Professionally, whenever I have the chance to share my knowledge with students from my field, I do it with pleasure; I think they should learn from someone else’s mistake. I also share any knowledge I have on any work subject, without boundaries; I don’t keep knowledge only to myself. When universities approach me to contribute to their curricula with my tech expertise, I am doing ‘pro bono’ work. Personally, I constantly donate to those less fortunate: clothes, food, and I make recurrent donations to as many causes as I can (hospital renovation, facilitate children access to schools, houses for the unfortunate). Also, I invite my friends to do the same when there is a humanitarian crisis.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Manescu, Chief Development Officer at Modex, a leading Blockchain Database provider with offices in London, Bucharest, Silicon Valley, and Washington D.C. With over 13 years of experience in software product development and the financial industry, Laura is now interested in blockchain’s phenomenal potential in banking as well as new disruptive technologies that can be integrated into the solutions created by Modex. Her extensive experience in software development and banking laid the foundation for a thrilling and unique style of management that enables her to oversee the creation and implementation of innovative products for the blockchain ecosystem.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story of how you decided to pursue this career path? What lessons can others learn from your story?
My journey in the tech world began over 13 years ago when I got a job where I was responsible for three IT projects in the banking software industry for French financial institutions: Payments, International Operations and Regulatory Balance of Payments. But my real journey in the tech world began with my work on the Moneymailme app. I joined Moneymailme in September 2016 as Technical Project Manager. Since then, I completely restructured the internal workflow of the team and soon I was appointed as Head of the Moneymailme brand. Following the success of Moneymailme, the company decided to expand into blockchain and created Modex. As such, I started to learn and immediately become passionate about blockchain technology.
I am now Chief Development Officer at Modex, a global technology company that develops cutting-edge solutions that make blockchain technology affordable, fast, and easy to adopt at the enterprise level.
One very important lesson I wish everyone learns is that we have to improve our professional lives but our personal ones as well. We should invest in improving ourselves to avoid stagnation.
Another important thing is work until your job is done and you are happy with the result. I am more of a hands-on kind of person, so I think that the best way to learn something is by experience rather than reading about it. But I believe that each life lesson learned along the way is an incredibly valuable one, whether you are working your first job or you are years into a career.
Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?
We have many great projects that we are really proud of — partnerships, initiatives in the academic field, and various educational projects. But there is one project which I am working on and I really like it — it is a governmental project in Romania that will truly bring digitalization and the best advantages of blockchain technology in a certain industry. In other words, I want this project to succeed for two reasons: it validates our technology (Modex BCDB) and it is something that gives me great pleasure to do for my country.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have been fortunate enough to meet some extraordinary people in my industry and I learned how valuable connections with other people are. There are actually four persons I would like to thank because they had a significant role in my path: my parents — I worked on our family business from a very young age (14) and it gave me some important financial and organizational skills; Alin Iftemi, Co-founder at Modex — he truly believed in me in such a way that he brought me to Modex, a place where I had the chance to grow and thrive just because he believed in me; Mihai Ivascu, CEO and Co-founder at Modex — I learned a lot from him, from how to grow a startup, to how to grow an image for a company, and this is something that I did not have the chance to touch in the past. Also, I am blessed to have a great team that has the same goals as I do.
What are the 5 things that most excite you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
Blockchain is an old technology (it has about 10 years), but it has only recently gained the attention it deserves. Over the last few years we’ve seen that more and more organizations see blockchain technology as a way to increase trust and add value to their business. We are seeing expansions of existing blockchain projects but also new projects emerge and will get in production in 2021. A recent PwC report shows that blockchain technology has the ability to raise global gross domestic product (GDP) by $1.76 trillion over the next decade and we are happy to be part of this movement.
At Modex, we are not focused on crypto — blockchain technology is so much more than cryptocurrencies. We develop cutting-edge solutions that make blockchain technology affordable, fast, and easy to adopt at the enterprise level. In 2019, we’ve launched Modex Blockchain Database (BCDB), a modern perspective on blockchain technology that reduces the need to spend money in training blockchain and encourages the accelerated implementation of the technology in industries. The approach suggested by Modex is a middleware that blends a blockchain with a database to build a structure that developers with no previous experience of blockchain creation will easily use and understand.
I am excited about finding new ways blockchain technology can improve our lives through its diverse implementation potential. We are constantly working at new use cases and new ideas. I believe the integration of blockchain with other technologies (AI, IoT, cloud) will create new opportunities but the most important things that blockchain brings to the table are transparency, cost reduction, decentralization, faster transactions and increasing trust.
What are the 5 things worry you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
As I previously said, although blockchain is not new, its use is still in its early stage, so we face a lot of misconceptions. This is why we have buzzwords, unconfirmed opinions, and assumptions based on irrelevant experience. But that also was the case when the internet first appeared. Blockchain technology is still little understood by masses, so the speed of adoption could be slowed down. The costs of implementing the technology are still high. Modex BCDB is able to transform, with minimal changes and low costs, any type of database into a decentralized database which holds the same valuable characteristics inherent to blockchain technology: transparency, increased security, data immutability, and integrity. I will say the most worrying thing is the crypto movement per se, because it can be used for other purposes than the good of the people and technology.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?
Professionally, whenever I have the chance to share my knowledge with students from my field, I do it with pleasure; I think they should learn from someone else’s mistake. I also share any knowledge I have on any work subject, without boundaries; I don’t keep knowledge only to myself. When universities approach me to contribute to their curricula with my tech expertise, I am doing ‘pro bono’ work. Personally, I constantly donate to those less fortunate: clothes, food, and I make recurrent donations to as many causes as I can (hospital renovation, facilitate children access to schools, houses for the unfortunate). Also, I invite my friends to do the same when there is a humanitarian crisis.
As you know there are not that many women in your industry. Can you share 3 things that you would advise to other women in the blockchain space to thrive?
It is true that this field is dominated by men, but I feel that things are changing, and are changing fast. For example, at Modex we have a high number of women in the programming team. And women have equal chances of being hired or promoted in our organization. For us, the passion for developing new technologies is more important than gender, age, race or nationality. The advice I have is for any woman in tech, not only for those in the blockchain area. First — specialize in something and be the best at what you do. Second — every once in a while, take a training course, learn a new hard skill. Third — don’t give up on your principles no matter what.
Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the blockchain industry?
The tech industry already works in fixing gender inequality and we already see more and more women joining the field, but I feel that there is a lack of successful role-models for women in tech. We need repeated exposure to role models, so that girls can envision themselves as tech leaders when they grow-up. Also, there is a need for more action from women in every organization, to sustain their rights to be equally promoted on the management level.
What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?
I don’t know if this is someone’s quote, but I believe in “Don’t think of what you don’t want, think of what you want”. I had a long period in my life where I expressed sadnesses and my failures and my worries and I consider this to be a waste of time and energy (and time is the only unrecoverable resource, ever) when I can concentrate on things I want and a plan to accomplish them. If you waste time complaining too much, you waste precious time for accomplishing dreams.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Wow. This one is hard :). I think, if I could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, that would be to focus on self-improvement. Always learn something new, always ask the questions you want answers to and don’t wait for something to happen, make it happen. I think if everybody would focus on being the best version of themselves, it would bring the most amount of good for everyone.
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This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution, With Laura Manescu of Modex was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
