Globe trotting angel investor

Article from Bucharest Business Week 

A multimillionaire by his mid-30s. Now, aged 39, slim, athletic-looking and dressed in well-tailored clothes, Marius Ghenea faces the enviable task of spending his vast, well-earned fortune, reputed to be around 35 million Euro. A check of his personal website (www.ghenea.ro/com) shows that world travel is obviously one of his favorite hobbies. The more exotic the destination, the happier he seems to be – from Bora-Bora to Aruba and the Seychelles.

But while Ghenea loves to experience world culture with his wife of five years, Gabriela, and 4-year-old child, Mario, he also keeps a firm finger on the pulse of business trends in Romania and a keen eye open for opportunity. That’s how he managed recently to turn a one million Euro investment in a construction materials company into a three million Euro profit – in a mere nine months. “Radu Mircescu, the founder of the metallic tile business, was putting the roof on the holiday home of Cornel Marian, head of Oresa Ventures, whom I worked with at Flanco, and asked him if he knew of a potential investor for his company,” Ghenea explained during a two- hour interview with BBW at Residence Hotel in Bucharest. “Cornel called me and the rest is history.”Viking Profil, the Ploiesti-based company, was bought by the Polish-based, Pruszynski group. “We were not in an exit mood at the time,” said Ghenea, who was one of the founders of electronic retail chain, Flamingo. “But companies from the UK, Scandinavia and Poland were interested in having a footprint in Romania and they used scouts to find us. It took about ten weeks from first contact to final deal signing.” Risk and gainGhenea’s business ventures don’t stop there.

He presently has several million Euro of combined investments in Online Fashion Group (selling branded clothes on-line); PCFun.ro (on-line store); Electrofun.ro (on-line sales, mainly consumer-electronics and home-appliances); FitDistribution (a distributor of computer components); Orbital Solution (specializing in heating and thermal comfort products for large residential developments); and Casa Casia (indoor advertising with a system using mirrors patented under the AddMirror franchise).

“Some of these may mature in six months, some in five to six years time; in some there may even be an IPO,” said the Craiova-born business leader and former Renel engineer.

Asked how he managed to accrue such a personal fortune in a mere decade or so, Ghenea modestly acknowledges the vital role of ‘Lady Luck.’

“I have been fortunate to be able to surf the waves,” he said, with a knowing smile, sipping a cold beer. “In the mid-90s it was the electronic consumer goods market with Flamingo. In 2000, it was the consumer credit wave. In 2005, it was on-line sales and this year, it is the construction field. Coincidences and opportunities came together and helped me catch the rising tide before it hit the shore.”

Being so rich, Ghenea admits that – in priority order – it is now status; satisfaction and fun; and, then money that make him feel successful.

“I like meeting new people, learning new things and enjoying bringing a good business idea to final fruition,” he said.

Of course, not all entrepreneurial ideas put to him – he receives about five a day – have turned out to be overnight goldmines.

“I’ve had a few bizarre ideas come my way,” he said.. “One man came to me with the idea of selling jellyfish as household pets. Another had an idea for growing mushrooms and another was convinced high-rise metal car parking towers are the way of the future. As most of the ideas that come to me turn out to be junk, it means there is a lot of filtering to be done to find a good one.”

Angels and entrepreneurs

Considering himself as both an entrepreneur and an angel investor, BBW asked Ghenea to define both terms specifically in the context of Romania’s business climate evolution.

” An angel has both experience and money – and few people in Romania have both these characteristics, so there are few angel investors here,” he explained. “The reasons are that many could-be angels have decided to develop their businesses in the sectors that are familiar to them. In addition, entrepreneurial maturation in Romania has been short – 18 years, from 1990. The mid-90s was a rough time, with high inflation and devaluation. Most entrepreneurs really only made exits in 2000, so until then they could not be angels. Then they became interested in real estate and property and put most of their money there, leaving little for them to become true business angels.”

As for entrepreneurialism in Romania? “Again, time has been short,” he said. “It only began in 1990. And while other countries in eastern Europe, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, were allowed some degree of entrepreneurial ventures under communism – even if it was only shoe-repair stall or a small grocery shop – Romanians were denied this altogether. All such enterprises were torn down and put into the hands of the state. This destroyed the generational entrepreneurial link. My parents were not raised with such a spirit. Only their parents could pass this on to me but they were already quite old when I was growing up.”

