E-commerce · Founder · 2014–2018
My first project: What Ultimate Workshop actually was
Co-founding a university-apparel business bootstrapped from $400 to 10,000+ orders, then building a customiser that refuses to make ugly clothes.
- Measured10,000+orders from a $400 bootstrap
- Measured14 → 7 daysorder-to-delivery time after the CRM
- Measured95%order-status validity after the Telegram bot
- Role
- Co-founder, Product Owner, UI/UX Designer
- Company
- Ultimate Workshop, St. Petersburg
- Timeline
- 2014–2018
- Team
- Co-founder and full-stack developer, sales, production and printing leads, couriers and sales agents
- Platform
- E-shop, CRM/ERP, Telegram bot, web customiser
- Methods & tools
- SEO, vk.com advertising, Photoshop scripting, Itten colour ring with WCAG contrast rules, Webvisor usability tests
Outcome
- Measured10,000+ orders from a $400 bootstrap
- Measured14 → 7 days order-to-delivery time after the CRM
- Measured95% order-status validity after the Telegram bot
- QualitativePresidential scholarship of the Russian Federation
Measured outcome in productionQualitative context: process, volume, lab or qualitativeUnder NDA under NDA
60-second brief
The problem
In 2014 Russian universities had no branded apparel while the Harvard-hoodie trend peaked, there was no on-demand production, and global brands sold two thirds of each collection at a discount because they guess demand a season ahead.
What I did
- Co-founded the business, sold my iPhone and laptop for the first batch, and sold out through vk.com automation and paid posts in university communities; signed exclusive contracts with universities and built a campus network of sales agents.
- Ran surveys of people who commented but did not buy: a missing full website was the main reason, so we built our own shop.
- Owned product, research, SEO, SMM, customer support and graphic design; my partner built the code.
Decisions that mattered
- A shop with smart search and algorithmic SEO.
Search by legal name, abbreviation or nickname; search logs decided which print to design next; generated titles and descriptions still bring customers years later with no ads.
The university apparel e-shop - Ultimatum TS and a Telegram bot for vendors.
Our CRM/ERP plus a bot that pings vendors and lets them mark orders ready: status validity rose to 95%, delivery dropped from 14 to 7 days.
The first Telegram bot for vendors - Generative garments.
Server-composed previews and print-ready SVGs let us cover 100% of St. Petersburg universities without designer time.
Generative garment adding - A customiser that cannot produce ugly clothes.
ultm.me presets, Itten colour harmony plus WCAG contrast rules, auto-scaled text, an Instagram-like editor, vk login for Gen Z and share links with a 10% affiliate programme.
The ultm.me customiser across devices
Working with engineering and product
- PHP and jQuery at first, then a JS and SVG engine for the customiser; I scripted Photoshop to generate hundreds of preview images with correct names.
- Usability tests with passwordless logins and Webvisor recordings; a chat of 15 friends for quick A/B opinions.
Impact
- Measured10,000+ orders from a $400 bootstrap
- Measured14 → 7 days order-to-delivery time after the CRM
- Measured95% order-status validity after the Telegram bot
- QualitativePresidential scholarship of the Russian Federation
A presidential scholarship, two theses graded excellent, and a business sold when the SVG engine's technical debt outgrew a two-person team.
What I took awayI would give my younger self LEAN, ICE and HADI before letting him build an SVG rendering engine.
