Co-Founder @ Stan | building a $BN company 🚀

Hi, I’m Vitalii 👋🏻

Over the past 3 years, I’ve built a $30M ARR business with 30 people.

A $1M/employee company.

Now, we’re building a category-defining brand—with $100M ARR in sight.

To do that, I focus on Culture, People, and Product.

Everything that got me here is self-taught.

Born and raised in Russia, I started working at 13—packing parachutes and skydiving. 🪂
By 18, I had 800+ jumps and enough saved to pay for my first year of college.

Jumping out of planes redefined my relationship with fear.
Once you commit, you act. Without hesitation.

I learned English in one year to study abroad—still the hardest thing I’ve done.
That brought me to Canada, where I earned a degree in Chemical Engineering.

I never used it.

My side projects opened doors for me—first to Deloitte, then to eBay.
But the real work happened outside the job.

I made time to build:
9–5 for the paycheck,
5–9 (both morning and night) for what I actually cared about.

That’s where I proved to myself—nothing is impossible.

In 2021, I met my cofounder. We went all-in and started building Stan.

On my LinkedIn, I write about:

→ Founder war stories (unfiltered)
→ Building a $1M/employee startup
→ Creating top 1% culture

🎧 Follow me here if you're building—or want to build—something great.

People I work with would describe me as:

→ I make things happen
→ Zero tolerance for mediocrity
→ I build and run top 1% talent-density teams

🫂 DM me on LinkedIn if you'd like to work at Stan.

But know—it’s likely to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.
And worth it. For the right person.

—

On LinkedIn, I share stories for founders building what’s next—
The ones who care about People, Culture, and Redefining what's possible.

If that’s you,
Follow me. Drop a comment. Or just say hi 👋🏻

Vitalii Dodonov

I spent $204,000 to take the whole team to Costa Rica.

→ Travel (Flights & Bus): $103,000 
→ Hotel & Food: $89,000 
→ Offsite Planner: $12,000

Total Investment: $204,000 
($4,163 per person)

That’s a lot of money to spend on "vibes" and gallop tours 🇨🇷

But here’s why we do it:
I treat offsite trips as a productivity accelerator.

By spending $204K to build deep trust and clear 6 months of roadmap debt in 4 days,
I'm catalyzing our execution speed.

If this offsite increased our efficiency by even 10% over the next year for every individual team member, our team-ROI is easily 10x+.

Offsites is one of the many vehicles we use to invest in our most valuable asset:
People.

I give Credit Cards to my team on Day 1.

"Isn't that risky?”

It’s risky. And frankly very expensive…
But here’s what’s more expensive:

→ An engineer losing flow state because they are hungry
→ A designer missing details because their screen is low-res
→ A PM waiting 48 hours for a $50 software license approval
→ A team member waiting for a bus in the snow after a late night grind

I remember working out of a shared WeWork.

Uncomfortable chairs. Fighting for meeting rooms. Fast food.

Scrappy and frugal is in our DNA.

Now:
✅ Standing desks (Health)
✅ Free lunch & dinner (Focus)
✅ Unlimited Bubbly & protein bars (Fuel)
✅ Discretionary spending (Autonomy)

We don't do this to be "cool."

We do this because top 1% performance requires top 1% support.

You can't expect Ferrari speed if you provide Corolla maintenance.

Invest in your team.

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Alina Antoniuk

I just gotta share this... I mean... Jonathan, what are you doing!?? And why is building security calling us… and you asked for 30 extra seconds? 🤦‍♂️

$20,000. 60 hackers. We hired 4 of them on the spot, and filmed the whole thing! LIVE 🟢 on YouTube:

https://lnkd.in/dtMd7sys

We went from $5M in the bank to under $1M in two years.

On purpose.

Every entrepreneur needs to get extremely comfortable with losing money.

For us, the lesson came after raising venture capital.

We made an uncompromising commitment to hire the top 1% and build a category-defining brand.

This meant watching our bank account shrink over a year and a half.

I still remember the day I pinged John: 

V: "Guess what - we're at $827K and didn't lose any cash this month!" 
J: "Years in the making. Upwards from here."

It takes a lot of belief and conviction to invest this way, as opposed to optimizing for safety.

The reality is, for you to have a disproportionate upside, you need to create disproportional value.

And that's expensive: technology, R&D, talent. 
80% of our costs were purely talent.

Losing money before you make money is the price of being in the game.

Having done it once, I have a lot more appreciation for the process. 
And significantly fewer worries.

What's the biggest bet you've made on your company?

Hanging out with Liz Nucci today who got us our beautiful office 🏡. If you’re looking for office space in Toronto, call Liz! 

