On 14 March 2018, Mark Rochman held a meeting with students and professors of Inha University in Tashkent and shared his experience of working in the Silicon Valley.

During the meeting, Rochman said: “I have a bad news for you. The market of Uzbekistan is not big enough. The good news is that Uzbekistan is in the center of a large region and you can enter this market.”

At the same time, he noted that the country should find its niche. For example, he said that Israel leads in cybersecurity segment of the market, and South Korea is strong in the field of computer games. Uzbekistan also needs to determine its strong sides and develop solutions in this area.

He said that the area of IT in Uzbekistan is only developing and young people have great opportunities. The head of Openbucks underlined that the youth of Uzbekistan should work for the benefit of the country, and not seek happiness abroad.

According to Rochman, young people should not run after money. He stressed that the large companies offer big money, but in small companies they can improve their skills and gain more knowledge.

During the meeting, he gave his recommendations to the students. He underlined that young people should definitely know English language and find solutions to existing problems. Rochman said that if your project solves one problem, then it will be successful. There are a lot of interesting ideas on the market, but most of them do not succeed, because they do not help people to deal with their problems.

He advised to study the existing problems in Uzbekistan and neighboring countries and on the basis of innovations propose own solutions to these problems.

The entrepreneur also said that he always tells his son to be a little bit better compared to other persons. “I also tell you this, if you will not be better than others, your niche will be taken up by others, for instance, specialists from India or China,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, the CEO and founder of Openbucks, Mark Rochman, answered the questions of the students and professors of IUT.

The head of Openbucks was invited in Uzbekistan with the support of the joint project of the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of Uzbekistan and the UNDP “Public Administration Reforms and Digital Transformation”.

Openbucks was founded in 2010 and provides innovative services in the field of e-commerce. The company provides the service, which helps to make payments on the internet. Service offers to bind a credit card to the account and make payment for goods using a special code.

IUT and Openbucks Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding within the visit of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the United States in September 2017.

Within the framework of the signed memorandum, IUT and Openbucks are cooperating in the field of IT education. In particular, the parties invite leading American experts to conduct lectures and transfer best practices and information for development of innovative projects and start-ups in the format of Silicon Valley Talks.