William Mullane
Photo: Eugene Klishevich
We currently live in a world filled with turmoil: financial crises, mass layoffs, and AI coming for our jobs. This raises a lot of questions about how to be adaptable and successful in today’s fast-changing world. We sought insights from Eugene Klishevich, a Bay Area-based entrepreneur. With five companies under his belt (one of which he sold) and over a decade in tech, Eugene shares valuable lessons from his entrepreneurial journey, demonstrating how to apply an entrepreneurial mindset not just to work, but to personal life as well.
Eugene, what does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
I’m strongly convinced that being an entrepreneur isn’t a profession or even a role. It’s a mindset—or even more—a form of self-identification. It’s like being an artist or a philosopher, not just a passing circumstance but a way of living life in all its manifestations.
A really bright and inspiring example for me personally is the story of Benjamin Franklin, who wasn’t just a businessman; he ventured into multiple fields with his curious entrepreneurial mind. You can easily find your own favorite and contemporary examples of entrepreneurship as a way of being, a way of living. I believe that being an entrepreneur starts in your mind when you imagine another way of doing things and… go for it.
Let’s get into specifics. How do you approach work in an entrepreneurial way? How do you start off?
There could be multiple forces that drive an entrepreneur, but for me, it’s when I see a problem and accept the challenge to deal with it. This is how I started all my companies, actually.
My very first company, Talaka, was the result of my desire to contribute to the development of my home country in Europe, a country facing the decline of cultural identity and community involvement. But how could I make a difference as a resourceless, inexperienced young guy?
The answer I found was to engage others—a lot of others! The word Talaka is actually an ancient local concept that means collaborative work. I took this concept and digitized it using a crowdsourcing approach. The plan paid off, and I eventually created a platform that engaged hundreds of thousands of active, caring people who became involved in numerous impact projects that made a difference.
The same problem-solving approach was the reason I started my current company, Moodmate. 2020 was a tough year—not only because of COVID but also because my home country, Belarus, experienced extensive political and social turmoil, with country-wide protests against the current government. Trying to support my compatriots during that time of distress, I launched several volunteer tech mini-products. Unexpectedly, one of them became really, really popular—hundreds of thousands joined in just a couple of weeks. It was a mental health product, and this is how I realized there was a huge need in that area, which eventually led me to transform that volunteer product into a fully-fledged, venture-backed startup.
So, looking back, I’d say being an entrepreneur at work is about spotting a problem and being bold enough—or, in my case, dumb enough, haha—to believe you can indeed deal with it. And, of course, going out there and actually dealing with it!
That’s fascinating. Now, what about life? How are you entrepreneurial in life?
One can treat their life like a startup or like an established company. You can play it too safe to maintain the status quo and never know if things could be different, or maybe even better. Or, you can explore it. Perhaps the three main principles of a startup and venture mindset that I try to employ in my personal life are the following.
The first principle is Hypothesis Testing.
Just like in startup development, you can make deliberate experimental changes in your life to find out what works best for you. Will I feel more productive if I wake up earlier and go to bed earlier? Will I find more like-minded people if I move to another city? Will I be happier if I start living with a roommate instead of living alone? Whatever experiment you think of, be deliberate about considering what could potentially make a difference. Plan your experiment diligently to determine whether it worked out well or not and whether you should switch back or continue doing it as your new way of living.
The second principle is Expanding Your Personal Network.
Everyone’s heard it’s really useful for business, but it’s good for your social life too! The more interesting and nice people you have around you, the better you’ll feel—it’s obvious. But what I want to emphasize here is trying to reach circles beyond your usual ones, which we tend to stick to. This is about exploring and joining new communities. If you’ve been weightlifting all your life, what about joining a soccer club? If you’ve been into board games, why not try social dancing? If you’re a pro at sewing, what about taking a robotics class? By exploring communities far from what you’re accustomed to, you can discover entirely new worlds, learn more about yourself from unexpected angles, and meet people whose way of living or doing things challenges your current mindset—for the better.
And the last principle is to never stop learning and train yourself to be curious about things.
Curiosity is the driving force behind learning new, unfamiliar things, which helps us gain insights that we can apply on all levels of life, both professionally and personally. I believe genuine curiosity is one of humanity’s virtues. The important nuance here is that we shouldn’t confuse true curiosity with “what happens in the next episode of my series,” or “what’s new on TikTok,” but rather asking “what if?”, “why?”, “can I?”, “how can I?” Curiosity ultimately leads to action, not just pondering. It’s the ultimate power for improving your life through the small and big discoveries that fulfilling your curiosity brings.
Thank you, Eugene, for sharing these valuable insights. Your approach to entrepreneurship, both in business and life, is truly motivating.