— I got my first job in an engineering company in 2008 as a print designer (signs, banners, business cards). This company had a website made by Initlab's competitors (at that time). They had a contract for support, but it was done slowly enough, so emergency tasks were transferred to us, in the advertising department. It consisted of three people. If something needed to be changed, they would send us a letter saying ‘Here, guys, do it’. At that time, Sergey was already working on Drupal, so I learnt how to do some simple things from him.
I worked there for a year and during that time I learnt to work with Drupal at the admin level, managed to make one redesign and build a simple website. During that year of work it turned out that only 10-15% of my working time I spend specifically on printing, and the rest of the time is spent on site administration. That's how we became friends with Drupal.
— I went to Kuban State University, stayed there for four years, and in my fourth year I left to work, because I simply stopped studying, it was no longer interesting. Moreover, I went to work as a designer, but I was studying to be a mathematician. It was as strange as possible, so in order not to have conflicts in the family, I closed the session and wrote a letter of resignation. So that I wouldn't get kicked out.
— I had the second result at school in the USE in maths and was accepted to university without exams. My rebellious youth inclined me to the fact that I didn't need to stress about education. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just wanted to be accepted. Wherever they took me, that's where I sat. And I always had some inclination towards mathematics, so it so happened that I was accepted to study mathematics.
— I have a very bad memory, so it's hard to say. At first, relatives asked me to draw something, then friends and acquaintances joined in. At that time there were no freelance exchanges, so I was a freelancer, but I didn't have an official title, it was word of mouth. I ran round and round, built up a portfolio, and with that portfolio I went to apply for a job.
— I'm studying at a distance learning centre now. Just for the sake of ticking boxes, so that I could retire in peace.
— No, Moscow Open Institute, specialising in «Applied Informatics in Economics».
— «General Maths». The output would be a maths and computer science teacher.
— I came directly to support, I was an executor: I did layout and assembly, sometimes even development from scratch according to TOR. And design knowledge is still needed when you need to help clients, give advice, or accept work from a designer. The basics of layout, typography - all this is still needed.
— It's hard to say exactly when the formal duties came in. It started with me doing support, and when I'm short-handed, there is a second person who also does support. This second person needs to be brought up to speed, and that's what I do. Accordingly, I continued to communicate with all the clients, while managing the second person and doing support myself. Then there was a third person, a fourth person, and at some point I just stopped doing support and started doing organisational work.
— I have a very bad memory. I can't remember exactly, but there were five or six people. I remember I announced at a New Year's Eve meeting one day that I wasn't doing endorsements this year. There are 11 people now. I can't remember when it happened, about four years ago, I think.
— The company was founded by three people and after one of them left, it turned out that 20% of the share capital is not involved in the life of the company. The guys thought I might be interested in this, but at first I was not very enthusiastic about it. Then it kind of went quiet. About a year later I remembered about it again and approached the issue more seriously. I had some spare money and this was a good investment.
— Well, it's become more like family. It was my own, and now it's my own. And I got more grey hairs after that (laughs).
— To be honest, I don't know. But I hope there will be more of us, because I want to gather all the cool guys under one roof and I want everyone in this company to be comfortable.
— I wouldn't want us to change much. I would like us to become, well, maybe calmer. Right now, we have some shortcomings, we have some issues that we are trying to solve and automate. So, I hope that we will close these issues, just so that it will be awesome for everyone, and we will continue to scale and bring this to even more people.
— If we talk about what makes us stand out, it's probably the fact that we're honest guys and we regularly return money where we're not asked. If we find a fault in our work after some time, we will redo everything for free, even though we were not asked. And judging by the feedback we get from customers, people don't often encounter this kind of behaviour.
— I can only tell you what we strive for. We are not exactly like that, but I personally strive for predictability in my work. And I very much ask my colleagues to do the same. In general, it's like on the road: you have to be predictable, otherwise there will be an accident. And here, you have to be predictable or there will be a conflict. We have to try to calculate time and report on it honestly - we saved money here, we need a bit more here, because for us it's hours and for the client it's money. It doesn't always work out, but we strive for it.
— I don't remember there being any difficulties. A reasoned position from all sides is always accepted.
— I think he's talkative. Because when people come to us with a ready-made solution, most often the output is not what is needed. But a talkative client comes to us with a problem, we find a solution together, and the result is great.
— First of all, predictable. That's really important. Last year we hired three guys who just disappeared. I'm always looking for the good in people, so when they tell me the same thing is going to happen, I'm up to my neck in denial: «No, he's really sick! Lying in the hospital with all his fingers broken and he can't call us!».
So first of all, it's still predictable. Even if he is a novice developer, we will teach him. But if he doesn't know how to communicate, there is nothing we can do. Secondly, he is careful and attentive.
— I think a predictable and neat person can't be a bad person.
— My family and I didn't go skiing this time. We decided to have a rest, because we have a long trip ahead of us and we will leave the child with his grandmother for a week. So we decided to spend time together. We walked along the beach, fed the seagulls with potatoes. It turned out to be a quiet, relaxing family holiday. We were at a general meeting, we all went for a walk together, but we didn't go for a drive. We also slept, because we miss it very much.
— I have one child, Egor, three and a half years old, who is going to be an IT specialist. He clearly has a technical mind, he takes apart everything he can get his hands on. My wife works with us now. She is a testing specialist and coordinator of one of the development teams.
— I have a very bad memory (laughs).
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