Many companies strive to connect the United States and Macedonia, but few have made such a successful impression within as short a period of time as Kinetiq Solutions. Kinetiq Solutions is a Macedonian-American company that was founded in the Fall of 2015 by Nikola Jordanovski and Alex Pantich and already has almost 20 clients, a growing portfolio and a steady revenue stream. In addition to its success in the business sector, Kinetiq Solutions has proved to be a valuable ally of Macedonia by working to enhance Macedonia’s international profile and the work of organizations like the United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD).
Pantich, a serial entrepreneur, graduated from Ohio State University in 2014 with a degree in Political Science and Russian. Only 23 years old, he has founded a number of companies, including online magazine The Vostokian, the Buds app, Locale and Kinetiq Solutions. He also participated in UMD’s Birthright Macedonia program as a Program Assistant at theMacedonian Center for International Cooperation and is a member of the Macedonian Businessmen’s Club.
Jordanovski has consistently proven himself to be one of the best programmers in the Balkans and a prodigy of his Alma mater, The University of Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia. He was offered an IT internship in the United States after his first year of study and has continued to work for American companies afterwards. He became a Senior Developer in a large American firm and won a Hackathon – all before the age of 23 when he co-founded Kinetiq Solutions with Pantich.
Pantich and Jordanovski would never have met without a little luck. Pantich was visiting Skopje to see a writer for his political website, The Vostokian, when he was introduced to Jordanovski. The two immediately hit it off and agreed to meet at a hotel where Pantich was attending the opening ceremony for UMD’s Birthright Macedonia program. Immediately after the ceremony, Pantich met with Jordanovski, and the two began hammering out the details of their future business together. During this initial meeting, they came up with a concrete business plan: Jordanovski would manage young Macedonian developers in designing websites and apps for American companies, while Pantich would develop the business in the United States.
The rest is history. Pantich returned to the United States to develop the business, and Jordanovski remained in Skopje to create a development team. Within two weeks of its start, the business became profitable and has since grown to include 10 developers in Macedonia and 3 salespeople in the United States.
Kinetiq Solutions’ first clients were smaller, local businesses. However, the unique self-paced work environment created by Pantich and Jordanovski for sales representatives and programmers/designers alike proved to be extremely conducive to yielding tremendous growth within only the first six months of business. As such, Kinetiq Solutions have now set their sights on developing websites and apps for larger companies and start ups. One example is SJB Visceral Technologies, a venture capital firm located in Cleveland, Ohio, and led by Steven Loiczly. Recently, SJB and Kinetiq Solutions partnered on a mobile application development project which will be released in the fourth quarter of 2016. When asked about Kinetiq Solutions, Loiczly said, “Kinetiq Solutions has been the best partner we could ask for in this endeavor. Their CTO, Nikola Jordanovski is one of the most knowledgeable and hardest-working people I have ever met and the entire team, from the developers in Skopje to designer Brandon Poplstein, has exceeded my expectations at every turn.”
One of the major keys to Kinetiq Solutions’ success has been Macedonia itself. Macedonian IT workers are highly skilled, extremely professional, and, importantly, speak English very well. These factors have all helped Kinetiq Solutions put together a premier team of developers and designers ready to take on any project.
The diaspora community has also played a large role. The company has partnered with Macedonian-owned businesses such as The Jostto Group, Studio Salone E, Apex Media House and the Buds App among others. The first two sales agents working for the company were Mario Hristovski, Gen M’s US Chairman, and Filip Jotevski, Gen M’s Global Chairman. They facilitated the growth in awareness in the diaspora community of Kinetiq Solutions and pushed for the company to be involved not just in the business community but also in the NGO sphere. As such, Kinetiq Solutions has worked with UMD to assist in the creation of info-graphics and websites, among other materials.
A new website for the Macedonian youth organization Generation M is one of the firm’s latest projects. Kinetiq Sales Agent Filip Jotevski, the Global Chair of Generation M, when asked about collaboration between the two, said: “Generation M has benefited greatly from the relationship with Kinetiq Solutions. We strive to empower youth and not only do we help employ them in Skopje, but we showcase their work globally.” The new website is set to launch within the next month and will greatly assist Generation M in spreading their message.
For Pantich and Jordanovski, UMD is an organization that they would like to work with and help to continue promoting their business model of bringing Americans and Macedonians together in a productive work environment. Their international business model is an example to how millennials are changing the work environment and bringing Macedonia and the Western world even closer together.
