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June 25, 2021
What happens when you combine a passion for basketball with a love of technology?
We’ve got amazing employees!
Employee highlights shares the story of how their personal experience and professional journeys go hand in hand at Pixellot. Artiom’s story begins in faraway Uzbekistan and leads to the major sports capitals of the world.
Artiom Kapul was born in Uzbekistan and his family moved to Israel in 1999 when he was 13. A year later, he started playing basketball. Today he leads the Cloud Services R&D group.
Tip-Off
It wasn’t easy to be a newbie both in the country and to the game of basketball and I was mostly a “bench- warmer” that first season. But for me, giving up wasn’t an option, so with a lot of practice and hard work, I started getting more playing time. On our final game of the season, I ended up scoring 39 points!
I had an impact on the team and as a starter, I stayed on the team for all four years of high school. We were close to taking a championship, but I had a major injury in 12th grade that kept me out a month and resulted in 3 losses for the team.
During my armed service, I continued to practice and hone my basketball skills. This was more than just a passion – my goal was to get an athletic scholarship at a college in the United States. I ended up getting an offer from a Division-II school, but family issues kept me in Israel. Since I had always excelled at math and decided to make a career in technology, I ended up getting a degree in software engineering, all the while continuing to play basketball.
Half Time
While still playing semi-pro basketball, I worked for a company in the mobile industry but after a year and a half, I did not see my future there and started to look for a new job opportunity. A guy on my basketball team told me that Pixellot had a job opening and that he could arrange an interview through his father who worked there.
After watching a video about Pixellot I was intrigued with the possibility of combining my passion for sports with my love for technology. My teammates’ dad connected me with Gal Oz, one of Pixellot’s founders and the interview was a success! I formed a quick bond with Gal and during my interview I told him that I was already planning on bringing another new employee aboard – a very close friend of mine.
When I started working at Pixellot in January 2015 I was employee number 8. Five of those original 8 are still at Pixellot today.
From Court to Office
Surprisingly, my basketball background shares a lot of commonalities with my experience at Pixellot. Starting as the youngest player on the team to being a mentor, star player, leader and even an assistant coach, I have seen it all which gives me a broader perspective on attaining one of Pixellot’s main goals – bringing satisfaction to users and a satisfying customers experience for fans watching the games. As a basketball player on the court, and as a fan in the bleachers, I understand what it takes to make products better.
The 3 Point Deal
In 2015, around 10 months after I started at Pixellot, the first camera prototype was produced. It was black, not waterproof and it was horrible compared to our cameras today. I flew off to China with 2 people to try and sell the original camera to a basketball company called Huiti.
We went straight to a gym to set up the cameras. The gym was empty, so Huiti’s CEO and I took turns shooting the basketball. I made 17 three-point shots in a row! Legend has it that this was what closed the deal! The CEO was so impressed with my shooting prowess that he agreed to a partnership with Pixellot. This resulted in 5 additional trips to China for work and during one 5-month period I spent 40% of my time there.
Fourth Quarter
For 11 years, I combined playing semi-pro basketball with full time work. Being on the basketball court has helped me tremendously during my hi-tech career. Having so many seasons under my belt with different teammates, different teams and different leagues has helped me learn how to get along with different types of people with various skill sets. This proved to be one of the keys to my promotion from junior developer to managing a key group in a successful company.
Artiom Kapul is the R&D Director of Cloud Services at Pixellot, the global leader for AI automated sport video & analytics.
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