The mere mention of the word “technology” brings a glimmer to the eyes of Nikolay Velinski. The managing director of Y Soft Latin America has spent virtually a lifetime deeply entrenched and dabbling in the many flavors of IT’s menu. Frankly, as long as a task doesn’t involve writing documentation, the experience feels nothing like work.
Growing up, Velinski recalls the unbridled enthusiasm he experienced while tinkering with his new Apple II+, which was difficult to obtain in his native Bulgaria. His friends were hooked on Pac-Man. Velinski was busy cultivating a future. He just didn’t know it yet.
Playing with new toys and developing products from scratch has blossomed into a full-blown passion for Velinski.
“I always work on two or three things at the same time, and I always keep myself busy,” said Velinski, a 2020 ENX Magazine Difference Maker. “There is always something new that challenges me to learn, and most of the time, it doesn’t feel like working at all.”
The beauty of technology for Velinski is the limitless potential it offers; as such, he has a reputation for not taking “no” as an answer. “Anything is possible,” he notes, “if you are willing to invest time and effort.”
That very point was driven home to Velinski during his formative years. While tending to some rather vanilla projects earlier in his career, a colleague came to him with a particular task. A new color printer had arrived in a big box marked “EFI RIP.” The challenge: print from a new platform called Photoshop from a Mac to the printer. Absent a network, Velinski and his colleague had to use an SCSI connection.
“It took us three days to figure out how to make it work, but when the first picture came out after 30 minutes of waiting, I knew that this was something I wanted to do,” he noted.
Tech Trip
Velinski spent three years studying process automation until a summer vacation became a “summer migration” to Latin America. His first job was with a Canon dealer in Peru, but while his career branched into different sectors, he never strayed far from the office technology universe.
An entrepreneur at heart, Velinski has led a colorful career. He’s founded numerous IT-based startups in Bulgaria, Peru and the United States. With Y Soft, he’s guided the company’s cloud strategy for North and Latin America, including laying the foundation for YSoft SafeQ in the cloud. Velinski designed its Edge devices to be able to support any architecture a customer may need.
Velinski considers himself to be a staunch open-source proponent. “I was influenced a lot by the open-source movement and the cooperation that comes as a result of it,” he said. “I dedicate a lot of time convincing people about this idea.”
Over the years, Velinski has worked on his ability to share the wealth of knowledge he’s accumulated during his career. Computers and technology may come easy to him, but teaching it is a discipline unto itself. For example, last year Velinski overcame his teaching stumbling blocks and was able to instruct his son on how to program in Python. Raising that aspect of his game will be critical as Velinski continues down the path of learning.
Learning Potential
“The good thing about my job is that you never stop learning. There is always a new ‘cool’ language that you can learn, a new skill that you can improve and a new product that you can help to develop or place on the market,” he said. “It is a never-ending circle, and if you want to stay in the game, you need to improve every day.”
When he’s not working on cloud initiatives or tinkering with IT toys, Velinski can be found on the tennis court just about every day. He also participates in weekend league competition. The frequency of business travel allows Velinski to visit his 17-year-old son, who lives and studies in Spain. The younger Velinski is also a top-notch tennis player, and the father-son combo enjoys competing in doubles competition. Vacation travel usually entails the warm sun and pristine sandy beaches.
