Continuing with the Cloudways interview series, today we have Sandu Babasan, a well-known member of the Magento community. Sandu is the Country Manager at Blugento. He is an old Magento hand, who started his career in 2008 with MindMagnet.
Babasan is also the organizer of MeetMagento Romania, the premier Magento event in Romania. Because of his excellent leadership skills, he has been instrumental in developing the largest software development organization in Romania.
So, without any further ado, let’s get on with this exciting interview!
Cloudways: Sandu, you’ve been a part of Magento community for a very long time. Could you please introduce yourself to the newer members of the community?
Sandu: I have been a part of the Magento community since the end of 2008 when together with MindMagnet agency, I started our first Magento project. Since then, I have been involved in advanced Magento powered solutions.
Cloudways: How and why did you choose Magento as your career? What challenges did you face during your initial days and how did you tackle them?
Sandu: In 2008, together with an important client, I studied the market for about a month in order to establish which available platforms could cover the needs which I may say are essential for ecommerce stores. I finally decided upon Magento.
At that time in Romania, we did not have many Magento experts. I decided to set up an in-house training unit to make up for the lack of quality human resources. Nine years later. I am happy to report that the training unit has successfully educated over 80 specialists in this area.
Cloudways: You are the Country Manager at Blugento. What do necessary steps you take to create a meaningful impact on Blugento’s workflow?
Sandu: When it comes to ecommerce, Romania is both one of the least developed and fastest growing countries in Europe. In this context, at Blugento, I believe we must be agile and innovative with our workflow. We have great perspectives for launching the platform in other European countries, and in doing so, we will consolidate the product and the workflow, based on better-established markets.
Cloudways: You have worked in lead positions at different organizations. How would you define Success? What does it take to be a successful Leader/Entrepreneur and how important it is to motivate and engineer the team dynamics and workflows during a project?
Sandu: Success is doing what you love every day. For me, that is spending time with people who are passionate about technology and innovative solutions. How to inspire my team was the first lesson I learned in this business. Now, they are the ones who inspire me!
Cloudways: You have attended a lot of Magento events. Also, you are the organizer of MeetMagento Romania. Could you highlight the importance and advantages of these types of events for the Magento Community?
Sandu: Meet Magento has profoundly changed my personal and professional life. Through these events, I met experts who quickly became good friends and partners. MeetMagento connects you to incredible business opportunities and the best of developers and Magento users in your area.
Cloudways: On which key points do you mainly focus on while organizing MeetMagento Romania? How does your team work on it and what strategies do you follow to make each and every event a success?
Sandu: The content that is presented at MeetMagento is the most important asset of the event. Speakers with years of experience in the ecommerce field (development and business) make this event a great success! We try to offer a comprehensive experience to the participants that include everything from the event’s location, food and the party time for the Magento fanatics. This party is already a well-established tradition, known as Party404.
Cloudways: Sandu, what is your one accomplishment that you are really proud of? 🙂 Is there any famous quote that keeps you motivated and helps you achieve more every day?
Sandu: I developed a team that is now a part of one of the largest software development organizations in Romania. Starting with 2017, MindMagnet is a part of Pitech Group, which currently has over 350 experts. We have a growth plan of 30% for this year.
“Skills are cheap. Passion is priceless.” – Gary Vaynerchuck
Cloudways: Since you have management skills under your belt, what would be your advice to the future Magento leaders?
Sandu: Never stop learning. Never stop doing. This is as important for students as it is for Magento entrepreneurs.
Cloudways: How do you spend your spare time? Do you like games, movies, and hangouts with friends and family?
Sandu: I like to spend my spare time together with family and friends. My friends are like a part of my family. I am passionate about running. Each kilometer I run is a happiness boost.
Cloudways: Name a few individuals who have inspired and motivated you in your personal and professional life.
Sandu: In my personal life, I draw my inspiration from the people close to me. I am lucky to have such a healthy entourage. Professionally I learn from the best: Elon Musk, Jack Ma, Florin Talpes. There’s something to learn from every great entrepreneur.
Cloudways: Cloudways provides 1-click Magento installation with impressive speed & great cloud infrastructures embedded within the platform. Would you prefer shared hosting for Magento stores or a cloud hosting environment like Cloudways offers?
Sandu: Definitely cloud solutions for four main reasons: performance, rich features, ease of use and scalability.
Fayyaz Khattak
Fayyaz, a passionate Motorbike tourist, works as a Team Lead — Magento Community at Cloudways - A Managed Magento Hosting Platform. His objective is to learn & share about PHP & Magento Development in Community. You can contact him at [email protected]
