Episode description

Our next guest is a well-known entrepreneur and investor in the Romanian IT industry. 

Andrei Pitis has 30 years of experience in tech. He was one of the first official Linux contributors in Romania and co-founder of RoEduNet, a network that offered free internet to students.

Later, Andrei founded Vector Watch, a Romanian start-up that produced the first Romanian smartwatch. The company was later acquired by Fitbit, where Andrei held various positions including VP of Engineering and VP of Product. 

In the meanwhile, Andrei invested as an angel in CleverTaxi that got acquired by MyTaxi.

Later, Andrei founded Simple Capital, a private investment vehicle supporting local startups with global aspirations.

As an active angel investor and mentor, Andrei is the president of ANIS (The Romanian Employers' Association of the IT&C industry), an associate professor at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, and a creator of educational programs like Innovation Labs. 

In his conversation with Irina, Andrei walks us through his long journey in the tech industry, having witnessed many shifts from the first programming languages to the dot-com bubble, the 2008 global financial crisis, to the emergence of AI and blockchain. 

He offers his insights on the cyclical nature of technology's evolution, the importance of branding for building a successful tech business, and why launching your product globally from the start is the way to go for entrepreneurs from the CEE region. 

In this episode, he also talks about: 

• Why creating magic is important in tech; 

• Edge Mentality vs. Center Mentality; 

• How To Cope With Stress as an Entrepreneur;