Entrepreneurship is more often a responsibility rather than just a career path as it is the sole force which drives the businesses further. Initiating a venture might be a difficult task, but the stakes of governing a business are quite higher than they seem. It requires a receptive approach and a polished skill set to boost a fresh venture towards success. Retaining the essence of leadership, Gary Fowler, the Co-founder and CEO at Yva.ai and a serial technology entrepreneur has proved to be an impeccable entrepreneur to get a company up and running quickly the Silicon Valley Way.
An entrepreneurial career is inconsiderably free of any restrictions imposed on an individual. It mainly relies on the impeccable ideologies which have the potential to make a difference in the traditional way of businesses. Gary, possessing similar attributes, has contributed in diversifying the business perspective of Artificial Intelligence globally. He started off fresh at the age 22 and soon became one of the emerging entrepreneurs and technology speakers around the globe.
While working in Russia and Eastern Europe, he discovered their untapped talent in areas like AI, Physics and Mathematics. With the implementation of his polished operations, marketing and business development skills tied in with the technical capabilities of companies in Eastern Europe in AI, he co-founded Yva.ai and took the company on a global ascension. Additionally, he also serves as a co-founder of DY Investments and an advisor of OSA, following to being a board advisor to companies primarily in the AI and BlockChain SPACE.
Distinctive Competence
Gary believes in targeting the left out voids which are needed to be filled. He focuses on offering the services and products as per the requirement of the market. “I now look at how each and every company can become a billion dollar company. Look at the market. Look at the holes in the market and then look at the strengths of each competitor and their weaknesses,” Gary asserts.
“I also understand that part of it is to beat them technically, but another part is also about out-marketing them. I then look at how I can add the right AI: VAE, unsupervised AI and ladder networks. I also look at the scalability. It is good to speak to potential customers and get their opinions,” he adds.
In addition, Gary believes that pivoting according to the customers’ requirements helps an organization to tackle the competition more abruptly. Also, Gary and his team has diversified their offerings by investing efforts on customer developments and by comprehending what a customer requires and what are their expectations from the organization.
Envisioning Success
Prior to leading Yva.ai, Gary has contributed in various entrepreneurial projects and has achieved many milestones during his journey. Success arrived to him at an early age, and tireless efforts paid off. “But most of it was due to luck not because of me. I was at the right place, at the right time with the right product,” says Gary.
‘Luck’ enlightened him with an idea of success which aided him to comprehend which path to follow. But, Gary was aware of the fact that residing totally on luck is not the key to achieve success and thus he worked hard for building his other ventures into big corporations. Meanwhile, filling up the dots of his previous ventures helped him in learning better virtues for future.
The skill of project management which he learned from his first business played a crucial role in running other companies more efficiently. Gary also expresses his experiences as, “With YVA we pivoted 3 times until we got to AI employee engagement and people analytics.”
Beholding the Future
Gary has a firm faith in artificial intelligence and its possible aspects that can dominate the global market. He is an ardent supporter of technological disruption and believes in implementation of potential technologies for the greater good of the company. Since the inception of his entrepreneurial career, he was often unequipped with any co-founders so he usually relied on his own opinions. Being an operational and marketing-cum-business oriented personality, Gary always faced an absence of a technical support from any entity. Yet, he incredibly directed the company and took it to its real-time stature. In addition, he also plans to appoint an internationally renowned candidate as a CEO to lead Yva.ai, in an attempt to move on to his other investments.
Bequeathing the Keys to Excellence
To be a successful entrepreneur it requires having optimism, courage to pursue the passion, an ability to visualize opportunities differently. Gary firmly believes that every entrepreneur should possess such attributes to be triumphant.
According to Gary’s TEDx talks, a fresh entrepreneur should always appreciate the teaching from past mistakes and improve oneself for further future. In order to exalt a venture, a founder must more often funnel its attention on developing strong customer relation and work accordingly. Often these founders must develop a curiosity to comprehend the opportunities and clutch them when needed.
Source: The 30 Most Influential Entrepreneurs to Watch 2018
