Victor Orlovsky: From a Key Position in a Major Bank to Investing in IT Start-Ups

Victor Orlovsky is a world-class entrepreneur. He began his career as an IT specialist at a bank in Tashkent, and today he is known as a major venture investor who develops prospective start-ups in the US and Israel.

The biography of Victor Orlovsky is a kind of vivid example of what heights a person who does what he loves can achieve.

The Beginning of the Career

On Wikipedia, it says that Victor Orlovsky is known in Russia as a manager of the IT departments of major banks and the creator of a unique platform for business digitalization.

The future manager and entrepreneur was born on April 12, 1974, in Tashkent. In 1996, he graduated from Tashkent University of Informational Technology, and a couple of years later, in 2001, he also graduated from Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics, and Informatics.

The professional career of Victor Orlovsky began in the technological department of ABN AMRO Bank – world famous bank in Tashkent. At first, he worked as an ordinary IT specialist but quickly rose to the position of head of the department.

Just 1.5 years later, Victor moved to Holland, where he was sent as a young talent. Then he was sent to another branch to strengthen a team in Moscow, where he became a successful top manager in a bank, having headed the IT department and implemented a hard project for the integration of the Core banking system. “Every place where I worked needed specialists with technical education and language skills. I studied a lot, so I fit the requirements. But to succeed in the job, you need to not just be a good fit, you always need to exceed the expectations of your higher-ups and colleagues, as well as be able to make decisions that are risky but important for the company at the same time. I quickly learned that and managed to occupy high-ranking positions in large corporations” – says Victor Orlovsky.

There, Victor proved himself as an exceptional and creative manager and expert for the implementation of transformation programs in corporations and the creation of IT platforms for the digital ecosystem on a national-scale. He participated in and led world-class technological breakthroughs at the two largest banks in the country and built one of the biggest digital banks in the world. In doing so, Victor has gained popularity as an expert in the field of digital technology and breakthrough innovations.

The Launch of Venture Business

Despite his success in Russia and having achieved the highest position in the corporate technological sector, Victor Orlovsky moved to California in 2015 and became one of the residents of Silicon Valley. He left the career of a successful IT manager and decided to concentrate on launching his own venture business.

“I liked working in a bank, but one day I honestly admitted to myself that my true desire is to have my own business. Internally, I always felt free of stereotypes, which is why moving was easy for me. I just realized that I’m ready and started preparing” – Victor Orlovsky says.

Victor decided to do venture business because of his passion for technological innovations, which, in his opinion, should change our world beyond recognition. “We are not looking for a ready-made solution; we are creating it along with other talented people – founders of start-ups. Venture business is a deep asymmetry of knowledge and information in which access to the best deals is restricted and requires having serious insights; it is basically legal insight trading aimed at building the future. At the same time, this type of investment is practically devoid of innovations” – Orlovsky says.

It must be said that the decision turned out to be the right one: today, Victor develops projects for startuppers from the USA and Israel and does so quite successfully – within just a few years, he became a world-renowned investor.

But Victor Orlovsky doesn’t plan to stop there. He launched a course on venture capital (www.neic.club) together with the professor at Stanford University, Ilya Strebulaev. Victor also writes articles and speaks as an expert in the field of technological innovations. Moreover, he became a co-author of the business bestseller “From Rhino to Unicorn: How Fortune 500 Companies Can Evolve for the Digital Era”. It received a “Book of 2020 in Russia” prestigious award by PWC and became a handbook for entrepreneurs all across the globe. Currently, Victor continues to write articles and books. One of his books will be a part of a charity project – all sales profits will go towards charity.

The ideas of the entrepreneur are interesting for both start-up founders and investors. He is working and developing in the field he is passionate about and feels comfortable among like-minded people.

Victor says that all of his big decisions have yet to be made. He sees the essence of venture business in creating projects that will become mainstream in 7-12 years. But to build such projects, you need a deep understanding of innovations, good intuition, a lot of knowledge, and the ability to navigate the developmental trends of business and society as a whole.