Leap of Tech is a series of private meetups where IT professionals gather to discuss the transition from outsourcing to product building. Each event features a successful founder whose experience forms the foundation for an interactive dialogue that benefits everyone involved.
The second meet-up featured Lucian Popovici (Founder of Bridging Gaps & Engineering Director at Cegeka), Edward Crețescu (CEO of Regista & President of ANIS Romania), and Alexandru Agatinei (CEO of How to Web) as hosts. They were joined by special guest Alexandru Holicov, Founder and CEO of Adservio, whose story anchored the discussion.
What makes these events powerful is the quality of questions and the natural flow of discussion. Through targeted questions from attendees, founders like Alexandru shared useful and unique insights that might otherwise remain buried in their experience.
Adservio: From PowerPoint to Market Domination
Alexandru Holicov launched Adservio in 2008 after watching his family of teachers struggle with bureaucracy. His mother, aunt, and other family members were teachers. He witnessed firsthand their struggles and built something schools had never seen or used before.
He pitched the concept with only a PowerPoint presentation and secured his first pilot with a school principal who saw potential. It took a decade to reach only 35 schools. – “I pitched with just a PowerPoint to a principal in Iași,” Holicov revealed. “There was nothing concrete. I told him that he didn’t have to pay anything since the parents will pay for the subscription.” That visionary principal said yes. In the first 10 years, I visited 1,000 schools, and only 35 of them started using the app,” Alexandru shared.
He didn’t give up, even when facing over €700,000 in debt. He believed in the mission and kept investing time, money, and effort into a product that today serves 1,600 schools, meaning 25% of the schools in Romania.
The Sports Mindset That Built Resilience
Alexandru credits his sports background for his entrepreneurial grit. “70% of what I am today is because of my experience with sports,” he explained, referring to his 11 years of professional tennis and 6 years of competitive chess. From chess, he learned: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Adservio was the exception. I knew I would succeed despite what anyone said.” This mindset proved crucial when most would have abandoned ship.
How Adservio Broke Through
Alexandru split the credit evenly between technical delivery and sales. He secured partnerships following a strategy that kept focus on his need to bring his product to schools that lacked the infrastructure at that moment. He therefore reached Telekom first, and Vodafone afterwards, trained over 35,000 teachers, and adapted the technology based on user feedback constantly. His team developed new hardware solutions, then transitioned to cloud services by 2015. He refined pricing models, shifted from parent payments to school contracts, and built a resilient business model.
The product only scaled when paired with strategic partners. His Telekom partnership first delivered 8 contracts in the first year, and after creating a dedicated team, 120 new contracts followed in year two. Alexandru recalled this pivotal partnership: “I wrote on LinkedIn to Vodafone, Orange, and Telekom. I got an answer from a guy from Telekom who told me to book a meeting with his secretary.” That meeting led to a €50,000 contract covering tablets and infrastructure. “He signed the first contract of €50,000 with tablets, internet, etc.”, Alexandru said. “I found visionary people. From 35 schools, we went to 230 in 2-3 years.”
The relationship transformed when Holicov suggested creating a dedicated smart education division. “After he created the team, in the first year, they signed 120 contracts with just 10 people.“
The Product Evolution
Adservio’s journey wasn’t just about sales. The technical side evolved dramatically:
- Started with freelancers building the MVP
- The first version was PHP with Linux servers
- Initially focused on hardware solutions until 2014-2015
- Shifted entirely to the cloud in 2015
- Built an in-house development team that now numbers 32 people
- Expanded to a total team of 55 across all departments, employees and collaborators
In 2024, they launched three AI initiatives:
- AI for principals to map everything happening in their school
- Teacher’s assistant AI for classroom management
- Academic development AI that tracks student progress and well-being
“This year we will launch ‘Learn Mate,’ a spin-off application of Adservio included in the platform, the first AI tutor in education, that will help you as a student, will be able to give you quizzes, will not give you answers but will help you better adapt the curriculum in real time and focus on the potential that exists in the child.”, Alexandru revealed.
