Alex Samoylenko
Managing Partner at Insta Ventures
Alex Samoylenko
Managing Partner at Insta Ventures
Limassol
Overview
Work Experience
Managing Partner
2018 - Current
Insta Ventures is a venture capital firm that has been investing in different IT technology sectors since 2019. Currently, we are looking for tech startups that are in the early stages of development of their products. Our investment team consists of experienced professionals with solid backgrounds in the IT sphere. Our goal is to help ambitious teams create innovative products, spread them globally, and maintain fast-growing companies. Typically, we invest $500K-1M during a growing stage of a company's lifecycle (late seed / pre-round A / round A), and then help to develop its marketing and sales, as well as prepare the company for the next investment phase. We appreciate co-investments. Let's invest together!
Founder and Chief Editor
2006
#1 Website on Virtualization and Cloud Technologies (I believe) My responsibilities include: - Writing notes, articles, and whitepapers - Conducting research and analytics - Building the virtualization community - Collaborating with vendors and enterprises - Selling ads Accomplishments: - Created the best and only website on cloud and virtualization technologies in Russian - Educated hundreds of IT professionals - Consulted dozens of enterprises on implementing virtualization - Built a partnership network: https://www.vmgu.ru/heroes.php
Co-founder and CEO
2017 - 2019
Tubalytics is a comprehensive solution for anyone in need of an all-in-one analytics and marketing tool for YouTube. We analyze over 100k channels in more than 40 countries daily to provide accurate metrics and valuable insights. My responsibilities included: - Managing the financial aspects of the business - Hiring and managing the team - Participating in marketing activities - Conducting market research and competitive analysis - Developing new features - Supervising the UI/UX creation process
Senior Investment Advisor
2017 - 2019
VIG Ventures is a private venture fund operating in the IT industry since 2012. The company has invested in several IT-focused companies, most of which are related to the entertainment industry. My responsibilities included: - Sourcing new startups globally (through conferences, communities, and social circles) - Negotiating investment terms (seed, pre-seed) - Providing technical advising - Maintaining the investment pipeline - Participating in the investment committee - Working directly with startups - Creating investment offers
Founder and CEO
2014 - 2017
Nova Games is a young and rapidly growing publisher of mobile games for a broad audience. My responsibilities included: - Hiring the entire team - Identifying new titles with high market potential - Working directly with game developers - Managing finances and contract terms (investments, agreements, revenue sharing) - Negotiating partnerships with Apple and Google - Supervising all departments: game design, marketing, QA, accounting, and billing - Creating marketing plans and media content in collaboration with the marketing department Accomplishments: - Published 11 mobile games - Achieved a total of 3 million downloads, with one title exceeding 1 million downloads - All games were featured on the App Store and Google Play - Collaborated with international teams (Russia, Israel, Ukraine, Moldova) - Achieved 100% partner satisfaction
Co-founder and CEO
2012 - 2014
A new social game based on gender differences, designed for smart and creative people. My responsibilities included: - Strategic and operational planning and management - Hiring top developers and creating a dream team - Marketing and PR - Inventing product features - Building the affiliate network - Dealing with investors - Managing the QA process - Conducting analytics and reporting Accomplishments: - Invented a completely new way of meeting people online - Attracted around a million people to the Yourcles platform - Disrupted marketing by partnering with YouTube bloggers, achieving a $0.1 customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Co-founder and CEO
2008 - 2012
VMC was the first consultant and value-added reseller in Russia solely focused on virtualization technologies. My responsibilities included: - Creating and implementing company strategy - Developing a client base - Executing marketing campaigns for successful company growth - Working directly with key accounts (enterprise and SMB customers) - Preparing commercial quotes - Building a partner network (VMware, Veeam, Citrix, Microsoft, Symantec, Oracle, StarWind, IT-Grad) - Negotiating contract conditions - Designing key technical solutions - Managing projects and leading the team Accomplishments: - Assisted in the largest infrastructure virtualization project in Russia for Russian Railways (RZD) - Built a team of 9 virtualization consultants - Worked with largest enterprises in Russia - Achieved VMware Authorized Consultant (VAC) certification, placing VMC among the top 3 companies in Russia
Author, Analyst
2008 - 2011
The largest Russian IT magazine. My responsibilities included: - Writing articles - Conducting analytics and creating infographics Accomplishments: - Authored dozens of articles about cloud computing and virtualization technologies - Wrote several articles for the special print edition of CNews
Head of department (QA)
2007 - 2008
RAMAX Group is a longstanding provider of advanced solutions with extensive experience in business automation projects for major Russian companies. My responsibilities included: - Managing the software quality control department (5 QA engineers) - Supervising a QC/QA system - Collecting and organizing requirements - Conducting analytics - Developing test plans and test cases - Reporting bugs - Addressing issues with customers - Implementing a bug tracking system and establishing formal rules for its use Accomplishments: - Introduced a software testing methodology from the ground up - Deployed and configured a bug tracking system - Implemented software quality control metrics for the company’s products and provided guidance on proper release procedures - Formed and managed the software testing team - Enhanced the overall quality of the company’s products - Hired a new QA head
QA Engineer
2005 - 2007
Veeam Software is a privately held information technology company that develops backup, disaster recovery and intelligent data management software for virtual, physical and multi-cloud infrastructures. I was among the first 20 employees of a company that is worth more than $5B now (~3000 employees).