Incfile’s #INCspiration Founder Story series is a monthly spotlight article where we share real-life success stories from Incfile clients. These entrepreneurs used Incfile’s business formation services to start their businesses, and now their companies are up and running, and out in the world doing great things.
This month we’re featuring Andrey Mishenin, founder of Trackabi, an intelligent time tracking software that helps freelancers and small-to-medium sized businesses manage billable hours, track timesheets, file invoices, manage employee schedules and vacation and more.
If your business needs to track billable hours for projects, manage employee schedules, handle project milestones and budget estimates, or handle any other business tasks that require tracking of time, you might benefit from using Trackabi.
Learn more about Andrey Mishenin and how starting a business has supercharged his career growth as a software developer and technology leader.
Building Upon Expertise as a Developer
Prior to founding Trackabi, Andrey had professional experience as a software developer. He already knew the ins and outs of coding and building products, but launching his own company with a product that was fully his team’s own creation was a different level of risk, hard work and personal pride and satisfaction.
“Trackabi was one of the largest and most complex products I ever worked on,” Andrey said. “When after launch, my team and I started seeing the product get a stable flow of new registrations and getting great feedback, it was like Christmas came early.”
Whether you’re in the technology world or running a brick-and-mortar retail store, launching a new product can be nerve-wracking. There are so many unknowns: will the product work as expected? Will customers like it? What if there are last-minute glitches? What if no one wants to buy what we’re selling? Andrey discovered that with Trackabi, there was definitely a need for the product in the market, and the software worked.
“That's always the most rewarding thing to realize that it works out,” Andrey said. “And of course, the larger a project is, the greater is the satisfaction from its success.”
Entrepreneurship Brings Freedom
If you’re deciding whether or not to start a business, there are many risks and potential downsides to consider. Many people might worry about not having enough money saved up, not finding enough customers, having a business model that doesn’t work or some other problem that causes your business to fail.
Andrey was aware of the risks, and he knows the unique stress and worry that entrepreneurship can bring. But he has taken a pragmatic approach to sizing up the risks, managing the risks and making sure he can run his company in a way that maintains an acceptable level of risk.
“When you’re running a business, failing is scary,” Andrey said. “Many say failure is not a big deal. You fail, find a new way and continue. That's true in many cases. However, when you run a company, you are responsible for many people. When you take a risk, you should carefully think about the consequences and make sure that failing in something won't be catastrophic for the entire business.”
On the whole, Andrey feels that entrepreneurship has been a net-positive for his life and career.
“There is an endless list of pros of being an entrepreneur,” Andrey said. “Being your own boss, earning a living doing what you love, making more money and so on. However, in my opinion, the most essential benefit of being an entrepreneur is freedom of choice and the ability to develop your own products and ideas. It brings great satisfaction when something you create finds its customers and serves them well. It is so exciting that it even completely outbalances the stressful times of being an entrepreneur.”
Overcoming Pandemic Challenges
You might assume that a tech company like Trackabi would not be affected by the pandemic, since so much business activity shifted online. But Andrey said that the pandemic altered his company’s usual ways of working and made it harder to get creative inspiration from one of their usual methods: in-person IT conferences and hackathons.
“The pandemic has altered many of our plans,” Andrey said. “Usually, we participate in IT conferences and hackathons. Going to these in-person events helps to establish connections, discover new technology trends and validate some ideas. Doing these things online isn't that efficient. A part of our team also started working remotely, which required specific changes to our processes and approach to management.”
However, in spite of these issues, Andrey and his team were able to adapt and keep innovating. They’ve been able to keep trying new things for their product and develop new features quickly.
“The best thing about being in the tech space is that the things you design can quickly turn into reality,” Andrey said. ”Within a few days, you can sketch out a user interface on paper, design it in graphical software and see it working in production. That's amazing.”
Helping Busy Entrepreneurs with Business Formation Services
Andrey decided to use Incfile’s business formation services to set up his company for Trackabi and used Incfile’s Registered Agent service to receive official mailings and notifications. Like many other Incfile customers, he said that Incfile’s services made it easy for him to delegate the business formation process and avoid having to manage the complexities of filing all the paperwork himself.
“When I decided to start developing a new product and to establish a new company, I needed professional help filing all the required documents and finding a Registered Agent,” Andrey said. “It's always a good idea to delegate tasks you're not great at to an expert. Incfile helped me to sort out all of the formalities with only a few clicks.”
As an entrepreneur, your time is your most valuable asset, and you only get 24 hours per day. Anything you can delegate to outside experts can help save time so you can focus more energy on doing what you do best: creating your products, leading your team and building your business.
Chasing “Euphoria” As an Entrepreneur
Andrey Mishenin and the Trackabi team are off to a great start, with more than 1,000 companies using their software. Andrey seems to have a solid, pragmatic perspective on how to run a company and pursue great innovations while being mindful of risks.
“Being an entrepreneur is a combination of daily challenges related to running a business and euphoria from achieving set goals,” Andrey said. “If anyone else is considering becoming an entrepreneur, I would say to them, start in an area you understand, do some planning and go for it.”
Good luck to Andrey and his team! Incfile wishes you the best of luck for many future successes.
Ben Gran
Ben Gran is a freelance writer from Des Moines, Iowa. Ben has written for Fortune 500 companies, the Governor of Iowa (who now serves as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture), the U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and many corporate clients. He writes about entrepreneurship, technology, food and other areas of great personal interest.