Just saying 👀

No alternative text description for this image

I’m having a wonderful time at BrainStation tonight!

I waited 3 years for a top 1% mobile engineer.

Not because we couldn’t hire.

Because I refused to hire a “maybe” and call it progress.

For 3 years, we could’ve “just shipped something” on mobile. 

We passed on several candidates who were good on paper… but weren’t a clear yes.

I kept coming back to one filter:
If this person can’t take what we built and make it 10x better, they’re not going to change the company.

So we waited.

Then we met Johan.

He built the entire mobile app solo.

When we launched, we got 500 five-star reviews in 2 weeks.

That’s the part people see.

What they don’t see is what we avoided: months of “management work” disguised as building—

Rewriting specs, re-scoping tickets, adding layers of process so a hire can keep up.

That’s how teams get slow. 

Not from lack of effort—standards quietly dropping.

Lesson I keep relearning: talent density isn’t a vibe. It’s a strategy.

Where in your org are you accepting a “maybe” (role, project, decision) just to feel progress?

Yesterday, NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang made it free for any company to build AI agents. Here’s what that actually means:

He announced NemoClaw — the enterprise version of OpenClaw, the open-source operating system for AI agents.

He also named what’s coming: ASAAS. Agentic Software As A Service. OpenClaw won’t kill SaaS — it’ll create a new category.

The “A” in ASAAS is the hard part.

At Stan, we’ve been working on AI agents for over a year. The technology was never the bottleneck. Teaching the AI what “good” looks like in your business — that was the bottleneck.

NVIDIA just commoditized the easy part. The hard part is still hard.

The companies winning at ASAAS in 2027 won’t be the ones with the best plumbing.

They’ll be the ones who spent 2025-2026 doing the boring work of encoding domain expertise into their agents.

What was the first thing your company successfully taught AI? (or planning to?)

⚠️ ⚠️ If you're an engineer, now is the worst time to quit your job.

I know. Everyone's saying the opposite.

AI makes it so easy to build. Ship an app in a weekend. Be your own founder.

But here's what the "go build your own thing" crowd isn't thinking about:

Yes, you'll see success stories. 

But for every one that works, there are hundreds who shipped the same weekend. 

The barrier to entry dropped for everyone at the same time. 

More builders, more competition, lower odds for all of them.

And the question is still the same question it's always been: who has distribution?

Distribution, customer trust, brand — these are built over years of compounding. 

They live in the human relationship world that AI hasn't touched. 

Companies hold that. Your side project doesn't.

Sure, your app might launch well. 

Maybe you make a few thousand dollars. 

Then it gets duplicated by your friend over the weekend, and you're left without the job and without the revenue.

If you've been thinking about going out on your own — do it. 

Just not right now.

Don't be impulsive in the middle of a revolution.

"I'm sorry, I f*cked up" 

This was my opening line at our leadership offsite last March.

Standing in front of all 8 leaders at Stan, 

everyone paid attention.

If I was to rate my relationship with everyone in the room, 

these would be my scores:

🟢🟡🟠🔴🔴🟠🔴🟡
(relationship health check: you get the picture)

6 months earlier...

I took on 2x more responsibilities at the company. 

As a result of this crushing workload, I had to prioritize and remove everything that wasn't mission critical.

One of the things I sacrificed was weekly 1:1s with my direct reports,

delegating them to my Chiefs of Staff.

I reasoned that most people I'd been working with for years and we'd manage.

What a mistake it was.

What I failed to see at the time was that the company ran on shared context established in those 1:1s.

Leadership runs on two things:
• Trust
• Shared context

Remove either one, and it's a matter of time before everything breaks.

That's what happened to me.

It took me the following 1-3 months to rebuild what I'd lost — to rebuild the relationships and rescope my work.

Some scars are still itching.

If you're a leader at your busiest time, I'm sharing this story to remind you:

Your company is a group of people working toward a shared objective.

Prioritize people so they can prioritize the shared objective. 

It doesn’t work the other way around.

We took an AI product from $0 to $10,000 MRR in 14 days 📈

I documented our process in full, from the initial build to the specific growth tactics we used to hit that $10k milestone in two weeks.

Sharing the 19-page Playbook today.

Follow + comment “PLAYBOOK” below and I’ll DM you the complete breakdown.

You're probably working on the wrong things right now.

Does this sound like you?

100 emails sent.
5 meetings run.
1 new initiative started.

Every day feels full, but every week you go:
"What did I do?"

What's the difference between moving forward and running in circles?
Well — direction.

Motion without direction is just expensive wandering.

