{"id":6555,"date":"2023-10-24T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T14:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roweb.ro\/blog\/?p=6555"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:31:17","slug":"interviu-mirel-ionescu-roweb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roweb.ro\/blog\/interviu-mirel-ionescu-roweb\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Mirel Ionescu \u2013 Managing Partner at Roweb: Leadership, Team and the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n We continue the series of interview articles with a new story that\n stands behind the Roweb brand. A material that fully demonstrates the\n Diversity in experience, approach, etc., and the fact that we are all\n different, fortunately \ud83d\ude42 , are assets that have set in motion the\n necessary mechanisms for Roweb’s growth.\n <\/p>\n

\n Scroll down slowly and discover 14 questions & answers with and about\n programming, business development, and opportunities in digital\n transformation – an interview with Mirel Ionescu, Managing Partner\n @Roweb.\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From programming to business development<\/h2>\n

\n Q: #ForTheLoveOfProgramming. When did you know that programming is the\n right choice for you?\n <\/h3>\n

\n I attended Computer Science in high school. Since then, I was very\n passionate about this field, and I had results that would confirm that I\n can do a lot in this direction (I also had great results at the National\n Olympic Competition in Computer Science). However, I did not go to\n Computer Science when I finished high school. I chose management\n because, at that time, in 1998-99, everybody seemed to be interested in\n becoming a student at ASE and developing a career in banking. Later, I\n attended the second Faculty – Computer Science – returning to what\n initially attracted me.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Q: The confidence that you can turn this into a career appeared\u2026 how? In\n what context?\n <\/h3>\n

\n I was Viorel’s student in high school, and he played a significant role\n in how I perceived Computer Science. It inspired my passion for this\n field. And, as in most cases, if you have a positive experience with the\n domain itself and especially with the teacher, the chances of excelling\n in that field are significantly higher. So it was with me.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Q: Faculty. First job. Things seemed to take you in a different\n direction at first\u2026\n <\/h3>\n

\n I attended Management and, during Faculty, I was hired by a printing\n house (where I did digital graphics for over 3 years). I had initially\n moved away from the programming area precisely because I had chosen to\n settle in Pitesti and there were no IT companies at the time. In\n addition, at 19 (the age I was when I started my first job) I did not\n have enough experience to evaluate the market correctly both in terms of\n opportunities and perspectives.\n <\/p>

\n After all, at only 19 I was just a kid \ud83d\ude42 , right?\n <\/p>\n

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\n Q: And yet, what made you reconfigure your career path? What brought you\n to Roweb?\n <\/h3>\n

\n Coincidentally, one evening I met Razvan (a.a Veliscu) and two other\n former high school classmates (one of them, Adi, who is also in Roweb).\n We were all passionate about Computer Science in high school, and this\n thing has somehow connected us ever since. They told me they both worked\n as programmers (Razvan was already working with Viorel on some dedicated\n projects). For me, the discussion with them was a kind of “aha-moment.”\n I realized that I had left something important behind and had chosen a\n path that did not necessarily represent my real interests. In addition,\n I had a job where I had learned a lot but in a different direction.\n <\/p>\n

\n That evening’s meeting was at the right time. Razvan and Viorel had just\n decided to hire new people for the projects they were developing. As a\n potential employee, I agreed to talk to Viorel, but this time from a\n different position. I went through a period of learning (to reactivate\n the things I had accumulated in high school and to adapt to the\n technologies and frameworks with which they worked on the projects of\n that time – IT TradeOnline and BursaPC).\n <\/p>\n

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\n Q: How did you evolve in the company? When did you become a partner?\n <\/h3>\n

\n Everything I said above, when I started Roweb, happened somewhere in\n 2001. In its early years, the company was working with a small team but\n with big projects. So for a while, I had two jobs simultaneously:\n printing house + Roweb.\n <\/p>\n

\n I adapted fast to the new working environment, and in a short time, I\n got to take on responsibilities and tasks at the same level as the\n others. It was just a step to the point where I became a partner in the\n company.<\/b>\n <\/h3>\n

\n In 2004 we took a more serious lead in the market.\n As Viorel said in his interview<\/a>, we take this year as a reference because it marks the moment when we\n took the name Roweb – until then, the company had a different name – and\n at the same time, we created the first version of our site.\n <\/p>\n

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\n From the first projects and the launch of the Roweb brand in the market\n to the positioning and growth of the client portfolio\n <\/h2>\n

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\n Q: The first programming projects in Roweb. Do you remember who they\n were and what impact they had then?\n <\/h3>\n

\n ITTradeOnline and PC Exchange. These were the first projects, and I\n participated in their development. ITTrade was a portal that facilitated\n the trading of technical equipment – computers and components – in the\n US market. BursaPC was a kind of\u2026 OLX. It attracted a lot of attention\n in the market precisely because it came with something new. Although I\n did not promote the project in any way, it had come to have organic\n visibility far beyond expectations. They had even published an article\n about it in a national newspaper: Adevarul.\n <\/p>\n

\n Although it was a promising project, I later gave it up because there\n were no monetization methods for such a business (there were no\n micro-transactions then, card payment, etc.).\n <\/p>\n

\n These projects – especially the ITTrade project – were business contexts\n in which we had the opportunity to understand the specific service needs\n of external clients. This is where the idea of \u200b\u200bweb services for\n international clients was born, with which we set off with the launch of\n the Roweb brand.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Q: Speaking of launching the Roweb brand, what role did you play in this\n process?\n <\/h3>\n

\n Roweb came out on the market backed by a partnership. The most\n interesting part is that Viorel somehow managed to direct us to assume\n and share the responsibilities along the way in this partnership.\n <\/p>\n

\n One of the most critical directions I took in the company from the\n beginning was the off-line and online marketing part. Not an easy task.\n When Roweb started to exist as a brand in the tech market, digital was\n still taking its first steps. Companies began to see it as an\n opportunity, but they didn’t know exactly where and how to start. At the\n same time, the digital marketing channels were also still on the\n Romanian market.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now the resources for inspiration and learning seem unlimited,\n and we can rely on various channels and models.\n <\/b><\/h3>\n

\n Back then<\/b>, we had few digital marketing models to be inspired by.\n However, we have managed to make the presence of the online Roweb online\n strong. I think that the experience from the job I had in college (in\n printing) also helped me because I already understood what the elements\n of visual identity mean for a brand. I have no doubt that the notions\n from college helped me because I already perceived everything in terms\n of business concepts. The first projects obviously also played an\n important role because they helped me understand the market and its\n expectations.\n <\/p>\n

\n But, beyond all these experiences, I think the fact that I liked the\n field helped me the most.\n <\/p>\n

\n From the website structure to the texts and the visual approach, I was\n 100% involved in building a brand in the digital environment. Then came\n participation in business and tech events. (There were more and more\n channels through which we communicated at the time, but I think these\n two are by far the most important – hence our first qualified leads that\n later became customers)\n <\/p>\n

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\n Q: We are talking about the events you represented at Roweb … Where\n was the most visible brand and why is this visibility needed?\n <\/h3>\n

\n I think that every event has achieved its goal because they are designed\n in different niches of the market – niches that we address. Moreover, we\n did not respond to all invitations to attend events but only selected\n what was of interest to us. Basically, the ones that really facilitated\n our interaction with potential customers.\n <\/p>\n