Hey HackerNoon Readers! I’m Vitalii Vinogradov and I’m a Product Manager at Revolut and a Founder of liveapp.
I want to thank the HackerNoon community and staff for their nomination in the Emerging Tech category, as well as .tech domains for sponsoring the Emerging Tech category of the 2022 Noonies awards.
I’ve been nominated for the following awards and if you like my writing, please do check out these award pages and vote for me:
Learn more about my thoughts and opinions on the emerging technology of 2022 and my journey in the tech industry via the interview below.
1. Please tell us your story. What do you currently do in tech and how did you get started doing it?
I started my path in tech more than 8 years ago by building an online shop with my college friends using a WordPress template)
Many things have changed since that time and for the last 3 years I’m working mostly with biometrics and digital ID products, currently at Revolut where I’m working on digital onboarding experience for more than 20 million of Revolut’s users
Also, I’m a founder of liveapp, the momentary video app which helps you to share what’s happening around you instantly
2. Tell us more! What are the things you make / write / manage / build?
Launched one of the world's first Cloud Face Recognition platforms at Ivideon (3.5 million users). Delivered the world's best biometrics products at NtechLab (G20 best AI startup). Prepared hundreds of students as a product management teacher. Launched my own startup - liveapp. Building digital onboarding at Revolut (The World’s Top 10 Most Valuable Startups)
3. If we gave you 10 million dollars to invest in something today, what would you invest in and why?
Basically, I would diversify my assets across my own startup (small communities social tech) and third-party shares if it is possible. In third-party ones, I would diversify my portfolio between AI, Web3 and VR/AR-related companies (see below why)
4. What do you think is the most exciting development in tech right now? And on a personal level, what tech are you most excited or passionate about?
In my opinion, there are four most significant tech trends today
- First, AI/ML - we can automate many operations now which seemed unsolvable by machines only 10 years ago. Starting from simple text recognition to full image generation. Machines can do a lot of things faster and more effective than humans and can help us to be more productive
- Second, Blockchain/Web3 - with the blockchain we can create systems that require less hand control and can’t be changed by mistake or malicious intent in a non-transparent way. Combining with AI we can do software that will perform complex human-kind operations (like image recognition or text writing) but in a completely clear and trusted way without the need for control or verification of the true intentions of the operator
- Third, VR/AR - the Web is becoming a more inclusive place. You can now use not only a classic mouse or touch screen to browse Web but also way more interesting devices like gloves that catch all your movements or glasses which add a layer of additional information into your view
- And, finally, Small Communities - here I want to tell a few words regarding social tech evolution. I think the small communities trend (by which I mean apps where people communicate in close circles of colleagues, neighbors, or by common interests"; see Clubhouse and BeReal as recent examples) is emerging which means that our Web life becoming more personal and mixed with the real one
5. What are your concerns about how fast tech is evolving?
Of course, we as humankind have some risks with such fast tech evolution mainly because it’s possible to skip some important ethical or security parts of what we are building (hello, Matrix and Machine war). But the results we get in terms of growing people's productivity are unbelievable in my opinion so the risks are covered enough and let’s be optimistic about the Machine war)
6. Which tech company do you trust the most? Which do you trust the least? Why?
I trust independent companies first of all, which don’t rely heavily on the governments and focus on changing the world for the better rather than making money from people (money is important as a strict success indicator but not a mission or goal)
7. What are you currently learning?
Recently the first quantum computers programming guide was released by Los Alamos National Laboratory. That’s my first book on a queue to read on a weekend)
8. What’s the best advice you’ve ever given someone?
Don’t waste your time on things that don’t move you forward
9. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Don’t waste others’ time on things that don’t move them forward