From in-house solution to market game-changer: “How Growee is revolutionizing HR management in Moldova and Romania”
22 May 2024
How did Growee start, and where did the idea for an all-encompassing SaaS came from?
Cristi Jora, CEO & Co-Founder of Growee: Growee began as an internal project at BinarCode. As our company expanded, we struggled to find a single tool that managed everything from billing to employee evaluations and leave management, especially ones adapted to Romanian and Moldovan legislation. We decided to create our own tool, which we used internally for about two years. Encouraged by positive feedback, we refined it for broader use, launching Growee to help other companies streamline their administrative processes.
What were the biggest challenges in building Growee?
Cristi Jora: Financial constraints were a major challenge since we relied solely on internal resources without external investments. Balancing desired functionalities with our budget while maintaining a quality user experience was crucial. Initially, time constraints also posed a challenge as we didn’t have a dedicated team, which sometimes slowed progress.
How do you ensure GDPR compliance and data security?
Cristi Jora: Growee uses a multi-tenant architecture, ensuring each company’s data is isolated and inaccessible to others. We integrate various technical features like roles and permissions to ensure data security. Sensitive information, such as salaries, is encrypted at the database level. Regular security audits, including penetration testing, help us maintain high security standards. Recently, we obtained a certification from a Romanian penetration testing company, further validating our security measures.
What sets Growee apart from other HR management tools?
Cristi Jora: Growee is designed to meet a broad range of needs, from document management to time tracking, without requiring multiple subscriptions to different SaaS products. Unlike other tools, Growee is tailored to the specific needs and legislation of the Moldovan and Romanian markets. It supports functionalities like working with subcontractors and integrates with tools like Slack, enhancing transparency and ease of use. According to user feedback, Growee has increased administrative efficiency by up to 30% and reduced HR-related costs by 25%.
How easy is it to pilot Growee in a company, and what is the scalability potential?
Cristi Jora: Piloting Growee is straightforward. We understand that large companies often have in-house tools, but Growee offers flexibility and local adaptation that others lack. While we currently focus on the Moldovan and Romanian markets to validate our product, we are technically prepared to scale and support multiple languages.
Any advice for founders entering the HR tech field?
Cristi Jora: HR tech is highly competitive, with many niche products. It’s crucial to have a unique value proposition and a solid team. In Romania, for instance, no single HR tech product dominates the market, which means there’s room for innovative solutions. We’ve found that 60% of HR tech tools in Romania are fragmented, focusing on single functionalities, which opens up opportunities for comprehensive solutions like Growee.
Can you share some background on Growee?
Cristi Jora: Growee helps digitize company data, making business management simple, easy, and secure. Initially developed to meet our own needs, we realized its potential for other companies and decided to make it publicly available. Our team, mainly based in Cluj and Moldova, is dedicated to continuously improving the product. Companies using Growee spend from 20-100 less hours per month on administrative tasks such as onboarding, leave management, reports
What are Growee’s plans for the future?
Cristi Jora: Our plans for 2024 are ambitious yet realistic. We plan to enhance our website with a detailed roadmap and public feature request board. Additionally, we will keep updating our Growee blog with valuable content for our users. Our goal is to increase our user base by 50% and achieve a 95% customer satisfaction rate.
Have you attracted any investments?
Cristi Jora: Not yet; we are currently bootstrapped. We are still testing the idea in Moldova and Romania. Once the startup is validated, we are confident it will make a significant impact and attract the attention it deserves.
What is Growee’s secret sauce?
Cristi Jora: Growee’s unique selling point is its comprehensive coverage of various administrative needs, eliminating the need for multiple subscriptions. It’s designed to be user-friendly and adapted to local needs, making it a powerful tool for companies in our target markets. Users have reported a 20% increase in productivity and a 15% reduction in administrative errors since adopting Growee.
Cristi, kindly introduce us to the team!
Co-Founders: Cecilia (Co-Founder & Product Owner), Eduard (Co-Founder & CTO), and Cristi (Co-Founder & CEO)
Design and Marketing: Claudia (Product Designer) and Silvia (Marketing Specialist)
Development: Vasile (Developer), Cristian (Developer), and Leonid (Quality Assurance)
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