Interview with Yuriy Kovalev — CEO & Founder — Milestone achievements Leon
In order to strengthen the bonds with our community, we have decided to conduct an interview with our CEO and founder, Yuriy Kovalev. As the mastermind behind Zenfuse, Yuriy decided to offer a behind-the-scenes look into the Zenfuse project and team.
During the interview, Yuriy talked about his personal journey and professional career, how the idea for Zenfuse first came to his mind, and where he sees the project evolving in the next couple of years.
He also shared valuable insights about different subjects such as trading, fundraising, and entrepreneurship.
1 — Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you start your career as an entrepreneur? What projects have you been involved in before Zenfuse?
I became interested in web development early on in my childhood, and, at the age of 13, I had already developed my first website. Things evolved from there, and a few years later, when I was about 18, I started leading teams and working on several software solutions.
In 2018 I started working as a creative director for F2Pool, one of the world’s first and largest mining pools. I led the design team and worked closely with the development team to create the best user experience possible.
While working at F2Pool, I tried to get funding from my boss to start Zenfuse. His first reaction was to reject my proposal, but after some convincing, he ended up financing Zenfuse.
2 — Was it always your dream to develop a trading platform? How did the idea for Zenfuse come up?
The idea to create Zenfuse came to me years ago in Thailand during a psychedelic mushroom trip. At the time, it seemed like nothing more than a dream, an unreachable goal, but I was determined. I made my first attempt at creating Zenfuse in 2017 but ended up failing.
In the following years, my attempts were also met with failure, and I ended up losing all my money plus some I had borrowed from the bank. It was a painful but rather fruitful experience, which ultimately led me to finally fulfilling my dream and kickstarting Zenfuse in 2020.
3 — How long have you been a crypto user, and what has been your experience within the space so far?
I got into crypto in 2017. I had some experience trading in the stock market, but nothing could prepare me for the volatility of cryptocurrencies. Not only did I experience several pumps and dumps at the beginning, but the fundamentals I had learned from the stock market did not always apply to crypto.
After losing some money, I decided to join telegram chats and learn from other traders. However, I did not associate myself with the most knowledgeable traders and lost money copying their trades. Then I decided to learn by myself and spend a lot of time reading books and doing research.
I learned a lot about technical analysis, bankroll management, and stress management. I realized that keeping emotions in check is essential for success in trading.
4 — Give us a brief overview of your functions as the CEO. What does your typical workday look like?
When I wake up, I usually check my email and telegram messages while still in bed. Even though it can be pretty stressful to do this, it helps me wake up instantaneously. After showering and doing my morning routine, I make my way to the office.
The funny thing is that our office is literally downstairs from my apartment, so it only takes me literally a couple of seconds to arrive at work. I prioritize time efficiency in my personal life and as a vital component of the Zenfuse platform.
My work revolves a lot around motivating my team. I usually buy them food and treats, as we have a candy shop just across the street. Nowadays, I have also been pretty involved with social media marketing and managing investors. I need to calm them down and reassure them that everything is going as planned. In many ways, I work as a psychologist for several people.
I do market research as well in order to be ahead of the competition. Some of the features we have on Zenfuse are entirely original, resulting from our extensive market research.
5 — How would you describe the Zenfuse team and the culture of the company?
Our culture revolves around hard work. I always tend to push my team to the limit, and all of our team members are mentally strong individuals. If someone creates too much unwarranted stress, or their vibe doesn’t match our own, I usually tend to fire them right away.
We are used to overworking at this developmental stage, and our office has a large bed so some of our team members can rest when needed. There are only 15 members on our team at the moment, but we like to think of ourselves as Spartans from the movie 300, in the sense that we just need a highly skilled team to be successful.
6 — How would you rate the launch of Leon in terms of success? What major road bumps and hurdles you and your team had to face?
One of the major threats we are currently facing is the end of the bull market. During bull runs, crypto projects benefit from a natural marketing boost. The number of people and money in the space grows exponentially.
That is why our investors are pushing us to release the platform as fast as possible so that they can bank some profits. The problem is our development team needs more time to finish the product. That is currently one of my biggest challenges, being able to manage investors’ expectations while at the same time giving our development team the time needed to build a working product.
We are pushing the release of Leon to August 22. It is both the date of my birthday and the last day of Leo in the zodiac calendar. We believe the stars will align for the launch of Leon.
7 — Can you give us your vision for Zenfuse, and where will it stand 5 years from now?
In the short term, we will continue the development of Leon for the next 6 to 9 months. Afterward, the subsequent launches will be Fiji and Albus, both named after our developers’ cats. Not only does it bring me joy to name the releases after cats, but I also believe it creates more engagement than just naming it “Zenfuse 1.5” for example.
5 years from now, I picture Zenfuse with its own exchange, built-in wallet, and crypto debit card. I also envision us creating our blockchain and developing a fast and efficient ecosystem, similar to Solana (SOL).
The reasoning behind creating our own exchanges is because the APIs are limiting us. Not only do exchanges regularly change APIs and their policies, creating a lot of problems on our end, but it also limits our innovation and what we want to accomplish.
We are in conversations with prominent exchanges that, in the future, we hope to integrate on our platform. These exchanges will potentially return a portion of the fees to us, which we will share back with our users. In doing so, it will actually be cheaper to trade on those exchanges through Zenfuse than using them directly.
Our goal is to build the best trading platform possible, incorporating innovative tools such as built-in rebalancing, portfolio analytics, and panic sell button. We want to make trading fun and fast.
Not only that, but we also want to educate new crypto users so they won’t have to go through the same hassles I did. We will be using a portion of the profits from Zenfuse to create an educational platform, allowing users to learn about crypto through mini-games and engaging content.
8 — What or who inspires you? Is there any figure, inside or outside of crypto, that has had a major positive influence on you?
Steves Jobs was one of my early inspirations. My first computer ran on Windows, but what I wanted was a Macintosh. It was extremely expensive at the time, though, so it took more than a year for my family to be able to buy it.
However, once I got the Macintosh, my productivity increased, and I learned several new programming languages. It was also delightful to use it because everything was so organized, the interface was fantastic, and there were several secret features that I only discovered years later.
Apple inspired me to create better products and simplify things, while Steve Jobs himself encouraged me to become a good leader and motivator to my team.
Other figures that also had a deep impact on me are Elon Musk and Richard Bruson. Elon due to its tenacity and perseverance, never giving up in the face of adversity, and Richard due to its optimism, kindness, and honesty.
If I had to pick a fourth figure, it would be Keanu Reeves. I admire his kindness, simplicity, and the fact that money did not change his personality.
9 — Is there any specific trait or skill that you’ve developed working on Zenfuse?
I learned several different things about trading strategies, programming, design, and marketing.
My social skills have developed tremendously, and I have become more proficient in building and managing a team. I have also learned how to read people by looking them in the eyes and understanding what goes on in their minds.
Finally, I have also mastered how to manage deadlines better and how to talk to investors. I was not successful in fundraising three years ago, so I realized I needed to educate myself. When talking to investors, I learned that you must be bold and present yourself like already having the money you need. That is the fundraising life hack.
About Zenfuse
Zenfuse is a powerful all-in-one platform for cryptocurrency traders and investors.
It aggregates multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, allowing control of funds via API, and powers up the trading process, making trading more profitable, simple, and stress-free.
Our cross-platform app provides rich analytics of both your portfolio and order history, giving you the ability to control your funds on a mobile device.
