Nick Nagatkin, CEO of Digis, Talks About The Future of Mobile Technology & Industry Trends

1. Hi Nick, how did you start your career? From Software Engineer to Managing Partner – tell us how that happened.

My career started quite early. I was good at maths at school, so I participated and won in various competitions. Since 16, I had been freelancing as an aspiring developer — made simple websites. During this period, I was looking for a job among big international IT companies. One day I was hired and my official career as a software engineer started.

After several years together with more experienced partners, we founded Digis, where I worked as a Project manager and covered almost all things possible. So I was gradually moving towards more advanced positions to finally take the CEO seat.

2. What is your role in the management and development of Digis? What motivated you to work with Digis?

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of Digis. The company is my greatest achievement and an inalienable part of my daily life. The main motivation is that Digis is my big business child — I am incredibly happy with all the success stories and upset with the failures of the company.

3. With over 11+ years of experience in the IT industry, you have successfully closed your 180th software development project. What do you think about the numbers in the future?

We are actively developing. During 2020, Digis grew by 50%. In 2021, we are planning to proceed at the same speed. Talking about projects, we do not chase numbers. Digis aims at building long-term partnerships and making the company a one-stop-shop for customers, extending our teams in clients’ projects, and delving into their businesses. We grow when our clients grow.

4. What do you as a leader prioritize – vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

Since our mission is to grow unicorns from startups, we prioritize vertical growth — our work with startups. Analyzing our previous experience, we see it as our main strength and advantage. We have already helped dozens of startups in raising capital and developing their businesses, several of them are estimated at billions of dollars.

At the same time, we also work on horizontal expansion by adding new offers. At the end of 2020, we launched services ‘discovery phase’ and ‘mobile and web design’.

5. As a Channel Partner, what do you think matters the most in this business?

• Clients’ development and growth. If your client gains more profit with the help of your services, the company will stick with you as long as possible, recommend you and return for more.
• To show good performance even in minutiae. Admiralty in the military fleet checked ships the same way: they just looked at the railing buttons when just entering a ship. If they were clean, Admiralty understood that they followed the charter and other processes also were in good order.
• Focus and work on minor company’s shortcomings that finally will lead to better results on higher levels. It is about the Broken windows theory: dealing with minor crimes helps prevent serious crimes.

6. Do you feel overwhelmed with the prospect of introducing technology solutions to manage & streamline parts of your business?

On the contrary, Digis is an AI-driven business. In all our departments we try to automate daily routine so that our employees can devote more time to innovations. Automation cuts down our expenses and makes our services more cost-effective to clients. For example, we partially automate processes in copywriting, preparation of technical specifications, and recruitment.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

We are still planning to focus on startups. Recently, we have launched a sister company — a business incubator and accelerator RichelieuV. The company specialized in strategic consulting and fundraising for early-stage startups, while Digis provided technical solutions.

Among technical industries, the main target is artificial intelligence. We already have extended expertise in mobile and web, so now we are strengthening our AI team — hiring machine learning developers and engineers and providing internships for those just starting their career in the area.

8. What do you think will be the future of mobile technology?

10 years ago, the whole technology world was turning mobile-first. In my opinion, now we are developing to the voice assistance-first and extended reality. In this new world, our mobile devices will be just entry points to these technologies with absolutely new app formats.

9. What latest technologies and tools you’re planning to implement for mobile app development?

Augmented reality, virtual reality, neural networks, computer vision, IoT, Biometrics. So, we are planning to go further than mobile interfaces.

10. What according to you are the best practices to attain client satisfaction?

Contribute to their business as if it were yours — work focusing on long-term perspectives for the client.

11. How do you update your business system to be in pace with the technological advancements?

As I said before, we continuously automate the work of various departments and project teams. Not only do we employ 3rd party services but develop our own internal solutions. For example, our Employee Balancing system. It helps manage employee occupation — the number of free specialists we have; which employees engaged in certain projects. The system minimizes or eliminates the company’s losses from staff on the bench.

The main ingredient of our business update is that each employee knows our work principles and goals, so they can offer solutions on their level.

We also have established remote processes, so that we have no problem with the lockdown. Our teams’ performance even increased by 5%. We continue to develop the direction.

12. We have heard that you have a very joyful work culture, so can you share with us some of the fun pictures of your workplace?

13. How do you assess the role of research agencies like MobileAppDaily in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

Many people and companies simply do not know good providers in, for example, the mobile app industry. Googling it can be overwhelming — everyone is saying their solution is the best. Such research agencies serve as uninterested 3rd parties and help navigate in unknown areas. For service providers, it helps to raise trust from potential and current customers.

Key Takeaways:

• ‘’During 2020, Digis grew by 50%,’’ shared Nick Nagatkin.
• ‘’The main ingredient of our business update is that each employee knows our work principles and goals,’’ Nick added.
• Digis is currently focusing on strengthening its AI team by hiring machine learning developers and engineers and providing internships. 
• Nick said, ‘’ We have helped dozens of startups in raising capital and developing their businesses.’’