Vladimir Potapenko, founder and CEO of Magora, began his career in programming just twelve years ago. Today, he runs an international IT app development company. Magora has led over 200 projects, opened multiple offices around the globe, and reached a top-ranking status in the industry.
-Vladimir, can you give us insight on Magora's beginning?
"I always wanted to start my own company and make decisions at all levels. I started as a developer, then moved into development management. Now, as the founder of Magora, I am all about continual progress in business management.
Our company's first big project was with Australia's Sydney Railway. They asked us to create an automation for railroad troubleshooting and to facilitate the work of the technical engineers. Our solution was a train alarm system that informed their team about unplanned stops and transportation issues. Our software engineers developed a system that extracted data from RFID transponders and generated reports based on the data. The data quantity was so large that we built the database by using batch processing, including external indexes and keys. The project took three months to develop and implement, and three years to finalize."
-You have three offices across Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, and London. What kind of progress have you seen in your UK branch?
"Our London office has been operating for seven years. Initially, we hired a local employee to manage the unit, but communication with the Russian office was difficult. It began working more smoothly when we sent one of our own Novosibirsk employees to London to be there full-time.
At first, we encountered distrust by Londoners-many people thought, 'Who are these obscure guys who want to do development work for big companies?' It took a few years for London to get used to us. But by the end of 2022, we were in the top three leading mobile app development companies in the UK."
-How has Magora managed to acquire continuous success in an ever-growing industry?
"Our competition has increased a lot, and the industry's entrance threshold has become extremely low. These factors started putting pressure on us. We began missing out on various projects.
We strategized and decided to price high-way above the market standard. The switch to a new price category allowed us to eliminate small companies from our clients' pool, and screen out the competitors. However, we needed to justify our price increase, so we switched from ordinary development to IT consulting-meaning we perform the full cycle of work from the search for ideas and development to implementation and promotion.
Over the years, we have learned where customers often make mistakes. As a result, we begin by offering them our 'Discovery Phase.' A project manager schedules several sessions, we look at what's on the market, analyze what the customer wants, assess how realistic it is to implement, and provide suggestions."
-In which areas does Magora have expertise?
"We have expertise in logistics, telecommunications, entertainment applications, and many more. In the beginning, we were gaining experience by taking on lots of different areas. Over time, we began building a portfolio of medical-related clientele. Now, about 70% of our projects are within the medical industry.
We recently developed a project that helped speed up COVID-19 testing processes and remote travel certifications. The complexity of the project was that several systems had to be integrated into the service: online payment for express tests, video calls and calendars for consultants, and a system for generating PCR certificates. In addition, it was necessary to make the application as simple and user-friendly as possible, with information on how to perform tests at home, both safely and conveniently.
A user could use the mobile application or website to register with passport data and a phone number. Then, an express test would be delivered to their home. The user would then schedule a video call with a consultant, scan the QR code on the test, and receive instant verification. The test results were recorded in the user's personal profile, and if testing negative, would be able to download the PCR test certificate to be used immediately."
-What is your current role within your company?
"It's taken a long time to get to the point where I don't need to be directly involved in our projects any longer. I was able to step back only when I began to trust everyone around me on our team. Plus, when we implemented project management systems, I was able to move away from the technical part of the job. The pandemic helped me fully consolidate these processes."
-Do you follow trends or stay away from them?
"Magora consistently receives development requests just weeks after a new product launches. As a result, we are very sensitive to trends. The market for smart technology is flourishing, and we predict that the demand will continue to grow within the next ten years. Remote control technology, artificial intelligence, applications for content creation-all of these are trends that we are watching closely."
