In this 45th episode of Colors Web3 and Entrepreneurship, Lam sits down with Bojan Najdov, founder of Lambda Group, a staff augmentation company specializing in connecting businesses with top tech talent from South Africa and the Balkans.

Bojan takes us on his entrepreneurial journey, beginning with his background in finance and his transition to the world of technology. He shares his experiences with cryptocurrency trading and mining, including both the highs of the 2017 bull run and the lows of market crashes and scams. We learn about the genesis of Lambda Group, his transition from a traditional dev shop to a staff augmentation model, and the strategic reasons behind focusing on talent from South Africa and the Balkans.

Bojan provides valuable insights on the challenges and rewards of running a fully remote, contractor-based business and how he leverages technology like AI and automation to maximize efficiency and scale his operations.

00:00:00 Episode trailer

00:00:25 Introduction to the show and guest - Bojan Najdov, founder of Lambda Group

00:01:26 Bojan's professional experience in banking and finance

00:04:22 Bojan's big-fish, small-pond strategy that landed him in South Africa

00:06:47 How Bojan learned about Web3

00:09:38 His entrepreneurial experience mining Bitcoin and Ethereum

00:14:35 Bojan's experience "surviving" 2 crypto cycles

00:17:57 Bojan’s hobbies outside of Web3

00:22:05 His experience leading the credit and market risk department at a big bank in South Africa before Covid lockdown

00:23:57 Does a bank's department need 250 people? Discussion about productivity at Lambda Group

00:27:08 Deep dive into Lambda Group, from dev shop to staff augmentation

00:30:44 Early challenges, lessons learned, and pivoting the business model

00:33:44 A Web3 project that his company took on

00:35:24 The original founders of Lambda Group and the team behind the company

00:36:36 His rationale for focusing on SME's and not on big corporations

00:42:05 A typical day in of an entrepreneur

00:43:15 The importance of having a strong sales funnel

00:43:48 Discussion about entrepreneurship

00:45:15 Successful marketing strategies: the power of cold emailing

00:49:11 Transferable skills that can be learned from entrepreneurship

00:51:22 Working a full-time job in investment banking while starting Lambda Group

00:54:01 Building a side hustle while holding a full-time job - Having optionality

00:57:01 Bojan's preference on how he prefers to run his business

01:01:58 Leveraging technology and automation to overcome solopreneurs' bottlenecks

01:06:37 Business is all about distribution

01:09:07 Discussion about selling a business

01:11:17 Qualities of a successful entrepreneur: perseverance, a "chip on your shoulder", resourcefulness

01:16:32 Where to follow Bojan online

01:17:42 Episode outro and next episode preview

Follow Bojan and his company:

Bojan's Twitter/X: https://x.com/bojan_najdov

Bojan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bojan-najdov/

Lambda Group website: https://www.lambdagroup.io/

My social media:

Twitter/X: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/LamWeb3⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/lamweb3/⁠

Website: ⁠https://lamtrinh.xyz⁠

My latest article: https://lamweb3.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-decentralized-science

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