“A business should ignite a spark in your heart” — Interview with Alexander Chaly, CTO at Shakuro Inc.

1. Hi Alexander, thank you for joining MobileAppDaily for this interview today. How are you doing?

Hello! I’m fine, thank you. As always, I have a tight schedule, but I try to give my attention to everyone who needs it. Also, I hope our readers are doing well too.

2. For our first question, we want to know more about your entrepreneurial journey as we can see you have led multiple teams across multiple roles. Please throw some light on the same.

I started my career 20 years ago as a C# .NET developer. I quickly became a leader of the developers' team, polishing my technical knowledge. After some time, I realized that communicating with people is more exciting than tinkering away with technologies. Gradually, I got into the business, gathered my team, and began creating custom projects.

Seven years ago, I joined Shakuro together with my team. We kept growing and soon became a medium-sized company. We consider further expansion and try keeping up a well-thought workflow in technical and business fields. 

3. Do you have any challenging phase of your career that you would like to share with readers?

More and more offline businesses shift to the online world and transfer their products into the digital sphere. Digital projects require more and more resources. 

So I think there is a certain lack of IT specialists. The situation was also greatly influenced by COVID-19 when the market changed, and most companies’ staff began working remotely, including developers. 

Therefore, professionals can now choose their employers worldwide, leaving small businesses behind. They crave pro-level programmers and have to retain talents by all means possible. 

4. For potential entrepreneurs among our readers, do you have any tips to share?

It’s no surprise that you need luck in entrepreneurship. Also, good emotions, passion, and drive keep you motivated. Your business should ignite a spark in your heart. However, to succeed, you must apply a systematic approach to almost every aspect. It would be wise to use this approach for business analysis, like niche, advantages, and disadvantages of your idea among the competitors. It will help you predict the results and prepare for your next move.

5. What skills do you recommend new IT professionals who look forward to making a great career in the industry should learn?

One of the must-have skills is to be a constant learner. Everything changes quickly: approaches, trends, user preferences, popular programming languages, etc. If you don’t keep learning, you will fall behind and won’t find any viable projects. 

6. What are your plans to grow Shakuro further across more unexplored markets?

In Shakuro, we work a lot on UI / UX design projects and illustrations. Design is a field where you and the client must be on the same page. You need to transfer the words and requirements into colors and lines. To do that correctly, you need to know your client's mood, their feelings, and what they like and dislike. 

Most of us have ever watched European or American movies. The characters and roles are familiar to us. However, few people are interested in Chinese or Japanese movies, books, or music. That’s why working with this mindset is hard: you can’t fully understand the pains and issues of local people. Still, exploring the Chinese or Japanese market is worth the time and effort.

7. Would you throw some light on the work ethics followed at Shakuro that employees and clients experience every day?

In Shakuro, we have something called karma. We always try to place it above money or befit. This approach will eventually pay off if you are honest, friendly, and open-hearted with your clients and colleagues. 

The good karma attracted lots of clients back in the day. People recommend us to their colleagues, friends, and partners. This helps us grow, maybe not that fast, but at a stable pace.

8. In the continuously evolving app development industry, what are you expecting from its future, and how are you planning to leverage these upcoming opportunities to grow Shakuro Inc. further?

Projects connected with AI, AR/VR, and smart homes are still gaining popularity. There are many ways for these things to develop in the future, like education, medicine, sports, etc. Smart homes and intelligent devices might become more attractive thanks to higher connection speed and new Internet standards. Together with cloud computing, intelligent sensors and innovative home technologies have already brought agriculture to a new level.

Our company specializes in creating e-learning platforms that became popular after the pandemic. I’m looking forward to seeing how they work together with AI and AR since these technologies open new learning opportunities. We are already experimenting in this field.

9. How do you think a new IT company can survive and thrive in the massive scale of global competition among IT companies that exist today?

It’s vital to get things done well and be honest with your team or clients no matter what. You need to become a professional in your field and find like-minded, skilled people for the team. Therefore, you can rely on their knowledge and loyalty when necessary.

10. How can MobileAppDaily be helpful for the further growth of Shakuro?

I hope the possibility of sharing our story and plans for mobile development will attract more attention to Shakuro’s projects. It will bring opportunities for new collaborations and open new horizons.

Key takeaways:

• Business should be based on the things you like to keep you motivated. 
• Use a systematic approach when making decisions, don’t rely on passion only.
• Find like-minded people for your team. Treat them like your friends and family.
• Always keep learning and stay up to date with the latest trends