“At the age of 15, I fell in love and dreamed of making all the money.” Interview with Fedor Golubev, founder of GorodRabot.ru

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

How to find your own business by trial and error, how much you can earn by helping others find a job, and why you need a digital detox.

He made his first steps in business at the age of 15, and now, at 32, he runs the job search system GorodRabot.ru. On the eve of his birthday, the companies talked to the entrepreneur and found out how he found his niche, why the family was not at first happy with his success and what professions are most in demand on the labor market in Russia.

Mom was afraid that they would take everything away from me

At what point did you first feel that you want to become an entrepreneur?

- At the age of 15, I fell deeply in love and dreamed of making all the money to make her happy. I wanted to look after the girl beautifully and show her that I am a real man. Then I was still dependent on my parents, but I already wanted freedom and independence, so I started making websites to order. I didn’t earn much, but at that time I was ready to work for any money.

Then I started betting on sports events with a classmate. Together, we developed a strategy for analyzing information from previous matches and came up with a formula by which to determine the winner. A friend was responsible for parsing the data, and I was in charge of the technical part: I wrote a bot that made automatic bets using a formula.

At what point did something go wrong?

- After a couple of years, bookmakers noticed us and began to interfere - they cut the maximum bet. For example, we wanted to bet 5,000 rubles, but the amount was limited to 50 rubles. Further work in this situation lost its meaning, so we withdrew the last 70,000 rubles and ended up with a betting business.

How did your family react to your success?

- The family was not very happy: my mother, according to the Soviet habit, was afraid that everything would be taken away from me, and my father simply did not like that I had money and I got out of parental control. The sisters, I think, were proud of me.

I had no fear of failure. If it didn't work out, I just started doing something else - this is a normal story in business. However, now I think that the pursuit of money has not had a very positive effect on me.

Could have achieved great success now if in adolescence I concentrated exclusively on gaining in-depth knowledge. I was just conceited and considered myself the smartest. Instead of studying and communicating with friends, I worked literally around the clock.

“Until the last moment we didn’t believe that everything would work out”

At what point did you come up with the idea of the job search system "GorodRabot.ru"?

- I lived for some time in Moscow, and my partner, who acted as an investor, discussed which project to launch. It was clear that a crisis was beginning in America that would affect the whole world. We wanted to do something that would help to stay with money in any conditions. So we came up with a job site, the first version of which was launched in October 2008. The service was called Jobofmine.com. He became the progenitor of the job search system.

Jobofmine.com was made for all countries - you could even look for a job in Antarctica. But we didn’t know how to collect vacancies so that applicants would come to us. I am well versed in SEO and was able to drive traffic to the site - about 20,000 users per day. We even made it to the top 5 of the American search engines. True, they did not know what to do with this and how to monetize.

By 2012, the traffic had dropped so much that it was simply not interesting to deal with the site. We sold the project, I returned to Yoshkar-Ola and hired two developers. We started to launch new projects - cashback service, WebMoney loans, automatic posting of resume on websites. None of this has come of it.

Two years later, the understanding came that it was necessary to make an aggregator of vacancies exclusively for Russia. This is how the GorodRabot.ru system was born. My partner and I didn’t really believe in success, but we agreed that we would still launch this project, and if nothing came of it, we would disperse and sign our own helplessness. The site went live on February 7, 2014 and this idea turned out to be correct.

A little later, my partner and I stopped cooperation due to different views on the further development of the service. Here, in Yoshkar-Ola, I met my childhood friend Roman Malkov, whom we had not seen for many years. I told about the startup, and my friend liked the project. He supported me morally, helped me with money and became a co-owner of the GorodRabot.ru resource.

There are plenty of job services now. What is your competitive advantage?

- We do not compete with other job sites, but we strive to make them friends, we have an official partnership. Our resource contains offers from HeadHunter, Superjob, Rabota.ru and 140 other sources, the online assistant Yandex. Talents is integrated. Even data from a small corporate website with vacancies or just a page with job offers in the company can be placed on the service. More than 300,000 users see them every day.

What specialists are most in demand in Russia now?

- in search of vacancies, most often they are looking for employees for the field of trade, sales specialists, drivers, doctors and engineers. And among the applicants, vacancies that do not require special qualifications are in special demand: a mystery shopper, a poster, a courier, a watchman, a driver, a loader, a cleaner.

