Putting passion before money

Resigning from an IT firm in order to dedicate to your own company may sound crazy, at least in Romania, where salaries in this field are, by far, higher and safer than in others.

The one that took this step is not a manager of a large company, who would find it easy to launch his own business, but a 20 year-old young man, who considers that doing business on the Internet is something more than “moving some PCs from one place to another.”

A passionate fan of computers and advertising, Flaviu Radulescu is one of those people who wish the day had more than 24 hours. He resigned from International Computers Group as he used to work overtime in order to carry out his tasks.

When he came home, he continued to work on some web projects, and thus ITShop.ro was born. ITShop.ro is maybe the most extensive online store trading PC components.

“I created this web site due to my Internet passion. The PC components that are for sale are actually offered by the company I used to work for,” Flaviu recollects.

As the idea came to life, Flaviu presented his project to the company’s management team, which initially rejected it. As the orders kept popping, the online shore gradually made it to the top of the web surfers’ preferences.

One month ago, Flaviu and his friend Cristi Starasciuc, who became his associate, started to work on GameShop.ro, an online store trading PC games. Gameshop is operated by Best Distribution SRL, which imports and distributes the products of the largest PC games producers.

Though it was officially opened on March 19, the site has already received many orders for some of the 300 games it offers.

“We are satisfied with the collaboration with Break Point. We have always wanted to create a web site where we could sell games, because the residents from outside Bucharest, unlike their mates from the capital, do not have access to our traditional stores,” Teo Paduraru from Best Distribution says.

The company received offers from other web designers, but Flaviu’s offer had the highest quality and the most reasonable price.

Flaviu has a very interesting opinion about doing business. One should first purchase the domain, when it is necessary, then the site is constructed and the entire “file” (the web site and its provisional content) is being presented to the respective company. “If they like it, good, if they don’t, that’s it!” says the young entrepreneur.

Flaviu and Cristi have been friends and neighbours for a long time. The idea to become partners came naturally, given their shared interest in IT. Flaviu graduated an industrial electronics high school and is now attending the Mathematics and IT Faculty from Spiru Haret University, Bucharest.

Cristi, 22 years old, is attending the Electronics Faculty from the Polytechnics University, Bucharest. Flaviu knows his way around hardware and networks, while Cristi has learned how to create web programmes.

They intend to establish OpenLink Networks and Flaviu says they have very talented web designers to work with them.