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Life and work of Rustam Gilfanov, the LongeVC Fund Venture partner

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Sourced Photo

Image commercially licensed from: Unsplash

 

Education

While studying at school, Rustam was good at math and was fond of science fiction. After graduation, he enrolled at the Udmurt State Institute to study law. His student life was an active and saturated time: he participated in many conferences and events related to his studies. He got a diploma in 2005 and decided to acquire one more profession – arbitration manager.

Professional Life

Rustam’s student life fell during the times of active development of the Internet. He finished his law studies but decided to pursue a career in IT. He took part in several startups and built extensive experience in the sphere. Eventually, he set up his own IT company, and his deep knowledge of law became an important asset.

2006 became the year when Rustam set up his first IT company. That small company, established with the help of his parents, is now a massive software developer in the sphere of finance, gaming and marketing. It is an astonishing success for a first enterprise. It now works in Malta and Cyprus, in Ukraine and Latvia, and has over a hundred popular gaming applications.

However, ever since Rustam Gilfanov set up his first company, he has been nurturing the idea of a new form of entrepreneurship. He wanted not just to expand the company but also to give his employees the means for personal development, to support talents and to create new opportunities. Within just 5 years, his company grew to over 1,000 people, and every one of them had a possibility to grow in a professional way.

Philanthropy

Social activity is an important part of Rustam Gilfanov’s worldview. He takes part in several educational projects for young people as he believes helping spread knowledge is important for an IT company.

Working together with a foundation, ‘I Am the Future of Ukraine,’ in 2017, he set up one of his most famous projects – LakiBuks. This organization supports rising authors writing non-fiction for teenagers in the Ukrainian language. It was publicly launched at the Book Arsenal festival, and just after a year, it was already one of the main partners at a large Ukrainian kids’ literature festival. Since then, LakiBuks has been developing its presence in various cities and even countries showing steady growth.

In the beginning, LakiBuks spanned only a few children’s libraries in a couple of cities in eastern Ukraine, whereas now, the project supports over 200 libraries in different parts of the country. Rustam Gilfanov now says this is one of his most important projects. In 2018 thanks to the project, more than 5 thousand popular science books were distributed to libraries in small villages in the South and East. Overall, there are not many pop-science books available in Ukrainian, so it’s not only a social project but also a cultural one.

LakiBuks is not Rustam’s only initiative with children’s literature. He also takes part in the restoration of the Kyiv kids’ library with the purpose of turning it into something completely different. Together with the Maybutnyy Library Project, he developed the idea to create a library hub with a computer room where IT leaders could hold programming classes. After the first trial course, it became a continuous event that spread to other cities as well.

Besides that, Rustam Gilfanov works with the foundation ‘I Am the Future of Ukraine.’ This organization holds various social events and projects all over the country. Last but not least: Rustam Gilfanov helps families and single mothers experiencing financial hardships.

Private Investments

After many years of managing the operating activities of the company, Rustam Gilfanov decided to put all of his attention into investing in the most promising projects in video streaming, finance, and gaming. This is his main activity in present times.

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