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

My dad is a 10-time world champion in skydiving.

It's a dangerous sport. 
Most teams don’t train in bad weather.

He made his team train in near-storm conditions —

because you never know what the weather will be on competition day.

His results speak for themselves.

He taught me to show up — and act — no matter how scared you are.

That mindset has been the backbone of everything I’ve achieved.

What did you learn from your parents?

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #startup, #founders, #leadership, #engineering, and #enterprenuership

Today, Nadine leads 50 people at Stan — after rejecting my job offer 3 times.

Two years ago, she was a contract support agent.

I’d get daily performance reports from Alexa — 
We pushed everyone to hit 60+ emails per day.

While most people struggled,
Nadine never missed a day. Always above target.

When I asked her to join full-time, she said no.
“San Diego. My husband’s job. We love the mountains.”

Six months later, another walk down Venice Beach.

"I'd love you to join Stan full-time."
"San Diego... my husband... Let me think about it."

"Is this a hard no from your family?"
"Well... I can be quite convincing."
"Good to know!"

At our Cabo offsite, Alexa said:
"V, I need a people manager. Nadine would be perfect — but she won't move."

"She told me she can be convincing. Let’s give her a reason to be."

So I went to Nadine one more time.

"I know San Diego keeps you there.
But I need your help here.

In the end, it’s either you supporting the family 
or the family supporting you.

Let me make supporting you the best decision for your family."

Alexa came with the offer.

Turns out Nadine can indeed be very convincing 
(thank you Garrett for supporting her! 🙏).

Within a year, she took over as Head of Support 
(when I asked Alexa to build a new org with me)

Thank god we didn't give up.
The best talent is always worth the wait.

Head of Creator Support @ Stan I MA Organizational Leadership

Stan

People Ops @ Stan

When you work - work. When you rest - rest.

Don't mix the two.

Last week I caught myself texting during our product meeting.

Then I zoned out on Slack for 10 minutes at dinner 
(mrs wasn't happy 😅).

It's human to want everything at once.

But here's what building Stan taught me:

The best ideas come from meetings where phones are face down.
The best conversations at home happen when Slack is off.

When you try to be everywhere, you're nowhere.

I spent years thinking "always on" showed dedication.
All it showed was lack of focus.

Your ability to drive change comes from being 100% present.
Not 70% in three places (that wastes time in 3 places).

I still slip up - often.

But when I do get it right, it’s like life slows down just enough to notice what matters.

How’s your relationship with presence lately?

My first YouTube video just went live!!! 🎬🚀

Taking y’all behind the scenes of our 14-day SF Hacker House. 

Where me and 8 of my best builders at Stan launched 2 AI products live.

Tune in if you’re into startups + building in public, or just wanna see how we build here at Stan. 

Watch here: https://lnkd.in/gNqVTEBR

I rewired my personality in 2 years. 

ISTJ → INTJ.

Yes, you can train intuition.

In 2022, I took the Myers-Briggs test on 16Personalities.
It said ISTJ — the Logistician.

I looked up the types of my heroes:

Elon Musk: INTJ
Steve Jobs: INTJ (or ENTP)
Jensen Huang: ENTJ
Mark Zuckerberg: INTJ
Jeff Bezos: ENTJ

Every world-shaping entrepreneur had one letter I didn't: N.

So I studied them.
Turns out, almost all are habitual readers — especially of science fiction.

This is where vision comes from:

1️⃣ Imagining a world that doesn’t exist
2️⃣ Envisioning a path toward it
3️⃣ Having the courage to start walking

The following year, I read 20+ sci-fi books — whatever they read, I wanted to read.

Some of my favourites:

1/ Foundation (5 books)
2/ I, Robot (7 books)
3/ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
4/ Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
5/ Ender’s Game

📚 Reading rewired how I think.

Today, my MBTI is INTJ — 76% Intuition.
(Q for my team @Stan: did you notice?)

I’m sharing this story because: 
You can change how your mind works — if you choose to.

YOU CAN CHANGE.

When the destination is clear, 
The path unveils itself. 

