Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: My Digital Money CEO Guy Gotslak (Part 1)

Guy transitioned from being a hands-on developer to running a consulting company, and then eventually, to becoming a Crypto entrepreneur. In this interview, we discuss the nuances of his journey, as well as the trends in the Crypto world that are opening up opportunities.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to the company.

Guy Gotslak: I’m the President and Co-Founder of My Digital Money. I’m originally from Israel. I moved to the States when I was eight years old. I ended up studying computer science and engineering at UCLA. Then I went on to be a programmer for over five years.

Then I eventually started a company with a friend of mine doing consulting, helping companies modernize their tech stack and become more efficient using technologies like cloud computing and AI. We got acquired by a software company. We went our separate ways. I wanted to continue to use groundbreaking technologies and Blockchain was the next thing that caught my attention.

As I was working for some banking clients, I did some research to help banks figure out how to leverage Blockchain. It was even more groundbreaking than any of the other technologies that I’ve used and can really help accelerate companies and our society orders of magnitude beyond the other technologies that I’ve used. I had to get into it. Also I had a passion for customer service. Being in consulting, I’m very customer-focused.

Putting that together with Blockchain, I wanted to solve a problem in the industry. People want to talk to actual humans. It’s very automated. It’s almost just for people who are tech-savvy. I wanted to humanize crypto and make it a little more approachable and accessible. So my partner and I decided to start My Digital Money.

Sramana Mitra: While you were doing programmer jobs, what kind of companies did you work at? What kinds of technologies did you do hands-on developer work on?

Guy Gotslak: The first company I worked at was a Defense contractor. I worked on unmanned airplanes and fighter jets. I was building software to help make the planes autonomous and also help pilots do mission planning. I was using all kinds of software. I started with C and then went on with Windows programming and Java. Then I went to work at Myspace doing web development. Those were my two jobs in programming.

Sramana Mitra: When you started the consulting company, was it just you? Were there other people?

Guy Gotslak: There was a good friend of mine from college. I never considered myself an entrepreneur because I thought I was too risk-averse. Then I joined my good friend who started this consulting company. I joined him as a co-founder. Through him, I learned that you have to strike a balance between analyzing and moving forward with decisions. When there’s uncertainty, you have to make a decision and learn from your mistakes. That’s more important than making a perfect decision.

We grew that company to over 250 employees. I learned everything on my own – how to manage people, how to make decisions in a fast-paced environment, and sales. I think building a consulting company is very complex compared to having a software company. You have a bunch of different projects and a bunch of skillsets. There are a lot of moving pieces. I learned a lot being there.

Sramana Mitra: What kind of clients did you work with?

Guy Gotslak: We worked with financial services, manufacturing, and healthcare. We did some government as well. In one of my first projects, I was leading a modernization effort at the IRS. That was one of our first big projects. We pretty much worked across the board, but financial services is where we focused the most.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: My Digital Money CEO Guy Gotslak
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