Jobs: Alexander Boykov, investor, ex-head of Timeweb

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Alexander Boykov did not receive higher education, but created a large hosting company from scratch and went into the investment business. In an interview with Lifehacker, he gave valuable advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and talked about his original approach to time management.

What do you do in your work?

Over the past year, my job has changed dramatically. A year ago, I was the CEO of Timeweb, which employs 120 people. A month ago, he handed over his post to his successor, remained on the board of directors and focused on venture capital investments.

The investor level is different from the CEO level. You own a small share in many companies.

You're not the boss anymore. You are a partner.

There is no need to talk about company management here at all. The job comes down to managing interests.

A shell of stakeholders forms around any company: customers, employees, partners of all stripes, and even contractors. The more different interests a company manages to retain, the greater its influence and income.

What is your profession?

Studied as a mathematician-programmer. This laid the foundations for systems thinking. From school, I won the city programming competitions, so by the time I entered I was well prepared. True, I never graduated from the university. We opened Timeweb and there was a choice to make.

This is one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Now the company is one of the three leaders in the market. But there are also negative consequences: I will not be taken on Google. Higher education is required there.

He completed all significant management courses in Russia, including with English-speaking trainers. I lecture on go-to-market strategies at universities and accelerators.

I communicate a lot with mature entrepreneurs around the world - this allows me to deepen my understanding of the most interesting topic for me.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Of the strengths is wild self-reflection. I take lessons from every life situation. Flexible in thinking, I can understand any point of view. This is harder than it sounds.

From weaknesses - I am constantly late for meetings and detain people. I wildly annoy my punctual colleagues with this habit.

I don't understand well people who are prone to emotional thinking. Sometimes I make terrible bloopers. I use the services of an emotional to Russian translator. Often the behavior of people with an emotion-oriented mindset is explained to me by my wife.:)

What does your workplace look like?

Now my work consists of meetings that take place in different parts of the world. The office is everywhere: at the airport, Starbucks, partner offices, in the car between appointments.

Suddenly I fell in love with the diversity in the workplace and now I take the opportunity to change the environment 100%.

I have arranged my office at home, as many meetings take place via Skype before or after the working day.

I'm a big fan of Apple technology. It saves you a lot of time and allows you to live with a sense of relative safety. The two main devices are MacBook Pro and iPhone.

I don't use desktop software at all.

I forgot it like a bad dream. It is useless to send me specific Excel documents. I use Google cloud services and do not see an adequate replacement for them. Except for the mail that I have on Timeweb.

I use Facebook for communication. After Messenger appeared and calls through the social network, I don't see any point in other messengers at all. Unless to reach out to those who don't use Facebook.

How do you organize your time?

I am a self-defeating owl. It works best at night, but it has a negative effect on health and energy levels. Therefore, for a long time I taught myself to go to bed at 23 o'clock and get up at 7. Now I feel very comfortable, I have time to thoughtfully work from home while everyone gets to work.

I use several tools to organize my time.

• Celoxis - for long-term planning using the Gantt chart. Here, up to a year, large projects can be well marked with general strokes. I compose it for the year ahead and update it every month.
• Todoist - once a week, on the basis of a diagram, I make a list of discrete tasks and fill it in here. I always have Todoist at my fingertips, so I bring all my thoughts there. I divide by priority. I put rigid tasks in the calendar, distribute flexible tasks by day. As a rule, no more than three obligatory tasks / meetings per day and no more than five additional ones. Every day there should be one significant task that brings me closer to the strategic goal.

What's your hobby?

I love to travel. I visit two different countries / locations a month. Visited almost everywhere: from the west coast of the United States to Australia. I like to absorb new sensations, an approach to life in different cultures.

What place does sport take in your life?

The only constant is the gym.

There were a lot of things at different stages of life: equestrian sports, swimming, karate, snowboarding and even Thai boxing. I get to the level of fluency and move on.

Life hacking from Alexander Boykov

Books

I am constantly learning. I read 24 books a year. Last year, this number was close to 50, but I realized that the brain cannot assimilate such volumes qualitatively. You don't have time to think it over. Now the speed has decreased, but the quality has increased. I only read paper books because they are easier to remember. Associative memory works.

From what I've read, I will definitely recommend this one.

• “The innovator's dilemma. How New Technologies Kill Strong Companies”by Clayton Christensen.
• “You or You: Professional Exploitation of Subordinates. Regular management for a rational leader "Alexander Fridman. All seminars by Alexander Fridman will be useful for managers.
• “Thinking of a strategist. The Art of Business in Japanese "Kenichi Ohmae.
• Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand.

Startup Tips

1. Look for an “unfair advantage” when entering the market that your competitor cannot have. Access to a customer base, unique technologies, exclusive partnerships, and so on.
2. Find yourself a mentor. It accelerates development tenfold, and sometimes moves you from a dead center that you cannot overcome on your own. I made many important decisions in my career under the influence of a mentor.
3. Act ethically and openly. This is difficult, since you will have to give up short-term interests and resist the majority. But in the long run, this is the surest strategy.

Finally, another life hack.

Master meditation. This is not a strange activity for Indians who have nothing to do. In practice, it increases the ability to work and puts the brain in a state in which it is able to generate breakthrough ideas. Time costs pay off many times over. If you haven't already, it's time to give it a try.