In a market dominated by global giants like OpenTable and TheFork, a Romanian startup is quietly building a $3.1M empire by solving one simple problem: booking a table without picking up the phone. ialoc.ro isn't just another reservation app—it's a local champion proving that hyper-focus beats global scale.

"The most powerful signal of product-market fit isn't search volume—it's direct traffic. When 44% of visitors type your URL directly, you've become a habit, not a search result."

What makes their tech stack interesting is the blend of modern and pragmatic. They use Tailwind CSS and Ant Design for rapid UI development, jQuery for legacy compatibility, and PWA capabilities for mobile performance. This isn't a cutting-edge stack, but it's a 'get things done' stack that works across Romania's diverse device landscape. The Cloudflare implementation suggests they're thinking about performance and security at scale.

• 19 employees generating $3.1M revenue = ~$163K per employee
• 44% direct traffic indicates strong brand recall and repeat usage
• 57K backlinks from local food blogs and restaurant directories
• Focus on 4 cities creates density and network effects