Sterlin Builds 🛠️💡💻

I also made a decision for myself: not to use AI at all for writing or editing content. Mostly because you can already read AI-generated posts in plenty of other channels, and there are thousands more of those popping up every day. So here you’ll have to deal with my clumsy writing and my mistakes 😅

Now for the hard part. First, the week before last I got hit by a pretty rough emotional dip. Everything piled up at once, I got around five rejections from potential clients, and suddenly it felt like everything was pointless, nothing would work, and the whole thing was doomed. Usually, when you have partners or a team around you, even if they’re not actively supporting you, just their presence alone helps. Right now I don’t really have that yet. Second, I started realizing there are a lot of competitors in this market, and there’s a brutal price war going on between them. For example, pretty much every clipper started messaging my first client and offering to undercut the price. And since people still don’t really understand the advantage of working with a more technological platform, you end up having to fight on price, dump, and get dragged into this ugly little knife fight. On one hand, that’s good — it pushes you toward efficiency. On the other hand, it’s annoying as hell. Still, competition is good. It means there’s a market. Oh, and the main fail of the week: I spent the whole week building AI banner generation instead of selling. I hoped to finish it last weekend, then spent Saturday and Sunday on it, then every day this week kept thinking, “I’ll wrap it up today,” and now it’s Friday evening, my wife is off to play padel, and I’m staying home to finish this damn one-click animated banner generation feature 😅

Alright! People voted for two options, so I guess I have to do all of them 🙂 As for how the project is going. At the moment, I’m the only full-time person on the team, so right now product development, support, sales, and marketing are all on me. And on one hand, it really did turn out that all of this can be done solo. But it requires elite-level time management and the ability to switch between completely different kinds of work. It’s insanely hard to be coding a new feature one minute, then jump into sales calls, and then go moderate live ad campaigns. So this week I started building the team. On one hand, that turned out to be easier than I expected — I already have a pretty clear sense of who I need and at what level. On the other hand, it’s scary, because for now I’m funding the project out of my own pocket, and there isn’t that much of it 🙂 You think very differently about spending when it’s your own money and not an investor’s. I found my first BD manager, I’m close to finalizing things with two more team members, and some потенциальные partners/helpers are also starting to appear around the project — people I might be able to build the service with. One of the biggest wins this week: I successfully ran the first pilot. We pushed the first few thousand dollars through the system, which for me is already a very strong signal that I’m not building complete nonsense. With that budget, we delivered more than 70 million impressions for our first client and almost doubled the number of orders for their services. So now we’ve started discussing a multiple increase in volume. Also, I now have a bot (with a web app, even!), and the first hundred creator-video-clippers have already signed up. These are the people posting videos with banners like this and making money from them. Very happy to have you here, guys — hope we work well together and make money together 🤝

Question for subscribers! Two weeks ago I said I’d share how the project launch is going, and then I got completely swallowed by vibe coding / building 😅 What would you like me to post about? a) What vibe coding actually is, which AI tools I used and keep using to build — react with ❤️ b) How the project is going: what’s working, what isn’t, and what I’ve managed to build so far — react with 🔥 c) It’s Friday, let’s just do cursed cat photos instead — react with 🥰

What is VibeVO in one sentence? VibeVO is a platform for video clipping and native ad buying in short-form video across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. 🚀 We focus on two things: I. We run turnkey native ad campaigns with influencers. II. We launch and manage turnkey ambassador / creator programs — from creator moderation to payouts. What we handle: 1. sourcing creators who can produce content based on a brief; 2. moderating creators and the videos themselves; 3. anti-fraud and quality control, making sure content fits the brief and views are not inflated; 4. creator payouts. 💸 What you can do with VibeVO: 1. launch large-scale short-form video campaigns around your brand; 2. run ambassador programs with payouts for valid posts; 3. turn creator chaos, video volume, and manual operations into a more controlled workflow. ⚙️ For example, with VibeVO you can: - run a 100 million-views video campaign built around your brand; - launch an ambassador program with payouts tied to valid video uploads with thousands of creators. At its core, VibeVO is about making the short-form video market more manageable for brands, agencies, and creator teams.

