Mitesh Shah

Take Risks! Playing it safe is fine, but you need to get out there more and take risks – that is the best way to move forward and grow, especially in failure.

 

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mitesh Shah, is a Financial Analyst with several years of professional experience. Mitesh is a graduate of St. John’s University – Tobin College of Business, in which he earned his M.B.A. in Finance as part of an accelerated 5-year program. During his time at St. John’s, Mitesh was an integral leading member of the school’s prestigious and significant Investment Fund, where he led his group to research, analyze, and recommend changes to the Fund’s investment portfolio. Over the past four-years, Mitesh extensively researched and studied the cryptocurrency industry and blockchain technology, participated in leading industry meetings, conferences, and summits, and networks with dozens of industry leaders. Mitesh also provides regular podcasts on the trends and developments in the industry and communicates with the U.S. Congressional staff members on developing future regulatory framework for the industry.

Where did the idea for Omnia Markets come from?

As a Financial Analyst, certified in Bloomberg Terminal and experienced in several other financial tools including FactSet and Eikon, I wanted to conduct the same level of in-depth actionable research that I would for my clients’ stock portfolios to manage my cryptocurrency portfolio. Unfortunately, there are no such “intelligent” tools in the cryptocurrency industry that provide the necessary information for me, or any other investor, to be able to create a well-educated investment strategy. This led me to create Omnia Markets as a platform that offers high-level analytics, proprietary journalism, and analytical feature sets required by investors to build such an investment strategy. I have taken my knowledge from my Financial Analyst days and put it to work in an industry that I truly believe will be a major industry in the future.

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

I typically wake up at 7 am and go through my morning routine of having breakfast and taking my dog for a run. I go to the gym to get my blood pumping which sets me up for an active day moving forward. I begin work at 9 am and start with the highest prioritized item from my “To-Do” list that I made the night before. My mantra when it comes to work has always been “Do one thing at a time, do it to the best of your ability, then move on the next task.” Following this, I have always been able to accomplish the items on my “To-Do” list. In order to stay refreshed, I take short breaks throughout the day to have lunch and take my dog for another walk. Being an entrepreneur/Founder & CEO, my workday doesn’t have an end time – it ends when I have completed the work I set out to complete. Many of the items I work on have various parts that need to be accomplished so I work on the most important part first. At night, I go through my list to ensure everything has been accomplished and will make a new “To-Do” list for the next day. I then usually watch TV/Netflix or read my monthly book for an hour before going to sleep – this helps me wind down to ensure I can get at least 8 hours of sleep each night.

How do you bring ideas to life?

When thinking of any idea/feature that I would like to incorporate into the company and/or platform, I first begin by visualizing how the idea would work – its compatibility with other features and ideas, how we would interact with this idea on the back-end, how the end-users would interact with this idea, etc. I then begin to research to see if there are similar ideas out there; if there are, I try to analyze how it works and how I can improve upon that idea within my company. If there are no similar ideas, I try to create an exhaustive list of its pros and cons as well as how to improve upon the idea and eliminate as many cons as possible. Once I have created a robust, complete idea I then create a plan to turn the idea into reality. This includes a step-by-step plan on how to code the idea in the platform and connect it to the overall feature set being offered. Once built out, it goes through rigorous testing, not just by me, but also with my Co-Founder, who also happens to be my Father, and advisors to ensure it works as intended before being added to the overall platform architecture.

What’s one trend that excites you?

One trend that really excites me is the increase of information sharing that is happening within this quickly growing industry. The more information that is available means that there are more and more people getting involved in the industry at various levels – especially on the consumer end who are taking in all of this information. As a data-analytics company, this is important to us because we want to ensure that we put out the most reliable information available backed by accurate, live analytics. By targeting users at all levels, I want to get as many people involved in this industry, whether they are first-timers looking to grasp a better understanding all the way up to larger investors that need a high-level of information and analytics to create an investment strategy.

