This 25-year-old IT Specialist is helping to destroy the world of finance that we are used to.
Robert Krzhizhanovsky belongs to the category of people who can choose what they do in life.
Robert Krzhizhanovsky, director of information technology at Avant
At age 11, he received the 97th percentile on the mathematical section of the SAT (subject testing for high school graduates needed to enter US colleges and universities). At 16, Krzhizhanovsky, fluent in three languages, completed a course in a special college-level program for gifted high school students at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois.
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At 23, he became a Ph.D. ( translator's notes: approximately, an analogue of the Russian “candidate of science” ) in mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and, as he says, he sought to find work through which he could have a real impact on life.
As a result, Krzhizhanovsky, who is now 25, joined the little-known financial and technological startup “Avant”.
This Chicago-based online credit platform is one of several start-ups that hope to turn the consumer credit market upside down, making it possible to get a loan faster than it can be done through banks. “Avant” can provide some borrowers with a loan on the same day.
Founded in 2012, Avant is the fastest growing online market lender, increasing by more than $ 1.6 billion over three years. The company, estimated at more than $ 2 billion, is also included in the “unicorn club” (a union of startups worth more than $ 1 billion)
A few years ago, she may have been a risky place to start a career. Krzhizhanovsky's story about his work experience at Avant destroys all ideas about working in a technology startup, starting with the motivations of its employees.
“Even in graduate school, where people have a wide variety of life experiences and education and where they are, in general, quite motivated, I have not met with that“ drive, ”with such a driving force that affects you in the first few years of really fast-growing enterprises, ”he says.
Although Krzhizhanovsky was educated in mathematics and statistics, he leads programmers at Avant.
In the office of Avant, Chicago
Krzhizhanovsky likes to perform various duties in the company, which is a pleasant bonus for him to stay in a small organization. Here he is also able to see the direct impact of his work.
“When we have a stream of clients, the work that I do and the people I work with is constant decision making, and every second it actually affects our clients,” says Krzhizhanovsky.
“Without such a connection with the real world, it is difficult to explain to yourself any work being done, and I believe that my decision to move from science to industry was correct.”
A team of analysts of Krzhizhanovsky, in essence, transforms some ideas of the company about potential customers into certain data that can be used to analyze the value of these customers as borrowers.
“What we do is ultimately reduced to decision-making - but to better and faster adoption,” continues Krzhizhanovsky.
Avant must be able to determine whether a customer is honest. (There are two types of fraud, says Krzhizhanovsky: an intangible forgery (“soft” deception), such as, for example, using a current credit rating to obtain a one-time loan with the knowledge that, for example, the time to pay off some large debt, and material forgery (“ hard "deception), such as, for example, identity theft.)
His team processes using offline tools and machine learning methods, analyzing hundreds or even thousands of variables to assess fraud risks. Most lenders are able to analyze only a few dozen variables.
"The effectiveness of our actions is that we can take these complex algorithms and convert them into a program that can make a decision immediately," says Krzhizhanovsky.
The team is able to complete the task by developing its own syntax and grammar programming.
“We use truly best-in-class analytics and technology to provide a unique customer experience,” Avant CEO Al Goldstein told us.
According to him, the decision on more than 50% of Avant's customers is made in real time, and financing for all of them is carried out on the next business day.
“The result is truly high quality customer service and satisfaction,” he said.
In the office of Avant, Chicago
This week Avant launched its new product - financing the purchase of a car; plans to issue a credit card.
Mr. Goldstein expects to also bring Avant to the international market, in particular, to the UK and Canada.
The team of Krzhizhanovsky analysts has grown from two people to 30, and his position continues to grow with her.
“When I came to work here, I didn’t know how long I would be here: maybe for a long time, and maybe only for a few months,” says Krzhizhanovsky.
Two years later, it seems that he may be here for many years.
Robert Krzhizhanovsky, director of information technology at Avant
At age 11, he received the 97th percentile on the mathematical section of the SAT (subject testing for high school graduates needed to enter US colleges and universities). At 16, Krzhizhanovsky, fluent in three languages, completed a course in a special college-level program for gifted high school students at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois.
')
At 23, he became a Ph.D. ( translator's notes: approximately, an analogue of the Russian “candidate of science” ) in mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and, as he says, he sought to find work through which he could have a real impact on life.
As a result, Krzhizhanovsky, who is now 25, joined the little-known financial and technological startup “Avant”.
This Chicago-based online credit platform is one of several start-ups that hope to turn the consumer credit market upside down, making it possible to get a loan faster than it can be done through banks. “Avant” can provide some borrowers with a loan on the same day.
Founded in 2012, Avant is the fastest growing online market lender, increasing by more than $ 1.6 billion over three years. The company, estimated at more than $ 2 billion, is also included in the “unicorn club” (a union of startups worth more than $ 1 billion)
A few years ago, she may have been a risky place to start a career. Krzhizhanovsky's story about his work experience at Avant destroys all ideas about working in a technology startup, starting with the motivations of its employees.
"The driving force" of a startup
“Even in graduate school, where people have a wide variety of life experiences and education and where they are, in general, quite motivated, I have not met with that“ drive, ”with such a driving force that affects you in the first few years of really fast-growing enterprises, ”he says.
Although Krzhizhanovsky was educated in mathematics and statistics, he leads programmers at Avant.
In the office of Avant, Chicago
Krzhizhanovsky likes to perform various duties in the company, which is a pleasant bonus for him to stay in a small organization. Here he is also able to see the direct impact of his work.
“When we have a stream of clients, the work that I do and the people I work with is constant decision making, and every second it actually affects our clients,” says Krzhizhanovsky.
“Without such a connection with the real world, it is difficult to explain to yourself any work being done, and I believe that my decision to move from science to industry was correct.”
What is information technology?
A team of analysts of Krzhizhanovsky, in essence, transforms some ideas of the company about potential customers into certain data that can be used to analyze the value of these customers as borrowers.
“What we do is ultimately reduced to decision-making - but to better and faster adoption,” continues Krzhizhanovsky.
Avant must be able to determine whether a customer is honest. (There are two types of fraud, says Krzhizhanovsky: an intangible forgery (“soft” deception), such as, for example, using a current credit rating to obtain a one-time loan with the knowledge that, for example, the time to pay off some large debt, and material forgery (“ hard "deception), such as, for example, identity theft.)
His team processes using offline tools and machine learning methods, analyzing hundreds or even thousands of variables to assess fraud risks. Most lenders are able to analyze only a few dozen variables.
"The effectiveness of our actions is that we can take these complex algorithms and convert them into a program that can make a decision immediately," says Krzhizhanovsky.
The team is able to complete the task by developing its own syntax and grammar programming.
“We use truly best-in-class analytics and technology to provide a unique customer experience,” Avant CEO Al Goldstein told us.
According to him, the decision on more than 50% of Avant's customers is made in real time, and financing for all of them is carried out on the next business day.
“The result is truly high quality customer service and satisfaction,” he said.
In the office of Avant, Chicago
This week Avant launched its new product - financing the purchase of a car; plans to issue a credit card.
Mr. Goldstein expects to also bring Avant to the international market, in particular, to the UK and Canada.
The team of Krzhizhanovsky analysts has grown from two people to 30, and his position continues to grow with her.
“When I came to work here, I didn’t know how long I would be here: maybe for a long time, and maybe only for a few months,” says Krzhizhanovsky.
Two years later, it seems that he may be here for many years.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299686/
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