In the last seven years, Sergey Kozlov has gone from a busy student to a bootstrapping entrepreneur and is now a successful company founder that leads a large team. Although every day is considered uncharted territory, Sergey continues to excel as a leader and creator, charting the path ahead and bringing his vision to life. With a lifelong passion for technology and a desire to make people's lives more convenient, the software Sergey created is fulfilling some of his deepest wishes and changing how businesses interact with their customers.
The idea for Passteam -- a full-stack solution that businesses use to improve marketing tactics and increase customer engagement - was actually born out of a frustrating experience on Sergey's backpacking trip. Spending the summer traveling was as incredible as he had hoped, but when the trip was wrapping up, Sergey and his future Co-Founder Vadim were trying to fly out of the Los Angeles Airport, LAX. Chaotic and overrun with people, the airport is overwhelming on a good day.
Unfortunately for Sergey, his flight was delayed, leaving him and a friend stranded at the airport for a number of hours. As they looked around at everyone else stranded there, they saw lines coming out of restaurants, stores crowded with people, and helpdesks overflowing with papers and receipts. As his brain struggled to problem-solve the current situation, Sergey and his friend began discussing the idea of an application that gave businesses a way to operate electronically, interacting with customers seamlessly and immediately and removing some of the chaos that comes with traditional paper methods.
When he graduated from his university, Sergey was ready to take his venture to the next level and start trying to make something of it. Harnessing the power of passes in the Apple Wallet, he started speaking with potential customers and businesses in his area to understand pain points and map out the functionality of the application. Before a prototype was ready, restaurants, coffee shops, and other small businesses were lining up to get involved. It wasn't long before large businesses got word of the product Sergey was building and began expressing interest, too.
Faced with the challenge every leader must combat at some point, Sergey poured energy into finding the right team to build the product he envisioned. Once the right people were in place, things began moving incredibly fast. He led his team through the application process to Startup 500, a competitive startup incubation program. Despite high competition and strict selection criteria, Passteam was accepted into the accelerator, and throughout the course of the program, the product was further developed, and over $400,000 in funding was secured.
The idea for Passteam started out as a loyalty program that offered businesses the chance to involve their customers in loyalty programs, send discounts, and gather customer information, but that was just the beginning. Today, it provides automation capabilities to sales and marketing teams, allows for multi-channel communication with the click of a button, and makes customers' lives easier by putting everything in a convenient place - the digital wallet on their phones.
Seven years ago, a new graduate took a chance on an idea, and that chance paid off. Like the platform, Sergey has grown into a marvelous leader over the years. He helps his team prioritize what to focus on, works on regular customer feedback groups to improve Passteam's product offerings, and tries to build a long-lasting community. Sergey is already recognized internationally as a product specialist, but as Passteam grows even further internationally, he will remain laser-focused and thoughtful in his approach.