Starting again turned out to be scary The strangest feeling after a successful project isn’t euphoria. It’s the fear of starting from scratch again. Once you already have something behind you that worked, every new idea gets measured against the last one. And the start no longer feels like: “nice, a new chance,” but more like: “damn, what if the next one is weaker?” Also, once you’ve gone through a real business, you understand much better how much pain sits inside any company. The first time, you go in with naivety. The second time, you go in with memory 😅 But there’s good news too. You’re not really starting from zero. You already have: - experience, - scars, - mistakes, - pattern recognition, - and a lot less romanticism than before. So yes, starting again is scary. But maybe that’s just the normal price of entry to the next level.

Two months ago I wrote here that I had exited AdsGram. Honestly, I thought I’d finally take a breath after that cycle. Rest a bit, reset, walk around with an empty head. I lasted three days 🙂 On day four, I had already started building the next project - VibeVO.io I don’t want to dump everything into one post yet. But in the next few posts I’ll share: - why I’m going in this direction, - what problem caught my attention, - and why I think this is a very interesting moment to build something new. I also want to relaunch this channel a bit. Not just random thoughts on the market, but a more honest log of building a company: what I see, what I test, where I’m wrong, what works, and what doesn’t. So yeah - a new run has started 🚀

Thank you and goodbye, AdsGram! 👋 Friends, it’s time for an important update: I am exiting AdsGram and closing this chapter of my entrepreneurial journey. It has been an incredible 2-year ride. We’ve achieved what many only dream of: 🚀 Scaled from a mere idea to the #1 company in the TMA ads market; 💰 Reached a consistent 7-figure revenue; 🤝 Built a powerhouse team of dozens of talented professionals. My deepest gratitude goes to: - The Team: You are the heart and soul of this project. Thank you for the drive, the late nights, and for believing in the vision. - Our Partners: For the trust and synergy that fueled our rapid growth. - Everyone who supported me: Your energy kept me moving forward. AdsGram is in safe hands and will continue to evolve. I’m certain the team has many more records to break. 📈 What’s next? I’m taking a short break to recharge and reset. I plan to stay within the tech & growth space, but I’m wide open to new ambitious ideas and joint ventures. Let’s stay in touch! 🤙 Reach out to me here: @vadim_adv

🎤 Speaking at TG Conf on October 15–16! I’ll be talking about traffic in Telegram Mini Apps — where it really comes from, how it performs, and what’s changing in the ecosystem. As the founder of AdsGram, the first and second-largest ad network for Mini Apps, I’ll share real market data, trends, and insights — and will be happy to answer your questions live. We’ll also have an AdsGram booth at the event — feel free to drop by, chat with the team, and say hi 👋 🗓 About the event: TG Conf ’25 — the biggest conference on traffic and sales in Telegram — takes place on October 15–16 at MTS Live Hall (Moscow). Headliners include Artemy Lebedev and Maxim Ilyakhov, plus a panel on the future of the platform with a State Duma deputy and a big company expo. 🎶 And yes — there’s an afterparty with Band’Eros. 🎟 Tickets → tgconf.ru

🎮 Telegram Apps Center now lets you vote for your favorite games! Today I want to highlight one of them — Bcoin2048, currently ranked #1 by community votes. This Telegram game has been around for a while, but recently got a major update: now you can earn TON by reaching 2048 in the game. 🧩 Merge tiles, score points, open loot boxes: Reach 2048 and get a chance to win up to 100 TON! Also, in May, the Bcoin team is launching their own token — BMAN. Stay tuned for announcements and player airdrops! Play here: Play Bcoin2048 If you like the game — vote for it here: Vote for Bcoin2048