Why Romania Must Prioritize Product Building Over Outsourcing
Alexandru Holicov highlighted the mindset gap. He noted that more professionals are available for hire, but fewer are willing to take risks. “The happiness from building your product and seeing millions use it is much more satisfying than any amount of money from outsourcing.”
Elon Musk once said “It’s easier to get people to Mars than to change the education system,” especially a communist-rooted system that penalizes those who stand out. Yet Adservio proves Romanian products can succeed globally.
Product teams need to internalize this shift. – “1,000,000% we need Romania to turn to products,” Holicov declared. “We just have very little risk appetite.”
Events like Leap of Tech show what building product companies require: long cycles, deep ownership, and selling vision before code exists.
The Global Expansion Playbook
Adservio now operates in 10 countries, including Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Holicov emphasizes the importance of local partnerships: “If you go international, it’s vital to have a local partner who knows the market. If you go alone, you have almost no chance. It’s very important to have people from there, or to buy a company from there that already understands how things work.”
Last year, they launched a product for higher education at a university in Iași, Romania, with a nearly 100% adoption rate. “When you make a product, you have to stay on customer support, on feedback. Listen to your customers. Don’t jump to develop something without validating. It’s useless to sell if the product doesn’t deliver to the customers’ needs,” he emphasized.
5 Key Insights from The Leap of Tech #2
OWNERSHIP | Founders are no longer content with short-term outsourcing contracts. Building a product means owning the process, the risk, and the reward. Alexandru’s story shows that even in a risk-averse environment, ownership creates a deeper impact and longer-term value.
PERSISTENCE | Product success in Romania requires more than just a great idea. Adservio took over a decade to reach scale. Alexandru continued even with €700,000 in debt and zero guarantees. Staying committed through financial strain and market resistance is part of the journey.
EXECUTION | Sales and delivery matter equally. Alexandru built Adservio by doing the hard, unscalable things—visiting 1,000 schools, training teachers, and adapting based on real feedback. A working product is only part of the equation. Getting it into users’ hands is the other.
MINDSET | Romania doesn’t lack talent. It lacks risk appetite. As Alexandru noted, the shift away from outsourcing will only accelerate if more people choose to build products rather than rent their time. The community needs founders who choose courage over comfort.
VALIDATION | Adservio’s expansion was driven by real-world usage and direct engagement. They didn’t scale on hype—they scaled on product-market fit. That included listening to customers, iterating on features, and forming distribution partnerships that made growth possible.
The New Product Development Reality
Leap of Tech’s growing attendance proves the community craves substance over motivation. They want frameworks, examples, and connections that drive action.
These meetups create a forum where founders don’t just talk but truly listen and evolve. The questions from attendees during Alexandru’s session led to precious advice about market entry strategies, partnership dynamics, and resilience techniques that benefit everyone in the room.
Alexandru’s journey shows this evolution. His approach to AI in education, his early failures, and his user relationships reveal a core truth: great products emerge when you obsess over problems, adapt constantly, and refuse to surrender. “We have major talent in Romania,” he concluded, “but I believe that in the next few years, whether out of necessity or for other reasons, things will change.”
The collective wisdom generated through these moderated dialogues proves essential for the local product and tech ecosystem. Each meetup creates a tighter network of professionals ready to take their own leap from outsourcing to ownership.
Romania’s product revolution has begun. Where will you stand when the next wave reshapes everything?
The Leap of TECH isn’t a trend.
It’s a movement. A manifesto. IT starts with you.
✊ Let’s Leap & MeetUp!
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Leap of Tech is a series of private meetups where IT professionals gather to discuss the transition from outsourcing to product building. Each event features a successful founder whose experience forms the foundation for an interactive dialogue that benefits everyone involved. The second meet-up featured Lucian Popovici (Founder of Bridging Gaps & Engineering Director at… Read more »
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Leap of Tech is a series of private meetups where IT professionals gather to discuss the transition from outsourcing to product building. Each event features a successful founder whose experience forms the foundation for an interactive dialogue that benefits everyone involved. The second meet-up featured Lucian Popovici (Founder of Bridging Gaps & Engineering Director at… Read more »