Welcome to another enlightening episode of OnestopNDT’s Interview Series. Today, we are thrilled to have with us Mr. Konstantyn Shyshkin, a visionary tech founder and the driving force behind Spiral Technology. From a solid background in management consulting and banking to pioneering advancements in augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI), Konstantyn’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. His transition from a secure corporate career to the dynamic world of startups exemplifies his optimism, passion for technology, and relentless drive to make a difference.
In this interview, Mr. Konstantyn shares his serendipitous entry into the Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) field, the challenges he faced in his entrepreneurial journey, and the innovative strides Spiral Technology is making in AR/AI. He also discusses the valuable lessons from his time at INSEAD, collaborations with giants like General Electric and the Department of Defense, and his vision for the future of AR/AI in various industries.
Join us as we delve into the story of a true tech enthusiast who continues to push the boundaries of what's possible, all while maintaining a strong connection to the real, tangible world through his passions and interests.
Hello Mr. Konstantyn Shyshkin. It’s a pleasure to have you on OnestopNDT. For our new audiences who have just joined us, could you please introduce yourself?
Thank you for having me. I am a tech founder who jumped on building a startup plane from a secure job in management consulting. Thus it's clear that I am an optimist, a dreamer, and a tinkerer looking for ways to make the world a better place. While I am not an engineer I have a great passion for technology, industry, and the intersection of the two. This is what we are focusing on at Spiral Technology and I am glad to be part of the OnestopNDT community!
… how did you decide to enter the NDT field? Was it always the dream?
I stumbled upon NDT serendipitously. When we started prototyping various AR ideas for the industry in 2019, ultrasonic testing popped up as the first area where augmented reality could change the game rather than just add an incremental value. The key advantage is that you can encode the data from the instrument with the AR headset.
We exhibited the application at the Dubai Air Show using the first gen of Hololens. Since then more powerful hardware was developed (Magic Leap 2, HoloLens 2) and we reopened that development. While learning more about it I realized that it is almost magical activity happening behind the closed curtains and making our world of comfort and technology work.
… what motivated you to make such a significant career shift from consulting/banking to AR/AI?
As a kid, I loved playing Monopoly and economy-focused computer strategies. Later in high school, I was winning competitions in economics. Consulting gave me essential skills of the corporate world while in banking I learned to count money in all possible ways. Something was bound to grow on this background. I remember the day when I decided to start the company very clearly. One morning I was listening to some tech news celebrating another success of the product launch. I don't recall what the news was exactly about but it made me think "Enough is enough, I also can do something..." I know this is probably the worst answer to the question, why did I start a company. “I did it because I could” :)
Great, Mr. Konstantyn. Were there any specific challenges you faced in transitioning to this new field? How did you overcome them?
As first-time founders, we were stumbling almost every step of the way for the first couple of years. Miscalculations were mostly due to over-optimism. The first sale was difficult. The release of the first meaningful product was difficult. The first round of investments was difficult. "Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever" - was it Gandhi who said this? Yes, it was. Learning by doing is the most powerful tool for overcoming any challenge. Talking to experts is the next one on the list.
INSEAD is a prestigious business school. How did your experience there prepare you for your entrepreneurial journey?
INSEAD made an enormous contribution! Besides providing all the hard skills on everything from product positioning and pricing to psychological tools for dealing with conflict and mental health, it inspired me to take action. The school fueled that over-confidence that I was blaming for our failures but the very same power helped us to endure. Every failure helped to reevaluate the assumptions and derive our own lessons. This is a secret but I am dreaming that one day I will be able to teach a course in INSEAD.
Mr. Konstantyn, you mentioned collaboration with General Electric, DoD, and DoE on your LinkedIn profile. Can you share a specific example of how Spiral's technology benefitted one of these clients?
We pioneered the AR concept for the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida which was undergoing the rebuild after Hurricane Michael. I am unable to comment on the defense project beyond what the official press release for the "Base of the Future" project has said, namely - "the technology is like Superman's X-ray vision. The maintainers of base facilities will be able to see the plumbing, electrical, and structural elements hidden behind walls."
Department of Energy co-sponsored our work with GE focused on developing a set of smart tools for manufacturing. We paved the way for shortening the quality inspection time by 64% by eliminating idle time and bridging the communication gap between manufacturing and engineering.
