Tag: EVN Disrupt

May 16, 2023

Hayk Tepanyan: Understanding Quantum

Hayk Tepanyan, co-founder and CTO of BlueQubit, joins us to discuss all things quantum computing. We dive into the potential applications of quantum computers, and how BlueQubit's platform can help businesses create roadmaps for quantum adoption in their operations. Additionally, Hayk discusses how BlueQubit's quantum simulator can be used for running experiments and testing potential applications.

April 18, 2023

Sergei Kungurov: Miro’s Move to Armenia & Scaling Products

Sergei Kungurov, Head of Core Product Foundation at Miro, joins us to discuss the company's first year in Armenia since relocating from Russia. As the popular collaborative whiteboarding tool continues to expand its reach (currently serving 50 million users), Sergei shares his insights on product development at scale.

April 11, 2023
Gevorg Poghosyan: Exploring the World of Social Enterprises

Gevorg Poghosyan: Exploring the World of Social Enterprises

In this episode, Gevorg Poghosyan, the CEO of Impact Hub Yerevan, discusses VIA Fund, an impact investment fund managed by Impact Hub Yerevan. Gevorg breaks down what impact investing is and how social enterprises differ from traditional businesses, highlighting their potential for scaling and creating positive change. We also delve into Impact Hub's plans to expand their spaces across Armenia.

February 14, 2023

Gevorg Soghomonyan: The Future of MLOps

Gevorg Soghomonyan is the co-founder and CEO of AimStack, an open-source machine learning experiment tracker. Gevorg shared with us how AimStack tackles the problem of tracking and visualizing ML metadata. We also spoke about his thoughts on the current MLOps landscape and where it is heading. Lastly, Gevorg shared his experience in building a company around an open-source project.

February 7, 2023

Al Eisaian: Insights From a Career in Tech

Al Eisaian is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in growing Armenia’s tech ecosystem for more than two decades. In this episode of EVN Disrupt he shares with us the insights he’s gained throughout his long career. We also spoke about his current role as CEO of Cognaize, an AI start-up that helps companies extract insights from unstructured data.

January 17, 2023

Viktoria Khechumyan: Armenia’s Blockchain Ecosystem

Viktoria Khechumyan, the CEO of nooor, joins us to discuss the evolution of Armenia’s blockchain ecosystem over the past few years. Nooor is a consulting company that advises on topics related to blockchain technology, including idea validation and talent recruitment. They’ve been involved in developing the blockchain ecosystem in Armenia from the early days. Viktoria also shared her thoughts on current trends in blockchain, and what the coming years hold for the technology.

January 10, 2023

Narek Vardanyan: The Science of Evaluating Start-up Ideas

What goes into evaluating a start-up idea? What metrics can you monitor to know whether or not your product has a high probability of succeeding in the market? These are the answers that Prelaunch.com is looking to answer. Narek Vardanyan, the co-founder and CEO of the company joins us to discuss how their platform provides entrepreneurs with insights on the market demand for their product, allowing them to make adjustments before launching in order to ensure the highest probability of success.

December 27, 2022

Raffi Kassarjian: The Armenian Tech Sector in 2022

Raffi Kassarjian, CEO of Sensyan and advisor to the CEO of the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises, joins us to recap the major events that took place in Armenia’s tech sector over the last year. We spoke about the state of the global tech sector and how it relates to Armenia’s context, particularly the slowdown of venture capital financing and how start-ups are thinking about their run rates. Raffi also shared his thoughts on the influx of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian tech talent to the country this year, and the arrival of several global tech companies. Lastly, we spoke about the impact of the appreciation of the Armenian dram and its impact on the industry.

December 13, 2022

SpaceTech denMACH: Building at the Intersection of IoT & Space

SpaceTech denMACH is a Danish space engineering company building solutions at the intersection of IoT (Internet of Things) and satellite communications. The CEO, Sheila Christiansen, and the CTO, Alexandru Csete, join us to discuss how their work is impacting the logistics, smart agriculture and education spaces. Sheila and Alexandru also shared with us their perspective on what approach smaller countries should take to develop their space industries.

