My journey

Hi everyone. My name is Ilya Ozerets.

I grew up with an entrepreneurial spirit and engineering education. While studying, I experienced growing from an engineer, and manager, to a leader of a custom software development company with three lines of businesses. I designed the internal logging software system architecture for one of the banks with 176 branches spread across eastern Europe. I had a fun experience in college taking over the professor’s role in a class. I was teaching other students (the majority older and more experienced than me) business system analysis based on the commercial project we sold. The inflection point was when I proposed a strategy with a consolidation plan and became managing director, executing it and getting 70% annual operating profit growth. I helped many other entrepreneurs and businesses with a good amount of learning during that journey.

Out of our three directions: custom software development, game development, and solution integration, I was more enthusiastic about the gaming industry. It was the time when iPads had just hit the market. As a teenager, I wasn't into reading like most other kids my age. The idea came to solve the same problem for others like me: how to make reading fun and engaging as playing games? So we brainstormed, and I went on to the top 10 publishers to get the rights to work with their top kids' books, stories, characters, and associated content to use. Surprisingly enough, I had signed those ten publishers without monetary commitment on our end because it was new, and I persuaded them to explore this field of “playing while reading” on a touchscreen device - iPads. I didn’t know much back then, nor were many active product-led practitioners. So we learned from what we could find and practiced simultaneously - it was an excellent opportunity to learn how to launch a completely new venture from the ground up with almost nothing but expertise. Interactive books on tablets became the fourth direction. It wasn’t a financially successful business and didn’t last long, about a year and a half, but the insights and learnings we got from this experience were invaluable. We learned that regions, mentality, and demographics play a significant role in a buyer’s decision-making process. Pricing could be different, and infrastructure considerations or regulatory requirements must be taken into account more seriously and early while planning a business model based on worldwide distribution. It was one of the first learnings on direct-to-consumer ideas where “sure sounds interesting” or “yes, I would buy it for $10” doesn’t mean people will buy.
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The first two months were quite an adventure. I was studying English everywhere I could - signed up in three local community colleges, found local ESL (English as a second language) classes, and was grinding it because my life depended on it. I was working during the nights with eastern Europe and some of the clients that were interested and required my counsel, advisement, or consulting. I found one company that hired me as a lead generation or appointment setter. It was a 24/7 journey of studying and practically implementing what I learned - working while pushing myself to speak.

I was putting myself into environments that forced me to speak. To break the formidable language barrier, I joined Uber. It didn’t last long because, during one of the rides, I was lucky to meet one local entrepreneur who, after hearing my bumbling about my background and experience within two minutes, invited me to meet him and his partner at the office the next day. I was so excited that night that it reminded me of when I signed my first client, but so much deeper than that - someone understood what I was saying in a different language, and it was relevant enough to potentially bring value. I am still thankful for that opportunity as it allowed me to move back into the industry where I had deep knowledge and experience - building software technology businesses.
Then a turning point in my life occurred. I relocated to California, USA, with no English (well, reading technical documentation didn’t count back then because the only thing I could say was: “Hi, my name is Ilya”) and started from the ground up here.

In a separate case study, I describe my first local (US) success - a startup idea of building a platform marketplace that enables clients and freelancers to thrive remotely through innovative technology. From designing wireframes in the garage, architecting it, signing partners, and building a team, to a growing business.

Since then, I relocated a few times from Southern to Northern California and recently nested in Southern Orange County.