"Success whispers in the language of small steps, not giant leaps. Embrace the power of steady progress."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Max Smotritskiy, the dynamic co-founder of CryptoOracle Collective. In this captivating conversation, we delve into the intriguing intersection of entrepreneurship and the rapidly evolving world of cryptocurrency.
As a seasoned professional navigating the crypto seas, Max unveils the secrets behind the success of CryptoOracle Collective, a decentralized advisory group that has become a powerhouse in the industry.
From launching a token to bridge financial gaps in the advisory market to building trust in a space often plagued by uncertainty, Max shares valuable insights gained from steering his company through challenges and triumphs.
This interview provides an intimate look into Max Smotritskiy’s leadership philosophy, his strategies for maintaining balance amidst the demanding crypto landscape, and his perspective on the future of decentralized finance.
Join us on this exclusive journey as Max Smotritskiy shares his unique experiences, offering a glimpse into the world of crypto entrepreneurship and the visionary strategies driving CryptoOracle Collective’s success.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Max Smotritskiy: Hello! My name is Max Smotritskiy. My life is currently defined by juggling founder and dad duties. Almost two years ago, I co-founded the CryptoOracle Collective. The Collective is a decentralized advisory group built on top of the largest crypto meetup in the world, CryptoMondays.
We sourced top talent from our meetups around the world and connected that talent to work on amazing projects from our network. We are currently home to over 250 advisors and have worked on 23 projects thus far.
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Max Smotritskiy: Our most significant achievement has been successfully launching a token that powers our ecosystem. We saw a gap in the advisory market where most companies we met wanted to pay in illiquid equity for advisory work.
We saw a problem. The problem is that our advisors have bills to pay in real time and cannot wait for that equity to become liquid.
We created a token where we tokenize the equity that we are paid and bridge the gap for those in need of funds by utilizing decentralized finance networks where they can exchange their small portions of equity for stable coins or Ether.
What advice do you wish you had received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Max Smotritskiy: I wish someone told me to focus on taking small steps forward instead of looking for large leaps. We launched our company right before Crypto was hit with more than a few black swan events that launched a bear market.
Navigating this precarious time in the industry has been challenging but my biggest learning was a third or half step forward and no steps back are better than one step forward, and two steps back.
Our focus has been on building relationships and servicing our members and clients in the most efficient way possible, every day, instead of swinging for home runs trying to land the most prominent clients and advisors in crypto.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Max Smotritskiy: The books that influenced my life the most have very little to do with business! I am an avid reader of fiction and find that I get my best ideas and feel most centered while reading.
I am a very analytical thinker and learned that at a very young age. However, it was always difficult for me to focus my analytical brain. I read all the Sherlock Holmes books before the age of 10, and it really helped me hone what became a lifelong skill of pattern recognition and application.
The book I have gifted most is Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s humorous and irreverent and is full of fantastic satire that I wanted to share with all my friends.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Max Smotritskiy: For us, the real challenge is always building trust. We have had many bad actors in the crypto space, and it has been extremely difficult to establish trustworthy relationships between our advisors and clients.
The best service we provide is that everyone in our network has been vetted and has come from a personal referral. A member or a client has staked their reputation on referring only the absolute best people and projects.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Max Smotritskiy: In my experience, the problem I have seen most is burnout. Running a company in the crypto space and working with global projects means that I can quite literally work 24/7.
The harshest lesson is the toll that takes on someone with a young family, such as myself. I believe that every founder needs balance. Balance is the hardest part for any company to get right, not just in the founder’s personal lives but also in the services we provide. We still have not gotten it exactly right.
We tend to skew on giving as much utility as possible to our advisors and feel like if they are happy, they, in turn, will work hard to achieve our clients’ goals.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Max Smotritskiy: Focus is the one thing I wish I had more of. There is so much going on that it takes work to stay focused on each task and problem and work through it.
I know a CEO who has the amazing ability to make everyone he meets feel like they are their center of attention for the duration of their conversation.
With constant distractions and running a large company, that is a fantastic skill to have and is a superpower in itself.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Max Smotritskiy 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 Max Smotritskiy or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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