After living abroad for more than 25 years and building a successful career across various countries, Shavkat Karimov has returned to his homeland of Uzbekistan. Currently serving as the Head of Uzbekistan’s IT Community, Karimov is dedicated to sharing his experience with young professionals while spearheading significant innovations and projects in the country's IT sector. In this interview, he discusses the importance of community in the tech field, his future plans, and potential collaboration opportunities between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Who is Shavkat Karimov? Please, can you give information about yourself?
I am a Head of IT Community of Uzbekistan, entrepreneur, investor, mentor, keynote speaker, top-level executive. Earlier, I worked as a Head of SEO at Microsoft, leading one of its most visited websites: Microsoft Community (Answers). Most recently I was a Vice President of SEO at BOLD, a leader in the resume/career fields.
I've got 2 degrees: one in international law from the University of Diplomacy (UWED) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and another one in film directing from Russian Film Institute called VGIK in Moscow, Russia. I produced 20 short films, wrote 3 books, created 2 social networks, was one of the biggest web directory owners in the world, lived and worked in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and other countries.
I came to the US as an extraordinary person (EB1A), but 2 years ago returned to Uzbekistan to share my experience and knowledge with young generation of Uzbekistan.
After 25 years living abroad, as the head of Uzbekistan's IT Community, what made you return to your country and how do you plan to develop the IT sector here?
I made enough fortune to financially support my family and myself for the rest of our lives and wanted to take time to enjoy life by helping others, especially in the field that I know well - information technology aka IT. That's why I returned to my homeland and then created the IT Community of Uzbekistan here.
When it comes to our plans, those are pretty ambitious. We want to connect all the IT people of the country and then in the region, so eventually one or more world-class products are creates as a result of these connections and networking. We also want to improve IT education in the country through our free workshops, masterclasses, courses and other educational programs.
What role do you believe community-building plays in fostering innovation within the IT industry, both locally and globally?
Community is a foundation of successful development of any field and IT is not an exclusion from this rule. When we talk to one another, ideas bounce and flourish, teams are formed, and brilliant products or services are created. This is true on any level, whether it's local or global. The more we communicate, the more we learn from each other and the more we learn how to work with one another. This helps foster innovation in our industry and in any industry for that matter.
As a frequent keynote speaker and mentor, what advice would you give to aspiring IT professionals and entrepreneurs in Uzbekistan looking to make a significant impact?
If you want to make an impact, first of all, make sure your fundamentals are there. People jump to polishing their skills without learning the basics and then at one point they stop growing because of that. After making sure your fundamentals are solid, keep widening your knowledge within your field of choice and also in other fields, especially creative ones, so you could stregthen both technical and creative sides of your brain. And finally improve your EQ. These 3 tips would get you where you want to be and will allow you to make a significant impact to our industry.
In your opinion, what are the key factors that contribute to the success of an IT product or solution in a competitive market?
Usage. If people use your product or whatever you have to offer them - it means the product is successful. And there are only 2 metrics here: number of users and their engagement (how engaged they are when using your product). Engagement might mean a bunch of other metrics depending on the nature of your solution.
What are your future plans for the IT Community of Uzbekistan, and how do you plan to scale its impact both regionally and internationally?
Tons of plans, to be honest. Educational programs, startup incubators, conferences, hackathons, internship programs, competitions, awards ceremonies, debates championships, freelancing programs, and more. We want to make sure we first help as many people as possible locally and then start expanding the collaboration with our regional and global partners.
As a mentor and investor, in which areas do you see the greatest potential to accelerate development in Uzbekistan?
Most fields are still to experience digital transformation and especially AI transformation, so any field has a great potential in that sense. In my opinion, education, science and technology are the three pillars to Uzbekistan's future success and these are the ones we should keep our focus on.
In your opinion, how can Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan cooperate in the field of IT, Startups and build a digital bridge in the region?
There are a number of ways Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan could cooperate: student exchange programs, tech startup contests, competitive programming, visiting each others IT hubs to learn from one another and help each other. Our cultures are pretty close and thus it would be easy for us to cooperate, so let's build this digital bridge between our beautiful countries.
