Business Taken Personally.
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Business taken personally.

I am Artem Berman, I build B2B software companies, scale them across 100+ countries, and take them to an exit.

Co-founded StarWind Software in 2008 and ran it for 17 years, including 3 as CEO, until DataCore acquired it in May 2025. Built it to 63,800+ deployments across 100+ countries, and kept it shipping through the 2022 war.

Also an angel in 22 companies. And I build with AI myself: Epicrisis Companion, an open-source medical records archive with a commercial licence for insurers and clinics.

Get in touch Advisory
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 growth.

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 seed, Series A and B before 2014, then ran the company self-funded.

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 2008-2010 · CEO 2010-2013 · COO 2013-2025

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. Double-digit growth.

I owned the M&A end to end and sold to DataCore in May 2025, then spent a year as their strategic advisor through the integration. Recognized by Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for hyperconverged infrastructure (2022), G2, and TrustRadius.

Earlier: Rocket Division Software, co-founder & COO (2002–2010). 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.
You don't need to do anything special to win or outperform the competition. Minimising mistakes is enough.
// 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.
Money is what's in your account. Everything else is your subjective bet on the probability of getting paid.
// 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.
The earlier the stage, the shorter the message.
A vague value proposition is mostly proposition, very little value.
// 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 product
Pick any release date you want. The release will always be six months past it.
They say product managers put products on shelves and marketers take them off. Done right, both eliminate the need for the shelf.
// 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.
There are five things you can do with time: kill it, waste it, spend it, invest it, or enjoy it.
The most important clause in any agreement is the right to terminate it on 30 days' written notice.
Nothing stops our leader. Not sound judgment, not common sense.
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.

06 Contact
I take on a few things at a time: fractional COO work, board and advisory seats, and exit or diligence work for B2B software companies.
Cyprus-based · EU substance
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© Artem Berman · Business Taken Personally