Icanpreneurial Story: Nikola Ruychev, Founder & CEO @ AIoTCloud

Icanpreneurial Stories is a series of interviews with Icanpreneur customers who are sharing their entrepreneurial journeys and how the Icanpreneur platform contributed to their success. Through these stories, we aim to inspire and empower other entrepreneurs to achieve their own success.

In this Icanpreneurial Story, we met Nikola Ruychev, Founder & CEO @ AIoTCloud

Before venturing into entrepreneurship, Nikola served as Strategy & Operations Officer and Project Management Team Lead at Deloitte. His corporate experience provided him with a structured, strategic approach to problem-solving, which he considers a significant advantage in navigating the complexities and uncertainties of startup life.

Can you share a recent milestone that has been particularly meaningful in your journey?

Typical for a startup company, we are rarely sitting on a single milestone, even for shorter periods of time. Recently, we achieved substantial growth, increasing our client success stories by 30% in Q1 2025 alone compared to the entire previous year. Additionally, we closed our second investment round with strategic investors, significantly fueling our capacity for product innovation and market expansion.

Tell us about AIoTCloud and your vision for the company.

AIoTCloud’s energy platform and bundled services aim to disrupt the energy management field with a data-driven, AI-enabled solution that simplifies the way businesses handle energy and sustainability. It allows industrial, commercial real estate, and renewable businesses to improve energy efficiency, cut carbon emissions, reduce operating costs, meet tenant expectations, and comply with regulations - all with minimal investment.

Our core technological advantage lies in our easy, hardware-agnostic integration and comprehensive, actionable insights.

What inspired you to tackle this problem, and how did you identify it as an opportunity?

As the saying goes,

We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.

Humor aside, our inspiration came from recognizing how critically outdated and inaccessible energy management solutions were. The industry was (partially still is) dominated by legacy systems requiring significant resources and specialized engineering skills. Seeing the growing market demand for practical, affordable solutions aligned with sustainability goals made the opportunity clear, inspiring us to establish AIoTCloud.

What is one unexpected lesson you learned during your entrepreneurial journey?

The surprising stubbornness of markets dominated by legacy solutions taught us an essential lesson: quality and affordability alone don’t guarantee immediate market traction. We quickly realized the critical importance of strategic and creative marketing. This challenge underscored the importance of adaptability, efficient resource management, and perseverance.

What impact has your success had on your industry or market?

Every AIoTCloud client serves as proof of how businesses can significantly enhance energy efficiency and sustainability rapidly and cost-effectively. Moreover, our clients are now empowered with clear insights into their energy consumption and optimization strategies, setting a higher standard across the industry.

What challenges were you facing before using Icanpreneur?

Innovation, especially in its early stages, can be messy and overwhelming. Initially, we faced frequent pivots and inefficiencies due to a lack of structured planning, leading to suboptimal use of our resources.

How did Icanpreneur help you overcome these challenges?

Icanpreneur provided us with structured tools and methodologies to organize our strategic thinking across all business aspects—from clearly defining our target market to implementing actionable, step-by-step strategies. This significantly increased our operational efficiency.

What is the one thing that made Icanpreneur an outstanding platform for you?

Undoubtedly, the standout factor of Icanpreneur is the passionate and supportive team behind it. Their deep innovation expertise, combined with genuine care for entrepreneurial success, has made a tangible difference. A specific example was their proactive assistance in refining our initial efforts, directly enhancing our ability to structure our innovation ideas and execute faster.

Where can our readers try out AIoTCloud and stay updated on your latest developments?

Readers can explore our solutions at AIoTCloud or reach out directly to me or any of the team members. We are also regularly posting on the AIoTCloud LinkedIn page anything that is worth mentioning regarding our journey. Despite our growing company, we maintain the responsiveness of a startup, meaning you can always reach us directly, 24/7, 365 days a year! 🙂

Thank you, Nikola, for sharing your incredible journey with us. Your story is a testament to the power of purpose-driven entrepreneurship. At Icanpreneur, we’re proud to support innovators like you as they turn challenges into opportunities and create lasting impact.