Since Monday is the best day for “follow-ing-up on what I have not done last week“, we have uncovered a promising Romanian startup: Labels.io. What Labels.io does is making it easier for employers to find professionals with key skills and for professionals to find suitable jobs. Therefore, employers & professionals out there look out 
If you’re a professional looking for a job, all you have to do is post a profile on Labels.io and the platform will do the “job hunting” for you, allowing you to focus on more important things like networking, interviews and saving money. It increases your response time, your abilities to focus more on offline than online and dedicate the necessary resources to maintaing a vivid digital profile.What makes Labels.io different from other human resources websites is the fact that it is based on the concept that a professional is defined by three criteria: portfolio of previous employers, skills and personality. Labels.io wishes to differentiate the search possibilities and avoid countless key accomplishments, dull corporate speak or five page resumes filled with mindless bullet points.
Editor’s Note: This article is a summary of thoughts and possibilities. It does not assure immediate success, nor does it state that there is no better way to handle the process.
Thank God, I now have a start-up. That means that I also have a product / service / both which apply to an identified need on the market. But how do I get the public to actually try it out? Promotion, promotion, promotion. How — this is the question? Taking on a few ideas inspired from real-live campaigns and also inspired by trust-worthy sources, I have tried to summarize the concept and do my best to come up with some acceptable solutions.
1. Lots of PR?
Traditional approach: PR — that would be something if you actually have something to say. It’s not about a bundle of media partners to team up with, but about the message you are putting out. Of course, there is an entire mixture of possibilities and it depends on the start-up itself: does it address a niche? does it address the mass-market? and so on. Don’t forget there are companies that receive lots of media attention, but end up lacking support from the market. And there are also other companies, such as Instagram, that end up taking off like a rocket not necessarily thanks to PR plots and they actually never slow down.
As you may have a heard, a new accelerator has come to life recently in the North-East of England. ignite100 is a mentorship-led programme with a £1m fund and over 50 mentors from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Here’s how it works: After being accepted into the program, each team receives an initial funding of £5k (up tp £15k). Then, the founders will move to Newcastle and be part of a 13 week programme where they will receive intense mentoring and business support. At the end of the programme, if the teams achieve pre-agreed milestones, they will receive the rest of the £100k in the form of convertible loan.
We took some time to talk to Jon Bradford, ignite100′s Executive Director, the man who also launched The Difference Engine and Springboard. Here’s how it went:
School for Start-Ups or S4S is a wonderful program dedicated to Romanian entrepreneurs. What the program aims to achieve is making aspiring entrepreneurs start successful businesses and help the ones that have already started a business venture with their efforts to grow and constantly develop their ambitions. What the organizers lay emphasis on is that the program is a hands-on and intensive process. We were not the first ones to have such high ambitions and expectations, the program was pioneered in UK and for the Brits it went over 5,000 Euros per student. In Romania, the cost is covered 70% which shows that when there is a will, there is definitely also a way.
The registration for the 2012 program started, so all the entrepreneurs that wish to be part of the 2012 program should take action. Beginning with 2012, the program will expand throughout the entire region of South-Eastern Europe, with Timisoara becoming the new center of start-up learning, followed by Cluj and Bucharest. Interested entrepreneurs can register by the end of January 2012. Moreover, all the interested participants have the possibility to pay fee rates and also meet some interesting investors from UK at the end of the program.
Eventriffic, the team of three students representing Romania, has won the third place in the Europe Enterprise Challenge 2011 final, which took place in Madrid on July 6th and 7th.
The Europe Enterprise Challenge is a competition where teams of students develop companies that offer real products or services and try to sell their idea to potential investors, each of them having a fictional €50k to spend.
Translating the social networks buzz into statistics
The Romanian team has developed an online software that “translates” what people are talking on the social networks into statistics and solutions for events and campaigns organizers. After recording what the Romanian people were discussing about Shakira’s concert in Bucharest, the Champions league final and the “Romania’s got talent” TV show, they won the national “Compania anului – START!Business” competition and got the support to further prepare the product launch.
|
|
|
|
|
Mission
 How to Web aims to support Eastern Europe’s grounbreaking tech experts into becoming web trendsetters, developing the next world-changing, innovative web products. |
How to Web Conference
 The How to Web Conference, organized once a year in Bucharest, Romania, reunites hundreds of entrepreneurs and tech professionals with great speakers and investors from Europe and beyond. |
How to Web Blog
 The How to Web Blog aims to become an important source of information for and about the Eastern European startup scene, covering news, offering useful pieces of info, tips and advises. |
Contact
 How to Web is a project by Wembrio. E-mail: news@wembrio.com. Address: Stelea Spatarul 21, Bucharest, Romania. |