"To create a space where each employee feels included and valued, attention should be paid to building teamwork, showing appreciation, and welcoming ideas from every member of your team."
A natural leader and a dedicated computer enthusiast with 20 years of software development and leadership experience. Dmytro Nikandrov has a proven track record of managing cross-functional teams from different companies, cultures, and time zones. His current goals at Binaryx are the strategic development and technical leadership of payment system and blockchain projects, evolving tokenization platform, and strengthening Binaryx relationship with potential tech partners in Europe.
Prior to joining Binaryx, Dmytro was employed by the leading electronics and software companies, including Samsung, Huawei, YotaDevices, VEON, VeryGoodSecurity, Global Logic, Ciklum, and ultimately set up his own software outsourcing business. In 2014 his company Letiko designed an app for NYSE, The New York stock exchange. In 2015 Letiko created an Android app for Vurb, California based startup, which was subsequently sold to Snapchat for $110 million along with the app.
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Table of Contents
Thank you so much for giving us your time! Before we begin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and take us through what exactly your company does and what your vision is for its future?
Dmytro Nikandrov: My name is Dmytro Nikandrov, I’m VP of Engineering of Binaryx, the digital asset exchange. Our platform offers the best experience for both professional and non-professional traders. We are constantly increasing the number of cryptocurrency pairs according to traders’ demand. Soon, we will be launching a new platform for asset tokenization. That’s a great opportunity for companies to transform their assets into digital form and issue tokens based on a company value.
NO child ever says I want to be a CEO/entrepreneur when I grow up. What did you want to be and how did you get where you are today?
Dmytro Nikandrov: I have been developing my curiosity for many years. At the age of 8, computers became the subject of my interest. I was mesmerized by how everything works. I broke my home computer into pieces once and was able to fix it after reading a couple of thick books – this was the beginning of my engineering career. It’s no surprise I took up computer science at the university. Then there was a victory in the Samsung engineering competition. After that, the work in Samsung mobile division followed with a lot of programming and setting up my own software development business. I went on to work as a CTO/Director of Engineering in several well-known companies & startups. Later I was invited to Binaryx as a consultant and ultimately took over the engineering department.
In the next decade, I plan to develop online digital services aimed at decentralization, privacy, and finance, where the user fully owns and controls their personal information.
Tell us something about yourself that others in your organization might be surprised to know.
Dmytro Nikandrov: On weekends, I like to sleep alone in the car on the riverside. It helps me to relax after a hectic week. And I think everyone will be surprised to know that I have a dream to establish a digital school for kids, where they can learn about blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, tokenization, and how to use it in real life. Digital currency and decentralized finances are the future, and I think we should prepare the younger generation to embrace it.
Many readers may wonder how to become an entrepreneur but what is an entrepreneur? How would you define it?
Dmytro Nikandrov: An entrepreneur is a person who is willing to take risks and lose everything in order to get profit. That’s a person who has a strong drive and perseverance on the way to success. An entrepreneur needs to possess a whole host of skills and have a good education to cope with the challenges that may come their way. Although we know many famous entrepreneurs who dropped out of college, Steve Jobs and Mark Zukerberg to name just a few, I still think that learning is a must – no matter where you get it, either at school or from the books and video materials. In the modern world, entrepreneurs have to be well-versed in various areas of expertise, and not only the one they are engaged in.
Ultimately, an entrepreneur is the individual who contributes to society, facilitates the growth of economics, and drives innovation.
What is the importance of having a supportive and inclusive culture?
Dmytro Nikandrov: Commitment to inclusive and supportive culture can immensely improve the work environment. A healthy work environment boosts productivity and generations of new ideas, whereas a poor environment can actually destroy business. To create a space where each employee feels included and valued, attention should be paid to building teamwork, showing appreciation, and welcoming ideas from every member of your team.
How can a leader be disruptive in the post covid world?
Dmytro Nikandrov: One of the key leadership qualities is the ability to adapt, and this skill has become especially relevant in the Covid-19 era. Today it’s vital to be creative and flexible to face and overcome challenges. The success of the leader in the new world depends to no small extent on trying new things and approaches, encouraging the members of your team to make contributions, and having a positive attitude. And don’t ever get comfortable, because it’s a major obstacle to progress. You need to push yourself out of your comfort zone all the time and be innovative.
If a 5-year-old asked you to describe your job, what would you tell them?
Dmytro Nikandrov: Today’s kids are into playing with some apps on smartphones or tablets, and all those apps are created by people. Each software is like a recipe, and to produce a good one you need to know which ingredients to add. Well, that’s what I do. Only the apps I build are for adults and are meant to simplify and better their lives. I also know how to make money just using computers – it’s akin to mining gold, but instead of pickaxe, like in Minecraft, I use a special set of computers called mining rigs. The extracted money are called cryptocurrencies, they are not your usual money, but digital money – and in the future, we are all going to use them, rather than paper money or coins.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Dmytro Nikandrov: One of the most difficult decisions that every entrepreneur occasionally has to make is to part with long-time teammates. I’ve had to do that more than once and it’s never been easy, but if I see that a person no longer shares the core values of the company – I let them go. Another tough decision – is leaving the project I’d worked on for many years when I realized it was no longer relevant and hindered the development of the company. It was like abandoning your own child.
Leaders are usually asked about their most useful qualities but let’s change things up a bit. What is your most useless talent?
Dmytro Nikandrov: I think there’s no such thing as useless talent. Every talent and capability can be put to good use and monetized if you act wisely. Actually, I oppose wasting talents and highly recommend developing and promoting inherent qualities from a young age. You don’t know which one of them may come in handy. As for fun talents, I can fall asleep whenever I want and read books upside down.
Thank you so much for your time but before we finish things off, we do have one more question. If you wrote a book about your life until today, what would the title be?
Dmytro Nikandrov: That’s food for thought, for sure. I guess it would sound something like “Engineering your life.”
How to hack your own life, because, in the end, the only thing that matters is how we build our life and live it. Unfortunately, not all of us have a magical toolkit to tackle all problems and engineer a perfect life, but I’ll be glad to share some tips and tricks from my own experience.
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Dmytro Nikandrov for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Dmytro Nikandrov or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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