Evgeny Smirnov

My Story

Hello there!

I started my career in IT in 2004 when I was studying astronomy at the university. Initially, I focused on the backend web development and gained experience in programming, database management, and web technologies. I was always eager for new knowledge and I liked sharing this knowledge with others. These traits helped me to switch to the team leader’s role.

Many of the people, for whom I was developing some stuff, liked my work and came back to me. This pushed me to establish my own web development company in 2008.

The clients liked that instead of simply coding, I tried to realise their needs and resolve the problems they faced. They felt my involvement and appreciated it.

Initially, the company was a small group of very motivated people, who were eager to work. However, our clients referred us to their friends and colleagues. Hence, it started growing rapidly. In 2017, we had already 100 employees with offices in multiple countries.

4xxi

I switched mostly to the CEO’s role. Simultaneously, I started gathering expertise in the industries I was involved in: FinTech, EdTech, and later — AI and ML. For me, even if one is a software developer, one has to understand what’s going on behind the scenes. If one is building a wealth management platform, one should realise financial advisers’ mindset.

I’m very grateful to my clients who have helped me with gathering this expertise. Working with industry’s leaders was inspiring and productive.

While it was (and is) an interesting journey, I realised that I wanted to spend less time on operational stuff and management and more time on direct work. That’s how I established another company, Denovo, where I brought together the best people I had known. Working with such people is a privilege, and I’m grateful to them for this.

Denovo

Remarkable Projects

1. Centrallo + GroupDoLists: it was a long journey together, Michael Sher, where we started with one hypothesis and ended up with gaining success with a totally different product. This project helped me to realise that when one builds a startup, one should not stick with just one hypothesis. It’s worth testing multiple ideas and choosing the one that works.

   

   GroupDoLists

2. AdvisorEngine: the biggest project I’ve ever been involved in. It taught me many management and communication skills. The latter were new to me, and I realised how important is the right communication with others. Also, I’m very grateful to its CTO, Vladimir, who pushed me to become more flexible and open-minded.

   

   Advisor Engine

3. AYCE: an AI-driven startup that becomes my entry to the field of Natural Language Processing’s world and helped to gather expertise in AI/ML related to these tasks.

   

   AYCE project

About me

Besides my professional duties, I have many interests. I’m eager for the new knowledge. My primary education is in technological area: I have the MS degree in astronomy, and a PhD in mathematics and physics. Some years ago I realised that this creates a bias in my worldview. Hence, I decided to extend my mindset to social sciences.

I got the MS degree in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and the MS degree with distinction in Personality Psychology at Saint-Petersburg State University. Besides the knowledge gathered, it helped me to understand better other people and myself, my wishes and intentions.

All degrees are with distinction.

I’m a scientist and perform studies in astronomy, psychology, and philosophy. I have multiple publications in top journals, such as the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Icarus, Astronomy and Computing, Frontiers in Psychology, and others.

My most interesting scientific papers:

• A new python package for identifying celestial bodies trapped in mean-motion resonances
• Asteroids in three-body mean motion resonances with planets
• Identification of asteroids trapped inside three-body mean motion resonances: a machine-learning approach

Aside from education and science, I like sport. I practice figure skating (and I am a professional athlete in this sport), fencing, and tennis. Travelling is my other passion. While I have limited leisure time, I try to visit the places I’ve never been at least a couple of times per month.

Salzburg, Austria

I like sharing my knowledge and helping others. Some time ago, I’ve started practising as a psychological counsellor to help others. Ten years, I was working as a school teacher to motivate high school students to become IT specialists, and I’m proud that many of them are nowadays connected to this industry.