We continue our founder mini-interview series with Adina Visan, Co-founder at Socialinsider. With this interview series, we aim to give you an overview of what life in a startup is like for a founder, what it means to be part of a community of like-minded people and to debunk some of the most common startup myths. So let’s dive into Adina’s startup experience.

Please describe what your startup life looks like

Startup life is high definition - everything is amplified as opposed to job-life. Things tend to be more extreme - the ups are higher, and the lows are lower. If I have to summarise in a few words what startup life means for me, here are some ideas:

• Every new client means a pay raise :D
• Every new obstacle can get you down if your energy and enthusiasm are not high enough. Mentors, books, talking with other founders are a great help in this case
• You have to work with yourself a bit more to get through the parts that tend to be more difficult. Make sure you have some tools (hobbies, yoga, sport) that you can access them when you need
• Life-work balance is harder to achieve, especially in the first years of a startup

What’s it like to work from TechHub Bucharest and be part of the tech community?

Really nice - and this is because of the people and the startup community that gathered here. Let me explain why.

A huge need for people who start a startup is to interact and talk to people with similar stories. At TechHub, we found startups in all the stages of their journey and everyone is eager to share how it was for them, and how did they get over similar problems that we have been dealing with.

This is what makes the difference from a hub that's just people working in the same office space each at their own projects and... Techhub.

Tell us an unusual interview story with a candidate that applied to Socialinsider

We've just started interviewing for our position, so I don't have unusual stories just yet.

But here's one from my previous job: a guy came in to test for a technical position, and he was supposed to solve some quizzes. Three minutes after starting them, he just quit saying that the test was 'beneath him'. So we missed that opportunity.

However, I do have some interesting learnings that I got during this process:

• Hire for skills, not to fill the position.
• After identifying my need for a SaaS marketer, I realized I needed someone with specific skills. I didn't want someone who previously was working in retail or FMCG companies.
• Even if they are experienced marketers, they aren't 'hands-on' people who can manage the formless startup life. That's why I wanted someone whose portfolio includes content writing, PR skills, and they know how to measure the effectiveness of every marketing action.

About Socialinsider

Socialinsider is a social media analytics and competitive tool for digital agencies. Social media managers spend too much time collecting and analyzing data before sending them to clients. Our goal is to make them look professional by giving them actionable insights into a presentation-ready report.

They are currently looking for a SaaS Marketing Specialist.