From failures to success: a frank talk with Skyeng co-founder Denis Smetnev
No Bullsh!t, May 21, 2025, 71 min, 1,268 views. Denis Smetnev, co-founder of a large online education company and founder of a marketing agency, goes through three main failures of his career in an open conversation with Sergey Kuznetsov.
| Published | |
|---|---|
| Length | 71 min |
| Views on YouTube | 1,268 |
| Language of the episode | Russian |
| Where to watch and listen | YouTube, Spotify, Telegram |
Date, length and view count according to data from the episode page on YouTube, as of the page update date shown in the footer.
In short
The first: aggressive international expansion into ten countries in six months against the warnings of an investor and partners, which burned cash and ended with the direction being closed at the end of 2021 as liquidity in the venture market fell sharply. The second: not being ready to discuss revising equity with partners when he moved from part-time to full-time, which quietly corroded the partnership for years. The third: trying to build an agency on juniors modelled on himself, from which Denis concluded that you cannot expect people to mirror your own goals and approaches.
Key ideas
- Aggressive scaling without focus is more dangerous than it looks: ten countries in six months against the warnings of an investor and a partner ended in closure.
- One country turned out to be the exception rather than the template: the targeting worked there for a local reason that did not transfer to the neighbouring markets.
- An unresolved question about equity when moving from part-time to full-time corroded the partnership for years: the price of silence was higher than the price of an awkward conversation.
- You cannot build an agency team assuming other people's goals and approaches mirror yours: of ten juniors hired, on average only one matched the founder's values.
- In any partnership, even among several strong and equal founders, one person has to hold the final decision and a matching share, otherwise responsibility dissolves.
- Three years of burnout and apathy required psychiatric help with medication rather than a holiday or a change of job: relief came only after deliberately seeking treatment.
The full transcript
The episode is recorded in Russian, and the full transcript of the conversation is on the Russian page of this episode. English and Spanish subtitles for the strongest episodes are rolling out on YouTube in waves.
Open the transcript