Websites and systems made in my own studio

Neryungri, Yakutia

I was born and grew up in Neryungri. While I was growing up, the republic was led by its first President, Mikhail Yefimovich Nikolaev (1991–2002).

First grade

At six I started first grade at School No. 6. It was the first year without the Soviet Union. On 2 January the state stopped holding prices down, and within a year they rose 26-fold. Savings that families had kept in bank books for decades turned into small change. The adults were thinking about how to get by, while a first-grader had his own concerns: the ABC book, handwriting exercises and his first teacher.

School No. 1

There was no fourth grade at the time, so after third grade I went straight into fifth, and at a new school, School No. 1. It had new computer classrooms with internet access and strong computer science teachers. That is where it all began.

A computer of my own

My parents bought a computer for home and connected it to the internet. The boys in our building were older and knew computers far better than I did. They became my mentors, and together we built our own local network. That is how I got online.

First courses

In ninth grade I completed courses in programming and web development. Then my parents sent me to learn other programming languages at the Neryungri branch of Yakutsk State University (now the Technical Institute of North-Eastern Federal University).

The Russian Youth Union and the election

In my school years I was an activist of the Russian Youth Union, and we took part in the public and political life of the town. In December 2001 the republic was electing its president. Nikolaev withdrew his candidacy and flew to Neryungri together with Vyacheslav Shtyrov, who then headed ALROSA.

Nikolaev gathered us, the young people, in the hall of the Pushkin House of Culture (now the A. S. Pushkin Centre of Culture and Spirituality) and asked us to support Shtyrov. In January 2002 Shtyrov won. A new chapter began for the republic and for the country.

Moscow, Moscow State University

At 16 I entered the Faculty of Geography at Lomonosov Moscow State University and moved to Moscow. I settled in the dormitory of the Main Building on Sparrow Hills, and the first thing I did was connect my computer to the network. The walls of the Main Building were wrapped in cables back then: students ran twisted pair themselves, and the whole dorm was one big network. It was the era of network games, and in the evenings the dorm played Counter-Strike.

First job

After my first year and the field practice I knew I could not sit without work: Moscow was a city of opportunity. But I was not yet 18 and had full-time studies ahead, so in summer the choice was small. I took a job selling on the street. By six in the morning I was at the office, picking up Gipsy Kings CDs, cassette compilations and collections of Roman Trakhtenberg’s jokes, and we set off in groups across Moscow. You had to talk to every passer-by, walk into any office or shop and offer to sell.

On my feet from five in the morning, talking to strangers from scratch, but it worked. That is when I understood the main thing: I can hold a conversation, sell and close deals.

Meeting on the steps of the university

As a second-year student I met Mikhail Yefimovich Nikolaev on the steps of the main entrance to the Main Building of Moscow State University. He was a senator at the time, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council.

I walked up and thanked him for my childhood. In the nineties, when the country was in deep crisis, we studied at an ordinary state school with the newest computers, we were taught to program and took part in olympiads. He created that atmosphere.

First commissioned website

In autumn 2003 a senior student asked me to build a website for the company where he was a partner: it sold inverter welding machines. I spent the money on driving school, which ran right in one of the university buildings, and at 18 I already had my licence.

«Bely Veter Tsifrovoy»

By 18 I knew two things about myself for sure: I can sell and I love computers. So I joined «Bely Veter Tsifrovoy», then one of the most modern electronics retail chains in the country. I worked alongside my studies, without days off and almost without sleep, like a hamster in a wheel.

I quickly grew from sales consultant to administrator, and then became the youngest store director in the chain. That is where I first learned to manage staff.

A startup and IIDF

My company went through the accelerator of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF). We were building a cloud time-tracking system: an employee touched a biometric terminal with a finger, and the time was recorded in the cloud.

Law instead of programming

I never became a programmer: life took me into law. In 2015 I received my law degree and founded Kovalev & Partners. Later I trained as an insolvency practitioner and as a mediator, and in 2025 I completed postgraduate studies. My research is on the digitalisation of justice, so law and technology met again.

After the startup I had no development team of my own: I ordered websites and small automation for the companies from contractors.

kovalev.studio

With artificial intelligence everything changed. The knowledge and skills I had gathered all my life became easy to put into practice myself. That is how the story of kovalev.studio began.