CM

Cristian Munteanu

Founder & Managing Partner at Early Game Ventures

Bucharest, Bucharest

Work Experience

  • Founder & Managing Partner

    2017

    Early Game Ventures (EGV) is an early-stage venture capital firm. Our philosophy is quite straightforward: we invest at the earliest stages in companies whose founders have vested interests, are coachable, and address big markets. If the opportunity is real, we prefer to be the first institutional investor in such startups.

2016 - 2016

  • Co-founder, CEO

    2016 - 2016

    At Scooterson Inc. we're building the hardware platform and the Human-Machine Interface for the autonomous two-wheelers of the future. Our first product is world’s smartest electric scooter.
 It has no acceleration lever and no gear shifter – 
it knows how fast to go by analyzing rider’s body movements.

2013 - 2016

  • Founder, CEO

    2013 - 2016

    Qalendra is a service that automates travel research, improves results better than any human expert, and delivers it instantly on any platform. The algorithms ingest data from many sources, compare all destinations at once, and identify where the best conditions for vacations and activities are, anywhere in the world, up to 4 months in advance. As the founder and CEO I directly managed and supervised all vital processes from idea origination, testing and validation to relocating the company from Europe to the USA and fundraising on Sand Hill Road: - market sizing, positioning and go-to-market strategy - competitive mapping and analysis - assembling the founding team and recruiting key personnel - supervised company incorporation, patent filing and other legal procedures - financial planning; full P&L responsibilities - product development and R&D - fundraising in Europe, Seattle and the Silicon Valley - communication and PR - business development, strategic partnerships and investor relationship - public speaking at industry's top global events

2005 - 2013

  • CEO

    2010 - 2013

    During the economic crisis of 2008, while the entire industry was struggling, TBWA\Bucharest performed amazingly well with a profitability rate of over 30%! The great results were due to a healthy new business effort, a sound business development strategy and an accurate implementation of a performance management style. Selected accomplishments: - Created a new business division named TBWA\SOA - specialized in social communication, CSR and NGOs. - Set up a software development regional hub under the label of E-GRAPHICS to service network's offices in Western Europe. - Serviced network and local clients such as: Apple, McDonald's, Adidas, Nissan, Michelin, Henkel, GSK, Vichy, Samsung, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Tourism.

  • Executive Creative Director, TBWA\Central Eastern Europe

    2007 - 2010

    As the Executive Creative Director of TBWA/CEE - Omnicom Group Inc., OMC (NYSE) - I was in charge with managing the creative resources of the network in 16 countries, from Austria and the Czech Republic to Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan. From this position I worked on optimizing the processes and the workflow, on easing the access to network knowledge and on leveraging the expertise on international clients. I helped strengthen the new business effort and I provided support for the local teams on regional projects for world's largest advertisers. I either led or was part of international teams working on agency's largest clients in: Moscow, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Paris, Prague, Warsaw, Istanbul, Budapest, Bucharest.

  • Executive Creative Director

    2005 - 2007

    As the Creative Director of the Romanian TBWA office I was in charge with leading the creative department and representing the agency to all ad festivals and industry events. I implemented new procedures, creative standards and a daring corporate culture. As a result, the agency gain recognition and became one of the high profile Romanian agencies. In 2004, TBWA was ranked # 23rd among the Romanian agencies in terms of creativity. In 2008 the agency was ranked # 4th.

2004 - 2005

  • Co-founder, Creative Director

    2004 - 2005

    Co-founded Merlin Advertising, acquired by TBWA, Omnicom.

2001 - 2004

  • Copywriter

    2001 - 2004

    Copywriter on various accounts such as: Connex/Vodafone, ING Bank, Coca-Cola, Minolta, Rompetrol.

  • Co-founder, Editor

    2000 - 2001

    Member of the founding team of "Observatorul cultural", a new cultural and social publication that managed to become the second title on the market in just one year after its launch.

1998 - 2000

  • Editor

    1998 - 2000

    Editor at "Dilema" review, the leading intellectual debate forum in Romania.