Magomed Aliev, Founder/CEO Expovision In this exclusive interview with Powered Magazine, we have the privilege of delving into the mind of Magomed Aliev. From his early inspirations and entrepreneurial journey to the remarkable advancements and transformative experiences crafted by Expovision, we explore the insights and perspectives of a true industry trailblazer.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I Magomed Aliev, my life experience is related to entrepreneurship in the field of IT technologies, and since my first year at the university, I have begun to try myself in this. When I had not yet graduated from the university, I was offered to become the director of the Technopark at the university, where I began to gain experience working with startups. I studied the work of creating a startup from all sides, both from the side of the startup itself, developing my projects, and working with accelerators to learn all aspects of startup development.

I gained experience in the start-up industry in the US while doing an internship there, as well as participating in some of the best accelerators in the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

I also managed to work for a medical IT startup producing lingual braces. Having gained diverse experience, I started working on my own project.

In 2018, I founded my IT company, Expovision. Initially, it was a small startup that later turned into a company with more than 30 employees. Now our company operates in several industries and includes individual projects within Expovision. We want to build a blockchain company that will make services for people better and easier. The core of our company is the financial sector; for this, we issued our Expo tokens, and around the core, a number of projects united into a single ecosystem:

Expocar - An online car dealership where we mainly work directly with car manufacturers and eliminate numerous intermediaries between the factory and the client. We have also developed our own unique 3D configurator for car selection.

Edenwise - a P2P platform for international cash transfers. We allow you to quickly and reliably transfer cash between cities and countries.

Expovision - An educational centre for the training of IT specialists and a digital studio for the provision of IT services.

A couple more projects are under development; we want to create a large ecosystem using blockchain technologies and Expo tokens. Today, most blockchain projects and cryptocurrencies have no practical application either in business or in social life. We want to change this and offer the world products that they can use to improve their lives using advanced technologies.

What were your biggest challenges when starting your business?

My main challenge was created by myself. I set myself the task of helping young students become professionals, attracted them to internships, gave them tasks and the opportunity to learn, and then they became employees of my company. It was difficult to organise work with an IT team whose average age was 19–20 years old, but in the end, it justified itself. We even opened an educational centre for the training of IT specialists, which has been operating for 3 years, and we take the best graduates into our team.

How have you handled success and failure over the course of your career?

I never react too emotionally to success; I take it for granted, and I perceive failure as experience and work on mistakes.

What strategies do you use to stay competitive in a changing market?

Our work is so connected with advanced technologies that we constantly monitor the market and how it changes; most often, we even try to get ahead of it and constantly test new niches and technologies so as not to be among the lagging behind.

What motivations drive you to keep pushing forward in the face of adversity?

Stagnation occurs in people in two opposite cases. When he gets success and achieves his goals, and when something doesn’t work out for a long time. I have been in both situations. When something did not work out, I convinced myself that hard work would sooner or later yield a result. And when I was successful and relaxed a bit afterwards, I reminded myself of my big goals and ambitions and that I'm far enough away from them.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in their chosen field?

Study all the details of the area you have entered, and preferably work at least a little in this industry in order to know the whole kitchen and not make a lot of mistakes. And constantly try to be as active and daring as possible; business does not tolerate patience.

How have technological advances affected the way you conduct business or operate your venture?

In our company, we use not only ready-made products that are available on the market but also develop our own. For example, for the Expocar project, an online car dealership, we developed a bot that constantly monitors sites with car sales announcements around the world, selects the best offers according to specified criteria, and provides them to the manager.

What trends do you see emerging in your industry that are likely to shape its future growth and development?

I believe that the blockchain will have the same scale of change for the whole world as the Internet did in its time. It is necessary to follow this trend and prepare for the introduction of this technology in all industries.

What have been the most rewarding and difficult aspects of your chosen career or business path?

One of the most difficult stages was when I was just starting to make my first projects and they didn’t work out very well. I realised that the problem was that I didn’t have enough experience in these industries, so I began to study them deeper and work in these areas myself. You need to know the market in which you work.

Are there any skills or areas of expertise that you think are essential for success in your field?

Leadership. I think this is the most important skill. It includes a number of advantages that an entrepreneur cannot do without.

How has working remotely or online impacted your business or venture over the past year?

I have two sides here. The parts of the projects where there was already well-coordinated teamwork continued to work successfully remotely as well. And the team that gathered remotely had problems with it; it was difficult to establish high-quality work between employees. I came to the conclusion that they need to work together offline, at least for a while, after which online work will be effective.

What tips would you like to offer to others who are in a similar position to you but looking to take their careers or businesses further?

Networking, networking, and more networking You won't build a great company without it, and to do good networking, you need to be active and participate in various events.

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