The Olerom Forum kicked off in Kyiv on Sept. 30, gathering the best minds in tech from around the world in the Ukrainian capital.
Despite different approaches, there were certain things all speakers agreed upon. Ilja Laurs, a Lithuanian venture capitalist, said that one’s environment often decides the outcome of a given idea.
“Did you know that over the last ten years, Stanford University students raised $216 billion in capital for their projects?” said Laurs. “Just to compare – there are 16,000 students at Stanford and 32,000 at Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.”
Laurs added that he doesn’t believe Stanford students are smarter; rather, they have a different mindset and are more optimistic about their chances for success.
Charles Adler, the co-founder of Kickstarter, an online crowdfunding platform, agreed that universities act as incubators for progress.
As an example, he referred to a project called Viper. Five high school kids set a goal to build a motion controlled flight simulator, and they succeeded.
“At their age, I was thinking about other things,” laughs Adler.
Another important thing is to be ready to dedicate years of hard work to a single startup project.
Business coach and bestselling author Marshall Goldsmith said that only certain qualities also people to become real leaders.
“Most people waste their time on topics that they are not going to change anyway,” he said about startups.
Laurs, the Lithuanian venture capitalist, said that “startups are not a matter of months, but rather years of hard work with many unexpected problems emerging at the last moment.”
At another point, Siri cofounder and Apple official Adam Cheyer shared his thoughts on what impact artificial intelligence will have on the future.
But some in the audience found the event dull.
Oleksandr Borisenko, the owner of a video game developer, said that he was bored at first, and that the forum did not meet his high expectations. At the time of an interview, he said that he regretted buying a ticket.
“I hope [Steve] Wozniak’s arrival will change the situation,” he said.
By many accounts, it did. Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, said he was lucky to be born both with the skill set of an inventor and at a time in history when inventors were needed.
“If you love what you do and are willing to do what it really takes, it’s within your reach,” the Macintosh inventor promised the audience.
Wozniak believes two things are important to start a project: lots of patience and a willingness to do all it takes and more in order to succeed.
For Oleksiy Rudenko, an IT company owner, everything went just as he expected.
“I did not come to the forum to listen to the speakers, or at least not because of that,” Rudenko says. “I can find this information on the internet, no, I wanted to take a closer look at people who have influenced the world, and shaped it in the way we now know it.”
Olerom Forum continues till Oct. 1.
