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The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

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Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#11

Post by ddalex »

This is a nice summary of what's going on - to get to the gist of it, Romania has great technical talent, coming out of decent technical schools.

What severely lacks in Romania, in my view:

a). the business environment; the internal demand isn't enough to support starting and growing business on the local market; building products for external markets from get-go is difficult. This leads to:

b). the business talent; the number of big companies (in the sense of growing into an international market) founded in Romania and managed by Romanian business people can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Leading to:

c). the product talent; since there is no big demand for products in the local market, there is no way to grow local product designers - the people that can and want to design and build a product just find it easier to emigrate, depleting the already small pool of available talent.

All of this leads to companies coming into the country just for technical talent, which is easily employed as outsourcing contractors, and keep the self-perpetuating circle of the tech scene being driven by outsourcing. And this effect is also visible at startup level, where the Romanian-funded startups often have the headquarters, and product designers in US or Canada, and the technical talent in Bucharest or Cluj.

I have no idea how to fix this problem, of even if it is a problem in the first place - I feel that as the local economy matures, niches for specific targeted products will appear, facilitating the development of locally-designed products built by local companies. But starting startups based in Romania targeting foreign markets is still an uphill battle versus companies local to those foreign markets.

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#12

Post by marinabercea »

madaxe_again wrote: post #9
marinabercea wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Romania. For potential readers: this comment's content is a gross overstatement and does not reflect reality. For example, over 50% of the population lives in an urban environment (see the CIA Romania Factbook which is very up to date). Even so, it would be wrong to assume that just because some of the country's citizens live in the countryside, they 'get around by cart and donkey'. Also, for the sake of ac…

To be fair, I was last there six years ago, spent most of my time travelling through the the countryside, a few weeks in Cluj, visited friends in Sibiu, and got robbed when I went through Bucharest on my way to Moldova. So yes, my view is far less accurate than yours, as it's from about six weeks six years ago - but the only place I saw comparable levels of overt corruption was Kyrgyzstan, and I've visited most of th…

It's easy to acquire a skewed impression of any country as a foreign visitor, so I completely empathize with you. Unfortunately getting mugged/robbed would be possible anywhere in the world, even in the poshest of places. As for the status on corruption, there's active progress being made, as an example, see an older article on the subject http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/opinion/romanias-anti-corr...

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#13

Post by davidiach »

madaxe_again wrote: post #2

This is so bubble-written it's not funny. Romania is a country where a large chunk of the populace get around by cart and donkey, where post-communist corruption is rife, where decades on they still can't decide what to do with the half built palace that occupies half of Bucharest, where gangsters run most of the hospitality industry and god knows what else. It's a chicken and egg problem, of course, as enterprise wi…

This is an exaggeration.

1. Only a tiny chunk of the population "get around by cart and donkey" and that's mostly in rural areas. Romania has around 314 cars per 1000 inhabitants. For comparison the UK has 519, Sweden 520, Mexico 275, Brazil 249, Ukraine 220, Moldova 156 and China 128. [1]

2. Corruption is one of the most discussed topics in Romania, but in my opinion it is over-rated. There is virtually no violent corruption, most of the existing corruption has to do government contracts or bribing of government officials.

3. Yeah, the Palace of the Parliament sucks. But it's one of the biggest tourist attractions right now in Bucharest.

4. "gangsters run most of the hospitality industry" - actually most of it is run by large foreign companies or small "mom and pop" entrepreneurs.

No, Romania is not building the next "Silicon Valley", but it does have a vibrant IT community that is increasingly involved in creating technology startups and is developing in the right direction.

----------------------------------------------------

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_...

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#15

Post by ddalex »

madaxe_again wrote: post #9
marinabercea wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Romania. For potential readers: this comment's content is a gross overstatement and does not reflect reality. For example, over 50% of the population lives in an urban environment (see the CIA Romania Factbook which is very up to date). Even so, it would be wrong to assume that just because some of the country's citizens live in the countryside, they 'get around by cart and donkey'. Also, for the sake of ac…

To be fair, I was last there six years ago, spent most of my time travelling through the the countryside, a few weeks in Cluj, visited friends in Sibiu, and got robbed when I went through Bucharest on my way to Moldova. So yes, my view is far less accurate than yours, as it's from about six weeks six years ago - but the only place I saw comparable levels of overt corruption was Kyrgyzstan, and I've visited most of th…

It is unbelivable how much the society changed in the last 6 years; ouvert corruption is still visible in Romania, but now there is a growing social stigma associated with it, as it should be in a western-type civilization. The gap in mentality is still there, because it isn't easy to eradicate 50 years of bad influence (communism, I'm looking at you!). But the gap is closing, and now it is common to see cabinet-level people ending up in prison, sending strong messages throughout the society.

