From copying discs at 12 to an international IT holding company with thousands of people on its team
I’m Maksym Slobodyaniuk, founder of Nika Tech Family — an international holding company that brings together businesses in game development, IT outsourcing, digital marketing, video production, and other technology fields. Today, it includes iLogos, Nika Entertainment, LeadGames, Pitcher Video, and other companies. But long before all that, I was just an ordinary guy from Luhansk.
I grew up in an ordinary family. Both of my grandfathers were scientists, so everyone around me was sure I would pursue an academic career. But I was fascinated by something entirely different. Expensive cars were often parked in the courtyard where I lived. I would look at them with my Pekingese and think about one thing: someday, I wanted to live like that. That was when I first began to want not just to earn money, but to build a life where I determined my own opportunities.
I earned my first money at 12, selling copies of movies on discs to my classmates. It was my first experience as an entrepreneur and my first sense that my own ideas could deliver real results. By 17, I had my first $10 000. Convinced I had found a great opportunity, I invested all the money in a government project to introduce electronic digital signatures. But because of the Orange Revolution, the project never got off the ground, and I lost all my investment. That’s when I realized that even a promising idea is worth nothing if you don’t control the factors on which its success depends. At 21, I renamed my agency iLogos. Within a few years, the company began to grow rapidly, and by the time I was 23–24, I had earned my first million dollars from social games on «VKontakte» and «Odnoklassniki».
In 2012, I made another decision that shaped the company’s future in many ways: I gave 50% of iLogos to my partner, Oleksandr Holdybin. He brought structure and discipline to the business, where I had often relied on intuition. The hardest test came in 2014. During the fighting in Luhansk, a grenade hit our office. We had to evacuate about 300 employees and their families to Kyiv and Lviv, spending more than $1 млн on the relocation and new offices. That was when I understood something that has stayed with me forever: businesses can be rebuilt. People cannot. Today, when I invest in companies, I look at more than just the product or financial performance. Above all, I care about the people behind the business.
From chaotic investing to smart investing — the answer to the question, «What am I actually good at?»
How did the business idea come about?
The idea for Nika Tech Family didn’t come at once, or on the first try. At first, I invested the way most people do: as soon as you have money, someone shows up saying, «I’ve got an opportunity.» In 99,9% of cases, that ends with a loss. I tried different models, from direct investments to joining the venture capital fund AVentures Capital as a limited partner. But none of them delivered consistent results. The turning point was a simple question I asked myself: «What am I actually good at?» I stopped looking for new ways to invest and started analyzing my own experience. I listed my strengths: service businesses, B2B sales, entering Western markets, and recruiting top executives. Then I realized I wasn’t a venture investor. I was an entrepreneur who knew how to grow companies with business models that were already working. That’s how the idea of smart investing was born. I rejected the model where an investor simply puts in money and waits for a result. Instead, I began joining businesses as a co-owner and working with the team to develop them. That principle later became the foundation of Nika Tech Family.
Find strong people, learn English, and never try to be good at everything
What key skills helped you build your business?
- The ability to find strong people. I can’t write code or build websites — apparently, I wasn’t born with the knack for working with my hands. But I’ve always been good at finding people who do those things far better than I do, and building strong teams.
- English. When I realized I wouldn’t be able to work with international clients without English, I taught myself the language in a few months. That opened the door to my first clients in the United States.
- Focus on strengths. I never tried to be equally good at everything. Instead, I developed what I was already good at. This approach helped us grow from a small agency into international game studios.
- The ability to sell and negotiate. I went to dozens of meetings in a row and heard no after no, but every conversation gave me new experience. That’s how I learned to close deals.
One team with left-hand and right-hand drive at the same time — why outsourcing and product development can’t coexist
What were the three toughest challenges you solved in the early years?
- Moving from outsourcing to our own products. For years, we couldn’t create a single successful in-house game product within an outsourcing company. I jokingly called these attempts «little roguelikes», because every one of them ended in a loss. At first, I thought the problem was a lack of investment. Then I thought other people should be responsible for it. The real reason was something else entirely.
I expected the same team to save the client money during the day and think like product entrepreneurs in the evening. It’s like driving a left-hand-drive car in the morning and a right-hand-drive car in the evening. It doesn’t work.
Everything changed only when we split the outsourcing and product divisions into two separate teams with different cultures. That’s how Nika Entertainment came about.
- Entering international markets without connections. First, I had to teach myself English. Without it, there was no chance of even starting a conversation with clients in the United States.
Then I became, perhaps, the biggest «spammer» in the American market. I found company contacts, emailed everyone I could, and arranged meetings even when I didn’t have a finished proposal. First, I listened to the problems they needed solved; then I came to the next meeting with a specific solution.
My strategy was simple: first, do a project inexpensively for one client, then approach their competitors with a proven case study and a completely different price.
Facebook changed its algorithms — and overnight, $1,4 turned into $0,7
What crises have you faced, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest crisis for our business came when Facebook changed its algorithms. At the time, Facebook was such an important partner that it opened a $1 млн interest-free line of credit for us. Each month, we invested about $1 млн in advertising, and our team was regularly invited to private meetings with Mark Zuckerberg. Our unit economics were simple and proven: invest $1 млн, then get $1,4 млн back after three to four months. One morning, I opened a report and saw that instead of the usual $1,4 for every dollar invested, the model showed just $0,7. There was one reason: Facebook had changed its algorithms. Previously, for every paying user we acquired, the platform brought in three more organically. After the changes, the ratio became one to one. This was a risk we couldn’t influence. That same day, we made a very difficult decision: we completely stopped developing new games and cut 80% of the team, keeping just seven people to support our existing products. The most important decision was to make the HR department the last one we cut. The team had one task: first help every employee we were letting go find a new job, and only then finish their own work.
A structured partner and smart investing instead of «I’ve got an opportunity» — what scaled the holding company
Which decisions proved most effective for growth?
- Giving 50% of iLogos to an experienced partner. Oleksandr Holdybin brought structure to the company, where I had often relied on intuition. That allowed iLogos to scale without my constant involvement in operational management.
- Moving from chaotic investing to smart investing. I stopped simply investing money and started buying stakes in businesses where I could create additional value through my experience, knowledge, and expertise.
- A narrow focus instead of spreading ourselves too thin. We didn’t try to do everything at once. Instead, we focused on one area, one market, and one area of expertise. That gave us quick feedback from the market and allowed us to grow faster.
Years of throwing money around — and losing not money, but time
What mistake do you now consider your most valuable lesson?
The most expensive lesson for me was realizing that for years I had simply been throwing money around. The biggest loss wasn’t even the money invested, but the time. The people I entrusted with my money were learning at my expense, while I gained no experience from it myself. Today, I invest only in businesses I understand well, and only when I see proven profitability. It seems obvious now, but it took many years and quite a few costly mistakes to arrive at this principle.
