Happy 10th Flatstack — Reflections of a Proud Cofounder
There we were in a Russian nightclub that was slowly emptying out, the smell of vodka and last night’s party wafting off the stragglers…
There we were in a Russian nightclub that was slowly emptying out, the smell of vodka and last night’s party wafting off the stragglers winding down their night at 6am.
Why my partners decided to take weary travelers who had just stepped off an airplane after the exhausting journey from New Orleans to Kazan to a nightclub is still beyond me. But they served breakfast and coffee, so I guess it was as good a spot as any to meet Timur, Alex & Oleg for the first time.
The partnership had begun before this breakfast meeting at a Russian nightclub, but we were just picking up steam. Now, as we were growing, we decided it was time to meet in person.
That was the first and last I’ve been to Russia in February. We now host our annual Flatstack Summit in June.
This month, Flatstack celebrates our 10th anniversary as a company. It’s a milestone for our company that is worthy of reflection on the journey, and what we’ve learned.
Our first lunch together as a Flatstack team. Me, Oleg Kurnosov and Alexey Mamaev (L to R). This was after I’d been back to the hotel for a nap and shower post nightclub breakfast.
I love asking people in interviews “tell me about something you are proud of?” It cuts right to the chase. So, I’d like to reflect on some of the things that I take pride in accomplishing together as a team with Flatstack.
I’m proud of our culture driven by our core values.
Core values matter. Defining them as founders is the best thing we ever did. As a business that globally distributed, our reverence for the core values that we established as company have kept us connected remarkably closely as a team and to our customers.
If you make a decision aligned with our core values, we will support you in it.
Trusting, valuing, empowering our greatest assets, our people means coaching them in a way consistent with our core values. You can’t be there to offer guidance in every situation, so you have to build a framework for people to learn and guide themselves in new situations.
Set People up to Succeed. Believe in Them
Great Work is a Matter of Pride
Doing > Talking
Be Curious & Never Stop Learning
Innovate. Make mistakes. Learn
Flatten the World & Explore It
Communicate Transparently & Honestly
Work Hard. Play Hard.
Win, Win, Win = Customers, Employees, Company
Create Awesomeness
I’m proud of helping to flatten the world and connect cultures
On that first trip once I’d recovered from the jetlag, Oleg took us on a tour of a few notable tech companies in Kazan. I remember visiting a .NET development shop that felt like we had just walked into a room with the team who was building Sputnik. The cigarette smoke hung low in the room and the fluorescent lamps cast a pall light over the men hunched over ancient computer monitors. As we exited the office, we swore to each other that we’d always be the “cool” place to work, a company immersed in startup culture, creating great products and having fun doing it.
Poker night in 2010 in our original Flatstack conference room. Pretty sure Peter cleaned up.
We’ve built a economic and cultural bridge that has impacted the careers of a lot of folks in Kazan. I had lunch with Alina Gardamshina a few weeks back in San Francisco. Last year she and Dilyara Serazutdinova were pitching Niko Niko at Web Summit in Dublin and we ran into Mansur Suleman who was pitching his startup.
I’m proud to say I have friends and colleagues worldwide all of whom are part of the Flatstack family.
And I am proud of the connection that people feel to Flatstack as a place that broadened their horizons.
I’m proud of bringing great applications to life in concert with our clients
Every product starts with an entrepreneur’s dream, vision — a big problem just waiting to be solved.
Dan Zitting was intro-ed into our “test task” process in January, 2010. He’d been building a product called Workpapers and needed a team to help support the development. After a little back and forth with Oleg and Peter, we signed him on as a client.
Dan proved to be a entrepreneurial force, his company was acquired by ACL, a leading governance, risk management, and compliance company out of Vancouver.
We’ve evolved our role with ACL along the way and are proud to have been a part of the great run with Dan and the ACL team to continues to roll on.
Ten years, what a great run. Here’s to the next ten. Stay curious, stay humble. If you want to learn more about what we’ve learned in the last 10 years, please get in touch. And as Oleg would say:
“On the rest, we’ll catch up in Basecamp.”
