A financial analyst, credit officer, FinTech product manager, and creator of a network of automated photo studios talks about how to manage risks, scale a business, and turn numbers into strategies.
In an era when data and technology are becoming key resources, experts who can combine financial analytics, IT innovation, and practical business management are especially interesting. Artjoms Blazko is exactly such a professional: having started his career in the banking sector and progressed from credit officer to FinTech product manager, he launched a network of automated photo studios in the United States, which today covers about 10 states and is entering the European market. In this interview, he talks about strategic thinking, the principles of scaling, and how data shapes the business of the future.
Artjoms, you have gone from classical financial analytics to managing an international company. What was the key moment that changed your professional vector?
— In fact, the vector did not change; it simply expanded. Financial analytics gave me a foundation: the ability to assess risks, understand capital structure, and calculate the consequences of decisions, but at some point I saw the limitations of the banking environment. There, you analyze other people’s businesses. I wanted to create my own.
When I started working with FinTech products, I felt for the first time how analytics connects with technology. That’s where I saw the value of automation—how it reduces costs, lowers the human factor, and opens up new growth models. And naturally, I came to the conclusion that I want to build a company where financial strategy and technological sophistication are one and the same.
Your current company is a network of automated photo studios. For a financial analyst, that choice is, to put it mildly, unconventional. How did this idea come about?
— The idea came from observing the market. I saw that demand for fast visual content was growing, especially in e-commerce, personal branding, and social media. But content production remained manual, expensive, and unpredictable in terms of quality.
I was interested in applying FinTech approaches to a completely different industry—to automate what had always been considered a creative process. It sounds paradoxical, but that is exactly why it became possible to build a sustainable model: standardized, scalable, and very precisely managed through a data system.
Launching a company in the United States from scratch is an ambitious task. What market conditions were decisive for you?
— The U.S. is a market where having an idea is not enough. Only those who know how to calculate survive there. What helped me was my banking experience. I looked at the project the way a credit officer would—assessing risks, liquidity, payback speed, and scenario models. And the second factor: people there like anything that saves time. If a product solves a problem faster than competitors, the American market responds very quickly. Automation was a perfect fit.
Today your company operates in about 10 U.S. states and is already active in Europe. What principles do you consider fundamental when scaling?
— First, process standardization. If each location operates by its own rules, scaling turns into chaos. A model built on data, not intuition. We track every parameter: conversion rates, studio usage time, seasonality, customer acquisition cost in a specific region. And financial discipline. Many companies grow too fast and end up consuming themselves. I follow the principle: efficiency first, expansion second. Not the other way around.
Before entrepreneurship, you worked as a credit officer. Which skills from banking turned out to be the most useful in business?
— Surprisingly, almost all of them. Banking is a school of sober thinking. First, you see hundreds of business models and learn to identify where a company actually makes money and where it is simply spending other people’s money.
Second, credit analysis is the habit of looking at the worst-case scenario. Most entrepreneurs think optimistically, while I ask, “What if?”—and that saves you from many mistakes. Third, financial modeling. It’s not just Excel. It’s a forecasting tool that allows you to make decisions not intuitively, but strategically.
You mentioned that you always aimed to bring IT innovation into financial processes. What exactly did you want to change?
— I wanted to make financial tools more “intelligent.” In banks, many decisions are made manually: someone analyzes documents, someone enters data by hand, someone subjectively assesses risk. I never saw efficiency in that.
My goal is to minimize subjectivity. If data can be structured, why not let it work? This mindset is exactly what I transferred into entrepreneurship: any system should strive for automation if it reduces the cost of error.
If we talk about you as a FinTech product manager, which principles do you consider defining?
— A product must solve a financial pain point. If it doesn’t save money, speed up calculations, or reduce risks, it isn’t needed.
A product must be embedded in an ecosystem. Any financial technology operates in conjunction with data, processes, legal constraints, and infrastructure.
Transparency—because the user must understand what they are paying for and what value they receive.
Your business is based on automated systems. Where is the line between full automation and the need for human involvement?
— The line is where automation stops creating additional value. For example, photography can be fully automated—lighting, angles, processing, payment. But strategic development, working with partners, and expansion decisions are areas of human responsibility.
Technology is a tool, not a goal.
What was the most challenging part of working in the U.S.?
— Getting used to the speed. No one waits there, no one gives you time to “warm up.” If you launch a new product, the market wants to see results immediately.
At first, it was also difficult to trust processes. In Europe and the CIS, we are used to controlling many things manually. In the U.S., the winner is the one who knows how to delegate, automate, and scale quickly.
And the most inspiring part?
— The realization that there is no ceiling. In the U.S., the attitude toward entrepreneurs is different: if your idea works, you are allowed to grow as much as you are personally ready for it.
What is your main management principle today?
— I call it “transparent math.” When employees understand the financial logic behind decisions, the company moves faster and more steadily.
I often share with the team not only tasks, but also numbers: profitability, cost structure, seasonality. This shapes a mindset of “we are participants in the process,” rather than just “executors.”
What mistakes do entrepreneurs most often make when they begin to scale?
— Two key ones. First, they try to grow faster than their financial models allow. This leads to cash gaps and a decline in quality. Second, they underestimate the role of processes. They think a problem can be solved simply by hiring more people. No. If a process doesn’t work across ten locations, it won’t work across fifty.
How do you see the development of your company in the coming years?
— I see it as an international visual content platform, where automation is the base layer, and new services emerge on top of it: demand analytics, personalized content, integration with marketplaces. We are already present in Europe, and the next step is expansion into major cities, where there is a high demand for standardized and fast visual products.
And the final question. What is the main piece of advice you would give to a specialist who today wants to move from classical financial analytics into a technology business?
— Don’t be afraid to step outside the boundaries of your profession. Financial analytics is the language business speaks. But if you want to create products, you need to use that language, not just study it.
Learn to see opportunities, not only risks. And most importantly, think in terms of systems, not individual tasks. The world is moving toward value being created by structures capable of operating without human involvement. And those who know how to build such structures will always be in demand.
