THE NEXTHOUGH STARTUP SUMMIT

Our speakers introduce to you. -

The NEXTHOUGHT STARTUP SUMMIT, is a place that gathers a great number of amazing people. My next speaker is amazing indeed, a person who is capable to focus her attention in a number of angles and come up with a number of solutions, that have earn her a place of respect in the startup world.

She has helped develop +35 software and hardware projects, she has helped multiple companies reach eight-digit revenue numbers, always achieving growth through customer satisfaction.

As a personal note, coming from this humble producer it will be an honor to hear her presentation and get a little bit wiser and smarter

Interview

Q.-   Please State your name, nick name (if you have) your age and place of residency.

ANS.- Anastasiia Bilous, 31y.o. I am Ukrainian who lived in many countries and cities and currently settled down in Zurich, Switzerland.

Q.-   What key factors made you take the decision to pursue technology as a way of living?

ANS.- 

   ?      My first career steps were made in the United States more than 11 years ago, I began with off-line marketing for one of Maryland's largest entertainment complexes. Then the marketing path continued at the ?home? of all European start-ups — the city of Berlin, where I was responsible for the product and online marketing strategy of the large-scale MVNO platform Yukoono, which was acquired by Panasonic. Next, also in Germany, I was in charge of creating the beta version and was responsible for launching a local discount business platform, which has been successfully sold (under the NDA) and is currently operating internationally.

   ?      After this project, I returned back to Ukraine, because I wanted to build high-quality online products at home. For 8.5 years, I have been running the Marketing and Product departments in a large number of projects (in some of them revenue grew by 200-400% per year, teams up to 500%), I was responsible for launching these projects internationally (more than 22 locations), I was Chief Strategic Officer at the International Investment Fund, where I was responsible for the Due Diligence process, and then for online marketing and mentoring of the startups in which our fund has invested.I am currently Chief Strategic Officer at the international company New Media Services, which is represented in more than 22 countries and employs around 2,200 professionals & 16 offices around the world.

Q.- What do you commonly do in order to achieve efficiency in your projects?

ANS.- 1. Say ?YES? to any opportunity. Even if the benefits are unclear in the short term.

2. Always remember that your team is your key to the success.

3. Do not be afraid to ask for what you consider deserved for your work.

4. Do not be afraid of mistakes. Learn on them. But try not to repeat them.

5. Learn something new every day and continue to always learn.

 Q.- Where should we focus, as startup professionals, in order to make a more profound change in our ecosystem?

ANS.- 1. The customer’s pain. It seems to go without saying that you can’t have much of a business if customers won’t pay you. As a leader, you must spend time meeting with those customers and find a need that competitors aren't meeting.

   2.    Your co-founder. Many entrepreneurs seek out co-founders. But picking the wrong one can be fatal for your startup.

   3.    Your culture. As a startup grows, founders can’t do all the work themselves. Instead they hire people.

   4.    Adapting. The biggest competitive advantage of a startup over a big company is its ability to attack profit pools faster. 

Q.-  If you could plant one thought in the head of everyone on earth what would it be?

ANS.- I see often that IT startups treat it as some hobby project. But startup in any area should be always oriented on business. Which means that everything starts with the idea but numbers come next after it.

 Q.- What is your concept of time availability versus work responsibilities?

 ANS.- Work Hard but Work Smart. There should be balance in life but of course all deadlines and urgent things have to be treated accordingly. 

 Q.- What would you consider to be the biggest mistakes of mankind in the last decade?

 ANS.- Interesting questions. It’s many. I would highlight the failure of learning on the past mistakes.

Q.-  What would you consider to be the greatest accomplishment of mankind in the last decade?

ANS.- It’s so many great things which has happened during the last decade. I think mobile growth and the possibility to have strong computer in your pocket is one of them.

Q.-  Where can you forth see ourselves at the end of this year?

ANS.- We live in very unpredictable time. I would recommend anyone to consider Plan B when you cannot work with your team from one office and have the strategy how to sustainably operate further even being isolated from your team and clients, and partners.

Q.- How do you think that startups affect social surroundings?

ANS.- Startups may be small companies but they can play a significant role in economic growth. They create more jobs which means more employment, and more employment means an improved economy. Not only that, startups can also contribute to economic dynamism by spurring innovation and injecting competition. New entrepreneurs can bring new ideas to the table, much needed to stir innovation and generate competition.

Startups have a direct-impact on the cities that they make their homes. Look at how Infosys has changed Bangalore, Alibaba impacted Hangzhou, Microsoft changed Redmond and Google transformed Mountain View, California. All these companies started small, but as they grew, they transformed the cities where they operated. They improved employment patterns providing job opportunities to both experienced and young professionals. This led to surge in inflow of graduates and relocation of experienced professionals from different cities (examples are taken from the recent article in StartupGrind).

Q.- If you could give new startup entrepreneurs an advice what would it be?

ANS.- Get Comfortable with the Unknown. You will never know enough.

END OF INTERVIEW

I would like to thank Anastasiia, I am really looking forward for her presentation at the NEXTHOUGHTS STARTUP SUMMIT, happening from the 22nd  to the 24th of June. 100% online streamed through the Life Mastery Foundation channels.

If you, reading this now, believe you could contribute to the common knowledge of our startup community you are welcome to write me at [email protected] and I will be happy to discuss it with you.

Thank you for taking some time from your day to know our dear speakers a little bit better.

Best regards

Jorge Boero

Producer

NEXTHOUGH STARTUP SUMMIT

LIFE MASTERY FOUNDATION