Lee and VLAD discuss:

• The experience of childhood in the Soviet Union, and cultural shift upon moving to America

• Finding greater interest in the business applications of technology than the tech itself

• Vlad’s 4 pillars of entrepreneurialism

• Getting more excited by constructive criticism than perfect praise

Links & references:

Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/

Vlad Nanu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nvlad/

Amdaris: https://amdaris.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/amdaris-group/

https://www.facebook.com/thisisamdaris/

https://twitter.com/Amdaris

Get in touch: lee@extrology.com

Episode highlights:

“I was an engineer from day one. I was always interested in fixing stuff, looking inside and opening radios and cameras, so I knew that I would become a tech person sooner or later, and the interest in software engineering probably started when I played my first video game.” - 3:45 - Vlad Nanu

“The generation older than us worked hard so I could have it easier, right? That's why I work hard, so that our kids can get it easier, and that's called progress. So although there's nostalgia and a thought of ‘I was luckier’ or ‘I had to work harder’, in reality what we did, and we're still doing, is building the pathway for the next generation to build something greater.” - 9:45 - Vlad Nanu

“I'm not getting excited as much from advancements in technology as I used to, but I do get excited about the business aspect. So that's kind of my career progression, where I started to appreciate more of the commercial side and business side of the technology.” - 17:45 - Vlad Nanu

“As with any startup you have time in survival mode. It's a bit of a catch 22 - the dream was to do something nice and big. Of course, that always was there, but you couldn't visualise it. For us every day was a day where we needed to do something to earn our salary and pay our colleagues.” - 22:10 - Vlad Nanu

“Time is very important, because sometimes people just believe that after trying something that didn't work out in a month or so, that they should give up. That's absolutely wrong. Time is an important ingredient in any success. You have to wait, you have to invest time. It's okay if you invest a year, two, five, ten years. That's okay, too. So time is extremely important.” - 25:35 - Vlad Nanu

“We were given a 12 month extension because we were so great with them, and we said ‘Great, so we have another 12 months to think about the transition’. They did leave 12 months later because they had to, but 2 years later they came back with even more projects. So investing in your customers & loving them is extremely important. It doesn't matter what the end date is, or if it never comes, we still have to be a good supplier. Always think about your customer.” - 29:10 - Vlad Nanu

“We have a very strong feedback mechanism from our clients, where we ask our customers every 3-6 months. We ask a very simple question, which is an NPS score, but equally there are some additional questions. Every time I get a 9 or 10 out of 10, everybody seems very excited. I say not to get excited. That doesn't mean anything, we can't really improve. Let's get excited about a 7, a 5 or a 5. That's exciting. Go back and ask why go back and improve.” - 34:50 - Vlad Nanu

“What doesn't excite me when somebody just takes a classic business model and tries to digitise it. But when somebody looks at business processes, comes up with a completely new business model, quickly goes on the market, tries to earn market share, that's really interesting. Like with Uber, Deliveroo and Just Eat, these are interesting technologies. It doesn't matter how they did it, what matters is what they did and how they went to the market.” - 43:55 - Vlad Nanu

“It's just fascinating how pretty much everything we use now somehow has Steve Jobs’ name associated. He did something for the World Wide Web with his NeXT company. Cartoons & movies - he was there with computer graphics and Pixar. Apple, obviously the iPhones. Even the mouse he nicked from Xerox, or wherever he took the idea from. Everything we do now, directly or indirectly, is associated with his name, even many years after he passed away. So he's an interesting person in computer science history.” - 47:15 - Vlad Nanu

“When it's hard, you need friends, you need connections, you need relationships, and you have to invest in them. So I think that is really really important alongside having the vision.” - 54:25 - Vlad Nanu

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