5 minutes with Valentina Drofa, CEO and founder of Drofa Comms

Valentina Drofa is the founder and CEO of Drofa Comms, an international PR consultancy focused on finance and fintech companies worldwide. With over 14 years of professional experience, she is well acquainted with the way these markets work.

We sat down for a chat to find out what inspired Valentina to get into fintech and what influence running her own business in this sector has had on her.

Hi Valentina, tell me a bit about yourself and your career so far?

The financial market has been the focus of my life since my university days when I studied economics. Professionally, my path began in 2007 as an account manager, providing services to FX clients.

My entrepreneurial journey began in 2010 when I founded an EdTech platform focused on providing trading and investment education, conducting over 200 webinars per month.

In parallel, I sought to build up a business in PR for financial companies, as many people who knew of my knowledge kept coming for advice. The company was created in 2011, and in 2014 I made the choice to dedicate all my time to it.

What piqued your interest in FinTech?

I wanted to broaden the scope here as I am interested in finance as a whole. It’s a huge world and fintech is part of it, but it may not exist separately from finance. To be fair, I’ve been rooted in the sector for 20 years now and I can’t imagine my life without it.

The fintech market fascinated me – this field is constantly changing and evolving, giving me something new to learn all the time. Every new company we work with brings new challenges, and even when I have some free time it’s usually spent reading up on all the latest news and trends. The more involved I became in this sector, the more I realized that I found my place.

Tell me about Drofa Comms – how did the company come about?

When the company was launched in 2011, we only set our feet in PR, marketing and consulting. Learning to work with fintech, and later, with crypto and blockchain was also something that took time. Before founding the agency, I worked primarily in traditional finance and currency, so a change of mind was needed as we broadened our horizons.

I founded the agency with my partner, Mary Poliakova, and it took a lot of effort to find our place, both personally and in terms of the agency’s work in the new industry. Finally, through a process of trial, error and learning, we got to where we are now.

What have been your greatest career achievements?

A company develops at the same pace as its founder, so I always make a point of staying ahead of the competition. It is only natural to follow the latest market news to keep our services relevant. Another important thing is that we hire the best industry trainers for my team so that we grow with our clients.

On a personal level, I’m proud that at one point I came to my trainer and talked about my fear of getting big. In my younger days, I made mistakes in management, so I had reservations about potentially repeating them.

Nevertheless, I overcame this fear, and today Drofa Comms is doing good work, both client-wise and in terms of internal development. And we are constantly working to improve ourselves.

Likewise, what have been your biggest career challenges?

As head of Drofa Comms, my main responsibility is to outline our goals and seek ways to achieve them, by introducing best practice and hiring the most talented people.

One of the biggest challenges I had to face was developing our corporate culture and values. I originally underestimated the complexity of this task, thinking it was only of surface-level importance. But when I finally decided to give it a go and test out different ideas, I came to see the value in them more clearly.

Because of the changes we implemented, our team has made great strides in terms of cohesion and efficiency, to the point where I can now allocate fewer resources to certain tasks, but still get better results in the end.

What advice would you give to girls who want to start their own business?

When it comes to starting your own business, the most important thing is that you must have a lot of energy and a strong character. Every day you have to consider your customers and your team and make sure to take care of both. It is a huge responsibility and not everyone can handle it.

As for advice, I would say – if you have an opportunity to start a business, if you have an idea you believe in, go for it. It may or may not work, but it’s always better to do something and then jump to conclusions, rather than constantly looking back and wondering “what if”.

What would you say has been the secret to your success?

There is no special secret, just hard work and dedication. When I was young, I felt a lack of contentment with what I had. And I knew that to change things, a lot of effort would be needed. So I put that effort in.

Everything that happened to me, the path I walked and continue to walk, makes me the person I am today. Of course there were mistakes and unpleasant experiences along the way, but they too had been necessary for me to learn from.

I am grateful for the people who supported me in life, especially my family. But I received no handouts from anyone – what I have now, I earned through my own hard work. That’s all it takes.