Business Taken Personally.
About What I do Experience Quotes Contact

Artem
Berman.

Business taken personally.
I build infrastructure software, scale it across 100+ countries, and take it to an exit.

Co-founded StarWind Software and ran it as COO from 2008 to its acquisition by DataCore in 2025. Built it to 63,800+ deployments across 100+ countries, and kept it shipping through the 2022 war.

Now building with AI. Open to the next thing worth my time.

Get in touch
01 About
Entrepreneur, operator, and builder of software companies.

For two decades I've built companies, scaled them across the world, and sold them. A visionary on strategy, hands-on in operations: I like hard problems, small tight teams, and results you can measure.

I broke my neck at 16 and have used a wheelchair ever since. I didn't wait for room to be made. I started building, and I've run businesses from that chair for over twenty years. "Business taken personally" isn't a slogan. It's the method.

02 What I do
Hands-on across every part of the business.

Two decades running operations, finance, sales, and deals myself, not from a slide deck. Where I'm strong:

01

Operations

Ran a 200-person company across the US, EU, UK, and Ukraine for 17 years. P&L, delivery, governance, and compliance across four jurisdictions.

02

Finance

Full P&L ownership. Budgeting, financial modelling, and execution. Capital-efficient, self-funded growth from 2014.

03

Sales & Marketing

Built the engine that reached 100+ countries and Fortune 500, Global 2000, and US-government accounts.

04

M&A

Owned the StarWind sale to DataCore end to end: valuation, due diligence, negotiation, and close. Two exits, both clean.

05

Fundraising

Raised venture capital across rounds, from seed through Series A and B.

06

Scaling under fire

Held delivery and payroll together through the 2022 invasion and moved the team across borders without dropping the product.

03 Selected experience
Co-founder & COO · 2008–2025

StarWind Software

Software-defined storage and hyperconverged infrastructure. Grew it to 63,800+ deployments in 100+ countries, serving Fortune 500, Global 2000, and US government customers. Self-funded from 2014, double-digit growth.

I owned the M&A end to end and sold to DataCore in 2025, then stayed on as their strategic advisor through the integration. Recognized by Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for hyperconverged infrastructure (2023), G2, and TrustRadius.

Earlier: Rocket Division Software, co-founder & COO (2003–2010). The first venture, exited through a venture fund.
04 Quotes
I like to put a deep idea into a short line. A few of mine:
// On building and selling
Selling a startup is just a way to cap the risk of keeping it alive.
A dream becomes a goal the moment you have the tools.
Laziness moves the world. Every startup is just a way to do something with less effort.
Hit the wall, still going.
// On capital
Equity is like blood. Never lose too much of it.
VC is a time machine. An expensive one.
You can't buy today's food with yesterday's money.
// On sales and customers
A business idea you can't fit in a single tweet is a scientific concept, not a business idea.
Before the call, I was 90% sure I'd buy. After it, 50/50.
// On managing people
A CEO is the first to leave if it's a success, and the last to leave if it's a failure.
Never blame. Praise or fire.
You hire a person to fill a vacancy. You don't invent a vacancy to employ a person.
Hire early and you increase burn. Hire late and you delay growth.
If you're dealing with a mad scientist, make sure the guy is actually a scientist.
Every board meeting goes one of two ways: you show the P&L, or you spend 30 minutes explaining why the P&L doesn't show the whole picture.
I don't discuss others with you. That's your guarantee I won't discuss you with others.
// On the rest
The best business email is one word: DONE.
An opinion said out loud becomes advice.
If business grows too fast, check your Excel formulas.
When an employee goes into politics, let them go.
Loyalty pays back. So does reputation.
I rarely tell the truth, but I never lie.
New writing and the newsletter live on Substack →
05 Credentials

Executive MBA from Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh Business School). PMP certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI). I earned both while running the company full time, because theory means little without a P&L attached to it.

I work and negotiate in four languages: English, Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian. It's how I've sold into a hundred countries and built teams across borders.

All of it from a wheelchair.

Two exits, a 200-person company across four countries, an MBA, four languages. All of it built from a wheelchair. I mention it because it's part of the method, not in spite of it: focus on what you can control, and get it done.

06 Contact
Open to Co-founder, CEO, and COO roles, full-time or fractional, in IT startups, plus board seats and select investing.
Cyprus-based · EU substance
artem.berman@gmail.com LinkedIn Substack
© Artem Berman · Business Taken Personally