Max Kraynov

Current

Director at Kraynov Consulting

Past

VP Product Development / Director of Innovation at Mobile Messenger
President at ISDEF-USA, Inc.
President & CEO at Unwiredtec, Inc.

Value Added Services Manager at Megafon GSM
Programmer Analyst at Alphanet International, Inc.
Software Engineer at Police Department
Software developer at Bureau of Medical Examination

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Education

Chifley Business School
Samara State University

Recommended

9 people have recommended Max

Connections

415 connections

Industry

Telecommunications

Websites

Max Kraynov’s Summary

- Mobile technology and entertainment executive with 10+ years of relevant experience (yes, I actually remember WAP 1.0 with SMS bearer).
- Helped set up a Tier 1 carrier (Megafon GSM, 35M+ subscribers) and managed the value-added services infrastructure (SMS, IVR, VoiceMail, prepaid billing);
- Organized a mobile technology startup developing two innovative products (namely, Enterflex mobile content transcoding and delivery system and Ringtone Creator transcoding engine) currently used by thousands of companies across the globe. The company was acquired by Mobile Messenger in June 2006.
- Took care of Mobile Messenger's product roadmap and strategy for 15 internal and revenue generating products
- Analyzed and evaluated hundreds of products and campaigns from hundreds of startups and competitors
- Have good knowledge of European, North American and Australian markets
- Proficient in mobile advertising, carrier and industry compliance requirements, affiliate networks and direct marketing, R&D and innovation process and much-much more.

Max Kraynov’s Specialties:

Product strategy development
Mobile technology and entertainment
Research and Development and Innovation
Analysis of startups' business models and operations

Max Kraynov’s Experience

Director

Kraynov Consulting

(Information Technology and Services industry)

August 2009 — Present (5 months)

With 10 years of hands-on experience in the field, I help clients with:
* Modeling of mobile content, interactive and marketing campaigns
* Design, development and customization of online and mobile solutions to fit customer's business model and technical infrastructure
* End-to-end management of product development activities from inception to implementation to delivery to training to market launch
* Finding suitable cost-effective solutions for high-risk projects

It's about doing, not dreaming.
VP Product Development / Director of Innovation

Mobile Messenger

(Privately Held; Telecommunications industry)

June 2006 — August 2009 (3 years 3 months)

Managed a portfolio of 17 Mobile Messenger's products. My role involved managing a number of product building activities:

- Business and marketing requirements gathering
- Detailed explanation of functionality and use cases through functional specifications and logical design
- Fast prototyping of credible ideas – from building a prototyping team to managing objectives to managing deliverables.
- Improving the existing products dealing with mobile content and technologies, namely: mobile video, content transcoding solutions, content broadcasts, advertising, etc.

Managing customers’ expectations was an essential part of my job role, and I’m spending a lot of time on communications and educating people. At the same time, my personal objectives involve:
- ensuring fast turnaround for essential product features
- ensuring the highest possible ROI for the consumer facing products
- increasing clients’ awareness and acceptance of new releases of the key products of Mobile Messenger
President

ISDEF-USA, Inc.

(Non-Profit; 201-500 employees; Computer Software industry)

August 2004 — August 2006 (2 years 1 month)

ISDEF-USA, Inc. is a US branch of the Independent Software DEvelopers' Forum. President oversees possible business alliances and actively participates in promoting the Russian-speaking community of small-to-medium businesses.
President & CEO

Unwiredtec, Inc.

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Telecommunications industry)

November 1999 — July 2006 (6 years 9 months)

Initially I started Unwiredtec as a one-man operation, which later grew to more than 10 people (permanent employees and contractors) before its acquisition by Mobile Messenger in June 2006.

Like in every growing startup, I as a CEO had to do a lot of different things:

- developed strategy for two main products - Ringtone Creator (ringtone conversion module) and Enterflex (an advanced mobile content transcoding system) and prepared business and functional requirements in a way understandable by the engineering team;
- processed enormous amounts of information obtained from industry sources, clients, technology partners and miscellaneous publications;
- created various kinds of plans: financial, business, recruitment, etc.
- established an offshore development office and advised on establishing operations and processes.
Value Added Services Manager

Megafon GSM

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Telecommunications industry)

October 2001 — February 2002 (5 months)

During my tenure as a Value Added Services Manager I actively participated in building a new mobile operator from ground up, being responsible for one of the most mission-critical areas of operation. I managed deployment and operation of the following systems:
- prepaid voice services and billing;
- SMS gateway and email-to-SMS subsystem;
- IVR system for scratch card activation;
- Call Center for 20 seats;
- Voicemail system with SMS notifications.

I also participated in evaluation of various software and hardware providers.
Programmer Analyst

Alphanet International, Inc.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

July 1999 — October 2001 (2 years 4 months)

Developed financial (FOREX) applications. I started my own wireless-related company in parallel to my main duties.
Software Engineer

Police Department

(Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Law Enforcement industry)

April 1998 — July 1999 (1 year 4 months)

Was responsible for overlooking development of several information systems: stolen vehicles and geography of crime scenes.
Software developer

Bureau of Medical Examination

(Government Agency; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

July 1997 — March 1998 (9 months)

Was a software engineer, developing a system for identification of corpses. No kidding.

Max Kraynov’s Education

Chifley Business School

MBA , 2009 — 2012 (expected)
Samara State University

Master , Applied Mathematics, Economics , September 1996 — June 2001

Was in the top 6 of students

Activities and Societies:

Programming contests, Small business