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#16

Post by paterati »

madaxe_again wrote: post #9
marinabercea wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Romania. For potential readers: this comment's content is a gross overstatement and does not reflect reality. For example, over 50% of the population lives in an urban environment (see the CIA Romania Factbook which is very up to date). Even so, it would be wrong to assume that just because some of the country's citizens live in the countryside, they 'get around by cart and donkey'. Also, for the sake of ac…

To be fair, I was last there six years ago, spent most of my time travelling through the the countryside, a few weeks in Cluj, visited friends in Sibiu, and got robbed when I went through Bucharest on my way to Moldova. So yes, my view is far less accurate than yours, as it's from about six weeks six years ago - but the only place I saw comparable levels of overt corruption was Kyrgyzstan, and I've visited most of th…

Romania I think is a good case study in a country that has a oppressive regime that gets removed, suddenly gets given loads of money to improve itself (EU in this case) and then corruption sets in. Loads of examples, in both Eastern Europe, Russia itself and Africa.

It has shown in the last couple of years that the people might be trying to change that with the way that it got rid of its previous president but it is a long process to change peoples mindsets.

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#17

Post by madaxe_again »

oblio wrote: post #10
madaxe_again wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I was last there six years ago, spent most of my time travelling through the the countryside, a few weeks in Cluj, visited friends in Sibiu, and got robbed when I went through Bucharest on my way to Moldova. So yes, my view is far less accurate than yours, as it's from about six weeks six years ago - but the only place I saw comparable levels of overt corruption was Kyrgyzstan, and I've visited most of th…

I'm sorry for your personal experience, but you should be able to realize that traumatic personal experiences can cloud your opinion about a very complex topic such as a whole country. I visited the US and I wasn't really impressed, for example. But I wouldn't judge the US based on just what I saw in a couple of weeks, considering what I've read and seen about it. Oh, and regarding corruption: https://en.m.wikipedia.…

Oh, I don't have a dim view of Romania though, I loved my time there, I fell in love with Sibiu - actually, a big chunk of what I said/think comes from a buddy from Cluj who I've known 25 years or so - and I hadn't heard about the anticorruption initiative, that's good news.

I had a knife stuck in my back at a cafe and had my camera stolen, and the police officer I found then took my passport and wanted (and got) a bribe to return it. Not a unique experience, I've been held up and hijacked variously around the planet, but it did go to reinforce the Cluj guy's "don't bother with Bucharest, you'll get mugged" anecdotes!

Oh, and driving around rural Romania on single track roads, I guess the donkey carts kinda stick out, as you get a nice long view of the back of them! Selection bias...

Anyway, cheers for the education.

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#18

Post by oblio »

madaxe_again wrote: post #17
oblio wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry for your personal experience, but you should be able to realize that traumatic personal experiences can cloud your opinion about a very complex topic such as a whole country. I visited the US and I wasn't really impressed, for example. But I wouldn't judge the US based on just what I saw in a couple of weeks, considering what I've read and seen about it. Oh, and regarding corruption: https://en.m.wikipedia.…

Oh, I don't have a dim view of Romania though, I loved my time there, I fell in love with Sibiu - actually, a big chunk of what I said/think comes from a buddy from Cluj who I've known 25 years or so - and I hadn't heard about the anticorruption initiative, that's good news. I had a knife stuck in my back at a cafe and had my camera stolen, and the police officer I found then took my passport and wanted (and got) a b…

Sorry for that :(

Romania actually has a lower crime rate than the US, so you were unlucky.

The cop part is what they're working on with the whole anti corruption initiative.

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#19

Post by sndean »

madaxe_again wrote: post #2

This is so bubble-written it's not funny. Romania is a country where a large chunk of the populace get around by cart and donkey, where post-communist corruption is rife, where decades on they still can't decide what to do with the half built palace that occupies half of Bucharest, where gangsters run most of the hospitality industry and god knows what else. It's a chicken and egg problem, of course, as enterprise wi…

> very poor country.

One upside, from an outsider point-of-view, is that an apartment in Bucharest goes for about the same amount as a downpayment for an apartment in London.

For that reason alone, I can imagine some Europeans (especially Londoners) would seriously consider giving up their 400 sqft place and going to Romania to own three large apartments.

Or at least I would.

Re: The Silicon Valley of Transylvania

#20

Post by mnyary »

mariusmg wrote: post #5
madaxe_again wrote: post #2

This is so bubble-written it's not funny. Romania is a country where a large chunk of the populace get around by cart and donkey, where post-communist corruption is rife, where decades on they still can't decide what to do with the half built palace that occupies half of Bucharest, where gangsters run most of the hospitality industry and god knows what else. It's a chicken and egg problem, of course, as enterprise wi…

Dude, are you from Hungary ? :)

Please, don't do this!
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