Boris is a serial entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience establishing and growing businesses and entering new global markets. He’s the Co-founder of Bidease, Rocket10, Betastage Capital and Cashsquare. Official member of the Forbes Technology Council and also a columnist.
In your own words, what’s your role in the app business right now?
My partners and I started our path in mobile app development back in 2012 when the mobile market was much less developed. Eventually, we came up with the idea to collect and share the experience accumulated by the companies that needed to promote their products. There were very few experts in the market back then so what we had to offer came in quite handy. This said, we set up a fully-fledged mobile marketing agency in 2015, and in в 2016 we launched Bidease, our own AdTech platform, and have been successfully helping products and marketers grow ever since, using the best practices in-app marketing and programmatic advertising.
How did you end up working in apps?
Me and my friend and partner Alex Kukuliev have always loved playing Monopoly. But living in different countries we rarely managed to do so. At some point, we started thinking on how we could play it remotely but still get the same vibe we did from playing face-to-face. And so, in 2012, our first big joint project appeared, called Cashsquare. Which was the beginning of our career path in mobile development.
What are you most excited about in apps right now?
Today one can hardly imagine a life without a smartphone. Without exaggeration, they have significantly improved the quality of our life and made it a lot more comfortable.
10 years back, who could have thought it would be possible to see a doctor via an app, that you would no longer need to go a pharmacy to buy medicine ordering delivery with your mobile instead, that job-seeking would no longer involve posting adverts but merely downloading аn app and creating a profile. If that is not convenient, what is?
I am happy that our company plays an important role in the mobile ecosystem and people’s lives. After all, we connect users and developers across the world offering them the right product at the right time.
What other companies in the app space do you rate/ inspire you and why?
First of all, I would like to note ByteDance and their product TikTok. It has not been on the market for long but has managed to win a huge audience and become the leader in the niche. This is indeed a phenomenon.
I also can’t but mention Robinhood and Binance which made trading stocks and cryptocurrency simple and accessible for anyone on the planet. This is incredible!
What do you like most about working in apps?
Definitely the working environment. There are lots of bright, cheerful, talented young people who keep our industry developing lightning fast, and I am truly glad to be part of all that.
What one thing would you change about the app industry?
The lack of transparency between vendors and advertisers and the never ending fraud problem which is caused by insufficient expertise and dirty market players.
If you weren’t working in apps what would you be doing?
I would run a fund investing in products and businesses aimed at improving people’s lives – healthcare, fintech, protection of the environment etc. I partly do that now but would like to prioritize this more in the future.
Any Netflix/ TV show recommendations?
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ozark, Blacklist, Money Heist
iOS or Android?
iOS
Do you know someone driving change and growth in the app industry?
Nominate an app leader here.
