A lawyer by training and the creator of Collectly, Levon Brutyan began his career in 2009. At that time, he joined the Russian branch of Creditreform. The German company was engaged in collection activities, and its business was going so well that Brutyan was promoted several times during his time there and reached the position of manager for the CIS direction.
When the future CEO of Collectly felt that he wanted to c level executive list grow further, he decided to enroll in Hult International Business School (HIBS) in San Francisco. The move helped him not only gain new knowledge, but also see how business is organized in the United States. The entrepreneur was especially interested in the familiar field of debt collection.
Collectly founders: Maxim Mizotin and Levon Brutyan. Source: Forbes
First, Brutyan and Mizotin began looking for large banks that could become their partners. According to their plan, it was the banks that specialized in collection amis timekeeping software activities that could assess the prospects of the idea. The second step, the partners decided to apply to startup accelerators. This was supposed to help attract funding for the development of the idea.
Luck smiled on them in another way. The business partners were accepted into the Finnish Nordea Startup Accelerator, which was associated with the large bank Nordea. Participation in the accelerator program allowed them to attract the first financial support in the amount of 12 thousand dollars. Business angels from the USA and Finland interested mobile lead in the project invested another 400 thousand dollars. These funds were enough to create a full-fledged product.
Another step towards success was the cooperation with Nordea bank
The bank was ready to test Collectly’s technology in its Danish division. Ultimately, this testing showed that the service was ready to enter the American market.
So, the entrepreneurs applied to Y Combinator to move to San Francisco and focus on product development. The first interview at the famous startup incubator took place in February 2017. Another one soon followed — with Michael Siebel, managing director of Y Combinator.