This February 24th 2024, will mark two years since the invasion of Ukraine.
This hasn’t stopped Ukrainian-founded software company Readdle from continuing to scale globally.
The privately-funded company delivers productivity apps which regularly top the App Store, including: Spark Mail, PDF Expert, Documents, Scanner Pro, Calendars and Fluix – a leading workflow system for businesses.
In 2023, Readdle - which began as a four-person startup in Odessa in 2007- celebrated over 200m downloads of its products worldwide.
This is an achievement that CEO Igor Zhadanov and his 300+ employees - working from a range of hubs in Odessa, Kyiv, Lisbon, London and Berlin - do not take for granted.
“What is important is that over 200 million times, someone has evaluated one of our products and made a decision to install and use it. It means a lot to us,” says Igor, whose relevant teams maintain operations in Odessa and Kyiv via Starlink satellite coverage and electricity generators.
Igor unpacks his business journey at length in Acumen Media’s new ‘A Moment With’ series, now available via CBS News. The episode also covers:-
The formation of Readdle (2007) - which began with four graduates and an idea to build a document reader for the then-new iPhone How Igor’s parents saved up several years of wages to buy him and his brother Denys their first ever computer during their teens A belief that AI is set to revolutionize the future of work in a practical and positive way Why chatbots are not the answer for customer service The best advice for anyone starting a new company
As the new program illustrates, Readdle’s evolution is one of creativity, and pushing ahead with ideas despite key setbacks.
“In total, we’ve launched 40 products over 16 years, and right now we’re left with five,” says Igor, “So you can say our success rate is slightly above 10 percent!
“If there is a mistake or issue or gap in the software market, we’ve probably done it. And that’s ok as long as you learn.
Readdle’s History Readdle’s history is interwoven with that of Apple. It began in 2007, when Steve Jobs presented the first iPhone to the world in San Francisco.
Igor, a keen reader, loved this sleek new device but saw an opportunity to add more to it - a product that would enable people to read books and documents on their phones.
He and three graduate friends started coding relentlessly and their new Readdle product soon caught the attention of developers at Apple.
Their final submission ‘ReaddleDocs’ was launched on the first-ever App Store in 2008. From there, they continued to develop products which would ignite productivity for millions.