To help with that, I've adopted this habit:

Every morning, before opening Slack, I ask myself:

"What would I do if I could only work 2 hours today?"

"What moves us closer to $100M ARR?"

"Is this urgent, or just loud?"

I'm serious - I tend to ignore 8/10 of the inbound I get, (even from my teams).

Sorry y'all I know you're reading 😅

5 minutes of thinking saves 5 hours of wandering.

Now when I journal, it's not about what I did.

It's about whether what I did actually mattered.

Most founders act too much and think too little.

We confuse being busy with being productive.

The best talent I've hired all share this trait:
They pause before they sprint.

What would you stop doing if you could only work 2 hours?

Price isn't just revenue. 
It's a filter.

For customers. 
And for your team.

Early at Stan, we picked $29/month. 

No deep methodology. We just wanted to feel premium.

Then we had to live up to it.

That meant obsessing over the first 100 customers. 

Fixing bugs on the call. 
Shipping overnight.

Pricing sets expectations. 
Expectations force standards. 

And standards attract a certain type of person.

Builders lean into hard problems. 

Bargain hunters lean into discounts and exceptions.

Same principle applies to talent.

Last month, I ran a hackathon with a $20,000 grand prize. 

It got the top 1% of builders out of the house.

4 hires. 2 days. No resumes.

We don't price based on cost. 
We price based on value.

What's one thing you'd price differently today?

Headcount doesn't fix slow execution. 

Clarity does.

When execution slows, the reflex is: 
"We need to hire."

Most of the time, you don't have a people problem. 

You have a clarity problem.

Here's what I did:

I used to take meetings all day. Felt productive. Wasn't.

Now I auto-decline everything before lunch. 

7 hours of deep work. Zero interruptions.

One calendar rule deleted dozens of daily decisions.

Speed is subtraction.

List your recurring weekly decisions. 
For each one, choose:

→ Delete it. 
→ Delegate it. 
→ Automate it. 
→ Assign a DRI (directly responsible individual).

We used to debate tool purchases in Slack. 

Now everyone gets a $5K card. Decision deleted 🤷‍♂️

Less flexibility upfront. 
More speed downstream.

What decision could you delete this week?

In 1846, astronomers had a problem.

Uranus was wobbling in space.
And nobody could explain why.

Every calculation said it should move one way.
But it moved another.

Most scientists thought Newton's laws were breaking down at that distance.

But Urbain Le Verrier, a French mathematician, had a different idea:
"What if there's another planet pulling on it?"

He spent months calculating where this invisible planet would need to be.

Then wrote to Berlin Observatory:
"Point your telescope here. You'll find a new planet."

They thought he lost it...
But they looked 🔭

Neptune was sitting there.
Exactly where the math said it would be.

Le Verrier discovered a planet using only pencil and paper.
2.7 billion miles away.

I think about this whenever we're stuck at Stan.

When something doesn't make sense, we work backwards.
There's always a hidden force.

We just have to calculate where to look.

What's wobbling in your business that you can't explain?

WeWork

Manager, Product Management, Global

Zoomo

• Drove 10x growth in ARR (annual recurring revenue) by leading the strategy, growth, operations, and financial performance of the B2C HaaS (hardware as a service) vertical across 8 markets in North America
• Launched 3 markets by performing market analysis, conducting user interviews, and defining launch requirements
• Led, managed, hired, and developed a team of 5 salaried direct reports and 40 indirect reports across 8 markets
• Improved customer LTV by 200% by launching a new subscription and payment plan that was adopted globally
• Generated over $400K in incremental revenue by spearheading and scaling inaugural eCommerce program by developing product strategy, product requirements, go-to-market plan (GTM), and staff training (SOPs)
• Optimized revenue collection rate from 70% to 87% by re-designing the collections process 
• Enhanced decision-making for senior executives by streamlining business intelligence infrastructure, launching performance dashboards, and presenting weekly performance reports
• Supported the launch of an iOS app and increased adoption rate from 45% to 75% by collaborating cross-functionally with product, marketing, engineering, and customer success teams in the AU

Sr. Manager, Strategy & Operations, North America

• Responsible for the growth and operations of our New York City market, from managing consumer retail and fleet operations to supporting enterprise accounts. 
• Grew WAU by 22% MOM and managed market operations after joining as the 5th US employee at Series-A raise
• Shipped a global B2B product solution and performed product demos for enterprise clients in the UK
• Improved booking-to-subscription conversion rate from 43% to 73% by performing A/B tests on booking flow
• Reduced net theft rate from 45% to 28% by analyzing theft rate data to implement new insurance policy and was awarded 1st place out of 30 members in the annual Global Data Champions program by COO for project impact