December 6, 2022
Leonid Kirakosyan: Turning Armenia Into an Innovation Hub

Leonid Kirakosyan: Turning Armenia Into an Innovation Hub

Leonid Kirakosyan, a partner at McKinsey & Company, joins us to discuss the importance of digital transformation and making Armenia a more attractive destination for strategic investment. We also spoke about how Armenia’s tech industry can have a larger impact on the economy and what it will take to turn the country into a globally competitive innovation hub, including addressing the talent needs of the ecosystem.

November 15, 2022

Artem Harutyunyan: Automating Tasks With Bardeen

Artem Harutyunyan, the co-founder and CTO of Bardeen, joins us to discuss how his company helps automate browser-based workflows. Bardeen raised a $15.3 million Series A round this year to grow their engineering and AI teams. Artem also shared with us his thoughts on the importance of students from Armenia having opportunities to study at universities abroad, emphasizing the perspective shift that comes from being exposed to new environments, and how they are able to impact Armenia positively when they return to the country.

November 8, 2022
Dr. Lucy Abgaryan: Finding Treatments for Myotonic Dystrophy

Dr. Lucy Abgaryan: Finding Treatments for Myotonic Dystrophy

Dr. Lucy Abgaryan, the co-founder and CEO of GrittGene Therapeutics, a biotech company based in Los Angeles, California, joins us to discuss how her company is working to find treatments for Myotonic Dystrophy, a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive muscle loss and weakness. Lucy also shared with us her experience in trying to find opportunities to work with the local Armenian biotech industry.

September 20, 2022

Marina Aghayan: 3D Printing Devices for the Medical and Aerospace Industries

This week on EVN Disrupt, Marina Aghayan, the co-founder of AIP Tech and Fact Industries, joins us to discuss the potential that 3D printing has for solving real-world problems. AIP Tech is an Armenian company that 3D prints devices for the medical and aerospace industries. AIP Tech volunteered to help veterans of the 2020 Artsakh War with varying bone injuries with customized 3D implants to help them return to normal life.

September 6, 2022

Stepan Aslanyan: Accelerating Business Intelligence

This week on EVN Disrupt, Stepan Aslanyan, the co-founder and CEO of Hexact, joins us to discuss the problems they are working on solving by building no-code business intelligence tools. We also discussed Stepan’s long business career in Armenia and his thoughts on the country’s business culture.

August 23, 2022

Zareh Zurabyan: Understanding the Biotech Ecosystem

Zareh Zurabyan, the head of the Americas division at eLabNext, a European biotech company, joins us to discuss problems the biotech industry is currently working to solve. Zareh describes who the different players in biotech ecosystems are and what trends he is seeing in the industry in 2022. We also discussed his efforts to mentor Armenian start-ups and his thoughts on Armenia’s biotech scene.

August 16, 2022
Karen Vardanyan: Start-up Financing in 2022

Karen Vardanyan: Start-up Financing in 2022

This week on EVN Disrupt, Karen Vardanyan, a founding partner at FormulaVC, joins us to discuss their firm’s investment strategy and what early stage start-ups they’re seeing in the Armenian ecosystem. We also discussed what the current global economic situation means for Armenian start-ups, and what the future of the venture capital space in Armenia may look like.

July 26, 2022

Karen Gyulbudaghyan: Crafting Ecosystems

Karen Gyulbudaghyan, the founding partner at Strategic Values Ventures, a strategic advisory firm for global startups, joins us this week to discuss what it takes to build a successful start-up ecosystem. We also spoke about the impact of the Berkeley Skydeck start-up accelerator program, and the Armenian start-ups that have successfully gone through the program.

