HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background. 25+ years experience in Technology, with a particular focus on Telecoms, FinTech, and digital innovation. I have worked for large corporates, such as Vodafone and the Bharti Enterprises, and also for small ventures and startups, like Triple Payments and Beema Insurance Solutions. I think I am one of those guys who started technical, then moved into general management, and eventually became a founder. What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do? The name is MyValet, and what it does is very simple: updates car parking and car services to the 21st Century. What is the origin story? Very simple, I am afraid. As users, I and my partner and co-founder Keba SOW, realized that most parking and car services are still operated in the “traditional” way: paper, pen, stamp, cash. So, we wondered: can we do something to change this and offer them and their customers an amazing end-to-end experience? We have been so lucky and blessed to find a VC who shared this view (Fil Rouge Capital), and here we are. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem? The team is still very small as of now. I love that we are always in touch, we share all risks and decisions and we don’t spend too much time on thinking, but rather on acting. We are the ones who solve the problems simply because we are the ones who do almost everything. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing? Oh! I am not sure. I would probably be somewhere running someone else’s startup, or working as a business advisor or executive director. It goes without saying that running your own startup is a different level of fun (and pain). At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics? Downloads, traction, and revenue. What’s most exciting about your traction to date? That we managed to sign an exclusive contract with Fasttrack UAE, and we are launching the service while we speak! This is a unique opportunity to work with a large business entity in the Gulf countries and deliver our best to support their digitalization process. What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why? I am not worried about technology; I am worried about the people who use them in the wrong way. But when it comes to getting excited, I think AI gets most of my attention these days. It’s incredible to see how many different applications and use cases this tech can cover, and while it keeps covering, it keeps growing and getting better and better. One of the most logical evolutions for us would be the adoption of AI tech specialized in parking management and car services. What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform? It’s very user-friendly and smart. It allows people like me to build and share content in minutes. What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself? Keep your mouth connected to your brain more often. What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing? Well, I guess the pandemic has changed our lives forever. What have I learned? To tend to think more out of the box, to look for solutions even where it seems there are no solutions. And also that people who think in the “traditional” and static way and are unmovable from their positions are not good for me. Vote for MyValet for Startup of the Year, Zagreb
