Business and Technology

25 Years of Entrepreneurial Adventure in Information Technology Business

A high-level portrait of balancing independence, crisis, and success in the startup world from personal experience

Conceiving a startup venture, finding partners and supporters, selecting the right ones, launching the venture, and sustaining or, in certain cases, closing it down is a daunting task.

It somehow always turns out that this form of work returns to my life from time to time. The current period is no exception. My desire for independence and the importance of making my own decisions may be the triggering reasons for this.

Within the framework of this story, I aim to draw parallels between the world of startups and certain aspects of my life management. I briefly highlight the ups and downs to give you glimpses of my entrepreneurial pursuits for over two decades.

The evolution of my professional endeavors

Exactly 26 years ago, it happened that, as a graduated computer scientist, I began my professional career as a computer programmer on a banking project for a Californian company.

It was a fantastic period for me. Being young, I had a tremendous thirst for knowledge in my field. Fortunately, I was surrounded by colleagues and superiors from whom I could learn.

International colleagues recognized and supported my enthusiasm and the positive results that came with my youth. I spent great years at this company, and I am very grateful for the excellent experiences and knowledge that kick-started my career.

During these years, I developed a lot, gained a wealth of experience, and managed to jump through several positions, securing my place in the long term.

This excellent and fruitful period lasted nine years until the American company handed over its system design and development division to a Hungarian enterprise. At this point, every experienced banking IT professional, including myself, faced a crossroads.

Either find a new job and continue working in the corporate environment or integrate into the new opportunity that presented itself, meaning continuing work under the management of the Hungarian business while retaining the job.

After lengthy negotiations, I was the last to sign the new contract with the leadership of the Hungarian company. As expected, there were significant differences between the American corporate and Hungarian small business management and working conditions. Benefits decreased, and so on.

The before-experienced international team was replaced by recruited Hungarian colleagues, making me the senior one. So, promotion and taking on more significant responsibilities were inevitable.

Although it’s important to emphasize that the decision was mine, and nothing was forced upon me, they merely outlined the opportunities, which I eventually embraced.

In hindsight, it’s easy to be wise, but it’s crucial to reflect on this series of events that occurred 15 years ago, unfortunately leading to my first and so far the largest, but fortunately, the only crisis in my life.

And what led to this?

I was given too much responsibility at too young an age, and lacking experience in managerial tasks, the signs of mental and physical discomfort appeared early.

I suffered in this position for two years, which was not beneficial to me in any way. Resignation was inevitable, and with it came the sudden loss of ground.

The First Startup Period

So, in January 2010, I had to develop something valuable. It would have been obvious to rely on my professional experience and network to seek a similar position at another company.

But I didn’t do that.

Why? Because I craved independence and wanted to make my own decisions. Of course, humility and patience are tremendous virtues, but I had practiced them enough, which had painful results.

My first and most important task was to explore startup opportunities as an IT professional, which truly motivated me. That is something I could do with passion and dedication for the long term (at least a few years) without losing enthusiasm and momentum.

In terms of conscious planning, this was the only part I did well. I had no idea how I would handle a potential failure situation. I didn’t even think about when I would feel successful in this form of work.

So, when planning a startup, I only completed a very small part of the necessary and mandatory steps and jumped into it with an attitude of “Let’s do something; I’m capable of everything.”

As an experienced IT professional, after about a month of research, I decided to develop iPhone applications. The App Store was still fresh, and Stanford University’s free course came in handy, allowing me to get the knowledge needed for mobile app development. Within a month or two, my first mobile app was available in the market.

About product ideas, my choices weren’t very good. Here, too, I made a wrong decision, which, in hindsight, is easy to see that with more thorough market research or collaboration, I could have saved a lot of time and energy.

I wasn’t happy that my ideas didn’t materialize as I would have liked, so I didn’t perceive this failure as a step toward success.

Since my financial resources provided for my daily livelihood, thanks to the savings from my previous job, my confidence that there was still potential in my startup venture did not completely dissipate. Furthermore, I believed that I could be a more successful mobile app developer.

Due to this positive attitude and my connections, I continued my startup venture in a completely new setup, now with a business partner. We worked well and efficiently, not conflicting with each other’s interests. Moreover, my business partner’s enthusiasm also gave a significant boost to launch a service-based, unique mobile app in the Hungarian market.

I consider those two years of activity, thanks to this collaboration, successful. I felt successful not only in terms of financial income but also due to the positive feedback received from many customers for the service associated with the mobile app.

And why did it end?

The Hungarian market was small, and marketing costs had long exceeded the declining revenue.

As a result, in mutual agreement and on good terms with my partner, we closed our joint venture. At the end of it, I successfully sold the codebase of the mobile app abroad.

Further Development of My Professional Aspirations

At the end of my first 4-year startup period, I decided to re-enter the ‘market’ and sell my experience and knowledge as an employee.

