New Entrepreneur (NE)
Name & surname: Alexandra Alexandru
Country: Romania
Age: 23 years
Sector of activity: Entertainment industry
Have you already started your business? No
Host Entrepreneur (HE)
Name & surname: Christoph Gschier
Country: Austria
Sector of activity: IT, office and communication equipment, services and supplies
Experience in running a business: 12 years
Name of business/website: IXSOL – innovative solutions GmbH / www.ixsol.at
Period of Relationship: 01/03/2020 – 30/06/2020
Duration of Relationship: 4 months
How did Christoph Gschier gain new ideas for his business?
Since 2007, Christoph Gschier has been one of the owners of IXSOL – innovative solutions GmbH. Before that, he spent several years abroad in different career stages. His intention to participate in the Erasmus program was to share his entrepreneurial experience and at the same time to benefit from the collaboration with someone who comes from a different cultural background as this brings fresh perspectives in his work. He has already made positive experiences with software developers from Romania so he was interested in finding someone original from this country also this time.
Very soon after his application for the program, he created a match with Alexandra. Alexandra has studied System Engineering and planned to build her own business. She joined the Erasmus program to learn how to handle and overcome the challenges encountered by an entrepreneur. In March 2020, Christoph and Alexandra started their 4-months business exchange.
Thanks to her open-minded personality, Alexandra easily integrated herself into the team. “This was a very positive aspect as we are working in a small team and therefore it is important to have a good chemistry between the colleagues”, Christoph says.
Alexandra’s main activities were software development as well as the improvement of marketing skills with WordPress in order to increase Christoph’s business visibility.
From Christoph’s point of view, it is essential to know the language of the country. Although a lot of communication happens in English, the working language in his company is still German. Therefore, that might hamper an exchange in some stages as a lot of information is given in passing.
The challenge of the corona crisis had no influence on their projects. During the lock-down period they worked remotely but could achieve everything they had planned.
The exchange became a very fruitful one and Christoph was happy to gain new insights from Alexandra, to have started new business concepts and at least helped her with her future business.