The Leap of Tech #5: Stop Building for Everyone and Start Solving for Someone

The guest for this edition was Florin Grozea, a Romanian tech entrepreneur and founder of MOCAPP, a top Romanian influencer marketing martech solution. With a background in computer science and a strong connection to the creator economy, Florin has spent the last decade building digital tools that connect brands with the right influencers—through data, automation, and product discipline. He joined the fifth Leap of Tech meetup to share how he moved from chasing trends to solving real problems, and what that shift taught him about customers, growth, and building a company that lasts.

The Leap of Tech is a movement for supporting the transition from services to productized services and product ultimately, a movement initiated by How to Web together with Bridging Gaps, and with the support of Launch Romania. The Leap of Tech consists of a series of private meetups followed by public content around each meetup’s insights on the matter.

Leap of Tech is a private meetup series hosted by Lucian Popovici (Bridging Gaps & Cegeka Romania), Edward Crețescu (Regista & ANIS Romania), and Alexandru Agatinei (How to Web). It brings together builders looking to shift from outsourcing to product building and productized services. Each session features a founder whose journey sparks practical discussions around go-to-market, positioning, and sustainable growth.

Find the gap, not the spotlight 

Florin began by sharing how chasing trends led to missed opportunities. In 2008, he co-founded a streaming platform. This was many years before Spotify hit Romania. The product worked. The market wasn’t ready. After two years, they shut it down. “We knew music was going digital. We didn’t ask who would pay for it.”

That lesson reshaped the way he approached MOCAPP. At first, he believed all twelve features on their roadmap needed to be built. Each one felt critical, part of the full vision. But once the team began testing and talking to real users, they saw a different picture. Half the features were dropped before development. And out of the six they built, clients consistently used just two. 

Florin pointed out that when founders fall in love with their product, they often become blind to what customers actually need. That’s why he now advises teams to slow down, talk to users, and be ready to cut even what seems essential. “Test, validate, listen,” he said. “You’ll find your real priorities there.”

Start with the problem, not the product 

MOCAPP addresses a real pain in the advertising industry: brands need relevant content creators to partner with and influencers often don’t know how to collaborate with brands. MOCAPP bridges this with verified audience data (age, gender, education, location, and behavior), giving both sides a shared language.

MOCAPP isn’t just a martech SaaS. It’s a solution that removes friction. The platform helps brands discover influencers, draft briefs, set budgets, sign contracts, and launch campaigns.

Sell it like a founder, not like an agency 

Florin continues to lead sales at MOCAPP. In the early days, clients were still anchored in the model he had sold them before: service-heavy, agency-style influencer campaigns. They didn’t expect a product. They expected the founder they knew. This context made early sales harder. “People were nostalgic,” Florin explained. “They associated me with how things used to work. We had to reset expectations and show them what made MOCAPP different.”

What changed the game wasn’t the lower price. It was clear positioning. MOCAPP could back every recommendation with data. When clients asked, “Can you prove it?” Florin opened the dashboard and walked them through the numbers. Pitching by showing worked for MOCAPP and it closed deals.

You don’t scale without trust

Florin is clear about where MOCAPP stands. It’s not a marketplace. Influencers are suppliers. Brands are the customers. That orientation drives every design and sales decision.

Regulated industries demand more than automation. They need brand safety. MOCAPP delivers that by keeping human control over reporting and vetting. Once supply was secured, the platform focused on building customer-side value.

Obsess over your customer, not your idea 

Florin is honest about early mistakes. “We were obsessed with our product. We should have been obsessed with our customer.” The shift, from building features to delivering relevance, changed everything. The team stopped measuring engagement and they started measuring outcomes.

When influencer marketing became mainstream, MOCAPP already had infrastructure. When AI hype surged, their automation was already live. “We used AI before it was trendy. That didn’t change our pitch. The problem stayed the same.”

Your audience defines your position 

The most strategic decisions came from data. “The audience reveals what you’re actually trying to say.” MOCAPP evaluates influencers based on who follows them and not just what they post. That helps brands find smaller creators with more relevant audiences.

Florin shared a campaign example. A financial services brand wanted awareness. Instead of paying top-tier names, they worked with micro-influencers followed by business students. The reach was lower. The match was perfect.

You can’t outsource clarity 

Many founders look to outsource sales or marketing too early. Florin says that’s a mistake. “After five years in, most founders can hire and delegate – not earlier.”

Florin also shared two books that helped shape his thinking as a founder. Disciplined Entrepreneurship’ by Bill Aulet offers a step-by-step method for turning an idea into a scalable business, while ‘Competing Against Luck’ by Clayton Christensen introduces the Jobs To Be Done framework and the way to truly understand what drives customer decisions.

His way to stay aligned: therapy, a close advisory board, and a short feedback loop. He still reviews campaigns and joins client calls. Not out of obligation, but because that’s where product decisions come from.

What you should build next 

Florin pointed out that even at the MVP stage, product-market fit should be framed around identifying your ‘unfair advantage’. Whether it’s speed, data, or access, you need to understand what sets your solution apart and validate that advantage early.

He wrapped the session by returning to a core theme: alignment. Product-market fit comes from staying close to real customer needs and iterating with focus. Each cycle helps you sharpen your offer, your message, and your positioning. When you know who you’re building for, you build better. And when your customers recognize themselves in your product, they buy faster, stay longer, and tell others. That’s when growth starts to feel natural.

See you at the next Leap of Tech! 

In the next edition we’ll dive into how founders build distribution into their products right from the start. We’ll show why the best marketing advantages come from a mix of tech, timing, and trust.

Leap of Tech isn’t a trend. It’s a direction. And it moves with the people who show up.

✊ Stay tuned.