This past week I’ve been in Istanbul and I realized that CEE startups should be more commercial.

I grew up in Romania and I always had the feeling we’re super mercantile and we like to find our own ways to do things. We’re entrepreneurial. Just last week I literally met a grandma of a friend who recently went abroad for a trip and came back with fragrances and other random chippies to sell to her neighbors or colleagues. For some, it’s in our blood to do it. I myself was selling food (and others) in high school.

Ever since the past communist regimes, there has been a generation of new born entrepreneurs selling ANYTHING like crazy - clothes, gold, etc. That was the case for Romania, Poland, Czech Republic and others in CEE. Many of them built large businesses locally. We now have so many examples of traditional businesses around us that do well - hospitality, distribution, logistics, etc. In many cases, even politicians do business! ;)

And I thought about this because Istanbul is, of course, the home of this spirit - that’s where founders in the 90’s were going for their supplies, right?

Why don’t we see the same attitude when it comes to selling software products?

I was thinking about how startups in RO & CEE are aligning to this vision. Well, most of the time they don’t.

So often I see teams prioritize products and not sales. Most of the startups are failing because the product could not be sold. What if they failed because the product was not delivering to its promises? Well, I’d prefer that.

Many times I feel like some startups forget about the main goal of a business - delivering value & making money. They many times put product, fundraising or others ahead of this. Launch’s startups annual report in 2023 even shows that founders see one of their biggest challenge being “sales”. I was amazed - how can that be? If sales is the biggest challenge, then the business cancels itself. It’s like a supercar that does not work - is that valuable anymore?

We need more sales hustling

We need the same sales / entrepreneurial spirit from traditional businesses - where you can’t rely on VC’s money - in todays’ startups. I agree, the context is completely different. However, technology should empower entrepreneurs and improve their productivity, right?

Having the clients is such a huge asset! Great product builders could then deliver a differentiated product for the clients. For a good startup, for sure you need both - but having the first one makes everything else flow so easily!

Embracing the mercantile mindset

We need this mercantile mindset in most startups. GTM is about testing the waters, finding those early adopters, and pivoting quickly to meet their needs. It’s about being on the ground, getting feedback, and evolving faster than anyone else. A good enough product with a clear market fit can win the race against a perfect product that few people want.

I believe this shift in mindset could help grow the ecosystem faster, leading to incremental successes that pave the way for future unicorns. This approach may apply mainly to application-layer businesses, while R&D-heavy products could be different. Still, any business at any stage has traction / validation points.

And you know what’s the best part? It’s already in us.