Stan Kirilov is the CEO of StanVision. Stan is a thought leader, influencer, visionary, and successful entrepreneur. Stan provides the leadership and energy that has inspired the creation of StanVision. Stan Kirilov joins other leading CEOs and Founders taking part in our Leader Roundtable Interview Series. The DotCom Magazine editorial team is delighted to have Stan join us for our Leader Roundtable Interview.
Stan, thank you so much for taking the timea out of your busy day to answer our questions about leadership, and entrepreneurship.
1. Stan, please tell us about StanVision. What is the elevator pitch?
StanVision has been my vision for the future for a long time. I always knew that I wanted to do one thing – to inspire people to build great mobile and web apps. The agency was built out of my passion to help startups and entrepreneurs to understand their users and to create successful and meaningful digital products.
For me there is no elevator pitch. When you work with passion and gather around people with the same visions as yours, the success is closer than you think.
2. What is the one thing that makes StanVision great?
You can’t do remarkable things without having a great team standing next to you.
My first employee was a colleague of mine from my last job as a design director. We could spend hours thinking and talking together about our vision for the world and for the products we wanted to build. Later on we became partners. Now he is the technical director of StanVision.
Each person of my team has a unique set of skills and is able and willing to widen them every day, which helps us to exceed our client’s expectations. I think this is why they choose us instead of our competitors.
3. Please tell us what is the key to being a great entrepreneur?
For me the key to being a great entrepreneur lies within the combination of someone who is keen to learn new things and to experiment with them, and someone who is willing to take risks at that same time. You can’t be successful if you are unwilling to take risks.
There’s no such thing of being lucky, you just have to know where you’re going and to take new steps so as to get there.
4. What is the best advice can you give to a young entrepreneur just starting out with a new venture?
Every beginning is hard. Just start. Clear your mind, take the risk and start doing it!
I took the biggest risk for me, when my baby was born. I left the company I worked in. I had to support my family, to pay the mortgage and so on. Without almost any saved money or client base, I started building StanVision and took this venture to the unknown.
The only advice I could give to every young entrepreneur is to focus on pursuing its own objectives, regardless of any obstacles.
5. What is the one thing that you, as a person, want to be known for?
Can I say two? Leadership and authenticity are the two things I bear in mind every day when I go to my office, and not only there. Believing in people and helping them to become the best version of themselves, while avoiding being fake and not real. The world we live in today needs more good, authentic people.
6. When building a business, what is the one most important thing to keep in mind at all times?
There are a couple of questions on which you must have strong answers, if you want to exceed your business, while building it. The ones who do not prepare these answers, are the ones who usually fails.
First, ask yourself why is your company different? How to stand out from your competitors? What are your unique selling points which structure the communication with your clients?
Stephen Covey once said that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
When building a business, strong brand promise is the main thing.
7. When hiring employees, what is the one most important thing you look for?
We strive for people with personalities. Hard skills in design, code, and business development are very important, but can be learned thanks to the opportunities of our digital world where almost everything could be read on the internet.
So we mostly look for soft skills, when we hire people. We look for those in each of our players.
Being able to learn from that digital world is more important than the technical skill alone.
8. What is your “Why”? Why do you get up in the morning?
My personal “why” is hiding behind the desire to spend my days in a friendly, positive and fun environment. Creating the right company culture and attracting talented people to work with are the two things which make me keep going every day.
I feel even more lucky to have another “why” – my family. I get up every morning with the idea to be a better leader, a better partner and a better father than I was yesterday.
9. What is the one thing that makes a great leader?
A great leader is a great listener. A great leader listens to understand. Most people listen to reply, and they don’t really get what people truly care about.
Learn to recognize people’s desires behind their actions. I listen to people to understand not only what they say, but also how they feel. Knowing the team’s struggles and obstacles helps me lead them to a better work environment which at the end of the day drives better design solutions.
Stan Kirilov, thank you so much for participating in the DotCom Magazine Leader Roundtable Interview Series. We appreciate you participating in this important roundtable interview series, and helping our readers learn more about what it takes to build a great company and become a great leader. We wish you, your family, and of course StanVision, nothing but the best.
Thanks again!