What’s your Myers-Briggs type?👇

How I spot top 1% talent in one question.

After 100+ interviews building a $30M ARR team, I’ve boiled it down to one question:

“What have you built?”

Very few can answer it with the kind of depth that makes it undeniably clear they know what they did, why it worked, and the impact it drove.

When I find myself leaning forward, asking “Wait, how did you figure that out?” 

I know I’m talking to someone different.

Because most people work on things.
The top 1% build things.

If you’re a founder hiring - how do you spot the top 1%?

One thing I've been subconsciously lucky about —

Living where it's sunny. ☀️

I never realized how much it shaped my energy, focus, and optimism.

Until I spent a few weeks somewhere gray.
Suddenly, everything felt heavier.

It's strange how the weather can change your will to act.

With sunlight, small things feel doable.
Without it, even easy things feel like effort.

Most people underestimate how much their environment drives them.

We think it's our discipline or motivation —
But sometimes, it's just that strike of yellow on your table
Breaking through the window of a coffee shop.

If you ever feel stuck, it might not be you.
It might be the weather.

P.S. Have you noticed this too? 
Where do you live — and how's the sun treating you?

This is me building our ’26 strategy right now.

Our #1 problem:

We outgrew founder-led execution faster than we scaled our team to execute on our behalf.

As we scaled the business to $30M ARR in 3 years,

We fell behind on scaling ourselves.

2026 is going to be the evolution on how we run the company. 

My job as a Founder:
Build a machine that builds the machine.

A measure of success I’ll hold myself accountable to:
✅ Was this done without me?

—
Founders Q: What broke when you finally stepped back?

Your first 100 customers will bring your next 100.

For free.

If they don’t, your product’s not good enough yet.

We went all-in on those first 100.
1:1 coaching.
On-the-call bug fixes.
Feature requests shipped overnight.

We obsessed over each one until they felt their version of:
“I can’t believe you did that.”

When you exceed expectations like that, word spreads faster than anything you can pay for.

Most founders overlook this part - and that’s a mistake.

If you’re not texting your first 100 customers,
you’re not doing enough.

P.S. Four years and $30M ARR later - we’re still texting.

Working out of a NYC WeWork this week — and remembering the good old days. 🗽

We built the first $10M of Stan out of WeWorks between LA and Toronto.

I still remember hacking away at that 8-person WeWork table.

Back then, we’d just walk out to a nearby café for lunch.

Now, coordinating lunch across our 25-person offices is a full-blown operation.

Feeling nostalgic ☺️

P.S. WeWork kombucha is still unmatched.

In October, I flew my team to SF to build 2 AI projects in public.

Our documentary is LIVE 🟢

We built:
1/ A pivotal feature for Stanley (Your Content Coach) 
2/ The foundation for our company pivot 

(yep, at $30M ARR!)

We filmed the entire trip.

226 hours of footage → 30 minutes of building in public documentary.
(Day 2 pivot? Yep!)

Why watch:

🍎 Experienced founders: innovation beyond our core.
🚀 First-time founders: copy our 14-day launch playbook!
🫂 Anyone who wants to work at Stan - this is how we build.

Watch here (or save for later): https://lnkd.in/gNqVTEBR

P.S. If you want to see why building is an iterative process, watch me at 13:42 trying to build a whiteboard 😅

Stanley (Your Content Coach)

We fail in business for the same reason we fail at habits:

Doing too much 🤹‍♀️

It takes about 70 repetitions to form a new neural pathway —
to make an action automatic.

But somewhere along the way, we get excited.
We add a new habit.
Now the first one gets only half our attention.

The new neural pathways are still fragile —
and without reinforcement, they fade.
The habit never sticks.

The same happens in business.
We rarely stay with something long enough for it to reach its full potential.

Imagine how different your results would look
if you finished just one thing all the way through.

What is that thing for you?

Stanley is behind 2.1x engagement for 1,267 Entrepreneurs on LinkedIn.

Instagram, you're next 📲

6 months ago, we launched Stanley for LinkedIn. 
Now serving 1,267 entrepreneurs.

