Latest news with #Russian-based
Int'l Business Times
02-07-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
How Ruslan Shagiakhmetov Took Luckru from Struggling Startup to Top CRM Integrator in Russia
In the summer of 2019, operator, entrepreneur, and sales strategist Ruslan Shagiakhmetov was running Luckru, a small Russian-based customer relationship management (CRM) consulting firm. After over a year in development, the company was struggling to stand out in a saturated market, as building trust as a startup proved difficult and many potential clients dropped out before reaching the final stage of the sales pipeline. "We had built up marketing to generate a decent flow of leads, we'd gained some expertise," Ruslan recalls. "But every lead was a battle." That all changed when a bold shift in strategy led Ruslan to change how Luckru sold and delivered its services, and today's article is a closer look at how that one decision transformed the company's growth trajectory and turned it into one of the country's top CRM consulting firms. Luckru: Running A CRM Firm In a Crowded Market Before founding Luckru, Ruslan worked at a Russian job classifieds network, where he played a key role in doubling the company's revenue and was eventually promoted to chief sales officer. After the company was acquired by a larger competitor, he decided it was time to start his own venture, which led to the launch of Luckru in 2018. Luckru's focus is on helping businesses improve their operations and increase sales, offering services like department audits, workflow automation, and staff training for managers and executives. Luckru powered through its first year with a small 10-person team and a steady stream of leads, but the company soon began facing a critical challenge. Its offerings were built around Bitrix24, a popular CRM platform in Russia due to its affordable pricing and low technical barrier, but the same qualities that made Bitrix24 appealing also attracted a flood of competitors. The market became crowded with firms offering similar solutions, often at drastically different price points. "Clients were overwhelmed with offers from professionals and amateurs alike," Ruslan explains. "Prices for the same project could range from $5,000 to $50,000, and it was hard for clients to trust anyone." This meant that, despite solid technical skills and a capable team, Luckru struggled to stand out in a saturated environment and earn client trust, with many potential buyers defaulting to larger or more recognizable firms because they viewed them as less risky. This led to a critical turning point for the company; if Ruslan wanted Luckru to break through, he'd have to rethink how its services were being sold. Ruslan's Change in Strategy: Flipping the Risk Equation Ruslan identified a core issue in how CRM services were sold: clients were being asked to commit to long-term projects without fully trusting the company's ability to deliver, which created friction during the sales process and drove many clients away. Armed with that insight, Ruslan overhauled Luckru's business model from scratch by introducing a bold new proposition where every project would have a clear, fixed price and a maximum cost ceiling. The work would also be split into large, standalone phases, with clients only paying after approving each one. Finally, and most crucially, clients could cancel at any time without penalties, while retaining all completed work. By placing the financial risk on Luckru rather than the client, Ruslan aimed to show the company's confidence and professionalism. However, implementing the new model came with its own set of challenges. Since payments were now made after client approval rather than upon the signing of contracts, cash flow became inconsistent and hard to predict. To stabilize operations, Ruslan cut internal expenses, negotiated with investors to extend the company's financial runway, and took on a larger share of the operational risk himself. This shift also brought about internal challenges. The sales team, which had been trained to promote fixed installment plans, had difficulty explaining the new structure to potential clients. Realizing this, Ruslan revamped the entire pitch strategy, rewriting sales scripts, organizing training sessions, and personally joining sales calls to coach team members in real-time, ensuring they could clearly communicate the rationale and value of this new model. While these changes made for a difficult initial transition, Ruslan and his team remained committed and the new model began to gradually deliver positive results. The Turning Point: Becoming A Leading CRM Firm Within six months of adopting the new sales model, Luckru began securing larger deals and its revenue grew tenfold. By the end of 2020, Luckru ranked among the top three Bitrix24 CRM consultancies in the Ural Federal District, later breaking into the national top 15 in both 2021 and 2022. The team expanded quickly, growing from 10 to 40 employees and moving offices twice to keep up with rising demand. By 2023, Luckru had completed over 300 projects, including more than 20 enterprise-level CRM implementations, while also expanding internationally with clients in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Luckru's approach also reflected a wider change in the CRM consulting market. As clients sought more flexible, lower-risk payment options, other Russian firms began adopting similar practices, offering solutions like phased billing, cloud-based systems, and adaptable payment models to fulfil clients' specific needs. "This seemingly simple offer allowed us to quickly rise to the top of the market," Ruslan concludes. "And it forced the entire industry to adjust its rules." Continuing to Bet on Trust After leading Luckru as CEO for five years, Ruslan Shagiakhmetov now serves as chief operating officer across five international markets at Larixon Classifieds, a large classified ad platform with projects in Cyprus, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. In addition to his executive role, he's currently pursuing an MBA at Boston University to further his expertise in product management and business development. But even as his focus expands, Ruslan remains grounded in the same principles he used to turn Luckru from a struggling startup into a leading CRM firm: creating business systems that directly address client concerns to gain client trust and secure long-term success in a competitive market.
