It was a day packed with insights and inspiration as Igor Nikitin, Co-founder and CEO of Nice Technologies, shared his story in the Sprint 2026 series at DePauw University. The event, which was organized by Zhixin Wu in collaboration with the university’s actuarial program, focuses on themes of technology and entrepreneurship.
Igor highlighted key lessons he learned from his humble beginnings as a non-English-speaking teenage boy from Russia to becoming an actuary, software engineer, and entrepreneur in the US. Igor is one of those whose career has taken unexpected and unconventional turns, starting with a career in teaching, programming, actuarial work, data engineering, and eventually founding a company.
Below is the complete list of advice for everyone to take inspiration from or reflect on:
1. Conduct a macroenvironment scan to understand the political, technological, and cultural landscape around you before making major life decisions or career moves.
2. On leadership, Igor emphasized the consistent repetition of simple key principles:
- Integrity
- If no one leads, take the lead.
- Officers eat last.
- The leader owns the failures; the team owns the wins.
Leadership doesn’t come automatically. It is through repeated practice that leadership turns into a habit and ultimately a default reaction, especially under stress. Only by living out the qualities of a good leader can you attract people to work with you, even if it means they have to take substantial risks.
3. On choosing a career, Igor listed three important points:
- Do something you like and be deliberate about your work choices.
- Failure is not the end of the world. Figure out what went wrong, change your approach, and you might triumph a couple of months later.
- Pivoting is okay. Career pivots can help you develop multiple areas of expertise that come in very handy when starting a company.
4. Challenges are inevitable, but “hard is a matter of perspective.”
5. Igor also shared a few tips on how to climb the corporate ladder:
- Pass your professional exams. These get you in the door and into the conversation.
- Diplomacy is important.
- Join a job rotation program to experience different areas. Alternatively, rotate across different types of roles every 18 months or so
- Learn from people you admire.
- Have a medium-term plan.
- Take strategic challenges. They are easier to tackle if you set a deadline for yourself.
6. On career building, Igor emphasized the importance of experimenting early and taking non-traditional roles. Rather than focusing solely on job titles, today’s career durability lies in the strength of your portfolio that showcases real accomplishments and transferable skills.
7. Volunteer, lead, and collaborate on open-source and data science projects. Move past ideation and theory and excel at executing ideas by building something tangible.
8. For those considering entrepreneurship, first understand and use proven structures or templates. Take, for example, a pitch deck. Study and fill out every slide: market, competition, differentiation, financial projections, etc. This will outline in an organized manner what you still need to learn, improve, or think through.
9. Build people skills and network. If you want to be an entrepreneur, knowing people and speaking eloquently are very important. As you advance in your career, you will need to sell your vision and your product and persuade partners to join you.
10. There is no one formula for success. Be authentic. Don’t be afraid to explore and experiment. Be practical.
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