July 12, 2022
Liana Karapetyan: Angel Investing in Armenia

Liana Karapetyan: Angel Investing in Armenia

Liana Karapetyan, an associate at SmartGateVC and the director of Hero House Angels, joins us this week to discuss angel investing opportunities in Armenian start-ups. The Hero House Angels program allows individual investors from around the world to be connected with the Armenian start-up ecosystem and make investments. We also discussed Armenia’s ecosystem's trajectory as the number of start-ups in the country grows.

June 21, 2022

Chinar Movsisyan: Enabling Better Real-World AI

Our guest this week on EVN Disrupt is Chinar Movsisyan, the founder and CEO of Manot, a start-up that helps companies using artificial intelligence identify where their models may fail when users use them in the real world. We also discussed Chinar’s experience as a PhD student, and how effective a path graduate school is for building deep tech start-ups.

June 14, 2022

Hovsep Patvakanyan: Armenia’s Investment Climate

Hovsep Patvakanyan, the CEO of Invest in Armenia, joins us today to discuss the investment climate in Armenia, and the recently launched Investin.am platform which allows investors to invest in Armenian companies. We also discussed what aspects of Armenia’s economy are attractive for investment, and what reforms are necessary to continue attracting interest from investors.

June 7, 2022

Albert Poghosyan: Building Up Early Career Tech Professionals

Albert Poghosyan, the founder and Chief Dean of BuildUp Bootcamp, joins us this week to discuss how his organization attempts to prepare junior and mid-level professionals in Armenia’s tech sector for more senior roles. We discussed the project-based curriculum that BuildUp has developed, and what outcomes they are seeing with their first cohort of students.

May 3, 2022

Taron Khachatryan: Entering the Metaverse

Over the last year, the term "metaverse" has become increasingly prevalent in media and culture. This week on EVN Disrupt, Taron Khachatryan, the CEO and founder of Knoxlabs, a virtual reality equipment company based in Los Angeles, joins us to speak about the current state of virtual reality technology, and what the future of the metaverse may look like.

April 19, 2022

Tigran Shahverdyan: Building Autonomous Systems

Tigran Shahverdyan, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Robomart, joins us this week on EVN Disrupt to discuss how Robomart is attempting to make fresh produce more accessible through their "store-hailing" platform. We also discussed the future of self-driving vehicles, and Gituzh's initiatives to advance science in Armenia.

April 12, 2022

Lilit Nersisyan: At the Intersection of Biology and Tech

This week on EVN Disrupt, Lilit Nersisyan, a bioinformatician and the founder of the Armenian Bioinformatics Institute (ABI), joins us to discuss the field of bioinformatics, its role in the world today, and what ABI is working on. We also discussed science commercialization, and the biotech industry.

March 15, 2022

Hrant Khachatrian: Building a Research Lab From the Ground Up

Hrant Khachatrian, the founder and director of YerevaNN, a machine learning research lab, joins us this week on EVN Disrupt to tell us the story of how YerevaNN was built at a time when there was very little machine learning activity in Yerevan. We also spoke about the state of scientific research in Armenia and what is needed to significantly develop and boost research activity in the country.

March 7, 2022

Ashot Arzumanyan: Investing in Armenian Start-ups

The first guest of the newly launched Creative Tech podcast series, "EVN Disrupt" is Ashot Arzumanyan, a partner at SmartGateVC, a venture capital fund focusing on early stage start-ups. We discussed the Armenian start-up ecosystem, how it has evolved over the last four years and what we can expect from the Armenian tech sector in the near future. 0:00 Introduction/ 0:52 Founding of SmartGate VC/ 3:50 Tim Draper's investment in SmartGate/ 8:28 Evolution of Armenia's start-up ecosystem/ 15:55 Rise of product companies in Armenia/ 19:04 Recent investments in Armenian start-ups/ 29:26 Hero House LA, Diasporan start-ups/ 35:19 Challenges/ 37:58 Future of SmartGate and the ecosystem