the story of an engineer who built an international company
With Logo, you could move the turtle by giving commands: where to go – forward-backward, right-left, turn. This is how simple algorithms were recorded. The turtle was taught to draw squares, ladders, spirals. With this help, cycles and functions were created. It was very interesting – you write code, and the turtle draws on the screen. There were no games then, so the opportunity to draw something with the turtle fascinated me.
Later, the Basic language began, and in the third grade I made my first calculator, worked with input-output.
After that, I transferred to another school. There was an IBM PC/AT 286 class. Oh, brave new world! I began to study Pascal and C, write more complex algorithms. From that moment on, my passion for programming began.
In high school, my passion continued at the 64th Omsk Physics and Mathematics School. I went to work as a lab assistant in the physics room because there was a computer there. I programmed in C and C++ and enjoyed it more and more. Then I entered the physics department, where I used programming to model physical processes in superconducting HTSC films, which I myself deposited with a laser in the lab.
How Marriage Made Me a Programmer
Soon after graduating from university, I got married. This largely motivated me to look for a job that would not only be to my liking, but also bring in income for the family budget. I studied in graduate school, but science was in deep crisis in the early 2000s. I decided to go to work as a programmer.
My first serious project was the bibliographic browser LibNavigator (by the way, information about it has been preserved to this day Here). I designed and developed it myself in 2004. It is a program that searches for books in the electronic catalogs of libraries around the world. It could also be used by library staff. For example, if a library needs to fill an electronic catalog with books, instead of entering each card of each book into electronic form, you can download it from the site of some other library, put your own codes, change something if necessary. By minimal editing, you can fill your own electronic catalog, taking cards from other libraries.
We distributed the program on the Internet. There was a free version for readers and a paid version for catalogers, which allowed them to save cards in their own electronic catalog and upload them to the library system.
One-man band
I traveled to conferences a lot, promoted LibNavigator, that is, essentially I was involved in marketing and sales, and I made the website myself.
It was quite an interesting project, in which I participated in different roles. Not only as a programmer, but also as an architect and as a manager, because I had a couple of people who were refining the program under my supervision. I was also involved in marketing and sales, and as a technical writer, because I wrote the user manual myself. I think this helped me a lot in the future to create my own IT business.
Meeting your future partner
A friend of mine who worked with one of the Americans and did a project with him in Fortran came to me and said that he needed a specialist who understood the web. In the process, we did another project with that foreign partner on a technology I was familiar with. That's how I met my future partner Ben.
For several years we worked without meeting in person. After that he came to Russia, and we met in person. Then I went to see him in the States. Gradually, all this turned from a project for several people into a fairly large business. We called the company Thumbtack – a pushpin that can hold many important functions. Then there was a rebranding to Lineate. At its peak, our engineering staff was about 300 people. There were several offices in Russia and two offices in the States. The largest, of course, was in my native Omsk. I was confident in the education and experience of our Omsk engineers.
After 2022, the process of separation with US clients began. A new brand appeared in Russia — Smartup, where we continued and developed the culture and traditions of Thumbtack/Lineate. Although this is already a different company, adapted to the current Russian reality. It is now smaller, with a more family-like atmosphere.
Development in the Russian market
Russia has a special business culture – everything big and the most “delicious” is carried out through tenders. To participate in them, you need to meet many formal criteria, and it is difficult for young/small companies to get a foothold. It would be great if big business was legally forced to allocate a certain percentage of the development budget to orders from small and medium businesses. But now the main money goes to the “big guys”.
The industry faces many challenges – it needs to substitute imports, especially in critical infrastructure. Despite the fact that in Russia, for example, fintech is well developed, in terms of services for developers and corporate software, it is necessary to catch up. It is very interesting to participate in this.
For thirteen years we worked without analysts, but in the Russian market you can't do without them. We quickly hired such specialists to do presales. In the West, relationships are less formal, more on trust than on signatures in documents. For example, a project for a couple of man-years and several hundred thousand dollars was done without strict specifications. But we are adapting and learning to write technical specifications 🙂 Now we even launch a separate service for pre-project analytics to order. Order!
Another difference is that abroad, money in IT comes from private investors. In Russia, it comes from the state and large businesses. The “big guys” spend it on themselves, rarely outsource, mostly outstaff, so this area is better developed in Russia. But we are gradually developing custom development as well.
The company is “like for yourself”
Many IT entrepreneurs in Russia and around the world come from engineering backgrounds. This story is not unique. We are not so much businessmen as engineers who were passionate about what they do, achieved success in the process, and developed it into a business.
Perhaps, because of this, there is a different approach to people. For businessmen, the basic vision of people is resources. For me and people of my type – like-minded people, a team in which you yourself feel good. This has always been the basis of my projects.
When I started, there were already quite large IT companies in Omsk. But when I created the company, I decided that I would create a place where I would like to work myself. I think that it worked out because we were the #1 employer in IT in Omsk for a long time. Everyone knew us, appreciated us, came to our events. We shared our expertise, did a lot of useful things for the city and continue to do so.
Now we are going through this path with Smartup. But not locally in Omsk, but we are gathering a team from all over Russia. Although it is in this Siberian city that the main center, the heart of the company is located.
I will share with you, without censorship, the history of development in the Russian market, which is new to me!