In just 30 days, they see: 
• 2.1x avg. engagement increase 
• 11% more posts 
• 131% growth in comments

What did we do?

We taught Stanley to speak Instagram! 
(yep, he can now watch videos)

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿: 
• Aspiring Entrepreneurs on IG (1-10K) 
• Still finding your voice 
• Need help growing your followers

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼? 
• Watch all your content 
• Find patterns (so growth isn't random) 
• Send personalized content ideas 
• Script in your voice 
• Help stay consistent

𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲:
Your stories deserve to be heard. 
Stanley makes sure they are. 
While helping you grow 3x faster.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘄?
$19/mo Early Adopter + 14 days free trial.

Tomorrow, we're back to $47/mo once Cyber Monday is over 

Get your spot here: https://lnkd.in/gKqxnFUK

Creator Partnerships Manager

Customer Support Specialist

Alexander Wang LLC

Sales Associate

Saint Laurent

Providing excellent customer service to clients 
Creating connections, and maintaining long term relationships with clients

lululemon

Sales Representative
Inventory Receiving
Visual Merchandising
Fulfilment of online orders for shipment and pick up

Educator

Kumon Canada Inc

Guided students ages 5 - 15 in Math and Reading
Supervised in class students 
Graded student workbooks
Prepared homework packages for students

Teaching Assistant

Honda Canada Inc. - Finances 

Worked in collections department
Aided customers past due on payments

Collections Representative

Avison Young 

Accounting Intern

Creator Partnerships Manager @ Stan | Non-linear Career Advocate | No Longer in Retail, but can Still Rock a Fit 😎

From thinking I'd be an ACCOUNTANT to helping Creators build 6-figure businesses — my career path looks like me trying to draw a snowman blindfolded 😅

For real though, I spent YEARS forcing myself into boxes that didn't quite fit:

⚖️ Accounting (sorry papa, I tried 😭)
🧩 Project Management (Gantt Charts? ehhhhhhh)
🏢 Traditional corporate path (the voices in my head sounding like Shia LaBeouf: JUST DO IT!!!)

Plot twist: Every "detour" on the side was actually leading me to exactly where I needed to be.

👖 Those retail jobs at lululemon and Saint Laurent? Taught me the POWER of genuine connection
📱 The content creation at Alexander Wang? Sparked my obsession with the creator economy.
💜 Starting off in customer support at Stan? Changed my entire LIFE trajectory.

Today, I'm a Creator Partnerships Manager at Stan(Shoutout to my mama for advocating the relationship management path).

Now I get to witness MAGIC every single day:

🙆🏻‍♀️ Women teaching others how to conquer binge eating
👔 Finance Bros selling their budget templates
🎨 Creatives selling their art across the globe

I've spoken to hundreds of Creators and witnessed every single one of them create a life they were truly meant to live by starting their own business leveraging their expertise. 

What lights me up:
✨ Helping creators realize their "weird" passion is their million-dollar idea
🗣️ Talking/Yapping (catch me at Re:Create Summit 2025, Sep 6th!)
🧥 Fashion babyyyyyyy - still bringing the fits from my retail days
💪 Anddd movement, I hate sitting still, enough said

My journey in a nutshell: Trad. mindset of School to Corporate path ->Luxury Retail → Customer Support → Creator Partnerships

The lesson: Your path doesn't need to make sense to anyone but YOU

If you're feeling lost, pivoting careers, or think your skills are "random" — we should definitely chat! I've been there, and I promise those breadcrumbs are leading somewhere beautiful 🥹

Let's connect and share war stories about non-traditional paths 🤝

P.S. Yes, I still rock my fits at Stan, so don't you think you'll catch me wearing any Patagonia 🫵 😤

Jonathan Tsugawa

Rick Owens said "Working out is modern couture" and I'm TORN between loving fashion and loving GAINS (lmao that was cringe to write, but whatever let’s go with it)

"Buy less clothing and go to the gym" hits DIFFERENT when you've got 47 SSENSE tabs open of pieces you're trying NOT to cop 💀

But here's what Rick got RIGHT:

The BEST fit you'll ever wear is YOUR OWN BODY 🔥

I hit the gym and suddenly that basic black tee looks OUUU SOO GOOD.

