“My company covers the conjunction of artificial intelligence, behavioural analytics and security. Check your recent product – SmartView, the smart retail store advisor, taking a video stream in real time, it classifies customer behaviour and proposes individual offers in real time. This market has a huge potential to develop”. – Maxim Silaev
1. Hello Maxim Silaev, I’m excited to share your story with our readers. Please tell me a little bit about your background and how you ended up choosing your field.
My business activity has a long track record, it started over two decades ago, when I was a software engineer with a passion to research and building tools for everyday business use and soon I found myself surrounded by business people, who are taking business decisions. That was challenging – taking into account my developer experience, I needed to combine a business approach with constant looking for the best technical solution. So, my journey as a businessman started very suddenly and I got used to combine both taking business decisions and technical, and I love it in that kind.
2. What are 3 tips you can share with our readers as it relates to your industry?
My tips will be pretty general, and related to entrepreneurship in common, not o a particular industry.
The first one – do what you love. Find something you love and be ready to dive into.
The second one is never give up. Once you got an idea – test it, change it and you will find your market. Obstacles are your friends, not enemies. As my judo teacher told me one day – if something would be easy, everyone will achieve that.
The third one – build a plan and follow it step-by-step every day. It is much better to make a small step every day rather than not to move at all.
3.How do you personally define success? What does it mean to you?
It is a freedom. A freedom to make decisions and take responsibility. Say, when employees go to their work, they may be more or less free in their decisions, but there are definitely things they hate in their job and which sense they do not understand. That is what I call rituals – something what is required for us to do but we cannot fully understand why and, therefore, internally accept. My definition of success is to stay away from it.
4. What was the biggest business mistake you made and what did you do to learn from it?
I assume everyone makes mistakes. I even prefer reading stories of hard luck rather than success stories – most of the latter are coincidences of a time, event and a bit of luck. They are at most nothing about precise calculation or evaluation or hard work, and therefore, unrepeatable. And we can learn from failures much quicker than from successes. I am constantly learning, and never stop learning.
5. How did you deal with push back from family or friends concerning your entrepreneurial pursuits?
Although I have very tight schedule, making more than 50 distant flights a year, some of my family members usually travel with me. I love sharing my ideas with my family and discuss them, even my youngest kids, I believe, are more and more diving into the business world. I love the feeling when I put their energy in a right direction.
6. What advice would you give to someone asking for advice about becoming an entrepreneur?
If someone asks me of how to become an entrepreneur, I will recommend him to better find a job. The entrepreneur must start making steps on his own, this route is different for everyone as there are no two equal entrepreneurs in the world.
7. How can you be reached if someone is interested in your products or services?
You may always reach me at maxim@digitaldreamlab.com, 24/7
