5 minutes with’ is a new bi-weekly interview series, where high-impact Endeavor founders share their most valuable advice, motivations, and lessons learned throughout their journey.
After leading the teams of various tech start-ups and international IT corporations, Nick started to notice the disruptive potential of Blockchain technology across a number of industries. Fascinated by the adventure called entrepreneurship and eager to create something out of nothing, in 2017 Nick co-founded LimeChain alongside three of his co-workers and longtime friends. Today, LimeChain is on track to become the go-to “everything blockchain” company in the world.
1. What’s your trick to work smarter and faster?
First, I try not to do things faster. Rushing things raises the likelihood of making mistakes or missing important aspects of the task at hand. What I try to do is be really deliberate with my time and make enough time for the important things to be done. This means that some tasks might not make it to my schedule and that’s fine as long it is properly communicated with the involved parties. Of course, sometimes the situation needs you to act on everything at hand and this requires a whole other mode of operation that is maximizing time to make a decision rather than the quality of the decisions. It is a trade-off.
As far as working smarter, I mix the time-blocking method with the Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important matrix (with a little twist) for prioritizing my tasks. I also break my day into two parts – the first half is blocked for non-meeting related work; the second part is filled with meetings. Although I break this rule quite often it still allows me to be flexible and only accommodate the most important meetings.
Apps I can’t live without: Superhuman (mail), Sunsama (tasks management & time blocking app)
2. What makes a good company culture?
Great culture is working alongside great people. Having well-intended and skilled people in all the key roles within the company ensures that you will have a healthy culture. I’m not really a fan of the Silicon Valley “win at all cost” culture where people are stripped down to machines with feelings. Knowledgeable workers do not thrive in such an environment which honestly is also quite toxic.
However, this doesn’t mean that we don’t keep each other accountable, follow deadlines and push each other to reach new heights.
3. What’s your metric for success?
Being proud of what has been accomplished.
4. What does failure mean to you?
Not being able to achieve your end goal.
I’m not a fan of the “fail fast, fail often” motto. I’d rather not fail at all. I hate failing. If, however, I do fail, I try to not allow myself time for “wound licking” but rather dust myself up fast, reflect on what has happened. Moreover, the lesson learned so I don’t make the same mistakes again and move on to the next objective.
5. Name your role model, favorite business book, and quote/ Or who made the biggest impact on your professional life & why?
Books:
I tend to like Ray Dalio’s books these days mainly because of the soberness. That things, he has been able to achieve in his thinking and also in his scientific approach to management and the world.
I also think that Shane Parrish’s Farnam Street (https://fs.blog/) is a true gem (and an underappreciated one too). A favorite quote by him is: “Show me your schedule and I will tell you your priorities”. This always tends to keep me grounded and wary about how I spend my time.
I like all kinds of biographies like Trillion Dollar Coach, and The Ride Of a Lifetime. Although not strictly business reads I highly recommend The Borgias by Alexander Duma and The Medici by Paul Strathern. Both reads give a perspective of what it used to be like to run a medieval enterprise (the Medici bank and the Church)
Another all-time favorite quote is: “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”
Who made the biggest impact on my professional life:
That award surely goes to my co-founders for pushing my limits every day (in a healthy way…most of the time :D)
About LimeChain:
Founded in 2017 by Nick Todorov (CEO), Chris Veselinov (CTO), Vlad Ivanov (Head of Delivery), and George Spasov (Head of RnD), LimeChain is a blockchain & web3 software development company, part of LimeTech group of companies. LimeTech’s focus is on providing high-end blockchain software development services, building blockchain-based products, and providing blockchain education to software engineers. LimeChain is in the top 5 biggest blockchain focused software development companies in the world. The company’s portfolio includes 100+ blockchain & web3 projects both with traditional businesses like P&G, Porsche & Wacom, as well as companies native to the blockchain ecosystem like Ethereum Foundation, Polkadot, Hedera Hashgraph, and many others.