New Straits Times
26-06-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
E-hailing drivers association welcomes govt move to suspend InDrive, Maxim
ALOR STAR: The Northern e-Hailing Drivers Association (NeHDA) has welcomed the government's decision to suspend the operations of two foreign e-hailing companies, Maxim and InDrive, effective July 24. Its chairman Zabidi Bahador said the move by the Transport Ministry and the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) was a critical step towards upholding regulatory compliance within the e-hailing industry. He said the two companies' failure to adhere to requirements, such as obtaining a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence and an E-hailing Vehicle Permit (EVP), had compromised user safety and tarnished the integrity of the local transport sector. "This decisive action ensures a level playing field for local e-hailing providers and helps safeguard drivers' income through more efficient enforcement on e-hailing operators and driver communities," he said in a statement today. Zabidi also warned against any reversal of the directive, saying it would undermine the credibility of enforcement agencies and be unfair to local companies that had complied with existing regulations. "We urge the ministry to remain firm and resist external pressure. Priority must be given to user safety, fairness for local drivers, and upholding the rule of law," he added. He said that NeHDA remains committed to advocating for a fair, safe, and competitive e-hailing ecosystem for all stakeholders. On May 9, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said that Russian-based platforms InDrive and Maxim had been ordered to cease operations in Malaysia by July 24 for violating local transport regulations. The directive followed calls from the Malaysian P-Hailing Delivery Association, which claimed both platforms continued to operate without meeting the requirements of the Land Public Transport Act 2010 (Act 715).
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kyiv, not Kiev — Kyiv Independent community helps rename street in Oregon
A neighborhood in Springfield, Oregon, on June 10 renamed a local street from "Kiev" to "Kyiv" — a move initiated by members of the Kyiv Independent's global community. Photos shared with the Kyiv Independent show the newly installed blue-and-yellow street sign, reflecting both the correct Ukrainian transliteration and the national colors of Ukraine. The change comes amid a broader effort by Ukraine and its allies worldwide to move away from Russian-derived place names and honor Ukraine's linguistic and political independence. "We're very proud of our city (Springfield, OR, U.S.) for supporting our efforts to make this happen," one community member told the Kyiv Independent. The spelling "Kiev," pronounced "kee-yev," is the Russian version of Ukraine's capital. "Kyiv" (pronounced "keev") is the correct Ukrainian form, based on the native pronunciation and Latin transliteration. For decades, global usage favored Russian-based spellings, a legacy of the Soviet Union's dominance and the widespread misconception that Ukrainian cities and culture were merely extensions of Russia. Even after Ukraine declared independence in 1991, much of the international community continued using names like Kiev, Lvov, and Odessa — all Russified versions. That began to change after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its war in eastern Ukraine. The full-scale invasion in 2022 accelerated the shift, prompting governments, media outlets, and advocacy groups to adopt Ukrainian transliterations such as Kyiv, Lviv, and Odesa. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has promoted the change through campaigns like #KyivNotKiev, arguing that the use of correct names respects Ukraine's sovereignty and resists Russian imperial narratives. Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, have long emphasized historical ties to Kyiv in their justification for expansionist policies. Renaming streets and using correct spellings is one way communities abroad are pushing back. Read also: Kyiv, not Kiev — How Ukrainians reclaimed their capital's name We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
West Australian
06-06-2025
- Business
- West Australian
World Gold Council working to lure artisanal miners across globe away from ‘illicit actors'
The World Gold Council estimates up to 20 per cent of the world's supply of the precious metal is produced by 'artisanal' miners whose activities are vulnerable to exploitation from 'illicit actors' such as terrorists and mercenary organisations like the notorious Wagner Group. During his visit to Kalgoorlie-Boulder this week, the council's chief strategy officer Terry Heymann said the London-headquartered organisation wanted to bring these small-scale miners into the formal gold supply chain and make them less likely to work with 'informal and illicit markets'. Artisanal and small-scale mining involves individuals usually working by themselves and mainly by hand or with some mechanical or industrial tools. 'This is very different from the large-scale professional mines . . . (it's) not really happening in Australia, it's much more of an issue in other parts of the world, but it's an issue that we care about deeply and we're doing a lot of work in how to support responsible artisanal and small-scale gold mining,' Mr Heymann said. 'A number of my colleagues this week are in Ghana, where the Ashanti King is actually convening a conference to address this issue, which is how do we support access to the formal markets for small-scale and artisanal gold mining? 'Why is that important? 