Founder's desk
Founder's desk
Practice, not theory. Notes on IT marketing, B2B sales funnels and going to market — each one drawn from real projects.
30
A B2B funnel that works: the customer buys without questions
Reels → targeting → tutorial → sale. A 7-step B2B funnel where the customer who reaches out buys with no extra questions.
· 5 min
You can sell even million-dollar IT services on Instagram
The view that "Instagram is only for cheap products" is wrong. With the right approach you can sell IT services worth several million dollars too.
· 3 min
Marketing isn't making a creative and switching on targeting
Many understand marketing as "creative + targeting." In reality marketing is one system with strategy, offer, funnel, and sales.
· 3 min
App promotion: 10,000 real users into an app
Everyone brings followers to Instagram — we bring 10,000 real users into an app via app promotion. The offer is ready, there are cases.
· 3 min
Big IT sales from Instagram: one $50k deal
Selling up to $50k from Instagram is easy — there are cases. One deal is $50k itself, not fifty $1k deals. With a 3–4 minute video it's much easier.
· 4 min
An Instagram detox and focus: where new ideas come from
Deleting Instagram freed up 3 hours a day. New ideas come in two states: intense difficulty or strong idleness.
· 4 min
If you're entering marketing now — learn SEO
It's very hard to find a strong SEO specialist in Uzbekistan. I spoke with 6–7 specialists — they couldn't even show basic technical setups.
· 4 min
Sell first, build later: lessons from 20 startups
Not "make the product great, then sell" — sell first, then add to the product based on customer pain. You can even test a product that doesn't exist yet.
· 5 min
Odoo Business Forum: gathering 350+ entrepreneurs
We planned for 250 people — 350+ came, 90%+ entrepreneurs and business owners. Trust built on 9 months of work and a Gold Partner result.
· 4 min
$20,000 in IT sales on $70 of ads: the VSL process
We spent about $70 on ads and sold $20,000 of IT services. VSL → targeting → consultation → meeting → sale: a thoughtful, human-centered process.
· 4 min
Position vs popularity: 150k views vs 1.5k
In 2021 my videos got 150k views, but they knew me as "the phone guy." Now 1.5k views feel better — because the position is different.
· 4 min
"Startuperman": understand what business is before starting a startup
17–18 year-olds who don't yet understand what business is are doing startups. This is a very important topic.
· 3 min
Partnership and energy: the stages beyond marketing matter too
We held our 5th hackathon. Energy is the most important thing. The stages before and after marketing also drive the result.
· 3 min
An IT hackathon case: 100+ participants at every event
An Odoo hackathon with Amon Olimov — nearly 150 participants. 100+ people at every seminar/hackathon; 43 teams on day 2, a 3-hour PITCH.
· 4 min
Why can't school graduates find jobs?
Doing cust-dev for an IT academy, I saw the market's real problem. The feedback from big schools' graduates was shocking.
· 3 min
Selling a $10k IT solution with a $50 lead
We call the leads we got at $3.7 ourselves and book meetings only for those who are clearly ready to buy. A call center as an added service.
· 3 min
B2B and B2C sales are different: don't cling to the customer
The "buy or I'll go hungry" approach may work in B2C, but in B2B it scares the customer off. Close with calm and a deadline.
· 5 min
We turn business owners with $100,000 monthly turnover into your customers
With the right approach, you can sell products and services up to $10k. The right audience + the right approach = a big deal.
· 3 min
A $0.50 lead vs a $50 lead: which one actually profits you?
At $0.50 you get a $1,500 customer; at $50 you get a buyer with $50,000+ turnover. In B2B performance, the sale decides — not the lead price.
· 5 min
Offer and risk: a frank word "to businessmen"
Don't say "I'll give x% if it works out" without taking on risk. Either buy the service, or take part of the risk yourself.
· 4 min
If you're an IT company, try LinkedIn ads
If your daily ad budget is $1,500+ and you're an IT company — I recommend running ads on LinkedIn.
· 3 min
Don't burn $100,000 on a startup: validate the idea
A startup solving someone's problem doesn't mean the whole market needs it. Before spending, check with a marketer or through cust-dev.
· 5 min
You can sell IT products B2B via Facebook and Instagram
You can do B2B sales of IT products specifically via Facebook/Instagram — there's proof. On one project we did ~$50,000 in sales this way.
· 3 min
$50,000 in sales on a $1,000 ad budget: a step-by-step plan
A startup doesn't need branding. Problem → solution → offer → sale: 200 leads, 45 sales, a $1,000 average check = $45,000+.
· 6 min
A USP for an IT school: junior to middle in 4 months
Enter with an offer that isn't on the market. A problem found through cust-dev, and a unique promise: "junior to middle in 4 months."
· 6 min
Building a sales team with KPIs: manage by the numbers
400 sales a month with 14 salespeople. When the KPI exceeds base pay, effectiveness rises — control hours, conversion, and motivation.
· 6 min
7 problems in the marketing and sales of IT companies
These 7 problems are costing your IT company hundreds of thousands in sales — and nearly every company has them.
· 6 min
11 creatives, $1,143: how to test ads correctly
11 creatives — 11 different results. Analyze each and direct budget to the one that performs. First find your own sales funnel.
· 4 min
Lead price for IT courses: attracting even an expensive product cheaply
The course was 2x more expensive than competitors — 4.8M UZS a month. Yet we got leads at $1.79, writing the price directly in the creative.
· 3 min
$0.14 per lead: a strong grant-based case
We got 422 leads for $61 for UIC IT Academy. The secret — the creative and a grant-based study offer, separating the consumer from the payer.
· 4 min