From C++ Builder to the Era of AI Agents: The Journey of an Engineer-Romantic Entrepreneur

At the end of the year, it is customary to weigh the achievements of the past twelve months. I, however, have decided to sum up the results of a quarter-century.

My journey in IT began in 1995. While still a college student, I joined "Ivano-Frankivskgas" as a junior programmer, armed with knowledge of FoxPro and a passion for technology. Back then, the IT world was niche and almost magical. It was the era of "bare metal" and zero abstraction—a time of floppy disks and the first timid steps of global network protocols.

Today, at the end of 2025, when neural networks write code themselves and tech stacks turn into legacy faster than their documentation is finished, we must admit: along with the tools, the scale of our thinking has evolved.

This text is a summary of a path from the first line of code to managing international IT companies. These are reflections on the "solid" and the "eternal" in a world where framework fashions change every season.

Part 1. Roots and the Romance of "Hardware" (1995–2001)

My path began with microelectronics and understanding how electricity turns into information. Studying at the technical college and earning a junior specialist degree in radio engineering (1996) gave me something many "pure" developers lack today: a physical sense of the system.

Studying "System Engineering" at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas (IFNTUNG) coincided with the rapid development of the Internet in Ukraine. In 1999–2001, my colleagues and I deployed the first Internet nodes at the university and the Regional Council. It was true romance. We were building infrastructure from scratch when only a few people around us knew how. You could count the Linux specialists nearby on the fingers of one hand.

In the programming world of 2000, my main tool was Borland C++ Builder. It felt like magic. The ability to visually design an interface and immediately "bring it to life" with the power of C++ allowed me to create my first serious applications.

Part 2. Teaching and First Steps in Business (2001–2007)

In 2000, my friends and I founded "Softek"—one of the first software companies in Western Ukraine. Just a year later, in 2001, I opened "B.F.Design"—the first web design studio in the region. This was a turning point when information technology began to rapidly integrate into business processes and become part of everyday life.

Knowledge Transfer as a Hard Skill

Parallel to business, I taught at the College of Electronic Devices and "Ukraine" University. The subjects varied: Object-Oriented Programming, Computer Networks, Data Transmission Systems.

If you can’t explain to a student how polymorphism works or what network topology is, you don’t fully understand it yourself.

Working with International Organizations

Serving as a regional representative for the IREX (USA) project and implementing "Global Libraries" programs supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped me shift to a different scale. I saw how IT impacts community life and how technology began to give people access to information and knowledge.

Part 3. The Era of Systemic Business: SoftServe and [bvblogic] (2007–2018)

In 2007, I made the difficult decision to focus entirely on business tasks. I headed the SoftServe development center in Ivano-Frankivsk. It was a challenge: building a branch from scratch, launching production processes, hiring, training, and creating a comfortable environment for 100+ professionals.

Creating [bvblogic]

In 2008, I became a co-founder and later Executive Vice President of [bvblogic]. This was a period of transformation. I moved even further away from writing code and focused on building the company structure.

My conclusion from this decade

The most complex system is not microservices on Kubernetes, but a group of people who must work in harmony for a common goal. Process-orientation + Corporate Culture = the "Operating System" of a business. If it glitches, no framework can save it.

Part 4. Returning to Roots at a New Level (2018–2026)

The period from 2018 to 2020 was a time of "professional revision" and a strategic pause for me. Working as an independent expert/IT evangelist, I gained a rare opportunity to look at the industry from the outside, stepping beyond the daily operational routine.

In this space between the "old" and the "new," the ideas for my future startups crystallized, along with a realization: the future belongs not to those who write code faster, but to those capable of designing architectures before they even become mainstream.

A significant addition to my experience was working in the public sector from 2020 to 2024. Government structures are the most complex systems with high inertia, rigid hierarchies, and zero tolerance for error. Learning to implement innovations where the system resists by its very nature was the best training in systems thinking and organizational design one could imagine.

In 2026, developing AI-based solutions requires a completely different approach to design than classical coding.

Part 5 (The Core).
What Really Matters: 10 Commandments from 25 Years of Experience

As we approach 2026, summarizing the journey, I have identified ten lessons worth sharing with future engineers, architects, and CEOs. These are conclusions forged through crises and technological shifts. They are subjective and may sometimes seem obvious—it is up to everyone to decide whether to heed them.

1. Fundamental Knowledge is Insurance Against Technological Obsolescence

The basics of radio and circuit engineering laid down back in college help me today to understand the physical limits of cloud computing and the internal mechanics of AI models. Experience with SQL (from way back in 2000) allows me to identify structural flaws in complex data processing projects at the conceptual stage. Advice: Avoid the "single framework specialist" trap. Tools change every few years (or even faster), while system logic, data transmission principles, and fundamental algorithms remain constant. A deep understanding of Computer Science is what will keep you an expert even in 2077.

