Oleksandr Solovei, CEO & co-founder at Finmap

How your typical day goes, what about your daily routines?

Most days almost always start around 6:40 am.

I wake up, and I have little time to take care of all the pets - 2 dogs, 2 cats, manage to eat something, and already at 8 am my work begins.

From 8 am I have calls, most often my first call is at 8, then I have an hour either without calls or with them, and I often go out to walk the dogs but still during this time work happens. Basically like right now: I went out with the dogs but in parallel I still have calls and various tasks. On a work week it's 6 - 8 meetings a day with different departments, with various external counter-parties, with different partners.

Overall, the working week is continuous work. In the evening I also walk the dogs. I live outside the city and sometimes I go out during the day somewhere to a cafe to get coffee there and sit and work, but that, well, at most can be once a week and more often I still work fully from home always.

As for work rituals, or rather rituals in general - I really like to always cook breakfast for myself. Most often I eat breakfast alone and during this time I mostly watch educational videos not about business but about science and physics and various such things because I have an engineering background and I find it all super interesting. I don't really have such set rituals, it's basically walking the dogs, taking care of the cats and that's basically the main thing.

You lead an active lifestyle, how do you balance work and leisure?

Basically if during the week I mostly work, then on the weekends it's some kind of road trip through nature. So I have a bunch of points marked on the map and I either explore those spots or some new ones, or go back to places I've been before.

Mostly if we're talking about trips not too far away, it's within a range of 100-150 km and within this range there's just about anything - there are ocean beaches, deserted forests, dunes, some swampy areas. So I have places to drive to and especially not just drive but arrive at some picturesque natural place and either brew myself some coffee there or cook food. In my car I have an installed kitchen that I also made myself and this is such a huge hobby for me. Basically the first hobby is road trips, the second is tinkering and especially when it's all combined together, when I take my favorite car, stuff it with a bunch of camping gear, take the dogs with me and go somewhere, mostly alone but on such a trip.

It really recharges me.

 You spend a lot of time outdoors, in a car, traveling. Tell us about our car custom, the longest trip far from the urban area, how far you've traveled, and what attracts you to such trips?

Basically I do spend a good amount of time in nature because I also live in nature, in the forest. On the weekends, the main thing I'll be doing is definitely not trips to the city - it's always trips out into nature somewhere.

How far have I gone? It's hard to say because it was basically within the bounds of civilization, meaning all of it was within Ukraine. But something interesting was like a 5-day trip to northern Portugal traveling through the mountains, living there in tents at campgrounds or just somewhere in some unknown forest, so that's like the best for me.

What about the attraction to such trips, first of all, the opportunity to interact with nature's wonders. Nature is much more picturesque for me than what civilization creates.  I like nature because each time you can find a completely different looking location and do something epic.

For example, go up or down a waterfall, then scoop water right into a camp stove pot from that waterfall, brew some ground coffee right there on the rocks next to the water, make some really tasty sandwiches on another small camp stove, and not just some bread, cheese and that's it, but an actual culinary creation with like some salmon, some spices. Something interesting like that, food-ism style. And do it all very aesthetically, beautifully lay everything out, maybe put down a little tablecloth. And this is mostly, 95% of it, purely to personally enjoy this beauty and this moment by myself.

Is a backpack an essential daily item for you?

Absolutely. The backpack accompanies me on all my possible trips, because it's an incredibly convenient thing in terms of storing tech gear, because I almost always have a computer with me, and it needs to be reliably protected, and the HURU backpack is just the perfect thing for that. It's waterproof, which I really like.

For example, even a few months ago I went skiing with this backpack. Right on the slopes. So it's also very convenient for that. If we're talking about work trips around the world, then yes, I only travel with it.

It's very convenient that you can put not only tech but also a lot of clothes in it. And I even once tried to stuff shoes into it and succeeded. At the same time, even when it's packed very, very tightly, it doesn't look bulky. And it still looks neat enough, not just some huge shapeless lump on your back.

Are you a person who can fit their life into one suitcase (car ) or the opposite?

In a car, yes, that's how it is.

What are the things you always have with you?

I almost always have the same set of things with me. It’s a laptop, several sets of cables, a cosmetic bag and so on, with various things, that's understandable. I always have a collapsible silicone mug and a spoon. Then I always have bags of tea, coffee and ground coffee. Then, a water bottle and one or several carabiners, because I always either clip this bottle with water, or clip some item, or well, sometimes a suitcase comes apart and the lock breaks, and the carabiner saves me, allowing me to put it back together. If it's not a trip by plane, I always have a multitool because something is always happening where I need to tighten, untighten, cut or fix something, so it's always with me.

What do you pay attention to when choosing items?

Well, in a sense, I have my own philosophy around this. I much prefer to have fewer items that I can use for years. For example, the same multi-tool that I have - one of them is probably already 10 years old, maybe 15 years old. So I'm very careful with tools and my things in general, because of this they get very actively used. And I really like to use them to their maximum potential but not exceed it. So I very actively use various tools of mine. I have a lot of clothes that are also very old, but still look okay. So the main thing for me with these items is that they will be versatile, meaning they can be used in different circumstances. And second, that they can serve me for a very long time. I really categorically dislike shopping for things or using things that are essentially disposable. Or impulse purchases - that's definitely not me. Thoughtful choice in purchases is definitely me, and in the use of various items. In terms of whether it is visually appealing and so on - yes, overall the visual component of items is also important. But experience shows that a large number of items that are truly practical are also aesthetically perfect. Because their aesthetics stem from their exceptional practicality. And that already gives them a utilitarian charm. So that's the main thing for me.