We are also constantly looking for guys for the team (in the office and for remote work). To join us, write to the support service on the site or apply for our vacancy.

"GorodRabot.ru" compiles salary statistics. What niches are now the highest paid, in addition to the undisputed leader - the IT sector?

- We recently calculated how salaries have changed in different areas over the year.

The fastest growing in this regard are marketing, advertising, PR, art, entertainment, mass media and jurisprudence. The minimum growth in salaries was recorded in the areas of consulting, information technology and personnel management.

And how much can you earn by organizing the work of such a job site as GorodRabot.ru?

- The net profit from the service in 2019 amounted to 3-4 million rubles. I take success calmly, as the growth is very smooth. I continue to set financial goals for 2020, because I travel a lot and there is always something to spend money on.

In the summer, the guys come to the office on bicycles and rollerblades

What does the office of the company look like?

- It is located in Yoshkar-Ola, on the embankment of Bruges, so the river is visible from the windows. The design was thought over by Roman Malkov together with the team. The workspace is designed in a loft style and is divided into zones.

On the ground floor, there is a kitchen, dining and play areas, a meeting room, a soundproofed room for video recording, a management office and a shower. The latter is needed because in the summer the guys come to the office on bicycles and rollerblades. In order not to sit in the workplace, experiencing discomfort, you can freshen up. It's also a great way to cheer up when the right thought isn't coming. And on the second floor there is an open workspace.

What does your workplace look like?

- We are sitting in a small office on the first floor with Roman. The only difference between our workplaces and any others in the office is the oak tables that we made ourselves.

It's better for me to work in a separate office, because I am easily distracted and like to talk. Moreover, I make sure that the office is always very warm. It is also important for me that there is enough oxygen in the air, so I regularly use a special sensor and often ventilate. I also like to work in bright light, but I don't like the sun, so the windows are always curtained.

Now I understand that I am fed up with the office. It will probably be more fun if you manage to travel and work in different coworking spaces. In the office, everyone distracts you because they want to talk or consult. As a result, efficiency suffers.

What services or applications help you in your work and life?

- I use the Google Calendar and Google Tasks apps. During the day, many reminders and alarms are always triggered - this helps you not to forget anything. I also use Daylio, a mood diary that allows me to track my emotional background. I love the Wikium service - it's brain training. For 15 minutes, you solve seemingly simple problems of logic, attention, thinking. Helps keep your head in good shape.

Now I deliberately try to reduce the number of gadgets in my everyday life: I don't wear a smart watch, I try to stick to my phone less, I filter incoming calls. I warned my acquaintances to contact only on business, and if there was a desire to find out how I was, it is better to meet.

Recently, I understand that rest is still very necessary. To begin with, I just want to sleep and read a bunch of books for which I could not find the time. I also plan to spend more time with loved ones.

What do you do in your free time?

- There are big problems with free time: there is practically none. At home, I constantly watch tutorials and read work blogs. It's hard for me to force myself to spend time on something light, entertaining. I regularly go in for sports, but this is a necessity: it is important to keep the body in good shape.

Life hacking from Fedor Golubev

Books

• "Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb is a book that simply turned my worldview upside down.
• "Fuck It. Send everything to … or the Paradoxical Path to Success and Prosperity”by John Parkin helped me to stop worrying about little things, relax and learn to notice more positive things around me.
• “What Really Motivates Us” by Daniel Peak Drive - After reading this book, I realized that money is not always a good motivator. It was a revelation for me.
• “Will and self-control: how genes and the brain prevent us from fighting temptations” by Irina Yakutenko - I advise everyone.

Films and series

• "Mister Robot".
• "Black mirror".
• "Breaking Bad".
• "Fight club".
• "Rock-n-Roller".
• "The Dark Knight".
• "The wolf of Wall Street".
• "Catch Me If You Can".
• "Enemy of the State No. 1".

Video

I really enjoyed Daniel Amin's TED talk on How Quality of Life Depends on Brain Health.

Blogs and Websites

I read about SEO: seoprofy.ua, blogs by Anna Yashchenko and Dmitry Shakhov (Bablorub). By the way, I regularly visit Dmitry at SEO conferences in Kaliningrad. And since 2012, every year I have been to Kazan for SEO CONFERENCE.

I also like the magazines General Director, RBC, Forbes, Expert, Harvard Business Review Russia.

I follow Ruslan Gafarov's Malikspace channel, and in December I went on his Silicon Valley business tour and very much.