Intro

How it all started

So, let’s start from the beginning. I’m a financial manager, entrapped in a body of a CEO of an IT company 😁 . Long ago, in a country far far away, I received BS and MS degree cum laude in financial management from Moscow State University and surely was entitled to a career with a fancy suit and filthy numbers.
 
But when I was finishing my BS, I was summoned to help assemble a project of an Israeli Russian medical center – business plan, financial model, etc. An adventure for half an hour, just in and out ©, I thought, why not. God how wrong was I) After some time I found myself (21 old guy) standing in front of a PE fund management selling them the project (5 storey private hospital with MRI, CT, IVF, surgery etc.). Next thing – me being a CFO of that project, first hired employee, doing my best to help make it real 😎
 
After a marvelous 5 years in that position, when I tasted firsthand what it means to rise up a hospital from scratch, I decided to move.

No more operational medical business!

I thought that it was the right time to open a pediatrics clinic) I found the financing, core team, and opened my very own medical center, that sometime after turned into a small chain of clinics. That was actually the first time I realized, that it’s impossible to run even a small medical center without a decent IT system. Everything I’d found on the market made me sick – Delphi/C++ monoliths from the dark ages, or some tiny cloud CRMs, that were unable to provide the whole picture and enough response. 
 
So, as I was young and stupid, I decided that I should make my own system. I guess that’s the reason there are so few new systems on the market – if you know enough to make it, you already got brains not to do it, because you know what it would take)) But I was 26, sky was the limit, and we had an unlimited coffee supply. I was very lucky to have a team of people, who were as crazy as me, and who help me to make it actually happened.
 
In some time, people I knew from medical market started coming and asking me to sell it to them, because we had the only ERP class system on the medical market (and, funny fact, 8 years after that we still are the only system of that type). Then it all escalated quickly © We’ve had the first real E2E analytics, messenger integration, one window concept etc.
 
I’ve sold my share in my clinics, and moved on to concentrate on my IT company. And if I thought I knew everything about medical business, I was sooo wrong. In following years we’ve made systems for completely different medical businesses – genetic labs, IVF labs, hospitals, rehabs, pshyco, ambulatory, you name it. And I’ve found out there is still so much to learn.

For almost two years we didn’t even have a brand name, we were to busy delivering for the clients. But then we’ve decided to finally come out with a company name, and we’ve chosen Alpaca. Why? Because alpacas are awesome! Prove me wrong. And, based on my many years in marketing, I learned that you have to stand out. I never wanted to be something like “Doctor…” “Med..” and so on, like the majority of the market.

Ticket to ride

And then, after working for over 5 years on CIS market, I’ve moved on to Israel, to push our expertise to the international markets. When I first came here, and saw what system are being used in local hospitals, I’ve decided that I should definitely move my business here fast 😁 I’ve sold my Russian business, and now concentrate all my efforts on Israel and Middle East (as a first markets to start with).
 
It’s a well-known fact, that in some areas Russian market was world leading (fintech, banking, UI/UX, etc.), because we didn’t have to support the legacy, and could start from scratch with the most modern architecture. A lot of people from my Aliyah come here and start complaining about the things that they found less advanced, mostly in everyday services and technology. I don’t agree with that. I think, that every Aliyah brings something new, and it’s our mission to introduce best practices to our areas of expertise 😎
 
I’m not running from anything; I’m moving forward to show in Israel and other countries how medical IT should be done in XXI century.  Delphi and C++ monolith gotta go, sorry, this is the era of web apps, cloud native solutions, microservices and adaptive UI/UX 🙄
 
Alpacas will mercilessly attack you with their furness and awesomeness. Embrace.
 
P.S. Besides medical IT 😁 , Israel really rocks, and I’m glad I’m here 😊