Georgescu’s main concern, as part of this new activity, is the education system. The amounts to be invested in each of the businesses being analyzed range between EUR100,000 and several million euros. So far the only investments have been made in renting a space in America House office building and in the salaries of the 15 employees.
“I have recently set up a business incubator together with a friend from college, Tudor Chindea, and we want to come up with business plans for six ideas,” says Georgescu. “We have hired 15 college graduates who are working on the pre-launch of these businesses – analyzing the market, competition, ways in which you can make a name for yourself on the market – and on October 1 we plan to choose three or four ideas to implement,” he adds, specifying that three of the projects are in education, while the others are in telecommunications, human resources and an online store.
Georgescu, a graduate of Bucharest’s Academy of Economic Studies, says he is unhappy with the Romanian education system, and has taken courses at several prestigious schools in the UK and the US in the past five or six years. In the US, he took inspiration from the “Teach for America” program for one of his ideas called “Teach for Romania”, whereby he intends to improve local education.
The “Teach for Romania” program will have top-level graduates teaching in Bucharest’s poorer districts, such as Rahova and Ferentari.
Georgescu has already had talks with the Education Ministry and is planning to bring the first 50 teachers to teach fifth to eighth graders as part of the program in 2012, and is looking for various methods to motivate graduates to go into the Romanian education system, where wages start from the country’s minimum wage.
(English version by Daniela Stoican, edited by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)