'Because if they don't have access to the formal markets, they go to the informal and illicit markets. 'And that's a real challenge for the gold industry, one that we're actively involved in and doing a lot of work on.' Mr Heymann said a report it held in partnership with former British deputy prime minister Dominic Raab highlighted the dangerous nature of these 'illicit actors'. '(Mr Raab's) findings, unfortunately, are really stark . . . without access to the formal market, these illicit, informal and sometimes illegal miners are forced to work with illicit actors, and that then gets into supplying gold funding for terrorist groups, mercenaries, with the Wagner Group as an example.' The Wagner Group is a Russian-based private military company which has been involved in conflicts across the globe, including the current war in Ukraine. Notoriously, in June 2023 the group's then-leader Yevgeny Prigozhin launched an 'armed mutiny' against the Russian military — but it ended before the Wagner Group's planned march on Moscow. Mr Prigozhin died in a plane crash in Russia in August 2023. Mr Heymann said the issue was extremely important for the whole gold sector. 'It's a different part of the gold sector to where most of the people investing in gold are going to be getting their gold from,' he said. '(And) it's not something the industry can do by itself, and this is why we are calling on governments around the world, particularly those involved in the G20, who can really group together and make a difference on this to take action, to be part of this coalition of the willing to actually drive change. 'My boss, the CEO of the World Gold Council, was meeting with the secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last week, who is Australian — Mattias Cormann — and he pledged OECD support to us. 'The OECD has been hugely involved in this, and I think it's that level of support we need — of the OECD, of national governments in Australia, in the US and Canada, big mining nations using their ability and their leverage to bring together different groups of people who can really address this issue.'
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘This is a wake up call' Cyber security expert weighs in on City of Abilene cyber attack
ABILENE, Texas ()- On Friday, April 18th, 2025, The City of Abilene became aware of a cyber attack on city computer systems. Now, more than a month later, the investigation into that attack is ongoing, and an alleged deadline has come and gone the city stating no intention to pay any would-be ransom for the stolen data. KTAB/KRBC sat down with Cybersecurity expert and CEO of CyberCatch, Sai Huda, for insight into how attacks like this one have played out in the past and what might lie in the city's future. 'This is a wakeup call for the City of Abilene,' Huda said. Despite today's deadline, City of Abilene says they still won't pay ransom in cyberattack The City has been relatively quiet on the matter as investigation has been conducted but that's not without reason. Because this attack involves data theft and security measures, city staff is exercising an abundance of caution to mitigate the extent of the attack within city systems and prevent the investigation from becoming compromised. With that in mind, lets discuss what we know so far. What is a Ransomware attack? How has the City responded? What is at risk? What can we do now? This kind of malicious software is something that Huda is quite familiar with, telling KTAB/KRBC that it is not uncommon for an entity such as the City of Abilene to be targeted by such an attack. 'Very typical these days where the attackers, the bad actors, install the ransomware into the system, shut down file systems. But while they do that, they also are able to make a copy of valuable data and exfiltrate that. In other words, transmit that out, and then they'll use that to threaten the victim. In this case, the city of Abilene and say, hey, pay this ransom by this deadline. Otherwise, we will not only leave you encrypted and so you won't be able to access any file systems, but also will start to sell that data on the dark web or release it publicly in increments to embarrass you. And it's all about really money at this point,' said Huda. Cyber Security watchdog group, Comparitech published a research article into the Abilene Cyber attack in which they were able to identify the Russian-based ransomware group Qilin as having claimed responsibility for the attack. City of Abilene doesn't dispute report of cyber attack ransom from Russian ransomware gang In that same article, Comparitech states that Qilin mainly targets victims through phishing emails to gain access to computer systems and introduce the malicious software. The group claiming responsibility for 25 confirmed ransomware attacks in 2025 to date. Seven of which were against government entities all across the U.S. An initial news release put out by the City of Abilene states that, 'upon receiving reports of unresponsive servers City staff began immediately executing the incident response plan in place. Affected servers and critical assets were disconnected from the network to mitigate further spread of the attack. And an investigation with 'industry-leading cybersecurity experts' was launched. Cyber incident disrupts City of Abilene's network systems, including phones Since that day the City IT department has been working to restore affected city services and minimize downtime. Some systems were taken offline intentionally out of an abundance of caution, again to mitigate spread. While the city has neither confirmed nor disproven the claims of an alleged ransom placed on the data and deadline of May 27th, 2025 to pay that ransom. A statement was put out by the City of Abilene saying, 'the City of Abilene administration reiterates that it has decided no ransom will be paid related to the cyber incident that began on April 18, 2025. The city administration has collaborated closely with cybersecurity experts and legal counsel to reach this determination.' Huda says that he feels this was the right decision for the city to make as he has seen similar situations play out to undesirable outcomes when the ransom is paid. 