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

The main habit of mine in this regard would be my habit to always try to increase my knowledge about this industry. Cryptocurrency and Blockchain are still relatively new and quickly growing so there are always new features and applications being built that have their own unique use-case of this technology. By always keeping an open mind and understanding how things are moving forward, I’m able to move and lead my company in the best direction to be able to take full advantage of what is going on around me.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Take Risks! Playing it safe is fine, but you need to get out there more and take risks – that is the best way to move forward and grow, especially in failure. I waited too long to take risks, but the journey they have taken me on has allowed me to grow and learn so many new things.

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

Always being available for your employees is an important part of being a CEO. Many people believe that a CEO is too busy running their business to be easily accessible to their employees; however, I believe that being a leader means that you’re in front of the pack and are always available for employees and can be someone that they depend and rely on.

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

Challenge yourself! As an entrepreneur you always believe in what you are doing, but it is always good to challenge yourself and try to look at your project from another point of view – including as an opponent. This helps you to understand what you are doing from various sides and can help you build your company/project and make it stronger.

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

One strategy that has helped me grow my business is to stick to your timeline. Things always change and there are always aspects of running a business that are out of your control – this makes it very hard to follow your timeline. By setting goals to be achieved throughout the process and making sure that I achieve my goals according to the time I set, I have grown my business and continue to grow it as we move forward.

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

One failure I had as an entrepreneur came early on when I was first creating Omnia Markets and was the result of not truly understanding the movement of the industry and external players, including the SEC. Prior to Omnia Markets, I was creating a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. Throughout the early phases, I was not fully aware of how similar companies were restructuring themselves and how the SEC was moving along this new space. This caused me to eventually take a step back and look at the industry as a whole and dedicate myself to understanding the industry as much as possible – and when I was ready, I came back with Omnia Markets to tackle the largest problem I had come across: the lack of accurate and reliable data analytics. As I move forward, I continue to dedicate a lot of my time to understanding the industry from different points of view so I can successfully navigate this space to bring success to Omnia Markets.

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

A business idea that I would like to see in the future is a decentralized imaging platform that analyzes medical images and is able to accurately and quickly detect any abnormalities along with potential causes/diseases.

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

The best $100 I recently spent was on diagnosis tests for an infection my dog had. I am happy to have spent on this because it led to a diagnosis and treatment plan to get my dog healthy and back to how she should be. When it comes to family/life choices I personally believe that at the end of the day the costs don’t matter, just that the person (or pet) was taken care of properly.

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

Google Calendar is a great service that I utilize on different fronts to remain productive. Google Calendar allows me to set various reminders throughout the day, keep a detailed “To-Do” list, and, of course, schedule meetings. Having all my work-related items in one place is very convenient for me and – being an Android user – having these reminders displayed on my phone in chronological order allows me to stay on pace and move from one item to another efficiently.

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

I would recommend “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek. I read this book in high school, but it had a lasting impression on me which stood out when I began creating Omnia Markets. Sinek discusses how inspiration is a powerful and long-lasting human behavior influence. When I started to create Omnia Markets, having a sense of inspiration and “why” I am doing this is what has pushed me so far – rather than creating something for myself or a select group of people, I have always been inspired by creating something that can positively affect as many people as possible, something that Omnia Markets aims to do.

What is your favorite quote?

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford. This also goes in hand with the saying “Failure is a mindset,” because the second you believe you are going to fail – you will! Keep pressing forward and keep believing in what you are doing – failure just means that you have created a learning opportunity in which you can come back stronger/smarter than before.

Key Learnings:

• Being a leader means to be someone that is in front of pack leading your employees and the company – being someone that they can depend on is an important part of being a CEO
• Keeping an open mind and always searching for opportunities to learn are very important mindsets to have as a leader
• Even if you don’t agree with what’s being said, always listen to what others have to say and try to understand where they’re coming from
• You only fail when you stop getting back up – as long as you learn from your failures you will continue to move forward

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