He continued, “Entrepreneurialism is hard to achieve and only now is really showing up in Romania. Earlier here, they were looked upon as simply people stealing money.”

Defining the strongest characteristics of entrepreneurs, Ghenea said they are: ” ‘peculiar’ people with vision, energy, charisma and determination,” adding, “They are workaholics who go all-night, 24-7. And often, they do not have wide-ranging interests or encyclopedic minds with a vast array of knowledge. Of the ten richest men on earth, eight are not graduates. The reason is simple: successful entrepreneurs often start their businesses early and do not have time to finish college.”

One of the problems with Romanian entrepreneurs, he added, is that they can have too many different ideas at one time. “They flutter like flies and need to focus better and realize more fully that not everything with wings is edible,” he said.

One of the other difficulties for entrepreneurs, he added, is the challenge of working within formal structures. “This is one advantage angel investors have over investment funds: they have less bureaucracy to deal with; there are no equity group boards,” he said. “Business angels act like associate or strategic entrepreneurs. They like to become involved, at a level that is comfortable for the entrepreneur. My experiences at Flamingo helped me in this respect. We were three entrepreneurs initially there – I, Dragos Cinca and Varol Islam – sharing the same vision and combining complementary skills together.”

Asked about the Romanian entrepreneurs he admires most, he named Dan Sucu “for his charisma and friendship;” Florin Andronescu “for vision and ideas;” Dragos Cinca “for determination and intelligence;” Octavian Radu “for his capacity to understand many unrelated businesses;” and Radu Georgescu “as an example of the success of the new Romanian IT entrepreneurs.”

Of the foreign entrepreneurs, Ghenea cites Richard Branson “for his being so crazy in such a great way;” Bill Gates “for being simply the best;” Michael Dell “for the garage-model turned direct-model success;” Steve Jobs “for an unsurpassed marketing vision;” and “last but not least,” Larry Page and Sergey Brin “for proving that one doesn’t need to be a college dropout to become a billionaire – they both have Masters degrees in computer science at Stanford and even attempted to do their PhDs.”

He added, ” And let’s not forget Thomas Alva Edison – for inventing the light-bulb and accidentally founding the largest US corporation, General Electric.”

Having fun

Financial success has allowed Ghenea to see most of the world – more than 80 countries so far – thus satisfying his passion for history, geography and archaeology. But he readily admits, “there are so many more places yet to visit that I am sure will keep me busy for quite a few years.” While abroad, he enjoys scuba diving and, since becoming PADI qualified seven years ago, he has gone searching deep beneath many of the earth’s waters including the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans; and the Mediterranean, Red and Caribbean Seas.

His global travels have also allowed him to expand a unique collection he began some years ago – of world maps. “One needs to know where one is going in life after all,” he added, smiling.

Favorites:

Country – Netherlands: people; landscape; cleanliness; infrastructure.

City – Singapore: the cleanest, most beautiful and most developed equatorial city in the world.

Food – real German bratwurst with mustard, always with a good beer.

Drink – Mai Tai and Glenfiddich whisky.

Bucharest restaurant – Casa di David: excellent cuisine, outstanding service and great location (close to my home).

Restaurant abroad – Scirocco, outdoor on the 64th floor of Bangkok’s State Tower Lebua (great dining and skyline view).

Hotel in Romania – Radisson, appears to have good standards and many restaurants and bars.

Hotel abroad – Saint Regis New York; prestige, location (at 55th and 5th).

Holiday destination – Kauai Island, Hawaii.

Last vacation taken – Boston and Cape Cod, USA (Provincetown with Mayflower stories, plus whale watching).

Airline – Singapore Airlines, best service in big airline league.

Movie – The Heartbreak Kid, with Ben Stiller & Michelle Monaghan), a classic comedy.

Author – Milan Kundera, especially ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being.’ So European and post-modernist and doing his magic like Garcia Marquez with a magical-realist approach.

Last book read – “When will Jesus bring the pork chops,” by George Carlin, an iconoclast writer.

Car – Range Rover Supercharged, simply the best car in its class.

Hobby – Map collecting.

Sport – diving: best place – Great Barrier Reef.

Team – Universitatea Craiova (once great, maybe again; I’m a sponsor).

Music – classical (Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Vivaldi).

Role model – a Branson-Gates “combo.”

Office gadget – Dell Latitude notebook.

Date and place of birth – 4 June, 1968, Craiova.

Birth sign – Gemini.