I wanted to learn from the co-founders of Procesio about the company’s origin, the shifts that shaped its direction, and the lessons they’ve learned scaling a workflow automation platform that responds to real business needs.
“Founding Story & Vision”
Maria Stanciuc: How did Procesio evolve from an idea to reality?
Marian Voicu: Procesio started from our own need, the need to scale the existing services to new markets with new regulations, and the effort was huge.
Maria Stanciuc: Can you share a tough challenge and how you overcame it?
Marian Voicu: Challenges are many, all the time, and, in my opinion, to overcome any challenge is to be resilient and focused.
Mihai Darzan: The biggest challenge from my point of view was to narrow down the icp, user persona, buyer persona, and the door-opening use case.
Maria: Is there a decision or strategy you feel was a game-changer for your success?
M & M: Initially, we were trying to sell Procesio as a technology, and we were talking with its people. This was not going too far at that point.
We then realized that it was easiest and faster to talk with business people who felt business pains and who were relying on it people to alleviate their pains (without success or at high costs and long waiting times).
Our breakthrough came when we realized that we could solve those problems at a fraction of the cost and in weeks, not months, as they were expecting. This approach made complete sense to everyone, and we started selling fast. So fast that we needed to also provide the “professional services” ourselves because we did not have enough time to search for implementation partners.
While projects started coming and we implemented them, we became overwhelmed with projects, but happily, meanwhile, we started working with implementing companies that started implementing projects for us on top of Procesio.
Maria: How do you and your co-founders divide roles and make decisions?
Marian: By setting clear responsibilities and accountability for each. And stick to it.
Mihai: Yep! Extremely important to set the boundaries of responsibility for everyone to be accountable and also not to overstep the boundaries unless specifically asked to do so (I was guilty of this and perhaps still am on some occasions, and Marian was malleable to accept my overstepping).
Also, the fact that we are very complementary to each other.
Maria: Can you share an upcoming project at Procesio that you’re excited about?
Marian: Yes, we started with the backbone – the process designer – and added ui capabilities (document designer and forms & tasks designer) – now we’re setting the ground for Procesio to be a fully LCA and to build complex applications. And so, to become a core productivity tool for future workers inside companies.
“Principles”
As CEO/Deputy CEO, what are the core principles or philosophies that guide your leadership and strategic decisions?
Marian: You will make mistakes – but learn from them and do your best to fix as much as possible and identify opportunities.
Your team is your most important asset – treat them right and be worthy of their trust.
Always be “real” and well-intended – it will help you keep your sanity and become trustworthy for your team, business partners, friends, or family.
Mihai: You (and I) can do better than now – always push to be better. Always push to do better and improve.
Optimize for time! Time is our most expensive resource. Use it well.
What you are doing does not need to be perfect! It needs to work. Waiting to be perfect is actually imperfect.
Maria: Reflecting on your journey, what’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self at the start of your entrepreneurial path?
M & M: Any budget will burn faster than you expect or want. The key is to move your company and team faster enough to stay “default alive”. To do so, when you make strategies, expect things to take at least 2 times more than initially planned and adjust accordingly. Also, be more understanding!
“Change is inevitable.”
We did about 10~15 pivots so far!
Maria: Can you discuss a pivot or significant strategic shift procesio has made under your leadership?
Marian: I will not assume any strategic shift as it is a team effort – and we did make a lot of strategic shifts and the most important I believe is the one in 2022-2023 (mentioned above) when “we switched to focus on making revenue to support our activity – and we did so by changing the mindset form building and selling technology to understanding the business context of our clients and providing a solution to their need by using our technology.”
Photo: Marian Voicu
Mihai: We did about 10-15 pivots so far, and they were painful from a mental point of view as we were fixed in a mindset where we believed that “this is the way” and we were proven false in the “market”.
The most important shift for us was the mental one, where we now understand and accept that nothing is fixed and all can change. What we believe today to be true, tomorrow can be proved false, and we are ok with it. We no longer see our shifts as pivots, though we continue to do them.
Maria: Is there a company or personality you admire or see as a benchmark for Procesio?
Mihai: We analyze our competition and companies that are leaders in the tech space we are active in. I admire them for the things they accomplished and try to understand their journey so that we can learn from them and optimize for time to get there as much as possible, trying to avoid their mistakes along the way. For me, there is not one company that I admire in particular, but I admit I studied UiPath the most to understand the “behind the scenes” dynamics in their early growth days.
Photo: Mihai Darzan
Marian: I prefer not take things as a benchmark (as much as possible) but rather analyze things, inspire, and look for ways to build something new.
And for admiration – I admire people for what they are as humans and how I feel around them, and will not mention a single person, as it can be an industry leader, a colleague, or my daughter.
Maria: What do you do to unwind and recharge? Any hobbies or passions?
Marian: Going to the Gym for physical and psychological health. Drawing with my daughter
Mihai: Gym, lifting weights, and getting in contact with (to feel) my body (we often live more in our heads and forget about our body). Snowboarding, Sailing. Reading, Nature
Maria: Can you share something surprising about yourself that not many people know?
Marian: When I was young, 6-12 years old, I was building toys like cars, planes, and robots out of wood and any other raw materials.
Mihai: I believe my life path was changed in the 8th grade when I had an injury that kept me out for 6 months. This changed me to be more persistent and confident that I can overcome anything.
