Kirill Bensonoff
| Kirill Bensonoff | |
|---|---|
| File:Kirill Bensonoff.png Kirill Bensonoff at a Boston technology networking event | |
| Born | Kirill Bensonoff Minsk, Belarus |
| 🏡 Residence | Brookline, Massachusetts |
| 🏫 Education | Central Connecticut State University, EO Entrepreneurial Masters at MIT |
| 💼 Occupation |
|
| 👶 Children | Max and Sam |
| 🌐 Website | kirillbensonoff |
Kirill Bensonoff is an American investor and a serial entrepreneur with multi-million dollar exits in the technology industry. He is an expert in enterprise IT, managed IT and cloud services, and blockchain technologies. As a graduate from the EO Entrepreneurial Masters at MIT[1], he has served as both an advisor and angel investor to over 20 different companies. Kirill regularly co-hosts the Boston Crypto Meetup[2] series. He has been published or quoted in national business, blockchain and technology media, Including Inc.[3], Huffington Post[4], Bitcoin Magazine[5] and CoinTelegraph[6], among many others.
Early life[edit]
With his parents, Kirill immigrated from Minsk, Belarus (then USSR) to the United States when he was 11 years old. The family arrived with $200 between them, and had to be willing to work hard to survive. Like many other immigrant families, there was emphasis placed on entrepreneurship and getting ahead on your own, with minimal help from outside. Both of Kirill’s parents were mechanical engineers, and when computers made their way to the Eastern Block, his father learned how to write code. Kirill would come along to his father’s work to feed mainframes with punch cards[7] and play computer games. This is where he developed his love for all things tech, and began to understand technology’s amazing impact on humanity.
In later years, he found that school was not very inspiring, but his “side hustle” projects were both exciting and profitable. From ages 16 to 22, he spent a lot of free time following his dreams of becoming a DJ, going to clubs, raves and festivals. It wasn’t until he turned 23 that he decided to get serious as a tech entrepreneur, and on the advice of his uncle, opened a web hosting business, US Web Hosting, which was later acquired.
Education[edit]
Bensonoff holds multiple qualifications from various higher learning institutions. In 2001, Bensonoff earned his Bachelor's degree in Information Technology from Central Connecticut State University, and he pursued an Entrepreneurial Masters in 2015 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology/EO.
Bensonoff also holds a number of technical certifications from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and others.
Career[edit]
Bensonoff has served as both an advisor and angel investor to over 30 different companies. He started his career as a systems consultant for IBM in 2001, from where he launched his first startup US Web Hosting in 2004 and sold the company to a large data center. In 2006, Bensonoff co-founded ComputerSupport.com[8] with Alexandric Ho, whom he met while they were working together as IT Consultants at Insight Enterprises. Following a sale to a group of private investors, Bensonoff remains a member of the company’s executive advisory council.
Bensonoff is also the founder of Unigma, a tool for managing AWS, Azure and Google clouds, which was acquired by Kaseya[9] in 2017. He currently serves as a mentor to startups enrolled with the MIT Enterprise Forum, as syndicate lead of the Blockchain + AI [10]syndicate and partner at the Blockchain and Real Estate Fund. His current position is as Chief Product Officer of New Silver, a fintech startup.
Bensonoff is also the host of The Exchange With KB podcast[11], in which he interviews prominent founders and business leaders. The podcast is focused on quick actionable takeaways from leaders in technology, entrepreneurship, venture capital, trading, real estate, blockchain, and investing. Prominent guests interviewed since 2018 include Anthony Pompliano, Caitlin Long, Adam Draper, and Alex Mashinsky. In July 2019, Bensonoff kicked off a sub-series on the podcast focusing on inspirational stories of immigrant entrepreneurs making an impact in business.
While working on multiple side projects, Bensonoff coined the term “Parallel Entrepreneur”, which he feels describes the lifestyle many younger people lead today - describing individuals who may have a full-time job and drive carsharing in the evening, own real estate, or do a side job such as consulting.
In 2019, Bensonoff published a guide for new real estate investors titled 'Achieving Wealth Through Real Estate: A Definitive Guide To Controlling Your Own Financial Destiny Through a Successful Real Estate Business' featuring advice on legal structures, funding, taxes and other aspects of starting a real estate business[12].
Personal life[edit]
Bensonoff resides in the Boston area with his wife Hanna and sons Sam and Max. When he’s not pursuing activities related to his parallel entrepreneurship projects, he also spends time advising young entrepreneurs, hosting the Boston Crypto Meetup, cooking, travelling and watching Game of Thrones.
References[edit]
- ↑ Article in EO Entrepreneurial Masters at MIT Homepage events.eonetwork.org March, 2017.
- ↑ Boston Crypto meetup Boston Crypto Traders meetup organized by Kirill Bensonoff
- ↑ Become a Better Entrepreneur Retrieved August 18, 2017
- ↑ 10 Lessons Learned From 10 Years as an Entrepreneur Retrieved October 03, 2017
- ↑ Four Challenges to Consider When Launching Your Fund Raise on the Blockchain Retrieved September 21, 2017
- ↑ Managing Enormous Risk: Bitcoin and Altcoin Investment Strategies Retrieved October 21, 2017
- ↑ Retrieved October, 2017
- ↑ [1] ComputerSupport.com
- ↑ [2] Retrieved September 12th, 2019
- ↑ [3] Blockchain + AI syndicatem, Retrieved September 12th, 2019
- ↑ [4] The Exchange with KB podcast, Retrieved September 12th, 2019
- ↑ [5]Achieving Wealth Through Real Estate: A Definitive Guide To Controlling Your Own Financial Destiny Through A Successful Real Estate Business
This article "Kirill Bensonoff" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Kirill Bensonoff. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
