5 Question Interview: Valjo Kütt, Chief Operating Officer (COO) & Co-founder

Meet the team: Valjo Kütt, Chief Operating Officer (COO) & Co-founder. He's one of the three founding fathers of your favorite car care innovation. Similarly to other founders, he was also a top level performer in Southwestern book selling program and joined UpSteam in late 2016 when Martin pitched him the future of Car wash! Age old question: what does a COO do? To put it to simple terms that even a 4 yo would understand: If something is broken, then he fixes it and makes sure everybody knows how to use it. But he also takes care of expansion, finances, and overall leadership. Not gonna blab on for much longer as you probably already know him (everyone knows him, literally!) but here's an insight into what makes Valjo have that million dollar smile day in and day out. 

What are three of your favourite things in this world?
- Spending time with my fiance, 
- Building UpSteam, achieving milestones and having fun with our team, 
- Working on my hobbies: golf and investing.

Who did you want to become when you were little?
- As much as I remember, I wanted to become a footballer. I started playing football when I was 7 years old, became a captain of my youth team and played 13 games in Estonian National Youth Football teams, against Germany and Belgium etc. But blessing in disguise - I got injured in highschool and from then on, I knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur.  

What makes you happy?
- Seeing people around me happy. And if I get to spend my time doing the 3 favourite things I mentioned in question nr 1. 

What’s the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
- I downloaded the Sleep Cycle app recently and tried out the premium feature that records you while you sleep. It turns out that I talk in my sleep and make funny noises!

If you were to receive 400 million euros today, how would you live the rest of your life?
- Most of my daily life would remain the same. But I would start giving back to the community a lot more. I grew up in a not-very-wealthy neighbourhood and I believe there’s a lot to do with the education in our middle and high schools, especially within financial literacy. Secondly, I have always dreamt of creating small startup-hubs - houses-apartments where startups can live together and have offices in the same building also (like in the TV show Silicon Valley). I want to give the resources and freedom to young entrepreneurs, who can build products-services that change the world and create jobs within the communities. ​

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What is this?

5 Question Interview is a post series in which we share unknown facts about our team members. UpSteam is growing fast and so is our team - we try to introduce each of our new hires like that as soon as possible. Many of our fans and followers have said that they would like to know what happens behind the scenes and who are the people making it happen - we hope this delivers. If you like this type of content then we will keep bringing you these posts while prioritizing the fresh faces. 

Ps. We take recommendations for new and interesting questions. Share your ideas in the comments!