How To Lead A Lean, Ambitious Team With Empathy And High Standards

Forbes

18-07-2025

Bogdan Nesvit, Сo-Founder and CEO of HOLYWATER, a tech company that redefines entertainment by unlocking creators potential with AI.
Over the past four years, my startup has grown 3.5x. We launched three products, navigated a major pivot and kept building—even while setting up operations at the start of full-scale war. What made it possible is a skilled team that's also deeply aligned with our mission.
Together with my co-founder, Anatolii Kasianov, we set out to build HOLYWATER into a leading tech company reshaping entertainment through synergy with AI. Just a year ago, we launched My Drama, a vertical streaming app that's already reached 7 million monthly active users and over 20 million views on most-loved titles.
This kind of growth only happens when a team is empowered. While many founders think they have to choose between pushing for performance and being empathetic, I've found the balance is where long-term results come from. People do their best work when expectations are clear and when trust and support are part of the culture.
Here are the core principles I follow to build a culture where people stay motivated, accountable and inspired—even in the high-pressure world of tech startups.
Don't treat your team like a family.
I'm not a fan of calling a team a "family," even though that mindset is common among founders—especially in early-stage startups (we've been there). The difference comes down to boundaries. In a "family," roles often blur. People jump in wherever they're needed, which can be valuable early on. As a company grows, however, that lack of clarity can lead to confusion, burnout and unmet expectations.
In a team, clear responsibilities and shared standards are essential. You accept your relatives for who they are, and you might excuse mistakes by saying it's "just their nature." In a team, however, shared outcomes depend on everyone showing up, improving and staying accountable. When someone consistently ignores feedback or struggles to contribute, it affects the whole team—and no amount of tolerance can sustain a high-performing company.
At the start of HOLYWATER, we hit more than a few walls. After exiting a million-dollar app portfolio to focus on our content ecosystem, we had to rethink how we operate. That shift pushed us to sharpen our focus and build a culture grounded in clear values and long-term vision.
That also means letting someone go can be part of building a healthy team. When it's clear that someone isn't aligned with your values, parting ways can be the most thoughtful and constructive path.
Create a safe space for mistakes.
True leaders don't always make the right decisions, but they always learn from their mistakes.
I've made plenty of errors along my journey, and what's made the difference is my willingness to learn from them. My team doesn't just execute my vision—it actively shapes it by giving me honest feedback. It helps me see myself from the outside, and that's crucial for founders aiming to create something extraordinary.
My approach to handling challenges transformed dramatically when I trained myself to stop automatically labelling experiences as "good" or "bad." When someone criticizes my idea or when we face a setback, my brain instinctively wants to label it negatively. Instead, I've learned to pause and ask, "Why am I labelling this as bad? What is this experience trying to teach me?" Now, I see that all experiences, especially difficult ones, direct us toward truth and growth.
I transmit this awareness to my team. We have a culture of open feedback, considering mistakes as new learnings and opportunities for growth. The core of my leadership philosophy is built on feedback loops, team self-awareness and valuing truth and evolution over comfort.
Support growth and well-being.
Building a startup is not a 9-to-5 job. At the beginning, we had our intense periods, and team members worked overtime. At no point did I force them to. Anatolii and I were clear about our vision and also made sure the team had room to grow and accomplish meaningful tasks and challenges.
For now, one thing is certain: If you overwork and live in a hurry, you'll end up burned out, not fulfilling those numbers and milestones. That's why, along with clear operations flow and balanced workflow, I promote well-being and self-awareness practices.
I regularly share my mindfulness experience with the team, emphasizing what helps me to keep focus and deal with ADHD: meditation, cold water immersion, morning exercise, quality sleep and no alcohol. It's not just theoretical lectures ("You need to sleep well, eat healthy and meditate"). I can speak from experience about what works and what doesn't and offer useful feedback. My goal is to challenge the narrative that success has to come at the cost of self-destruction.
As a result, we achieved higher collective productivity, and team meetings became more focused. Our eNPS survey showed 91% of team members said they see strong opportunities for growth.
Optimize mundane tasks with AI.
I avoid micromanagement. My strengths have always been creativity and generating ideas. This requires me to keep my resources and energy levels high. That's why I actively encourage my team to take ownership of how we implement our shared strategy. This builds their confidence and skills while giving me the space to think big and shape new product ideas.
This approach only works because we've built a culture of autonomy supported by smart systems. As an example, My Drama has grown 3.5x in a year thanks to the efforts of a relatively small team. If we had relied solely on manual processes, we'd be lagging. We use AI tools to eliminate tedious, repetitive work that drains creative energy and leads to burnout.
In scriptwriting, filming, ad creative development and content distribution, we've built a reliable AI toolkit. It includes both off-the-shelf tools and in-house solutions that help us produce more, spend less and scale faster.
As a result, our team members aren't worried about AI replacing them. Instead, they automate what slows them down and focus on what humans do best: strategic thinking and creative problem-solving.
Conclusion
These principles have helped us get to where we are today, and I believe that founders who follow them can build their own solid team of top performers.
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