Alexander is a board member and the CEO at Intellectsoft. He has 25+ years of experience in the IT industry and 15+ years of being the leader of different engineering teams and companies. However, he has no intention of slowing down. In addition to being the CEO, he is also a representative for the IT Ukraine Association and a board member of multiple tech and sustainability companies. His multicultural background, solid technical expertise, and desire to create remarkable things are now being put into building apps, solutions, and ecosystems across multiple verticals.
In your own words, what’s your role in the app business right now?
Even though I no longer create apps with my own hands, I don’t want to be an observer. Instead, I actively participate in my company’s life and projects to contribute to making ground-breaking, life-changing products for people and businesses. I’m using each and every opportunity to contribute to the functional design of the apps we are building for our clients, aligning business needs with technologies to enable the best possible solution for end users.
How did you end up working in apps? / get started?
It’s what I always wanted to do. I started in IT when it was the industry of geeks, not businessmen. I participated in creating one of the first enterprise application servers, contributed to building enterprise-grade connectivity between Java and relational databases, and helped in bringing real mobility to apps while still being a student. I was blessed to work with great engineers and learned a lot from them.
What are you most excited about in apps right now? (tech, trends, people, verticals)
As a person with a business mindset, I am excited about the bigger picture. People, trends, and technology are only parts of something bigger, and with the current pace of AI immersion in our lives, sometimes I cannot even predict the groundbreaking news we’ll hear tomorrow. However, oftentimes, my predictions come true, for example, about the true role of blockchains in real-life applications.
What other companies in the app space do you rate/ inspire you and why?
Solidly established brands inspire me with being industry trendsetters, while small startups amaze me with their thirst for bringing innovations into daily life and audacity to successfully compete with bigger businesses.
What do you like most about working in apps?
A big part of my work today is communication with clients. Connecting with people and their businesses, listening to their challenges, and giving them great high-quality solutions is probably the most fantastic part of working in apps. We came, we saw, we fixed it.
What one thing would you change about the app industry / market?
I know that it’s an unpopular opinion, but crypto gets way too much attention than it should. This significantly slowed down the adoption of blockchain technologies in other sectors, but at the end of the day, any technology experiences a hype period before reaching the “slope of enlightenment” and “plateau of productivity.”
Where do you think there’s an opportunity for apps / or unmet needs?
There’s hardly any industry that hasn’t already been digitized and digitalized. However, some fintech and healthcare establishments (especially fintech) need to finally embrace digitization as an inevitability. This especially applies to traditional financial institutions that often use modern technologies to ignore their clients in new ways rather than enabling competitive advantages and greater internal efficiency with a new quality of service, personalization, and transparency.
If you weren’t working in apps what would you be doing?
Good question. Since even my current hobbies are IT-related… Let’s say that it’s a good question for another time.
iOS or Android?
Both are great products to work with. Personally, I’m on iOS.
What app(s) have been most useful to you over the last year?
Slack
What’s on your Spotify / Music party playlist?
Old-school rock and electro music. However, my playlists are full of totally unexpected genres – from pop to jazz.
Any Netflix/ TV show recommendations?
I don’t really have much time to watch TV shows, but Netflix documentaries rule.
Is there anything else we should know about you?
I’m a happily married father of two sons, who speak 6-7 languages each, which makes me proud and jealous at the same time. I’m a “dog person” and truly enjoy the everyday challenges of sharing an apartment with two French bulldogs. I also love traveling and inspiring conversations with smart people.
Do you know someone driving change and growth in the app industry? Nominate an app leader here.
