UF Physics Alumnus Profile: Aleksander Levental
Aleksander Levental is the CEO and co-founder of Gainesville-based startup Feathr. Starting as a transfer student to UF and the Department of Physics, Aleksander graduated in 2013 with dual bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics. During his senior year at UF, Aleksander joined the then-embryonic project as an “iOS Developer.” Initially the startup was focused on creating a peer-to-peer networking application that would improve on business cards.
In the early days of Feathr, while he was ostensibly operating as a software developer, Aleksander’s principal contribution to the young company was the introduction of a scientific method-like approach to the learning process for the young company. As Feathr developed, Aleksander’s role evolved towards management and leadership, and he became CTO in 2013 and CEO in 2015. Aleksander’s education in physics and undergraduate research experience under Professor Yoonseok Lee made him particularly well suited to the climate of experimentation and discovery in the early stages of the startup. He was given the Young Entrepreneur award by then-Governor Rick Scott in 2016.
Feathr now has nearly 150 full-time employees, most of whom reside in Gainesville, where the company’s headquarters are downtown and in sight of Aleksander’s alma mater. Feathr has raised over $20 million in venture funding with Aleksander as CEO, who credits his physics education and experience at UF for creating the foundation of his business perspective.
“Though it may seem counter-intuitive, my background in physics was critical in allowing me to be successful with a startup,” he said. “Physics teaches you how to simplify otherwise prohibitively complex problems into pieces that can be modeled and tested, which is necessary for approaching the challenge of building a business from scratch. Experimentation teaches you how to structure experiments to remove your own bias. And, my experience working in Dr. Lee’s group as an undergraduate helped form the foundations of my views on what constitutes good management and leadership that I still reference.”
