Cosmin Dărăban is the CEO & Co-Founder of Gomag, one of Romania’s leading eCommerce platforms, which he built based on the belief that every Romanian entrepreneur deserves access to high-quality technology, regardless of budget or technical experience.

C&B: If you were to look at the narrative thread of your career, what were the key moments that defined you?

Cosmin Dărăban: My career has never followed a linear plan; rather, it has been a series of moments when I chose to take calculated risks.

It all started in 2005, when I founded SilkWeb, a digital agency. At a time when the Romanian internet landscape was still in its infancy, the idea of building a business exclusively online seemed, to many, like something out of a fantasy story. I saw something different: an enormous opportunity and a market that was about to explode.

Working closely with clients who wanted to sell online, I quickly realized that their problem wasn’t a lack of ambition; they lacked the right tools.

Existing platforms were either too expensive, too complex, or simply unsuitable for the realities of the Romanian market. That’s how the idea emerged to build our own platform from scratch, right within the agency.

It was a long process filled with testing and adjustments. It wasn’t until 2016 that the platform received the name it still carries today—Gomag—with a distinct identity. That moment represented a public commitment that we were no longer building an internal tool, but a standalone product with a clear vision and a market we wanted to serve.

It was a strategic pivot that permanently differentiated us from the competition and brought us to where we are today.

C&B: What has been the most difficult moment in your journey so far, and how did you overcome it?

Cosmin Dărăban: The first thing that comes to mind is the period when I had to balance the platform’s growth with the resources available.

From what I’ve seen, every startup reaches a stage where pressure comes from all directions at once: customers demand more, the team needs clear direction, the market evolves rapidly, and you find yourself in the middle of the storm carrying the responsibility of staying on course.

I got through that period through a combination of discipline, accountability, and honest communication with the team. I never pretended to have all the answers. I involved the people around me in finding solutions, prioritized realistically, and accepted that you can’t do everything perfectly at the same time.

In practical terms, that translated into 12 years during which I personally worked without a salary.

The lesson I carry with me from that period is that resilience doesn’t mean never falling; it means having reasons to get back up every time you do.

C&B: How does Gomag contribute to the development of the eCommerce ecosystem in Romania and the region?

Cosmin Dărăban: Today, Gomag is essentially a driver of online commerce democratization, not just an eCommerce platform. We contribute to the ecosystem on several levels.

First, we reduce entry barriers. Anyone—from a craftsman in Transylvania selling handmade products to an entrepreneur with an established distribution network—can quickly launch a functional online store without needing an IT department.

Second, we constantly educate the market. Through content, webinars, events, guides, and community-building initiatives, we actively contribute to improving the digital competence of Romanian entrepreneurs. Why? Because we don’t want customers who depend on us; we want a community of entrepreneurs who understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.

Third, we are building an ecosystem of partners—agencies, freelancers, and consultants—who work with Gomag and, in turn, serve hundreds of businesses. That’s how impact multiplies.

At a regional level, we are already present in other markets, and our model—a SaaS platform with local support and features adapted to each market’s specifics—has proven to be a real competitive advantage over global solutions that treat all markets the same.

C&B: What does it mean, in practical terms, for an entrepreneur to “reach their potential” through a platform like Gomag?

Cosmin Dărăban: In short, it means selling more with less manual effort and being able to make decisions based on real data.

Let me be specific. An entrepreneur who joins Gomag can launch a fully functional online store within a few hours—with integrated payments, inventory management, automatic invoicing, and courier synchronization. No coding, no agency contracts, and no waiting months for implementation. This means they can test a business idea quickly and validate the market before investing significant resources.

As the business grows, the platform grows with it. Gomag offers over 400 native features, including GoBots for task automation within the platform, dozens of customizable themes, loyalty programs, customer segmentation, automated upsell and cross-sell tools, marketplace integrations, Facebook Ads and multichannel feeds, as well as a dedicated Google Shopping Ads automation service.

All of this is available without requiring external developers or customization budgets worth tens of thousands of euros.

For example, a merchant who activates native abandoned cart recovery can recover between 10% and 15% of lost sales automatically, without manual intervention. One who uses segmentation and automated post-purchase emails will see significantly higher retention rates. Another who integrates all sales channels into a single dashboard can save hours every week and invest that time elsewhere.

The combinations of possibilities offered by the platform are virtually limitless and can be adapted to the specific needs of each entrepreneur.

C&B: If we met your team or collaborators, what do you think they would say about you?

Cosmin Dărăban: Honestly? I think they would say I’m demanding but fair. My vision requires setting high standards consistently—for myself and for those around me—but one of my personal principles is never to ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do first myself.

They might also say that I’m direct, sometimes uncomfortably direct, but that I never have a hidden agenda.

They would probably add that I’m deeply involved in the product, that I have an almost obsessive curiosity for details, that I ask a lot of questions, and that I never accept a “good enough” mentality. But I hope they would also say that I give people room to grow, that I listen to their ideas, and that I recognize everyone’s contribution when we celebrate company victories.

C&B: What is the most important decision you’ve made that changed your trajectory?

Cosmin Dărăban: Without a doubt, the decision to transform an internal agency tool into a standalone product.

We initially built the platform to better serve SilkWeb clients because it was a practical solution to a real problem. But at one point, I realized it had outgrown the boundaries of an internal tool and that its potential was much greater.