City Manager, New York

KarnerBlu

• Improved coordination, execution, and transparency of project portfolio for senior executives within corporate people (HR) function by recommending, designing, and implementing a project management office (PMO)
• Optimized resource allocation by 22% by prioritizing and streamlining HR function's project portfolio
• Improved lean principle awareness by working with a team of off-shore designers to redesign factory assets
• MIT Hackathon: Raised $5,500 and distributed 6,500 reusable masks by winning a 48-hour COVID-19 hackathon

Product Consultant, Co-Founder & CEO | Clients include Staples & Unilever

Spots

Spots is a social location-discovery platform that aggregates content from social networks to automate trip planning and cater to personalized point-of-interest locations. Imagine Pinterest meets Google Maps.

• Led the development of a mobile social travel app from concept to launch by managing the SDLC and collaborating with full-stack and iOS engineers
• Defined the target market and executed go-to-market strategy by managing user groups through Instabug and social channels such as Facebook and Instagram.
• Collaborated with the front-end developer to design wireframes, user experience flows, and high-fidelity designs using Sketch and Invision.
• Utilized design thinking principles to conduct user observations and interviews to gather user requirements and segment the target market.
• Implemented performance dashboards to track key objectives and metrics (KPIs) to validate product and business hypotheses, making adjustments to the backlog and strategy as needed.

Product Manager | Co-Founder, and CEO

Anheuser-Busch

Working in the continuous improvement (CI) team within the center of excellence (COE) of the corporate People function, I led 3 main areas of responsibility.

Operational Excellence
• Led the implementation of lean management principles across all functions in the US and Canada, resulting in NA being awarded 1st place at the annual Global Senior Leadership Conference for operational excellence and elimination of process waste.
• In partnership with Global Master Black Belts and ThinkMojo, developed lean management training videos which have been cascaded globally to over 150,000 employees
• Routinely presented plans, recommendations, and business insights to senior executives

Continuous Improvement
• Partnered with VPs and Sr. Directors to guide the development of their strategic and operational initiatives by identifying and prioritizing their critical outputs, project selections, and key targets (KPIs)
• Facilitated 46 lean workshops with functional VPs and their teams across US and CA to define the departmental vision, mission, critical outputs, and opportunities for improvement, aligning key initiatives to targets (KPIs)
• Developed continuous improvement toolkits that have been recognized as best in class

People Transformation (Project Management)
• Designed and developed business intelligence tools and models for 127 People Business Partners to track and improve key metrics, such as zone turnover, employee master data, and organizational health.
• Created a centralized knowledge management repository with People SOPs and tools for the NAZ People Function, significantly improving communication and organization between teams, improving operational efficiency by 65%
• Implemented Employee Master Data Toolkit, improving employee data for 20,000 employees and reducing data error rates from 7% to 1%

Continuous Improvement Manager, North America (Management Systems Specialist)

Accomplishments
•	Planned, developed, and executed CAPEX projects valued at $1,000,000 with a yearly savings of $620,000.
•	Ranked 1st/12th in N. America in Total Extract Loss (KPI) in 2015.
•	Developed a standardized process (Vessel Observations) to monitor and improve process indicators. Project sponsored by Brewmaster as Best Practice to be implemented at all North American Breweries
•	Placed top 16 out of 330 submissions in Anheuser – Busch’s yearly innovation challenge. (Marketing, Packaging, Product, & Strategy)

Responsibilities
•	Lead and manage projects with a team of Brewing process technicians to drive process improvement initiatives through using Leax Six Sigma problem-solving methodologies
•	Monitor and maintain instrumentation audits to ensure excellent product quality and specifications
•	Support IT and Hardware systems and applications for users throughout brewery

Process Improvement Engineer

Accomplishments
•	Increased avg. pallet moves/hr by 9% through creative target setting method, statistical data analysis, and operator coaching and feedback Leading to increase in completion of on time loading KPI
•	Performed statistical complexity study and presented results to Regional Director of North America East to re-evaluate loading targets
•	Increased equipment efficiency by reducing crowner jams through leading the Statistical Process Control initiative under the request of Sr. Ops Manager. Developed and standardized process for developing control charts and reaction plans through data collection to better understand process capabilities

Responsibilities
•	Manage and lead a team of 30 union operators across 3 shifts to achieve and improve upon production goals
•	Manage warehouse and distribution center inventory of 450,000 cases of beer to ensure product availability for wholesaler shipments based on sales forecast. Ensure prompt delivery and shipment of targets
•	Manage bi – monthly beer distribution for entire plant of ~ 300 employees
•	Manage Fork Truck shop and pertinent maintenance issues

Group Manager - Logistics & Warehouse Operations

Accomplishments
•	Used VPO (ABInBev Lean Six Sigma) tools to track and analyze data to improve KPIs (key process indicators)
•	Improved brewery engagement and operator involvement in process improvement initiatives through creating Beer Store idea and process for cross-departmental VPO competitions (ABInBev Lean Six Sigma)
•	White Belt Certified – Data Analytics 

Responsibilities
•	Manage and lead a team of 22 Union employees across 3 shifts to monitor and maintain critical control points to ensure excellent process and product quality
•	Manage daily payroll and labor requirements for weekend production plan with budget in mind
•	Plan and maintain daily production plans to deliver weekly planned production volume to Operations and Logistics
•	Lead daily and weekly meetings for brewing staff with salaried and union workforce with production news, abnormalities, and tasks to be completed for day and week
•	Serve as first line of defense by answering calls and providing support and guidance for any process issues, 24/7 - on and off shift
•	Participate in weekly taste panel with Brewmaster and team. Tasting for any quality defects in products
•	Monitor and promote safe working practices based on OSHA and plant safety regulations. (S.A.F.E. risk assessments, LOTO audits, ES&H monitoring, and monthly HACCP audits) Safety is always first

Group Manager - Brewhouse & Fermenting

EmojiFriends

Accomplishments
•	Developed a product from ideation to production for the Electronic Music Dance (EDM) accessories market. Raised $6,000 on Kickstarter in July 2015, and E-Commerce launched in January 2016.
•	Developed pricing strategy by performing consumer surveys, market analysis, and data analysis.
•	Project featured on Insomniac.com, one of the largest EDM outlets in the world.
•	Built and executed a brand strategy to engage consumers through creative methods. Instagram following of 1200+ followers, Facebook 500+ likes (All Organic - No Paid Advertisements)

Director of Product | Co-Founder, and CEO

GE Aviation

•	Updated & maintained technical repair documents to be used by the U.S. Navy and third party vendors. Process involved research, substantiation, and executed approval from executive engineers
•	Assisted in the development of a non-destructive inspection method through statistical analysis to inspect engine components to be implemented by the Navy

Design/Hardware - Repair Engineer Intern

Sikorsky Aircraft

•	Performed R&D for the 2010 Sikorsky VUAS Project
•	Re-calibrated the BOE sizing tool to size a small lightweight helicopter
•	Designed a small lightweight hydrogen helicopter comparable to the R22 and the S300.
•	Modeled design through small RC helicopter

Advanced Concepts  Engineer - Intern

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Peter Drucker

Entrepreneurial and adaptable, I’ve built my career at the crossroads of big business discipline and startup agility. From leading change management at Anheuser-Busch to founding my own consulting firm and scaling high-growth startups like Zoomo, I bring a proven ability to spot opportunities, execute bold ideas, and inspire teams.

Background in mechanical engineering with design and business credentials from MIT and Harvard Business School Online, I combine technical rigor with strategic vision to design solutions that create lasting impact. Outside of work, I mentor young entrepreneurs through youth entrepreneurship programs, helping students turn ideas into action.

Hussain Alam

Does your LinkedIn feed look like this too? 😅

Product & Strategy at WeWork | Ex: Founder • ABInBev • GE Aviation • Sikorsky Aircraft | 0 → 1 Product Builder | Writing About AI • Career • Productivity & Management Systems

Bangali

English

Did Perplexity just check-mate Claude CoWork? 👀

What has Perplexity been up to last two months? We've silently been working on the next big thing: Perplexity Computer. Computer unifies every current capability of AI into a single system. Files, tools, memory, and models, orchestrated together, working for you.

It's multi-model by design. When models specialize, they just become tools similar to the file system, CLI tools, connectors, browser, search. No single model family can do its best work for you without the talents of other models.

Steve Jobs said “Musicians play their instruments, I play the orchestra.” Perplexity Computer orchestrates 19 models. One reasons, another codes, another writes, etc. Users can also set specific models for certain sub-tasks for sophisticated token management.

The computer is one of the best inventions known to mankind. And when AIs can orchestrate a file system with CLI tools + a browser (real-time internet access) + your personal connectors, AI essentially becomes the Computer, running things on the cloud as you sleep.

We're opening it initially to all Max users, and introducing usage-based pricing, which we believe is the right business model for AI instead of ads. Once we are satisfied with load tests, Pro users will be able to run jobs on Computer too.

Get started here (requires a sign-in to use): https://lnkd.in/gxXGy_5E

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The Battle

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