Employee Success Story: Becoming the CEO of a New Project

Samvel Martirosyan joined the Hoory AI project in April 2021 to bring his vast experience to his role as CEO of Hoory. 

In this interview, he shares his thoughts on what it's like to work and grow at Ucraft, his vision for the future of AI in Armenia, and other essential questions such as what defines success. 

Check out the interview here. 

1. Why did you choose to join Hoory? 

   There are several points conditioning my decision. For lack of better words, let's call them personal, biographical, and semantic. The personal reason is very clear: I am trying to find new directions for professional growth, interest and for discovering new things. The biographical reason has a more extended background. Many years ago, when Ucraft didn't yet exist, I met Gev at a Cascade cafe. He told me about this cool idea he had, which were the first seeds of Ucraft. So we made a point that we will do some great things together one day, and here we are. And lastly, the semantic reason is my interest in AI, ML, startups, creating technology for the better. 

   When these three reasons came together, I accepted the invitation to become Hoory`s CEO.
    

2. What qualities can make a person successful in their organization? Also, what are some professional and personal qualities we need to see more of in Armenian companies?

   First of all, one should not forget that they are part of a team. Behind every personal success story, there are people who helped you achieve that. An individual should always aim to grow both personally and professionally. 

   In the context of Armenia, we need a better life-long education system with more people who are ready to learn every day. And we need to think globally: Armenians need to recognize that we are a part of a bigger world. 

   I can speak for hours about what we need in Armenia. But, very often, our problem is that we can discuss our shortcomings for hours without actually taking action.
    

3. What’s your vision for Hoory? 
   In short - to become a unicorn company (at minimum). Expanding on this point, my vision for Hoory is that we are going to be a very flexible, consistently evolving modern platform. Conquering new markets, industries and niches is an excellent way to keep the team in shape and permanently adopt new technologies and ideas. It is also worth mentioning that we are going to expand Hoory. This is a very big, futuristic, and exciting project, and we have some secret plans up our sleeve. For now, that is - you’ll hear about these ideas soon.
    
4. How do you envision the future of AI/ML in Armenia? How do you see an Armenian company thrive in the field of AI/ML?

   For Armenia, AI/ML is a vital direction of growth. That's one of the few directions where small nations can do great things for humanity as a whole. Nonetheless, this direction requires significant financial and human resource investments. Once again, education is key here. 

   We need a big AI/ML community ready to create and share knowledge. In this direction, we as a country, as a community, already have some remarkable achievements. On the other hand, I think we have to move deeper and faster. This is vital for Armenia.
    

5. Tell us a bit about your role and challenges as CEO. What’s the Hoory team like, and do you see it expand?

   It’s been an exciting ride so far since we are also working on a secret project alongside building our platform. So I can confirm that Hoory is already expanding.

   What concerns the team - it’s a very cool team to be a part of. I feel very comfortable working with this group of bright people. We are an international team composed of people with different nationalities from various backgrounds, working together across several time zones. And I think it's nice for the team spirit. We are also a very inclusive team, almost half of which is composed of talented, bright young women. Hoory is definitely not a male-dominated team, and our Hoory girls bring a lot to the table.
    

6. Have you conducted studies showing how Hoory can help entrepreneurs and employers save time and money? What are the benefits of implementing Hoory?

   I will not go deep into digits and numbers. Our sales team has very nice presentations on how much money, time, and nerve cells of the customer support team Hoory can save. In fact, Hoory helps to maintain the daily workflow of every business. Hoory is very smart: you just need to train her, and then she will understand the needs of every customer. Hoory understands even complicated questions; she never sleeps, never gets angry, works during the weekends and holidays.  

   Likewise, Hoory has a unique knowledge base feature, which allows the bot to crawl your websites and learn everything by itself. Thus, you don't need to spend hours training Hoory if you are short on time. Many of our other features make customer support teamwork much easier and more effective. And since we are continuously improving, you will get a better and more intelligent version of Hoory every week.
    

7. What advice would you give to someone who wants to apply for a job at Hoory?
   The first bit of advice is evident - just apply. Because we have a lot of vacancies. 
   The second - simply be yourself, because we are open to all types of people and personalities.