Alex Okorokov - Motorbiker, Android Dev & Fixer

Alex, what is the true story - how did you end up at imito nine years ago?

Eugene and I did our master’s degree in Computer Science together in Kharkiv. Back in 2016, Chrysanth and Manuel first hired Eugene to develop an iOS app for them, and 10 months later Eugene told me they also needed an Android developer like me.

As a first task, they asked me to create an initial version of imitoMeasure (now Wound Genius). It was the first app that imito ever put out into the world, and I got it done in 4 weeks. Shortly after, imitoCam was created.

App development back then must have been much more difficult?

Yes, for example, for the new WoundGenius app, we have a much better base architecture in place than it was in imitoMeasure, which makes it easier and quicker for us to change and adapt to what users need. Also, AI helps nowadays. Currently, I use Grok a lot, ChatGPT of course, and a bit of DeepSeek like Manuel.

I remember that I first used ChatGPT because I wanted to see the answer to a meme going around on the internet: how you could possibly tell your father that you want to become a police officer while your father has recently been in prison. That was my ChatGPT moment, when I saw it making up smart phrases on how to best tell your father some tricky news. Now, I use AI for a lot of things besides jokes.

Do you also remember one of your first computer moments as a child?

I believe my father bought the first computer for me when I was 15. I used to play video games back then, and I remember realising that a game is actually just a folder full of files.

So I saw an opportunity to customise my players in the video game a bit. For example, I would get some files from the internet and use them to replace the default game files. This gave my tools in the game a special, different look compared to what the original developers set as default.

As a first step in your professional developer career, you worked on a video communication tool for the deaf?

Yes, that tool is still on the market and is owned by a big US company called Purple. They create hardware and software for deaf people. One piece of software I developed for them was used by deaf people, for example, when they went to the dentist, but the dentist didn’t know sign language. The deaf person would open the app, record what they wanted to communicate in sign language on video, and a real interpreter from Purple would join the call and explain the details to the non-deaf doctor.

And I know that the initial reason why imito was created was because of what Chrysanth and Manuel actually saw happening at the hospitals: doctors were sending pictures of wounds and patient information via WhatsApp to their colleagues. This is obviously prohibited, and we solved that with imitoCam & Co. So I’m quite happy to know that what we do is valuable, that we are still going, and that we’ve proved our place over the years.

Who from the imito team are you now working with every day?

I guess mostly with our Product Owner Anastasiya. She helps us developers a lot to understand what’s going on. I don’t need meetings if I have Anastasiya, because she resolves a lot of issues for me. She prepares the task board and communicates with Chrysanth and Carsten from the Business Development Team. As a result we have a strict plan with tasks that we try to complete on time.

Did you ever build an app for yourself?

Yes, I once built an app to use myself and for other people like me who wanted to keep track of their car expenses. I could record how much money I spent on washing it, fuelling it, or repairing it. The app showed statistics of how much money I spent during the last year, month, or day.

I used it, but also 30,000 other people in Ukraine. I actually would like to build another app - I have a few ideas, but I’m not sure if I have the power for this. And the free time.

Do you also enjoy fixing physical things as much as fixing digital apps?

I have a car and two motorbikes, and I'm super interested in understanding and fixing their parts, but I don’t have enough time to play with them more.

To be precise, I have two off-road motorbikes, and I enjoy jumping over big hills on them, so that it feels like my heart is jumping out of my body. My bikes weigh around 160 kg, and last time I fell from one 15 times in just an hour. Usually some small parts of the bike break, so it’s a crazy, traumatic sport with lots of expenses to keep track of, but I enjoy it.

Lastly - did you ever think about who you admire in the world, and is it a motorbiker or a surgeon?

I would say the first person I think of is the grandfather of one of my friends. He is 84, still goes climbing, and does running competitions in Andorra. I admire him a lot for his fitness at that age, but also for what he has done in life.

He’s Ukrainian, now lives in Germany in Düsseldorf, but spent most of his life living in the USSR. That meant that until he was about 55, there was no option for him to do private entrepreneurship. But after these restrictions were lifted, he managed to start living his best life and pivoted from being a university teacher to founding his own medical hardware company in the cardiology space. So he is an example for me of a man that I admire.

All that made him quite rich - he has a couple of cars, has built a beautiful house, and he travels quite often. But he still finds time to volunteer: every month he drives some old cars from Düsseldorf to Kharkiv, just so that they can be used at our frontline. To do all that at 84, you need to be in really good physical condition, and I admire him a ton for that.

So you know exactly what kind of person you will be at 84?

Oh, I'm not too sure. You need to be really disciplined to be that fit at 84. I sit all week, then jump on my motorbike over hills and it flies over my head. I guess that isn’t helping my health - it could rather break it. But I enjoy doing it.

Thank you Alex, that we could count on you during the last nine years to fix our Android apps whenever something broke. We want to keep running with you for many more years to come, so please take it easy with the hills.