Initially, this proved to be very challenging, as my mind, accustomed to independence, resisted the occurrence of this ‘rearrangement.’ I won’t go into the details of these struggles. It wasn’t easy.

I ended up in a medium-sized company where I could get new business knowledge, which was a motivational factor.

Consciously, I did not take on a high position, and accordingly, I easily coped with the given tasks.

It became evident to the company that, due to my abilities, I could handle more substantial tasks in this workplace as well.

Challenging new projects gradually arrived, allowing me to claim more enjoyable years during this period.

I got closer to upper management and the company owner.

I learned a lot! I traveled a lot — in short, I enjoyed what I was doing, and I could consider myself successful and happy.

But, in this dual world, everything changes. Neither failure nor significant negative experiences occurred during these ten years.

Rather, it was the overload, the multitude of parallel tasks, and the lack of corresponding rewards that led to spending the last year figuring out what comes next.

So, by this point, I was much more deliberate than during the interruption of my previous career.

I weighed and reviewed my options and resources, as a result of which I parted ways with my employer, signing a framework contract to continue ‘contributing’ to them as an external consultant for a few days a month if my other commitments allowed.

Accordingly, I didn’t embark on the new phase of my startup journey as someone who lost ground but in a well-thought-out and safer manner.

The Evolution of My Latest Startup Ventures

A new phase, a new startup with great hopes!

I bought a large corkboard and pinned at least 20 ideas on it. I categorized the ideas, arranged them by priority, supplemented them with pros and cons, and determined the dependencies essential for their implementation.

I was very deliberate! I felt that no matter which idea or ideas I chose, re-entering the world of startups wouldn’t result in disappointment and failure. And I didn’t feel this way because I thought my effort would be successful but because I had nothing to lose.

At most, I would be wasting my time, but even that wasn’t true, as I would gain a wealth of new knowledge.

And after ten years of project management, I was simply interested in diving into something completely new. This analysis took about three weeks, and as a result, two notes stood out from the rest.

I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the idea of diving into two startup projects simultaneously because I knew it would divide my focus.

However, I accepted it, as one startup involved a collaborative activity, and the other was an independent project. I figured that one of them had to work!

So, in the first case, I collaborated with a foreign partner. In the initial phase, we executed the so-called ‘Ideation’ phase, which is, of course, the first task of any startup venture.

As a result, the product idea was born — an online course on generative AI for enterprise architects. Pure IT! Along with the product idea, the value proposition also took shape.

The implementation of the product and its framework happened quite quickly, in about six weeks. Thus, approximately two months after its conception, we entered the market with the product.

This is when I started my strenuous business development activities, and as a result, I managed to bring a significant number of visitors to the paid course website. However, this traffic proved insufficient to sell an adequate number of courses.

I knew a several-month-long marketing strategy was needed for successful sales, which I still believed in. I contacted an Indian startup coach who suggested a completely reasonable and functional series of steps for us, for which I am very grateful.

Unfortunately, my partner did not share my trust in the long-term marketing strategy, and either due to impatience or questioning the legitimacy of the course, he closed the startup project.

I did not experience this moment as a failure at all, although at first, I regretted the time, energy, and money I had invested in this startup.

Yet, I learned a lot, and the insights gained can be leveraged in my other ongoing startup venture, which I manage alone.

As this is still a fresh startup, I do not wish to provide detailed information about it in this writing. But, shortly, I plan to write about the experiences of this project as well.

Closing Thoughts and Takeaways

To conclude, based on the path taken in the world of startups, I would like to share the following general observations that might give you some valuable perspectives.

Before you start anything, determine what motivates you. If it’s about being successful, it might not last in the long run.

Define what success means to you! Clearly articulate what gives you the experience of feeling successful.

Examine how a potential failure would affect you, and how you would relate to a setback. Would it empower you or hinder your progress? Not everything that doesn’t succeed should be perceived as a failure but rather as an experience.

From my experience, failure can be a step toward success. If you perceive something not going as planned as a failure, examine how you can reshape and transform it in a positive direction.

Choose a topic for your startup that is close to your heart, something you can be passionate about. Don’t just focus on making money. Start your startup in an area that genuinely interests you and can provide strength in overcoming potential lows and processing them.

Assess what resources you have. If you know you need to think long-term, unfortunately, you will need financial resources and supporters since you might not generate income immediately.

Thank you for reading my story.

Your feedback is invaluable. I invite you to share your views and insights based on your observations and experience. If you enjoyed my story, you might also check out this leadership article depicting the 4 essential requirements to become a better leader.

Hello, I’m Jozsef. I’m writing about traveling and startups. To see my stories pop up on your feed, I’d love for you to follow me. (Jozsef Kovacs) And, to have stories sent directly to you, subscribe to my newsletter.👇