Even my silly little Stan office fits hit DIFFERENT when I'm feeling myself.

It's not about choosing between drip and discipline.

It's realizing that when you feel STRONG, when you're CONFIDENT in your skin...

EVERYTHING looks better on you.

The clothes? They’re just there to amplify because YOU ARE the statement piece 😤

So yeah, I'm still gonna cop that piece I've been eyeing. But I'm also gonna make sure the canvas underneath is dialed IN.

Chief Vibes Officer @ Stan | Non-linear Career Advocate | No Longer in Retail, but can Still Rock a Fit 😎

I let myself SLIP and I'm PISSED about it 😤

For months I convinced myself pull-ups and walks were enough. "I'm busy too busy with work" EXCUSES 💀

The other day, the Stan boys dragged me to the gym and something CLICKED.
Watching them put in that work, feeling that burn again... I remembered who I USED to be.

Not this watered-down version settling for "good enough."

Yeah I'm angry at myself for letting standards drop. For choosing easy over STAYING HARD (oh god)

But that anger? It's amping me TF UP.

Because mediocrity in fitness bleeds into EVERYTHING. How you do ONE thing is how you do EVERYTHING.

Chief Vibes Officer can't bring 100% energy running at 60% capacity, and is mad at himself when he wakes up groggy, looking in the mirror seeing a sad excuse for a man.

Time to go BUCK WILD in the gym again 😤

This is how we team bond at the Stan Toronto office 🕺

Every day I hit the STUPIDEST dance moves in our elevator and my coworkers just have to DEAL WITH IT 💀

3pm energy crash? NOT ON MY WATCH.

Is it professional? No. Does it keep me sane during 10-hour Stanley Coach grind sessions? ABSOLUTELY 🔥

Chief Vibes Officer duties include mandatory elevator performances whether people asked for it or not 😤

What's your weird office ritual that keeps you going

Everyone's got OPINIONS about my life and I'm DROWNING in advice 😤

17 different people told me 17 different things this week and my brain went BRRRRRRR like a broken printer 💀

"You should do THIS"
"No actually do THAT"
"Have you considered THIS OTHER THING?"

I'm sitting here like a deer in headlights trying to process ALL OF IT AT ONCE.

Don't get me wrong - perspectives are VALUABLE. I genuinely appreciate when people care enough to share their thoughts.

But when everyone's advice contradicts each other?

When you're getting hit from EVERY angle with "shoulds" and "musts"?

That's when you gotta remember: They're not living YOUR life 🔥

They don't know your full context. Your struggles. Your actual goals.

What worked for them might be POISON for you.

So yeah, I listen. I take notes. I say thank you.

But at the end of the day? I trust MY GUT.

Because being scatter-brained trying to follow everyone's roadmap gets you NOWHERE.

Pick YOUR path. Even if it looks UNHINGED to everyone else 😤

Who else is dealing with advice overload? How do you filter the noise?

Rock climbing is HEALING parts of me I forgot were BROKEN 🧗‍♂️

Started back up 3 weeks ago and my brain is doing this WILD thing where it remembers how to be HAPPY without checking engagement metrics every 5 minutes 💀

When you're on the wall, there's NO room for "what should my next content angle be?"

It's just you, the wall, and figuring out how NOT to fall on your ass 😤

My girlfriend and I are solving problems TOGETHER instead of separately doom scrolling. 

I even brought my family last weekend and my mom CRUSHED a route that showed me that she still had it.

Every route is a puzzle that has NOTHING to do with algorithms or Q4 targets.

Just pure problem solving. Move here. Grip there. Trust your body.

That dopamine hit when you finally send a route? LIKE A CRAZY HIGH!!!

Rock climbing isn't fixing everything. But it's reminding me that not everything NEEDS fixing.

Stanley Coach for Instagram is 60% OFF for Cyber Monday and I'm about to LOSE IT 🔥

$19/month instead of $47 for TODAY ONLY!!!!!

