ITU150 in December: Innovating with Silvia – How can you grow a SME?

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are a major economic force, and a valuable source of skills and innovation. Yet over 90 per cent of all start-ups fail. Silvia Dusa, CEO and co-founder of RandomStartup (@randomstartup), explains how she hopes to encourage global entrepreneurship through her own start-up.

For a start-up, the Internet is an invaluable tool. It can be an extremely low cost marketing solution, and is a great place to find growth opportunities and reach customers – but first, you must be discovered. Every day, new start-ups are born, and they are not just limited to Silicon Valley; emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil are experiencing a surge in start-ups. Moreover, millennials are beginning to reject the ‘conventional job’ paradigm. According to a recent survey of 12,000 people aged from 18 to 30 in 27 countries, more than two-thirds see opportunities in becoming an entrepreneur. However, the ecosystem is very fragile: 90 per cent of all start-ups fail. Creative ideas are abandoned because they are time consuming and results are not always immediate. The motivation to invest resources in a new project decreases as founders fail to reach the right audiences, until the start-up disappears all together.

So I asked myself, how can I help entrepreneurs attract new users? How can I lend them a hand to get their voice heard amongst the millions of global start-ups? As a result, I co-founded RandomStartup to help start-ups get discovered and strive in this competitive environment.

Leading RandomStartup is the fulfillment of my childhood dream: I wanted to own my own business since I was very young. However, I always found it difficult to be a self-starter and reach the early adopters. RandomStartup is my attempt to solve this issue. With RandomStartup, I am building a durable and long-lasting company while helping other entrepreneurs reach their desired audience. I’m building the company using the knowledge I gained during my Bachelor degree in International Business and Economics from Bucharest University of Economic Studies and an exchange in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at BI Norwegian Business School.

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