Episode description

Today on the podcast we welcome a Ukrainian entrepreneur who currently resides in Sofia. 

Dmitriy Aleksandrov is the CEO of Homsters, a SaaS provider of automated digital marketing solutions for the property segment. 

For 8 years, he grew the company from an idea to a PropTech business running in 5 countries. Homsters was acquired by the global media company Ringier at the end of 2022. But Dmitriy is still at the steering wheel to scale the company’s solutions. 

Initially working in marketing and transitioning to project management in the fintech and telecom industries, Dmitriy gained valuable experience in tackling complex problems and managing diverse projects. This experience prepared him for his role as CEO, where he emphasized the importance of both a big-picture perspective and attention to detail. Dmitriy credited his colleague and mentor, Andrew Olejnik, for inspiring him to join the proptech industry and become part of Homesters' early stages, even when the company was just an idea on a napkin. 

In his conversation with Irina, Dmitriy discusses the culture clash with his corporate background and the challenges of building a startup from scratch. He shares their company's pivots, the need for customization in different markets, and the importance of establishing partnerships. He opens up about their failed expansion attempt in Vietnam and the lessons learned from scaling back. 

In this episode, Dmitriy also talks about 

• The importance of defining values and maintaining them despite changes in the company and its products; 

• The role of AI - property matching algorithms and the emergence of conversational interfaces in the real estate industry; 

• The challenges of managing a dispersed team and the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine on their business;