Hi, I’m
Artem Minaev

1981 – 2000

I was born on October 17th, 1981 in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Ever since I was 6 years old, I’ve been into sports. From when I was 6 to 12 years old, I practiced acrobatics. At age 12, I switched to Judo (which in Japanese means “Gentle way”). I fell in love with the sport, and apply its core principles in everyday living.

I went to a regular school up to the 8th grade, but was never a great student. At 14 years old, I wanted to go to a special technical school with a focus on math and physics. Knowing that I struggled with taking tests, I worked hard to prepare for the entrance exams. I passed the exams by a very small margin. After technical school, I passed exams to attend the University in Novosibirsk, Russia with a major in Aircraft Engineering. It was this time away when I was 16 years old that taught me how to live on my own. I was not making money on my own yet. My parents supported me financially (my budget was $150 per month:). During that time I learned how to plan my life.

2000

When I was 17 years old, my parents decided to move my entire family from Kazakhstan to Canada. I didn’t even know any English or French either. Everything in my life had changed, but now I found myself surrounded by new opportunities. I started a job delivering newspapers. It was a low-paying job with long hours. I would go to work every morning, take ESL classes all day long, and then go to Judo practice afterward. I later did other jobs in construction, pizza delivery, and even sold some cars to make money. After years of working, I bought my very first car—a 1989 Nissan 240SX. As you can see, I like to keep busy. But it’s more than that: I believe in the power of constantly learning more in order to grow.

2003

I kept up with my education and started a part-time Petroleum Engineering program at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology). The program included one-year classes and one-year of hands-on training. After I completed the classes, I started work as a field engineer on oil rigs. I would stay in the same location for up to a month straight. Thankfully, the money was very good. At the end of the year, I received my bachelor’s degree in applied petroleum engineering

2005 

Two years later, I had my first experience with websites and making an online income. A friend of mine introduced me to the online world. He already had few websites on his own and was able to make money from them. He taught me about how he was able to make money online through affiliate marketing. That year we started one project together as a pilot project. The website was creditcardsclub.com. I started learning a lot about the process while still working full-time as a field engineer. Luckily, I had enough free time working on the oil rigs, and we had satellite internet in most locations. That first website didn’t make me a lot of money ($200-$500 a month), but I learned many valuable skills that I would use later on.

2008 

As I pursued my career as a petroleum engineer, I received an offer from a US company (Smith International) who had their operations in Russia to join them as a Senior Sales Engineer. By then I knew two languages (Russian and English) and had 5 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. I was 28 years old and decided that it would be a good experience even though it was less money. At the same time, I kept experimenting with different online projects. None of them were home runs, but I was continuing to grow and learn.

2010

After two years of working in Moscow, I found out that the company I was working for was being acquired by another larger company. I had the option to be transferred and move to an unknown position, but I decided to try something different. The same friend that I already mentioned above was already making very good money on his side project (WebHostingGeeks.com). He asked me to join him with his online projects. I agreed and became a full-time entrepreneur.

2011

Over the next year, I discovered how much money can be made online. In two years we started running a number of websites and were able to generate more than $300k revenue a month from all our online properties. It was an incredible experience! We had a small office in Moscow (2-3 people) and outsourced most of the work to different companies around the world.

2012

My partner and I opened a JV company with two people Todd Robinson and Sunil Saxena. I’ve met these men through working on different online projects over the years. Back then they were already running a successful web hosting business with 150+ in-house employees. Today their company is worth $50+ million dollars and they employ 250+ people. I didn’t get too involved with this JV company at the time; it was operated by the existing staff and a general manager that we hired. Little did I know that would soon change.

2014

I wanted to spend more time with the JV company, so I decided to move to Los Angeles. After two and a half years, we decided to sell our company for a solid amount (that I cannot disclose). During my time in the US, I slowly started growing a portfolio of media websites in different niches to add to the websites that I already had with different partners.

2017

After the deal was closed and the JV company was sold, I decided to move  back to Moscow. I knew it was the place I wanted to be. I had many friends living there. The same year, I got my feet wet with a startup that never took off. We ran into monetization problems and started running out of money. I ended up closing the project and tacking the losses. We bootstrapped this startup with our own money, but nevertheless, it’s not fun to close down something you’ve worked on for over a year and a half. But, as they say, any experience “bad or good” is the most valuable thing that we can get through life.

2018

I decided to go back to my roots and co-founded a company in the oil and gas industry. The company now sells over $8 million dollars of products for service companies in Russia each year. It’s not a fast-growing business, but it’s a well-established industry that provides a steady income.

2020

I now focus on building a portfolio of websites in different niches to keep diversified assets and lower the risks of being dependent on one revenue stream. Through the years I have learned a lot about all aspects of online business, and I continue to learn more every day. My team and I tend to find and work with people who are full of passion. That way I can make sure that any project our team starts will never be short on energy or enthusiasm. If you are passionate about something and would like to work together, feel free to contact me at any time.