Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss about their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future. This sequence aims to present a series of experiences, recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
Slava Khristich is the founder and CTO of TATEEDA, a company specialized in robust software solutions that can be used and managed for a long time.
TATEEDA has worked with some large tech companies helping them build out their outdated infrastructures and improve performance.
More about TATEEDA and Slava’s experience as an entrepreneur can be found below:
What’s the story behind TATEEDA?
What does TATEEDA mean? Well, when my son was just a bit over two years old we went to see a Lion King musical. He was so excited that on the way home he tried to sing the “Hakuna-matata” song from the musical, but it sounded like “tateeda-tatada” instead. This is how the name TATEEDA was born… How I started this business? I was in software development consulting for many years and companies I was working for used to have offshore teams. Oh boy, that was a challenge for everyone, from team to team from developer to developer and management with bad communication and quality, time for meetings was way too early or too late. In 2013 the company I was working for had a huge downsizing and I was laid off. Instead of looking for another job, I decided to give it a try to my own outsourcing consulting. I was lucky because I set some relations with people in Ukraine (where I’m from originally) just a few months prior on my visit there. That was a perfect time. Our business model was (is simple), we take a hassle from our clients to deal with developers, bridge the gap in communications between non-technical people and developers, provide a high quality of work and be totally transparent. In order to do that we chose to do Senior Fist and it was a good model for us to reduce from the get go a lot of mistakes less knowledgeable resources may do.
What was the most difficult part of your experience in the early beginnings?
I was very uncertain if we going to survive. What to charge our clients, where to find resources, how to manage a team remotely, would our clients appreciate our model? We never did anything like this before and had to learn while building our business. We still face many of the same issues as we had at the beginning but at a different level. Now we have over 50 people and their families we need to care about.
What are you most proud of regarding your business?
I’m proud that I can trust anyone in our company. We are not perfect, but we always find a way to improve. We are very proud of the quality of our work and our relationship within the team and our clients. We were two years in a row in the list of 100 faster-growing companies in San Diego and maybe will be on the list for 2019.
What is your vision for the future of TATEEDA?
Our goal from day one was to be in the top of 50 software development outsourcing providers in California, we are not there yet, but we slowly reaching our goal one client at a time.
What’s your advice for the businesses that are trying to adapt to this economic climate?
In general, be the best at what you do, don’t spread thin, and concentrate on your big goal. Adaptivity and flexibility. Technology is helping companies to survive and change their business models. Those who were able to adapt fast now ahead of the competition.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
“Measure What Matters” by John Doerr, but I also listen to many great audiobooks while driving or doing exercises.
