If you build your people up to become great, they will build a great company for you!
After deep-diving into the social media space, Ovi Negrean decided to enter the market in a big way with SocialBee, a social media management tool that enables its users to simplify and automate their social media posting so that they can get back to working on the stuff that matters most!
The service is quite young (having been ‘born’, as Ovi likes to call it, in 2016), and was developed in an office that is best described as ‘tiny.’ And yet, not six years after its founding, it’s already serving thousands of marketers — from freelancers, startups, small businesses, authors, coaches, entrepreneurs, agencies, and so much more.
What’s the secret to SocialBee’s success? Find out more below as we interview its CEO
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When did you start your journey as an entrepreneur? And where are you at this stage of your journey?
Ovi Negrean: My entrepreneurial journey began 6 years ago. I founded SocialBee, a social media management tool, with Nugget and my co-founder. I’m still working on Social Bee today. Not only as its CEO, but I’m also actively involved in the development of its features, increasing our scaling efforts (and our team), and improving our customer experience offerings.
In terms of our latest achievements, we recently hit a milestone number of 18K users for our platform. And we released a feature that enables our users to directly post on Instagram.
As a bonus, if you want to see what else we have coming up, we’ve created a roadmap that you can check out to see where we’re headed next!
Are there any particular people who you would like to thank for helping you get where you are today?
Ovi Negrean: Actually, there are several people for which I am extremely grateful towards. First of all, there’s my co-founder, Vlad, which is the CTO here at SocialBee, who has been a major force for our growth. Then, our COO—also called Vlad—who makes sure that our team can grow and evolve with us.
What is one mistake that you see beginner entrepreneurs make? And what advice can you give those who fall prey to this trap?
Ovi Negrean: Waiting too long to launch their product, hoping to nail it down perfectly. Which, in my opinion, rarely ever works out. So, my advice? Launch it as soon as you can to get early feedback and take it from there. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, just do it! It will save you so much time and energy — not to mention you’ll get valuable insight from your customers.
How do you define resilience? And why is it important to you and your business?
Ovi Negrean: To me, resilience means being able to start over with optimism. Oftentimes, we see all the things that go wrong in our companies, all the negative feedback, all the problems that need to be solved — which can translate to you getting into a very dark place.
When that happens, being able to see all the progress you’re making, acknowledging how far you’ve come, and not being afraid to start over are 2 key attributes of a successful (resilient) entrepreneur.
What is most important to your organization—mission, vision, or values?
Ovi Negrean: Values, for sure. If your values are deeply rooted, you’ll be able to have more clarity when defining your mission and vision – as they both align with what you believe in.
What is one thing that you do as a leader to make sure that your managerial staff remains valiant?
Ovi Negrean: It’s easy to lose sight of what’s important (what you stand for as a company, what you’re trying to achieve, etc.), especially for those who have their own tasks as well as the leading of others to attend to regularly.
For us here at SocialBee, actively having 1-on-1s with the managers of our departments and realigning everyone’s mindset to match the company’s goals is a must to ensure that everyone is remaining ‘valiant’, After all, if you build your people up to become great, they will build a great company for you!
Being the CEO of your company, do you think that your personal brand reflects your company’s values?
Ovi Negrean: Definitely! Our brand’s values: Ownership, Respect, #BeeBetter, Innovvy, and Trustworthy, are deeply aligned with what I preach and practice as an entrepreneur. The quality of our work, the respect that we give to our customers, and our growth each day are the main drivers behind everything that we do.
What is leadership to you as a business owner?
Ovi Negrean: Leadership is all about empowering people to be their best selves and striving to become “A” players – all while building great company to accompany you through your journey.
For our readers who may be young still (or, otherwise, inexperienced in entrepreneurship), what words of wisdom can you spare?
Ovi Negrean: Find something you’re passionate about and give it a try. It might not be the company you’ll spend years building from there on, but the lessons you’ll learn are invaluable. It will give you so much more perspective once you’re already in “the arena” playing next to the big guys. Your motivation changes, your vision for the product improves, and you’ll find great people to learn from. Just get out there, break some eggs and see where it takes you!
Please share with us your favorite quote! (How has this quote affected the way you lead your company?)
Ovi Negrean: “Teamwork makes the dream work” is one of my ultimate favorites. It has greatly influenced my leadership style, at least, in the sense that I am always eager to empower people to leverage what’s being given to them.
After all, your company is as good as your team, especially since you can’t do it all, you have to let people step in and take over. You’ll be surprised to see how creative and innovative your team can be — all you have to do is give them the chance to shine.
Larry Yatch, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Ovi for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Ovi or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin , Facebook , Twitter,
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