8Minute Talk show — Ariyan Afshar CEO at Finnova

Mansour Kiarash: Hi, we are beside you with another management 8-minute talk show. Today, we are interviewing a young CEO, Ariyan Afshar, and he is the CEO at Finnova.

I’d appreciate it if you introduce yourself.

Ariyan Afshar: Hello, this is Ariyan Afshar. I’d like to express about companies activity. What we do is investing in startups, accelerating them, and offering services to them. I obtained an MBA master’s degree, and I started computer planning when I was 20.

Mansour Kiarash: What type of interaction should a CEO have with the chairman to help the company reaches the best efficiency?

Ariyan Afshar: there are two points here: the first is how to have good communication with a chairman with the Minimum data to help them make the correct decision. What I mean is that there should be a process that the best data at the right time should be in hand to help the chairman come to a decision.

On the other side, we should remove the useless communications.

Mansour Kiarash: what are the main features for investing in a company like, Finnova?

Ariyan Afshar: this story has two aspects: the first is to identify the parameters of a good investment, and the second is knowing the target of investment that why are you investing. The main issue is that we should know why are we investing, what efficiency are we looking for, and what will happen beyond this investment in other parts of our market.

Mansour Kiarash: what scientific gaps are in the startups?

Ariyan Afshar: there’s a bold gap that whenever people come to an opinion, they try to make it happen, and they don’t follow the evaluation process. So, they spend their time on what they think is right, and when there’s no evaluation, there will be a failure in the end. I believe people who work in this field should study more about their cases. There’s this phrase that startups marry their idea, that’s not correct because being faithful to your idea is good, but you should know what you are doing, how much time you are going to spend on that, and which way will lead me through the success.

Mansour Kiarash: Which job positions are vital at the startups?

Ariyan Afshar: the one who is leading the business, like; a business developer, Founder, and CEO are vital for the system. On the other hand, the one who leads the market and technology are important, as well.

Mansour Kiarash: what do you think about the funds requiring? Is it good or bad?

Ariyan Afshar: Fund is the inseparable part of this market, but whom I accept as the investor, when do I search for him, why am I asking for the fund is a big deal.

Mansour Kiarash: What type of team is possible for investment?

Ariyan Afshar: Benefactors of investments have this opinion that if they invest, they’ll have a growth in the amount of their money, or they’ll have a development in their market in the base of corporate venture capital. Venture capitals (VC) think about how to increase the number of funds. But corporate venture capitals (CVC) are planning for the market development, as well. The decision parameter is the same until a step, the decision parameters are different things. Our first Parameter is the team that how much it worth's, how knowledgeable is the one that is presenting for investment, and do the members complement each other well. If they have gotten familiar together lately, they aren’t trustworthy.

Mansour Kiarash: What is the difference between a startup and a mature business?

Ariyan Afshar: a mature business has reached a regular marketing schedule as an example, if you are producing a mug, you will deliver it to a thousand people, and every month they are buying this product, So, there’s a low risk in the market, because I know the amount of money I need, and the profit that I earn. But, in the startups, you know nothing about the structure. But, You may know the customer. Furthermore, you don’t know how much money will they spend on your product or how often are they going to pay, as well.

Mansour Kiarash: I’d appreciate it if you invite somebody to this talk show.

Ariyan Afshar: I invite one of my friends Mohammadreza Ghobadi, the Chief Executive Officer at Novintech Accelerator, he has done many valuable things during the last few years. Another person that I’d like to invite to this talk show is Mahmood Karimi, who works at Pasargad Arian Communication and Information (Fanap). I learned a lot from his experiences.

Mansour Kiarash: Thanks for participating in this talk show.

Ariyan Afshar: thanks for your invitation.

Mansour Kiarash: We talked to a successful manager, and we will talk to others, too.