One of the most important lessons I learned early in my entrepreneurial path is matching your ambitions with the business you are building. Anatoly Gaverdovskiy, a founder of VDI and my supervisor, has played a crucial role in realizing this. Let’s unpack this. I have left EPAM Systems to establish a management consulting firm Empatika. My business thesis was that only some businesses (especially SMBs) in Russia have skills and pay enough attention to management, applying processes and practi...

One of the most important lessons I learned early in my entrepreneurial path is matching your ambitions with the business you are building. Anatoly Gaverdovskiy, a founder of VDI and my supervisor, has played a crucial role in realizing this. Let’s unpack this. I have left EPAM Systems to establish a management consulting firm Empatika. My business thesis was that only some businesses (especially SMBs) in Russia have skills and pay enough attention to management, applying processes and practi...

There are a lot of myths & unmet expectations when building a startup, as well as the real things that matter, so I’d like to share some of them.Myths“I am CEO, Bitch” - this was Mark’s business card according to the “Social Network” movie. Yeah, you will be the CEO and, sure, you can print something similar. But is it really worth to leave a big company for this? You can start a small business in parallel and have any card you want :)“I will have lots of money & success” - probably. But not ...

There are a lot of myths & unmet expectations when building a startup, as well as the real things that matter, so I’d like to share some of them.Myths“I am CEO, Bitch” - this was Mark’s business card according to the “Social Network” movie. Yeah, you will be the CEO and, sure, you can print something similar. But is it really worth to leave a big company for this? You can start a small business in parallel and have any card you want :)“I will have lots of money & success” - probably. But not ...

As a junior manager, one of the biggest challenges I faced was not focusing on what was important, but rather what was urgent. This often resulted in feelings of frustration, negativity towards others, and low self-esteem. So, I decided to find answers to the question, "what does it take to manage effectively?" and I found the best answers in Peter Drucker's 1967 book "The Effective Executive". The first piece of advice he offered was to "Know Thy Time". This is something I would highly ...

As a junior manager, one of the biggest challenges I faced was not focusing on what was important, but rather what was urgent. This often resulted in feelings of frustration, negativity towards others, and low self-esteem. So, I decided to find answers to the question, "what does it take to manage effectively?" and I found the best answers in Peter Drucker's 1967 book "The Effective Executive". The first piece of advice he offered was to "Know Thy Time". This is something I would highly ...

One of the traits of large companies is "big thinking". By this, I mean they plan on a grand scale, measuring their progress in months, quarters, and years. This can be a dangerous habit for a startup founder, since they should be thinking and acting on a daily, weekly basis. So how can one learn to unlearn this? Hackathons have been a great help to me. First we attended external ones, but eventually we started organizing internal ones. A hackathon is a 24-hour marathon of programming aimed a...

One of the traits of large companies is "big thinking". By this, I mean they plan on a grand scale, measuring their progress in months, quarters, and years. This can be a dangerous habit for a startup founder, since they should be thinking and acting on a daily, weekly basis. So how can one learn to unlearn this? Hackathons have been a great help to me. First we attended external ones, but eventually we started organizing internal ones. A hackathon is a 24-hour marathon of programming aimed a...

My colleague reminded me of a funny story. I had converted the cost of a pair of jeans to the number of users we could acquire, and I picked the new users option so that we could grow a couple of percent faster. At the time, I had no idea if my choice was right, but years later I became confident that the relentless focus and preference of growth over other things was instrumental to our success. There is this concept of “opportunity costs” in economics. It means that when you choose one acti...

My colleague reminded me of a funny story. I had converted the cost of a pair of jeans to the number of users we could acquire, and I picked the new users option so that we could grow a couple of percent faster. At the time, I had no idea if my choice was right, but years later I became confident that the relentless focus and preference of growth over other things was instrumental to our success. There is this concept of “opportunity costs” in economics. It means that when you choose one acti...

What is the difference between a startup and a small business? I believe the main difference is the potential for rapid scaling. When I think of startups, I think of businesses that have the ability to scale quickly and expand beyond a specific local market. Many people assume that startups are focused on creating IT products, but that's not always the case. A startup can be any business that has the potential for fast growth. But the more interesting question is - to scale what? Revenue...

What is the difference between a startup and a small business? I believe the main difference is the potential for rapid scaling. When I think of startups, I think of businesses that have the ability to scale quickly and expand beyond a specific local market. Many people assume that startups are focused on creating IT products, but that's not always the case. A startup can be any business that has the potential for fast growth. But the more interesting question is - to scale what? Revenue...

My college department head, Marshev Vadim, taught me the importance of researching the history of an industry, including the key players, their assumptions, past failures, and current challenges(btw I strongly recommend his book on the history of management). At App in the Air, I wrote a blog called "Travel 101" and held strategy talks to share what I learned about the industry with my colleagues. As a side note, I remember pitching a new feature for our app, which would automatically check-i...

My college department head, Marshev Vadim, taught me the importance of researching the history of an industry, including the key players, their assumptions, past failures, and current challenges(btw I strongly recommend his book on the history of management). At App in the Air, I wrote a blog called "Travel 101" and held strategy talks to share what I learned about the industry with my colleagues. As a side note, I remember pitching a new feature for our app, which would automatically check-i...

I've learned that one of the important things in the early stages of starting my own business is changing my social circle. It may sound harsh, but it's necessary. When I was working for someone else, my social circle was made up of people with stable incomes and we would talk about things like the stock market, vacations in Europe and so on, often while dining at fancy restaurants. But when you don't have a stable income, things change. You need to control costs, decrease spen...

I've learned that one of the important things in the early stages of starting my own business is changing my social circle. It may sound harsh, but it's necessary. When I was working for someone else, my social circle was made up of people with stable incomes and we would talk about things like the stock market, vacations in Europe and so on, often while dining at fancy restaurants. But when you don't have a stable income, things change. You need to control costs, decrease spen...

I believe that when assembling a startup team, the "Who, then Where" approach is the best. This means that I prioritize finding the right people first, and then figuring out what we will be building together, not the other way around. In my opinion, the key characteristics to look for in potential team members are:A growth mindset - I want to work with individuals who are excited by challenges, see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow, and believe in the power of continuous learning. T...

I believe that when assembling a startup team, the "Who, then Where" approach is the best. This means that I prioritize finding the right people first, and then figuring out what we will be building together, not the other way around. In my opinion, the key characteristics to look for in potential team members are:A growth mindset - I want to work with individuals who are excited by challenges, see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow, and believe in the power of continuous learning. T...

There are two main approaches to sourcing startup ideas: bottom-up and top-down.Bottom UpThis approach involves identifying personal problems that you or your company face daily that are not being adequately addressed. You can then try to find a solution to these problems by researching their root causes and looking for innovative insights. This approach is often fueled by passion, as it requires a lot of energy and dedication to work on a problem for several years. Alternatively, you can fol...

There are two main approaches to sourcing startup ideas: bottom-up and top-down.Bottom UpThis approach involves identifying personal problems that you or your company face daily that are not being adequately addressed. You can then try to find a solution to these problems by researching their root causes and looking for innovative insights. This approach is often fueled by passion, as it requires a lot of energy and dedication to work on a problem for several years. Alternatively, you can fol...

Last year, I got to go to this cool program at MIT called "Systematic Innovation of Products, Processes, and Services." They taught us all sorts of useful stuff, but one thing that stuck with me was this framework they talked about when it comes to making new products. To make a product that people will actually want to use, it's gotta be three things: desirable, viable, and feasible.People “desirable” - first, it's gotta be something people actually want. Like, if you're build...

Last year, I got to go to this cool program at MIT called "Systematic Innovation of Products, Processes, and Services." They taught us all sorts of useful stuff, but one thing that stuck with me was this framework they talked about when it comes to making new products. To make a product that people will actually want to use, it's gotta be three things: desirable, viable, and feasible.People “desirable” - first, it's gotta be something people actually want. Like, if you're build...

There is this concept of production possibility frontier (PPF) in Economics. It is often visualized as a curve that represents the optimal allocation of resources between producing two different products - see PPF1 curve on the diagram above. Point A is one such possible optimal allocation achieved by, say, Company A. However, you will realize that this curve is not always a perfect representation of reality. In fact, most companies do not operate on the optimal curve (point B), and there are...

There is this concept of production possibility frontier (PPF) in Economics. It is often visualized as a curve that represents the optimal allocation of resources between producing two different products - see PPF1 curve on the diagram above. Point A is one such possible optimal allocation achieved by, say, Company A. However, you will realize that this curve is not always a perfect representation of reality. In fact, most companies do not operate on the optimal curve (point B), and there are...