Giving a project its own identity—a new name, a dedicated team, and a separate strategy—means taking a double risk: you risk the agency’s resources and you risk the possibility that the product won’t be adopted at the scale you envision. In 2016, when we decided to focus on Gomag as a SaaS solution, we had no guarantees. We only had the conviction that the market needed what we were building and that we understood that market better than anyone else.

An equally important decision was staying focused—not getting distracted by premature diversification, but striving to become the smartest eCommerce choice for Romanian and regional merchants.

C&B: How did you develop your leadership style and decision-making approach? Was it natural or learned?

Cosmin Dărăban: It was both natural and forged through experience. I believe I came with certain traits already in place: curiosity, pragmatism, and energy. But my leadership style was largely shaped by difficult experiences, mistakes, and the people I worked alongside.

I learned that a good leader is someone who asks the right questions, not someone who has all the answers. I also learned that decision-making speed matters just as much as accuracy: a perfect decision made too late can cause more damage than an imperfect one made at the right moment.

And I learned something else: people don’t follow visions—they follow people. If you’re not authentic, you won’t build anything that lasts.

C&B: How does your impact translate into numbers and tangible results for clients?

Cosmin Dărăban: Today, there are over 5,000 online stores built on Gomag, which collectively generated more than €500 million in sales during 2025.

Those figures speak for themselves, but beyond the aggregates, I’m interested in individual stories: the entrepreneur who grew from 50 to 500 orders per month during their first year on the platform; the store that automated post-purchase interactions and increased retention rates by two or three times; the business that achieved in three months after switching to Gomag what it had failed to accomplish in an entire year on another platform.

Operational efficiency is actually one of the most underrated indicators. When an entrepreneur gains 10 hours per week through a well-implemented automation process, those are 10 hours they can reinvest into growing the business. That’s real impact, and it’s what our technology delivers.

C&B: What does a typical day look like for you now, and which moments bring you the greatest satisfaction?

Cosmin Dărăban: My mornings are dedicated to sports and exercise. It’s a ritual I try hard to protect. Beyond physical health, I believe it’s essential for the mental clarity it provides. Many of my best decisions have taken shape during a workout rather than in front of a screen.

The rest of the day alternates between strategic thinking, internal meetings, product analysis, conversations with partners, and sometimes direct interactions with customers or our community.

The moments that bring me the greatest satisfaction are, paradoxically, the small ones: seeing a feature we’ve discussed for months work perfectly on the platform, receiving a message from a customer who has reached an important sales milestone, or seeing a team member come up with an idea that is clearly better than what we had originally planned.

Those moments confirm that we are shaping something alive with our minds and hands—and they are invaluable.

C&B: What differentiates Gomag from other international or local eCommerce platforms?

Cosmin Dărăban: There are several structural differences.

The first is that we are built for the Romanian and regional markets, not adapted to them afterward. That means integrations with local couriers, payment processors, invoicing systems, and marketing platforms are native, not workarounds.

The second difference is the balance between complexity and accessibility. Gomag provides features usually found in enterprise-level platforms—advanced automation, customer segmentation, integrated marketing—but within an interface that entrepreneurs without technical backgrounds can easily use.

The third difference, and perhaps the most important, is support. We’re not a product you buy and then figure out on your own. We have real people who know the platform in depth and who guide customers step by step as they grow.

C&B: How do you maintain a balance between advanced functionality and ease of use for entrepreneurs without technical backgrounds?

Cosmin Dărăban: This is actually one of the fundamental challenges of our product and an ongoing discussion within the product team.

The principle we start from is that advanced functionality should be available, but not mandatory. A new entrepreneur should be able to launch a store within hours without feeling overwhelmed by options. At the same time, an experienced merchant should find the sophisticated tools they would expect from an enterprise solution.

In practice, this translates into progressive design: default settings are optimized for the most common use cases, while complexity reveals itself gradually as users need it. We constantly test with real users and listen carefully—the feedback from our community has generated some of the platform’s best features.

C&B: What are the most common obstacles entrepreneurs face when scaling an online store, and how does Gomag help them overcome them?

Cosmin Dărăban: The first obstacle is often technical: the platform can no longer keep up with growth. Performance slows down, errors appear, and integrations break. Gomag addresses this through a scalable infrastructure that grows alongside the business, without painful migrations or unexpected surprises.

The second obstacle is operational. At a certain order volume, manual processes become unsustainable. Inventory management, invoicing, and customer communication consume enormous resources if they are not automated. Our automation features are specifically designed for this stage of growth.

The third obstacle comes from marketing. Entrepreneurs often lose visibility into where customers are coming from, what is working, and how to scale further. Gomag provides analytics and integrated marketing tools—email, SMS, abandoned cart recovery, and customer segmentation—that transform data into actionable decisions.

And there is a fourth, more subtle obstacle: the entrepreneur’s sense of isolation. Scaling a business is difficult and often lonely. The Gomag community—made up of customers, partners, and educational resources—provides exactly that feeling that you are not alone in the process.

Through vision, perseverance, and a deep understanding of entrepreneurs’ needs, Cosmin Dărăban has turned Gomag into a benchmark for eCommerce in Romania. From democratizing access to technology to building an ecosystem that supports business growth, his journey demonstrates how innovation and education can create real impact in online commerce.

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