Nikita Bogdanov

I was born in 1987 into a pretty modest family: just my mom, my older brother, and the best grandma ever.

Around 14, I developed an unhealthy obsession with 80s disco music and somehow became a concert promoter to meet the artists I loved. That's where I met my mentor — a truly wise person who still helps me navigate life's bigger decisions.

At 16, I got into one of the top universities for Physics. Why? I loved Back to the Future and thought studying spacetime would be amazing.

During university I launched small projects — like a "social alarm clock" where strangers would call each other to wake up. We made $54 when we turned it into a paid service. Big money energy.

Before graduation, I worked night shifts at a hotel and watched tourists wander around completely lost. So I thought: what if exploring a city was a game?

We built SMS-based riddles and created the first automated city quest in Europe. Eventually we made apps. Watching strangers run around solving our puzzles never got old.

Then we discovered free walking tours in Berlin and launched them in 10 countries. Our guides were consistently ranked top three on TripAdvisor.

Before COVID shut it down, we'd given travelers around 9 million hours of guided tours. That part I'm still proud of.

In 2018, I thought it would be cool if everyone could design their own clothes. Choose the length, pockets, fabric, color, size — everything.

We had to build our own production lines, our own ERP system. We've now helped over 170,000 people across Europe and the US create custom pieces with their names on the tags.

Now I'm building a gamified daily planner where you earn coins for completing tasks and spend them on rewards. It makes productivity feel less like punishment.

I'm also working on a service that helps people live more intentionally, backed by research from Stanford and Yale. Whether it'll work? Ask me in a year. :)