… the AR/AI landscape is rapidly evolving. How does Spiral Technology stay ahead of the curve and ensure its platform remains cutting-edge?
On a macro level, we made a decision to incorporate AI in all our products. Not just to add "AI" to the website but to discover where the technology can make a difference. In 2023-2024, we invested in building the in-house capabilities and performed feasibility studies with the customers. We concluded that applying machine vision for quality inspections through AR glasses has enormous potential for manufacturing and service. Both visual inspections and NDT performed by the operator manually are here to stay in many industries from aerospace and defense to oil and gas or construction. Having an AI assistant that could validate your work through the goggles in real time can substantially increase first-time quality and reduce the risk of failure. Besides the decision on AI, we work with the conviction that to stay relevant we need to be constantly innovating and learning. Thus we stay on top of the latest developments in both AR hardware and software tools.
… entrepreneurship requires taking calculated risks. Can you describe a time when you had to make a tough decision for Spiral Technology and its outcome?
When COVID struck in February-March 2020, we had only two customers, both international airlines. Grounding of air travel happened lightning fast and the airline industry was focused only on one thing - survival. Innovation projects were deprioritized and the fate of Spiral was in limbo. The decision that we made as a team was to continue fighting no matter what. We firmly believed in our ideas and decided to trust our guts. Everyone accepted the pay cut and we ventured on a quest to pivot. That decision was right! In less than 6 months we managed to convince GE executives of the value of our use case and everything snowballed from there.
Looking back, what skills or experiences from your consulting/banking background have proven most valuable in your current role?
Communication, finance, and ability for structured execution. I wasn't a stereotypical startup founder, a techie with engineering genius and little social skills. Building a tech product for B2B space turned out to have so much in common with the consulting projects. Being prepared for the meetings, e.g. having an agenda at the start, a slide deck in the middle, and minutes at the end, helped us to win the respect of the early corporate customers. In hindsight, I can say that I was even overdoing this a little and many situations required a more agile and informal approach. Learning by doing it is.
… what excites you most about the future of AR/AI and its potential impact on various industries?
There is no widely adopted industrial AR solution yet but I am convinced that its advent is inevitable. This excites me the most because we can be part of the revolution. There are three reasons I believe so. Firstly, the use case for spatial access to technical information was confirmed by the end users time and again. NDT, visual inspections, contextual repair instructions, scan overlays, on-the-job training, and more. Secondly, the AR hardware that was always a main bottleneck for the adoption, has enormous potential for improvement. Mainstream smartphones have more powerful CPUs than those of the Hololens2 nowadays. Snapdragon 850, when released in 2018, was certainly state of the art chip, however in 2024 we can have an order of magnitude better performance. Finally, with the added power of AI (machine learning for computer vision tasks in particular), AR will have even greater value as it will become a vehicle to bring Artificial Intelligence to the shop floor.
… beyond technology, what are some of your passions or interests outside of work?
I love jumping into any analog activities to disconnect from increasingly digital work. I go skiing in winter and hiking in summer as a habit while trying to hit the gym regularly on the weekdays. Reading fiction or anything from social sciences is the laziest way for me to disconnect.
… what advice would you give to someone considering a career shift into a completely new field like you did?
I can't say it better than Mark Zuckerberg once did - "The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks." I’d add that no need to make drastic leaps from secure employment to risky entrepreneurship to be proud of your journey. Proactively moving to a different professional field or simply seeking challenges in your current job is a good way of staying relevant in the world.
Finally, what are your thoughts on OnestopNDT? Do you think our efforts to provide real, authentic and accurate content are helping the industry? Also, do you think our platform helps the community connect with like-minded people?
I discovered OnestopNDT in 2024 and it became my go-to resource for the topic. As someone outside of the industry, I valued the learning materials the most. First I started reading the general knowledge articles and papers to acquire a basic understanding of the procedures, techniques, and standards. Later I discovered the Companies directory which became instrumental for our market research and lead generation. We follow both the web page and the newsletter. The editorial team works on the material with dedication and care, I respect that a lot. The only section that we didn’t use yet is Careers but I hope one day we will be expanding the team with the dedicated engineering talent and we will proudly post the job on the portal!
