Today we are introducing our new product management lead who will be in charge of the ICONOMI’s fund management platform — Gasper Setinc.
Gasper, welcome to the team! Can you introduce yourself in a few sentences?
In my life the paths of technology, business and art have always been intertwined. The last 15 years I worked as an engineer, manager and a business founder. Blockchain technologies have fascinated me from their very start and I’ve spent countless hours exploring them, visiting several bitcoin conferences and exchanging ideas with people from the industry. My passion for this mind-blowing innovation has only grown with time, so becoming a part of the ICONOMI team is a huge opportunity for me to dig even deeper into this area.
Tell us a bit about your past working experience.
I started my career in the financial industry, where I spent 9 years as a developer in a bank. During that time I learned the ins & outs of payment, inter-bank clearing systems and what it means to develop working software to a hard deadline. The next step was my own business. I founded and launched an online food delivery platform, the first of its kind in Slovenia, which at its peak operated 12 restaurants. The desire to learn and know more led me to Zemanta, a Slovenian start-up company whose main product is an enterprise platform for content marketing, where I progressed to the role of product manager. With the rest of the team we successfully launched the Zemanta One solution, which is to this day the main focus of the company. In search of an international experience, I later joined Glispa which brought me to Berlin where I currently reside. I have always believed that moving to another country is a huge opportunity for personal growth. I’m happy to say that after spending a year in Berlin I can confirm this belief: the experience has been the most personally transformative period of my life.
What are the things you do in your free time?
I enjoy meaningful and thoughtful conversations with interesting people. Besides that, I like reading books, watching movies and I’m quite keen on several types of sport. My seasonal activities include sailing in the summer and skiing in the winter. However, my real passion is climbing: I do as much of it as my body can handle.
What is the last book you read and the last movie you watched?
My last book was Ray Dalio’s Principles. I believe that constantly refining personal values and principles is an important aspect of one’s life. My last movie was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a depiction of Hunter S. Thompson’s wild life. I guess I’ve always been fascinated by the odd and crazy.
What drives you and why?
Challenges. And I have no idea why. But I know I started playing guitar because I was captivated by how hard it was when I first tried it. I just had to master it. And the same goes for all the other things I’ve found passion for: climbing, skiing, computer engineering, business development, … It seems that if I’m presented with something challenging that I can’t do initially, I’ll obsess about it until I can do it to a degree I’m satisfied with.
