Starting a business is always associated with great many risks and funding challenges. Andrey Monosov is the founder of a big software development company who has experienced these problems firsthand. He could rely only on his own money and deliberately refused to take out loans, making sure to create a fully independent business.
Today, he owns a major enterprise software development company, which creates its own applications and sells software licenses. However, in the early days, the company’s founder had to deal with many serious issues and often worked up to 20 hours a day to keep his business afloat.
The entrepreneur’s biography is a story of hard work and success. Andrey Monosov’s parents did not provide him with seed capital to grow his own business and he did not have influential relatives to pull the strings for him. Nevertheless, he was able to start a company that was destined to become one of the market leaders in Russia.
Biography of Andrey Monosov
In the past, the future entrepreneur was often described as an active and curious kid. He was interested in programming since childhood, but later on, decided to choose an economics major. He wanted to have a real chance at launching his own business.
Childhood and Teenage Years
Andrey Monosov was born in Moscow. He graduated from a school located not far from his home. It did not have any advanced learning programs or admission agreements with prestigious universities. However, the future founder of an IT company had no complaints about the quality of his education. Neither did he care about his lack of connections in business circles (his parents and relatives were never involved in any kind of entrepreneurship).
Andrey himself, however, says that even as a teenager he found the idea of self-employment very appealing. He started earning his own money early on — mainly by installing computer programs and repairing electronics for other people. He was also interested in web design and studied C#. At one point, he even created a game that he could play with his friends.
Economics Degree
The entrepreneur’s father, Leonid Monosov, has repeatedly expressed his opinion about Andrey’s choice of profession. He emphasized that his son’s decision to enter an economics university was unexpected. Andrey’s parents knew that he was passionate about programming and computer games. They believed that their son would choose a related major.
However, Andrey Monosov made a different decision. Later on, he explained that by the time he applied to university, he already knew that he wanted to build his own business. Back then, he could not predict that it would be an IT company. But one thing was certain, that an economics degree would help him get a job in a large company to study its business and management processes from the inside.
Andrey successfully passed his finals, defended his thesis, and graduated from one of the most prestigious universities in Moscow. He had a full scholarship throughout his entire education journey. The young man knew that his parents could not afford to pay for his education, so he did everything he could to beat the strong competition and get into the desired program.
Career Beginnings
Andrey Monosov never sought to build a successful career as someone else’s employee. He always dreamed about having his own business. But at the same time, he realized that this endeavor would require a lot of money and at least some managerial experience. So, when looking for a job, the young graduate pursued two goals: to accumulate start-up capital and to try his hand at being a manager.
Banking Career
As part of his pre-graduation internship, Andrey Monosov worked at a bank in Moscow. Then he received a full-time job offer from the bank and accepted it. The graduate believed that his work performance would speak for itself and promotions would not be long in coming. But his utter dedication, initiative, and utmost commitment did not result in any career advancement.
And so, Andrey decided to quit. Unfortunately, the situation repeated itself at another bank where he got a job later. The future businessman realized that he could only get a promotion after many years of work; career growth in the banking industry had nothing to do with professional achievements — it depended solely on the years of service. Andrey had no time for this, so he decided to change his career field.
Managerial Position in Consulting
After a short retraining, Andrey Monosov was ready for job interviews again. He settled upon a consulting company. Years later, the entrepreneur mentioned that he asked a lot of questions during the interview. He did not want the repeat of his experience with non-existent career prospects. Thankfully, his mind was set at rest when he learned that with proper dedication and professional development, it would not take him long to get his first promotion.
“The company provided real opportunities for development,” recalls Andrey. “All employees were on an equal footing. I had a goal and I did everything to pursue it. In just a few years, I managed to take over one of the departments. This was in no way a privilege. Having a managerial role implied enormous responsibility and a heavy workload. But I needed this kind of experience.”
With Monosov in charge, his department managed to:
- Solve the problem of skills shortage and recruit new experienced specialists.
- Significantly increase marketing and advertising ROI.
- Optimize work processes, including those related to cross-departmental collaboration.
- Increase key performance indicators year after year.
- Improve the employee motivation system and stimulate their professional development.
However, after a short period of time, Andrey left the company. It seemed like an unexpected turn of events; at the time, he was offered to take over one of the new branches of the company with over 100 employees and get a significant pay raise. However, the manager understood that he would either start building his own business right then and there, or lose his sense of purpose and work for someone else all his life. And so, the manager decided to quit.
Starting a Business
Since 2017, Andrey Monosov has been the CEO of IA Tech. He spent a long time developing and writing his business plan, preparing for the launch, minimizing risks, and recruiting employees. And still, he was not able to avoid difficulties in the early stages.
Founding of IA Tech
In 2017, Andrey Monosov set up his own company. Since then, he has remained the sole leader of IA Tech. The entrepreneur says that he made the right call when choosing a niche; his team began developing enterprise software, and in just a year, they signed five highly profitable contracts.
“The competition was low,” recalls Andrey Monosov. “Our unique offer helped us quickly become one of the market leaders. We provided full-cycle services. We did everything: from software development to product delivery and post-launch support; our software was customized to meet the specific needs of a particular enterprise and its internal processes.”
Crises and Next Steps Forward
Andrey Monosov quickly recognized that his duty as CEO was to continuously improve his company. And since there was an obvious skills shortage in the market, he decided to outsource some of the work processes. Unfortunately, the counterparties failed to fulfil their obligations, nearly causing the company to lose the contracts that yielded the lion’s share of its profit.
After this, Andrey Monosov decided to rethink his business development strategy. Eventually, this helped IA Tech to:
- solve the software developer shortage problem;
- change the motivation system and improve employee efficiency;
- enter into agreements with reliable outsourcing companies;
- develop its own product and start selling software licenses;
- increase the number of clients.
Andrey Monosov says that the first personnel crisis in the company made him reconsider his attitude towards the workload. From that point on, the company did not enter into new contracts if there was even a slight risk of failing to fulfil its other obligations. This allowed it to reduce the workload of the key employees and strengthen its reputation. In the following years, the number of IA Tech clients grew in proportion to the expansion of the company’s staff.
Personal Life
The entrepreneur is married; together with his wife, he is raising three children. Andrey Monosov names sports, music, and travelling among his favorite hobbies. At the same time, the entrepreneur notes that with each passing year he finds less and less time for his hobbies. The businessman continues to manage his growing company and tries to spend more time with his family.
Andrey is also known to donate to charity. However, the entrepreneur sees no point in advertising this part of his life. He believes that earning reputation points by helping other people is never a good idea.