'I think the city is doing the right thing which is not to pay the ransom because then that's sort of paying for bad behavior. you're rewarding for bad behavior,' Huda going on to say, 'some of the victims, which include cities, have paid the ransom simply because they've done a cost benefit analysis and said, you know what? It's gonna cost us this much money and time to recover when the impact is so severe. So let's just pay the ransom, get the decryption keys, unlock the files, and, you know, we're going to have to have a good faith that these guys will not sell that data. They'll destroy it. So some of them, unfortunately have paid. But, we're seeing a trend now which is positive that they're not paying the ransom.' Huda stating that even if the city decided to pay the ransom there is no guarantee that the stolen data would have been released. 'And a lot of times the ransomware gangs actually will go away. All of a sudden they're gone they've taken the ransom payment. They haven't provided the decryption keys and they certainly haven't destroyed the data. So, you know, they're really not trustworthy to begin with. And so why reward them?' Huda said. With an entity like the City of Abilene that has connections to businesses, non-profits, and direct interaction with individuals, the data that was targeted could span a wide range of fields as Huda explained. 'In this case City of Abilene's customers. They could be businesses they could be individuals and as much information about them as possible,' said Huda. In his professional opinion, Abilene may have become a more high priority target for cyber attacks due to recent increased notoriety through the announcement of the A.I Project Stargate. 'The City of Abilene has now appeared, if you will, big time on the map. The project Stargate, which is the largest investment in A.I in US history, which entails building this massive data center at City of Abilene, is really of importance to these bad actors. But imagine all the people that are already involved in that project. So the construction people, the different suppliers, there are high value targets for these bad actors because maybe they can be ransomed or maybe their data could be used to infiltrate other valuable information about the data center. And when it comes online, that becomes even more valuable,' Huda said. While there is currently no evidence to believe that Stargate and the Lancium clean compute facility played a factor in the ransomware gang's decision to target Abilene, Huda says the sheer amount of data and information that are involved in the venture are no doubt of high value to bad actors. 'So plans, designs, how those chips are being made, where they're being shipped to. What volume of chips are being made, what types? That's a really strategic importance. And so, you know, these these that actors in this case might be a criminal gang, but, you know, they may be supported by adversary nation states such as Russia,' suggested Huda. As the City continues to investigate and address the attack that has already happened, Huda says businesses and individuals should be taking a cybersecurity inventory to defend against potential future attacks, data loss, and identity theft. 'So first of all, businesses should be proactive right now and think that they possibly could be attack, target and therefore put some measures in place. So like an incident response plan, which is basically a plan that says, hey, can we recognize a potential incident happening? And if we do, can we quickly come together and prevent that ransomware, for example, from infecting all of our computers?…Backup files should be regularly backed up. They should be offsite, offline, inaccessible to the ransomware, because frequently the ransomware will actually be programed to hunt for those backup files,' Huda said. Huda advised individuals who may have been impacted by the attack to check their passwords and consider changing any passwords that are linked to City of Abilene accounts. Stating also that passwords should be varied between different accounts and not be made simple or easy to guess. As far as any potential fallout from this attack for Abilene citizens, Huda says to be on guard for identity theft and keep a close monitor on all financial or banking accounts you utilize. 'Individuals should, number one be paying attention to their credit reports. Put a credit monitoring alert on. Maybe put some credit freezes but be especially on guard for potential identity theft. That could happen not necessarily from this gang, but, you know, other gangs, other criminals that they may sell that data to who may perpetrate that type of fraud, which is identity theft. Open up credit cards, open up bank loans, different types of other expenses, you know, using the identity of the consumer. So that's the risk to the consumer,' said Huda. Prior to this report, KTAB/KRBC reached out to the City of Abilene with a list of questions. City staff stated that they are actively working to gather the relevant information, but were unable to respond in time for this report. 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