industry conferences.

How do you choose the right mentors

Vlad Gliga: I found a picture of myself with Sam Altman in San Francisco Tech Ranch. I felt he's doing a great job. Actually, we were learning a lot from Y Combinator and he was CEO of Y Combinator.

So when I attended that conference, I really wanted to talk with him. He was on my top list, people I want to meet. And luckily, he was open to have a chat.

So we had a chat in 2017 and he was talking about open AI and how big it will get.

And I asked him what would make this idea that I have great if I go back home and try to implement it. And he said, ”believe in it till it gets madness in your head. It will not let you sleep unless you do it”. Simple as that.

I realized just one small discussion with someone that has the right DNA and knowledge to give you advice and do great things can inspire and influence what you do on a daily basis or in your career.

So those were the people we wanted to bring as examples, powerful examples, to people in general and especially to founders. And today we have an international community of this type of mentors, successful founders and successful professionals in what they do. But also with a strong set of values, things that we care a lot about, the values.

What is still needed in the ecosystem

Vlad Gliga: I see it as the startups evolved quite a lot. I also see the spirit of collaboration evolving quite a lot. And I'm happy to see that today you have options to have partners from the ecosystem, partners that would support your program, a topic that was very difficult in the past.

But now we have VCs that are partnering with us and supporting us to deliver our programs. Fortech, for example, is helping us with the Scale2US program all the way. All the other VCs are all partners when we select startups for our cohort. So we work with most of the VCs in Romania.

But not only the VCs, the startup enablers, all the other programs, we share resources and we become mentors to each other's program. We share our learnings, which actually is developing the challenge that we had the most back in time, the collaboration spirit.

How can the public authorities help startups more 

Vlad Gliga: We worked hard to create this strategy for Romania to create a more friendly startup environment so it's written and we love doing this work because we are the players.

We understand very well and I believe the government should be more open in adopting what is already written by the people active in the industry. I believe we have the right conditions for this to happen. For example now when we approach the US ecosystem, especially the one in San Francisco, people from there knew about Romania.

We're getting closer to the dream of having in Romania the right legislation for helping startups to stay and live here and continue their life as long as possible.

Probably at some point any startup would have to consider going globally, but if you have the right legislation, you help them to have their headquarters here, to have their tech team, or the top team still working from Romania.   

A lesson that other organizations, the public sector or startup founders could learn from Rubik Hub

Vlad Gliga: Rubik Hub was a mission impossible especially happening in Piatra Neamț. No one believed and I think in the early days we had a handful of supporters. One of them being the general manager of RDA Northeast and some small private companies or local private companies and they were the people that gave us the wings to fly. 

It takes courage to start such an initiative and people around that not only would block your thoughts but would help to enable the potential in you. This is something again we bring into our community and the people we invite as mentors.

We are looking into having those values but thinking big is important, having the right set of values, having the vision and a mission that has impact and inspires others, and being open to collaborate with others, because alone you cannot get far,  and being open to actually learn from everybody was what actually set us apart from other initiatives.

Plans for 2024

Vlad Gliga: Usually, we look at the beginning of each year to what we have learned from the past year. Our events are going all the way to the end of December and starting in January, so usually the end of December and the beginning of January is the time when we analyze what we did well, what we keep, what we want to stop.

We want to grow the programs that would help startups scale internationally and we want to be able to better help startups to raise funds especially in these times when it will be more difficult to attract investments. Here we would like to find some partners that would want to scale the programs we have in relationship with universities and be more in this stage of inspiring more people to start.

We want to get specialized more on the end journey of a startup journey together with building the ecosystem and bring whatever startup has designed as a strategy to reality and create a better life for the startups that are already established.

So that's the goal for 2024: to bring all the ideas that the early startup community had into practice and become real changes for the remaining ecosystem.