I Am the Founder of PicsArt Hovhannes Avoyan and This Is How I Work
Hovhannes Avoyan founded PicsArt , a set of applications and social network for creating and sharing art and pictures after his daughter to tears intimidated for that posted their work on the Internet. Now the network has over 100 million monthly active users. We spoke with Hovhannes about his inspiration and development process, and how he applies his positive approach to his company.
Location: San Francisco Current place of work: CEO and founder of PicsArt One word that best describes how you work: Effective Current mobile device: iPhone Current computer: MacBook 13 “
First of all, tell us a little about your past and how you got where you are now.
I was born in the Soviet Union, and it was a shock when everything collapsed at once. We have gone through several difficult years in an economically disadvantaged position, with no electricity, no heating, lack of food and basic necessities. This growth has helped me develop resilience, which is critical in the startup world, where a crisis can be any day, any time.
I have been a serial entrepreneur for most of my career and have also invested in other startups. I have founded several companies over the years, the first being an enterprise software company founded in 1997 and have sold five. PicsArt is my sixth company. I started it after an episode of online bullying brought my daughter to tears after she shared her work online. I wanted to create a safe space where all artists could share their work without fear of judgment and come together for constructive collaboration.
Tell us about a recent work day.
I like to start my day with a 45 minute workout. It gives me energy for the rest of the day. At work, I tend to spend less time in meetings and focus more on strategic issues. I enjoy working on product ideas with the development team. For example, in the fourth quarter, I was heavily involved in the redesign of our Challenges product.
I also participate in beta testing and group chats with our PicsArt VIPs (our Influential Power Users) to understand their usage patterns and issues with our product. This helped me and our development team improve the overall experience of the application. Plus, I use PicsArt to make art every day and connect with other creative people on PicsArt. I often stay online late into the night coordinating my daily meetings as our global team operates across different time zones. However, I also try to maintain a work-life balance and spend time with my family.
What apps, gadgets or tools can’t you live without?
Smartphones (I have several iPhones and Android phones) because I am constantly testing our application. I am a very active PicsArt user. I have 4687 followers (at the moment) and I try to post regularly. I have gained these followers only through my work; we have never promoted my personal account to our users.
I also use Google docs for writing and our Color drawing tool for sketching ideas.
How is your workplace arranged?
I have a very open office in the financial district of San Francisco. I like to keep an open environment in the office and I try to stay away from conference rooms when communicating with my team. I don’t mind when team members come up to me at any time to quickly talk about strategy or priorities. Accessibility, whether in the office or not, is an important part of my job.
We recently moved to a new office as I wanted the workspace to be a little less formal and to allow teams to work closer together. We’ve also created multiple lounge-style meeting areas to inspire creativity and thought, and have reduced the number of formal meeting rooms. I believe this will enhance interactivity and creative thinking.
What’s your best shortcut or life hack? It can be niche or specific.
What doesn’t kill (your energy and desire to succeed) makes you stronger. I always look positive, even in tough times. Being resilient and stress-resistant is the most important trick for a budding entrepreneur – use your stress-relieving techniques. I’m a fan of meditation and exercise.
Who are the people who help you achieve results, and how do you rely on them?
I am very glad that there have always been smart and enthusiastic people around me. I’ve worked with some of my management team on my previous startups and brought them with me to PicsArt. Others who were hired later quickly became part of our PicsArt management family.
Since we have multiple remote offices, our team must have a very high level of trust in order for everything to run smoothly and efficiently. To gain this trust, we work in a very transparent manner. Our culture follows the adage: “Ask for forgiveness, not permission.” We take risks and make decisions for which we consider ourselves responsible, instead of waiting for someone to make a decision. At the same time, we know when to delegate authority to those who are better at the job (and they have the time and skills to devote to it) when it makes sense.
How do you keep track of what you need to do?
I use Google Drive, mainly Sheets and Docs, for personal use. At the company level, we use Jira to manage tasks and projects across different teams.
What do you enjoy doing the most and how do you deal with it?
Annual Team Reviews! I don’t like being so critical of people, and I don’t like being too formal with people who obey me. I find it sounds more like friendship and the official reviews are not appropriate for this model. However, as we get bigger and bigger, I understand that sometimes formalities are necessary to scale an organization.
How to recharge or take a break from work?
I love to cook, play tennis, swim, travel and meet friends.
What’s your favorite side project?
I had health problems last year, so this year I decided to work on my fitness and do it as a project. Daily exercise, diet, meditation and generally more positive thinking.
What are you reading now or what do you recommend?
I try to read 2-3 books a month. I recently read books on artificial intelligence, machine learning and neural networks. I was an AI researcher back in the 90s, and until recently it seemed like an almost dead science. This is a super hot topic right now and I try to keep up with trends. We use a lot of artificial intelligence tools at PicsArt, and we have very large datasets, so this research is not just a hobby, but important for our future developments.
Fill in the blank: I would like _________ to answer these same questions.
I would like Mark Zuckerberg to answer the same questions. I don’t know anyone who would have achieved such success in such a short period of time.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“Failure is not the opposite of success. This is part of the success! I quote Arianna Huffington. I have learned the same throughout my career.
What else would you like to add that might be of interest to readers and fans?
Be creative! It takes practice. This is a muscle that you should train throughout your career and throughout your life. This is why we created PicsArt in the first place. Children are creative because it is part of their learning. We all need to keep learning and being creative – this will help us get better when things get tough and lead to a better life in general!