That's 60% OFF because apparently we've lost our DAMN MINDS over here at Stan and decided to give away Stanley IG for less than your daily coffee budget 😤

Stanley's been helping Creators on LinkedIn level up their content game and now Instagram Creators get to EAT too.

You're getting a coach that ACTUALLY gets your vibe. Not some generic bot spitting out "5 tips to grow your following" BS.

This MFer learns YOUR voice. YOUR style. YOUR energy.

While everyone else is using ChatGPT to write captions that sound like a corporate robot had a MELTDOWN, you'll be dropping FIRE content that sounds like YOU 🎯

December 1st ONLY. After that? Back to $47 and you'll be PISSED about missing this.

$19 for a coach that helps you create Banger IG content??? Unheard of.

I've already gotten a few concerning messages from our finance team on how much this is gonna cost us, so you better act quick before they shut it down 😭

Here's the link to get your deal: https://lnkd.in/eHwXu3rW

Feel free to slide into my DMs if you want too 😉

P.S. This deal expires at MIDNIGHT December 1st!

P.P.S. We had to bribe John and Vitalii for pitching this price.

Q4 is giving me EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH and I need to CRASH OUT about it 😤

One minute I'm vibing with Snow Duckies thinking "wow life is BEAUTIFUL" ✨

Next minute my calendar EXPLODES with deadlines while someone's ABSOLUTELY SLAMMING the gas pedal like the shoved a CINDERBLOCK on that MFer and the brakes are GONE 💀

I LOVE the holiday vibes. The family time. The cozy-ness of it all.

But I HATE that everyone wants everything done before December 31st like the world is ENDING.

Creator wants a demo on December 23rd. My family wants me to help with Holiday stuff by the 22nd. 

Stanley needs to have been sold to 200 people yesterday.

I'm trying to be JOLLY while my inbox is having a complete MELTDOWN 🎅

We're HURTLING toward that dump truck at 140km/h and everyone's like "just one more thing before holidays"

NO. THERE IS NO MORE ROOM IN THE TRUCK 😭

The vibes? IMMACULATE. The deadlines? LIKELY GONNA HAVE ME PLANNING A TRIP TO TURKEY SOON WITH ALL THE HAIR I'M LOSING.

Anyone else feeling this Q4 CHAOS or am I being dramatic?

Because I'm about to take the H's out of Ho Ho Ho and go OOO

Sales is 90% CULT LEADER ENERGY and I'm NOT SORRY 😤

You need that DELUSIONAL confidence where you believe your product could literally save someone's LIFE.

Not the fake guru "buy my course" energy - I'm talking about that warm, slightly UNHINGED belief where you KNOW you're solving something DEEP.

Show them the demo. Make it VISUAL. Make them FEEL it.

Because here's what I learned: People don't buy features. They buy that emotional MOMENT when they realize "holy shit, THIS is what I've been missing."

You gotta push WITHOUT sounding pushy. Come from that genuine place where you're like "I NEED you to have this because I KNOW it'll change your game."

Is it a little cult-y? ABSOLUTELY

But when you believe THAT hard, they start believing too.

That's when sales stops being sales and becomes something else entirely 🔥

Mahjong is training my brain in ways I NEVER expected 🀄🧠

Every tile I pick up has my brain going BRRRRRR analyzing patterns in 0.2 seconds flat 💀

Got my pattern recognition game on LOCK. I'm seeing combinations EVERYWHERE haha

But I’m getting the real mental workout when I gotta read three other people’s strategies while adapting to what tiles are left on that DAMN TABLE 😤

Someone's hoarding bamboos? PIVOT. That tile you need got discarded? ADAPT. Everyone going for the same hand? GET CREATIVE.

It's like playing 4D chess where everyone's stealing from the same pile and you gotta thug it out with whatever's left 🔥

My brain stays SHARP because every round forces quick pattern recognition, opponent reading, and strategic pivots based on what's AVAILABLE.

This ain’t just a game, it's like mental rock climbing and I'm ADDICTED 🎯

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Vitalii Dodonov

Jonathan Tsugawa

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The Battle

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Jonathan Tsugawa

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