Driven by a passion for innovation and creation, Maksim Shymanovich embraces the challenge of starting things from zero. His first business, Insignia Experience, began as a 5-week challenge to learn how to build an e-commerce website from scratch that bloomed into an online business operating across the globe. While studying as a full-time student at ESCP, Maksim was a founding member and the Product Lead at ICE, a wealthtech platform designed to make investing easy, ethical, personalised, and automated.
Even now, while working for companies such as Revolut, the leading global neobank, where he played an instrumental role in driving the company’s growth in Iberia, and TradingView, the popular investing website offering access to global markets for 50+ million users, where Maksim is currently leading key operational, strategic, and business development initiatives in collaboration with key partners across Europe, the entrepreneurial spirit remains a consistent driver of Maksim’s vision.
We caught up with Maksim to discuss the challenges self-starters face and his lessons for aspiring first-time entrepreneurs and professionals, based on his own experiences.
I’ve always enjoyed building new innovative products and starting impactful projects from scratch, whether I’m working for a company, or running my own business.
Facing challenges as a self-starter
Turning broad, big-picture goals into well-defined, actionable tasks is central to tackling the challenges entrepreneurs face. As a founder or founding member of several ventures, Maksim’s unique perspective on complex problems is rooted in years of first-hand experience. Navigating changing markets, managing a team, and facilitating technical solutions, he quickly learned how interconnected, multifaceted problems can rapidly arise.
Actively seeking to raise capital for ICE at a time when venture capital investment declined across the globe created some of the most prominent challenges, alongside understanding how to obtain relevant licences and comply with all regulations, build a reliable technical infrastructure for the app and hire the right people for the founding team. However, according to Maksim, although unexpected issues can arise quite quickly, resilience is key to success.
Maksim recommends following the advice of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, “The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and the frequency of bad stuff that happens to you. The most underrated quality of all is being really determined. This is more important than being smart, having a network, or having a great idea.”
Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Of course, it’s not all “bad stuff” when it comes to building your venture. In addition to building something from zero, Maksim says the growth and learning that entrepreneurs undergo serve as invaluable experiences in almost any business context. The experience of developing a project from the ground up often helps people enter corporate environments in more senior positions than if they’d started working in full-time, corporate positions immediately.
What can aspiring entrepreneurs do to make the most of their time and effort while building something from zero? Maksim shared some of the lessons he believes make the biggest impact.
1. Start now
Uncertainty is a given for any entrepreneurial endeavour, but the quickest way to understanding is by doing. For Maksim, an idea, curiosity, and motivation helped him start his first venture. He had countless unanswered questions before starting.
“The overlap of unfamiliar elements, with everything from the sector itself to the tools and products being completely new to me, sparked a flood of questions. It made taking those first steps feel incredibly overwhelming.”
Within a few weeks, he had a clearer understanding of the practical steps he needed to take to start his first business. Beyond the experience acquired in the process, getting started helps develop a growth mindset, bias to action, and leadership skills.
2. Learn what you like (and what you’re good at)
Even though entrepreneurship requires considering business problems holistically and often working outside your comfort zone, playing to your strengths is essential to success. This makes understanding what you like to do essential, according to Maksim. He advises first-time entrepreneurs to consider what they like from a professional and industry perspective, as they’ll both help set the best direction for your future.
By understanding what you like and where your strengths lie, you learn to fill gaps where you can make the biggest impact in any business. Additionally, making intentional decisions about where to focus time and energy can be a natural, quick way to become a subject matter expert.
Specialising enables a deeper understanding of the market compared to being a generalist, particularly in identifying unique problems and coming up with creative solutions for them.
3. Follow innovation, and learn the 101 of digital technology
In the ever-evolving landscape of entrepreneurship, staying attuned to industry trends and technological advancements is crucial. Maksim underscores the importance of following innovation closely, whether it’s emerging technologies, market trends, or even the leading companies.
“As an entrepreneur, no matter what you’re building, you’re going to be exposed to tech. Even if you cannot write the code yourself, understanding tech is tremendously helpful.”
4. Get experience from a market leader first
First-hand exposure to how the world’s leading companies and firms build products provides invaluable insight for aspiring entrepreneurs. From understanding decision-making to learning how to implement processes for your own ventures, Maksim notes that corporate experience can save time, resources, and headaches. Specifically, he believes if you want experience in the corporate world, it pays to learn from the companies at the front of the pack.
“You have to work for a leader,” Maksim says. “I would say a company within the top five in your field, and one that is constantly innovating, quickly shipping new features and setting the direction of its industry.”
5. Consider “Product-managing” your life (at least, to an extent)
Navigating the complexities of tasks arising from various sources, that rapidly accumulate and require cross-functional collaboration, Maksim has uniquely ‘product managed his life’, leveraging a combination of tools such as Jira, Notion, and integrating AI in his personal database of information, to quickly derive personalised insights and leverage data in an intelligent manner, simplifying decision-making on a daily basis.
One of the primary reasons Maksim advocates for this approach to self-organisation is its benefits for mental health. “Occasionally, I find myself overwhelmed by numerous professional and personal commitments, all with looming deadlines. Adopting this method has significantly helped in reducing stress and preventing burnout on several occasions.”
“I aim to organise every key aspect of my personal and professional life as per Ali Abdaal’s ‘Wheel of Life’ while implementing a product management approach, which requires me to operate in 2 week-long sprints,” Maksim explains. “I highly recommend learning about the ‘Wheel of Life’ approach, as well as reading the following article by Joyce Bao to get started.”
Automation plays a pivotal role, for instance, with key tasks in Jira automatically reprioritised based on deadlines and the volume of subtasks, amongst other processes. Planning extends into the future, with meticulous foresight for 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, complete with contingency scenarios. This disciplined approach underscores the commitment to personal growth that makes every step purposeful and calculated.