Aida Fazylova

Make long term plans and always communicate your expectations when entering any kind of partnership.

 

Aida Fazylova is the Founder and CEO at XOR.ai. She was the top recruiter for a large staffing agency in Eastern Europe before starting her own company. Her degree in maths and computer programming paired with her years of experience in IT recruitment and project management for over 6 years led her venture to create an AI-powered recruiting workflow automation platform, XOR. Today, XOR has major customers in 15 countries around the world and is the emerging leader in Human Resource / Talent Acquisition process automation.

Where did the idea for your company come from?

Prior to becoming entrepreneur I was working as a technical recruiter for 5 years. And I was the best recruiter in my company, but what always frustrated me was that 60% of my work hours were spent in a routine of repetitive tasks instead of actually focusing on meeting people or doing essential strategic things, I was pre-screening the resumes, scheduling the candidates for meetings, and answering to the same questions over and over again. So you can say that the idea of AI-powered recruitment chatbot came from a personal pain of mine 🙂

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

I set up a big goal and an execution plan first, then I plan my milestones around them, making every day a step in a right direction. I create a To-do list and a priorities list every evening for the next day.

Also, working in a team of people you’re committed to is a big push for me.

How do you bring ideas to life?

Discussing with partners. If we all feel good about it, we plan the operation carefully and implement it step by step.

What’s one trend that excites you?

AI assistants integrated in our lives. Those who can help you do small routine and repetitive tasks that everybody hates doing, but need to be done.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

You’re typically more productive when a bit hungry 🙂

What advice would you give your younger self?

Make long term plans and always communicate your expectations when entering any kind of partnership.

Do practice public speaking, it’ll come handy.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

People don’t care if they’re talking/chatting to a human or a robot as long as they have the job done. Whether it’s about the sales, marketing or recruitment.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Focus on 1 thing at the time, start doing 1 channel of sales really good and once you have a stable flow – then experiment around it.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Outbound sales, predictable lead generation channels is an extremely important thing for any b2b. Every business needs to start those as easy as possible, it’ll let you have a sustainable growth.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I once was tricked by people, because due to young age we didn’t have a paper agreement about business terms. I learnt my lesson well. From that time on I really value clear expectation communication, good legal consultation and discussion of all possible scenarios before starting working together 🙂

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

GitHub for data scientists – where they can store the results of all the experiments without losing them.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

Made a guest article/topic in a local media about XOR hiring new teammates and received 120 applications.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

Again – funny, but I recently tried XOR for hiring a lot of people for a short time myself and I cannot tell you enough how much time me and my team have saved. We managed to hire 8 great sales people in 1 week, the best picked out of 120 applicants. It was amazing, and so far one of the best recruitment operations I’ve ever been a part of.

On usual basis I simply use Calendar/Notes.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

I don’t really have that 1 book. I love a short story titled “The Mexican” by Jack London. It really inspires me, always. One of the books I really liked recently is “The Bad Blood” about what hubris can do to you.

What is your favorite quote?

Where there’s a will there is a way

Key learnings:

• Planning your operations carefully with the participation of all your partners is key for a successful outcome. Additionally, a step by step implementation can ensure positive results.
• Finding a winner business idea doesn’t always have to come from a moment of inspiration. In fact, a personal struggle or challenge can be the spark of an idea to solve not only your problem but become a solution for an entire industry.
• It’s important to surround yourself by trustworthy professionals and seasoned mentors who can provide you not only with entrepreneurial advice but also legal expertise so you don’t fall victim of partners or collaborators that might not have the best intentions

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