15M Books, 75 Countries, Now She's Building AI with Anna Belova of OpenWay AI

Anna Belova, Founder and CEO of OpenWay AI, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and serial entrepreneur. She built DEVAR into one of the most ambitious consumer augmented reality companies in the world — 15 million books sold across 75 countries in 27 languages, a no-code AR platform used by 250,000 creators and 200 universities in 180 countries, and partnerships with Google, Hasbro, McDonald's, and Nasdaq.Anna shares her philosophy on building corporate culture from the very first hire, and why a strong culture is the most powerful defense against the wrong people. We explore what separates the most successful founders from everyone else in the room, why big-brand enterprise executives rarely thrive in early-stage startups, and what a single question about travel reveals about how a candidate actually thinks.KEY TAKEAWAYS00:00 Introduction. 03:35 Selling cucumbers at age five and competing for customers — Anna's earliest experience as a builder. 06:28 How OpenWay AI’s AI autonomous agents manage the full customer life cycle from first website visit to closed deal. 11:31 The common traits of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley and what sets them apart from everyone else. 15:55 How the greatest founders don't just solve existing problems — they create problems that never existed before. 19:18 Why corporate culture is a direct reflection of the founder's strengths and blind spots, whether built intentionally or not. 21:39 Why a strong corporate culture is the best defense against bad hires: the wrong people cannot survive in it for long. 22:44 Three phrases banned at Anna's company for every employee, including herself: "I don't know," "It's not my job," and "It's impossible." 26:07 Why founders keep making the enterprise executive hire, and why it seldom works at the early stage. 29:10 The Zootopia problem: when startup speed and corporate pace collide on the same team. 31:21 Receiving the Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition mid-event in Italy — and treating it as a responsibility, not a trophy. 37:11 The travel interview question and why it reveals more about how a candidate thinks than any skills test. 48:15 Using AI as the world's largest library: seamless access to everything, with humans still making the decisions. Thank you for listening to “Hire Learning with Oz Rashid.” Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes. Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashidTo learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.comRESOURCES MENTIONEDOpenWay AI:  https://openway.ai "The Technology Trap" by Carl Benedikt Frey:https://www.amazon.com/Technology-Trap-Capital-Labor-Automation/dp/069117279X#TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #EnterpriseHiring