From freelancing to founding 3 companies: Narek Najaryan shared his unique entrepreneurial experience with students of HSE Graduate School of Business
On December 12 HSE GSB hosted the first online guest lecture with a visionary entrepreneur from Armenia. During the lecture Narek Najaryan introduced students to the success strategies and discussed the professional development opportunities for those who are just starting their career path.
Narek Najaryan has founded and successfully managed two companies that operate within the digital marketing field and an educational center in an underserved region of Armenia. Being a graduate of an EU university and working with a great number of companies from all over the world, Narek has a decent experience of doing business internationally. Narek is a self-built professional who managed to boost his company to the 1% of all of the web development agencies operating through Upwork - biggest freelance platform in the world.
From the very first slide, the speaker grasped the audience's attention with a catchy design and the list of practical advice he gave to future graduates. During the lecture Narek identified the key factors of success, which are hunger, persistence and consistency, and elaborated on each of them. He also shared a list of books he finds the most useful for young professionals to build a successful career. For those students interested in the field of web services and UI/UX design specifically, Narek prepared a list of skills required to start as well as practical information on where and how such skills can be obtained and developed. Finally, students were given practical recommendations on “playing the money game” right and some insights from a young entrepreneur on ways to generate consistent cash flow. To conclude the lecture, Narek highlighted the importance of doing business ethically and giving back to the community. Today, Narek successfully manages the “Qo Dprocy” (Your School) project that offers education to children with need-based funding from the school's own charity fund.
More than 30 people connected to the lecture to learn more about the success of a young talented entrepreneur. After the lecture, students got engaged in a lively Q&A session and asked questions that concern them the most. Students discussed the relevance of MBA today, funding opportunities to start a business, the key skills to develop for entering the job market. The event was even 20 minutes over, when the audience ran out of questions.
HSE Graduate School of Business is grateful to Narek Najaryan for his time and for such an insightful and valuable lecture.