2. Code is Just a Way to Automate Business Logic

The client doesn’t need your code. They need documents not to get lost, reports to be generated with one click, and their customers to be satisfied with the service. Advice: To be successful in 2026, when AI writes code in seconds, learn to understand the business goal. Become the one who solves the problem, not just someone who translates technical specs into a programming language.

3. The "Engineer-Romantic" Culture as a Burnout Guard

Have a hobby in the real world. A passion where the result can be seen and touched trains the skill of holistic system perception. In programming, we deal with abstractions daily; working with your hands restores a sense of physical reality and teaches you to see the final product beyond the monitor screen. Advice: Keep the passion for creation alive. As soon as work turns into mechanical "closing Jira tickets," you start losing to Artificial Intelligence. AI lacks the excitement and intuition that push a human to find non-standard solutions. This internal energy makes you an engineer, not just an executor.

4. Managing Chaos Through Processes

My time at SoftServe and building [bvblogic] taught me that scaling is impossible without structure. As a company grows, you cannot control every project or snippet of code, but you can establish processes. A process-oriented approach + a "corporate code" allow the system to remain stable even during a storm. I personally dislike bureaucracy. The goal is to ensure everyone is rowing in the same rhythm. Advice: Fear chaos. A good process is not a restriction of freedom, but a foundation for creativity where every person knows their tasks and area of responsibility.

5. Legacy Thinking: How Not to Become an Outdated Version of Yourself

In 2000, I was an expert in FoxPro, Lotus Notes, and C++ Builder, but that stack is long gone. If I had clung to my favorite tools, I would have ceased being a professional a decade ago. Understanding process logic and the ability to quickly grasp a new paradigm weigh more than years of work with a specific language. Advice: Regularly audit your experience for relevance. In a world where technology changes every few months, the ability to "unlearn" outdated knowledge and quickly master new approaches is the only way to stay in the profession. Your main asset is not your memory for syntax, but your speed of adaptation to new paradigms.

6. The Team as an Ecosystem

No genius can build a sustainable company alone. Projects come and go, but the people you've weathered crises with remain. A high-performance team is not just a group of professionals, but an environment of trust where everyone can make a mistake and receive support. Advice: Invest in soft skills as fiercely as in technical ones. Learn to listen, delegate, and inspire. In 2026, a leader's main role is not to give orders, but to create conditions where talent can fully flourish.

7. Partnership is a Unity of Values, Not Just Interests

The true strength of a partnership reveals itself not during the initial excitement or growth, but when big money or tempting opportunities are on the line. A business is doomed if personal short-term gain becomes more important to one partner than years of collective work. Advice: Choose partners for whom their word is worth more than a check. Always detail legal safeguards and exit scenarios while the relationship is still ideal. Not because you lack trust, but to protect the common cause from the human factor that can surface at the most unexpected moment.

8. Scale Your Thinking, Not Just Your Business

Many stop at the level of local success. However, experience in global companies teaches: you must think in global categories. Your decisions today must account for global trends, environmental standards, and social impact. Advice: Step outside your "bubble." Talk to people from other industries, countries, and cultures. The broader your worldview, the more unconventional opportunities you will see where others see a desert.

9. Crisis is an Audit of Your Strategy

Over a quarter-century, I’ve seen more than one economic and technological crisis. Each was painful but necessary. A crisis ruthlessly washes away weak processes and non-viable ideas, leaving only what truly has value. Advice: Don't wait for quiet times—they won't come. Learn to perceive instability as an environment for growth. If your system survived the storm, it means you built something real. Build "antifragility" into everything—from code architecture to your financial model.

10. Health and Balance as a Professional Responsibility

It used to be thought that a successful IT specialist is someone who works 24/7 on coffee and pizza. Today, that is a sign of lack of professionalism. A burnt-out engineer or CEO makes wrong decisions that cost the company millions. Your energy is a finite resource, just like server capacity. Advice: Treat your health as your primary asset. Sleep and mental balance are not luxuries, but necessary maintenance for your most important tool—your brain. After all, don't you want to lead your team for the next 25 years?

Conclusion: Looking into 2027 and Beyond

My journey from a junior programmer in 1995 to an IT entrepreneur in 2025 has been a voyage through technological revolutions. I have seen the rise and fall of many technologies, but the principles of building quality systems have remained unchanged:

1. Understanding the client's needs.

2. Clear, understandable, and scalable architecture.

3. Rational application of innovation.

4. A team united by shared values.

Today, I am involved in the development and implementation of AI because it is the next logical stage of evolution, not because it’s trendy. But deep down, I am still the same engineer-romantic who once felt the joy of seeing his own code make a complex machine work.

Technology is just a lever. But to move the world, you still need a fulcrum. Let that point be experience, knowledge, and curiosity.