🌟 Success Stories

Beyond BoundariesMentorship Programme

Each mentor-mentee pairing in our programme is designed to promote tangible growth, international collaboration, and long-term industry impact. These are just a few of the many success stories from past cohorts.

🧑‍💻

Aliya B.

Junior Frontend Developer → Full-Time React Engineer at a SaaS Startup
Mentor:
Nina Kovalchuk
Senior Frontend Engineer (Germany)
"Nina reviewed my code every week and pushed me to understand component reusability and design systems. She also helped me prepare for real interview scenarios."
Highlight: Aliya now maintains a UI component library used in early-stage European startups.
👩‍💼

Sara E.

Data Analyst Intern → Analytics Consultant
Mentor:
Farah Djamal
Product Data Lead (Netherlands)
"Farah helped me build confidence in stakeholder communication and visualising insights clearly. We also worked on my portfolio together, which helped me land interviews quickly."
Highlight: Sara contributed to an internal training session on data storytelling for new mentees.
👨‍🎓

Murat T.

Computer Science Student → Backend Developer Intern (Python)
Mentor:
Jakub Wrona
Infrastructure Engineer (Poland)
"Jakub introduced me to CI/CD workflows and helped me improve my Python project structure. Our weekly check-ins gave me structure and accountability."
Highlight: Murat now contributes to an open-source Python CLI tool initiated by Beyond Boundaries alumni.
🎮

Dana R.

Self-taught Game Developer → Junior Unity Engineer at Indie Studio
Mentor:
Lucie Bertrand
Technical Artist & Unity Developer (France)
"Lucie helped me turn scattered game jam projects into a clean portfolio. She also gave me insider tips on applying to indie studios."
Highlight: Dana's solo game prototype was showcased in the Beyond Boundaries 2024 Demo Day.
🧠

Samir K.

Neurodivergent Graduate → AI Research Assistant
Mentor:
Dr. Leandro Silva
AI Ethics Researcher (Portugal)
"Leandro taught me how to tailor my research experience for applied roles in tech. More than that, he helped me trust my communication style and work process."
Highlight: Samir co-authored a blog post on inclusive machine learning practices, now used in programme onboarding materials.
📊

Anna K.

Junior Support Role → Product Analyst at Berlin SaaS Company
Mentor:
Leonid Malysh
Growth, AI & Analytics Expert
"Leonid helped me see how to connect data to real business decisions. His guidance gave me the confidence and structure I needed to grow."
Highlight: Anna successfully transitioned from Warsaw to Berlin, demonstrating the international mobility our programme enables.
🎮

Elena M.

Hobbyist → Unity Developer
Mentor:
Andrei Kulakov
Game Developer & Studio Founder

When Elena joined Beyond Boundaries, she had a solid grasp of Unity basics but struggled to turn her game ideas into working prototypes. Under the mentorship of Andrei Kulakov, she learned how to structure UI workflows, optimise build pipelines, and approach technical storytelling. Within two months, Elena launched her first playable demo – a stylised puzzle game with multiplayer features – and presented it at our internal showcase.

"Andrei made complex systems feel manageable. His feedback gave me the confidence to call myself a game developer."
Highlight: Elena is now working with a small indie team and preparing to submit her game to a European indie accelerator.
⚙️

Daniel R.

Theory-focused Student → Junior Backend Engineer
Mentor:
Andrei Kulakov
Game Developer & Studio Founder

Daniel came to the programme with a strong theoretical background in algorithms but limited practical experience. During his mentorship with Andrei, he implemented a matchmaking system from scratch using a custom pub-sub architecture. Together, they explored topics ranging from scalable networking to deadlock avoidance and game server refactoring.

"I didn't just learn how to build things. I learned how to think like a systems engineer. Andrei pushed me to grow at every step."
Highlight: Daniel's final project – a basic multiplayer arena – earned high praise from industry reviewers and helped him land his first job as a backend developer at a mid-size mobile studio.
🎮

Arman K.

Indie Developer → Studio Hire
Mentor:
Igor Frolov
Focus: Game Architecture & Performance Optimisation
"When I joined the Beyond Boundaries programme, I was developing my first game solo and struggling to scale the codebase. Igor helped me rework my Unity architecture using ECS, making my project more efficient and modular. He reviewed my code every week, helped set up better dev practices, and guided me through my first job interview for a professional studio. I'm now working full-time at an indie game company, and I still refer back to Igor's diagrams whenever I structure a new project."
Highlight: Arman landed a full-time Unity Developer role in 2024 and released his first commercial game on Steam six months later.
📱

Liza M.

Student Prototype → App Store Feature
Mentor:
Igor Frolov
Focus: UI/UX and Mobile Optimisation in Unity
"My project started as a university prototype, but with Igor's support, it turned into something much more. He taught me how to optimise UI for mobile, use Unity's asset pipeline effectively, and integrate third-party analytics. The app was published three months after our mentorship started and got featured in the local App Store for its accessibility design. Igor's feedback was practical, detailed, and always kind. He helped me build both the product and my confidence."
Highlight: Liza's mindfulness game for children with ADHD reached over 10,000 downloads and was nominated for a regional edtech award.
🚀

Samira K.

Startup Founder: From Prototype to Revenue-Ready Product
Mentor:
Jean Kluschke
Strategic Project Manager & Startup Operations

When Samira joined Beyond Boundaries, her AI SaaS startup had a prototype but no clear path to market. With Jean Kluschke's mentorship, she redefined her product strategy, structured team operations through Confluence, and applied sales funnel analytics to identify growth opportunities. By the end of the programme, Samira secured initial clients and gained the confidence to pitch effectively to investors. She is now preparing for her first funding round with a clear, data-driven growth plan.

"Jean helped me turn scattered ideas into a structured business. His approach made scaling feel achievable."
Highlight: Samira secured initial clients and is now preparing for her first funding round with a clear, data-driven growth plan.
💰

Daniel O.

FinTech Co-Founder: Investor Readiness in Three Months
Mentor:
Jean Kluschke
Strategic Project Manager & Startup Operations

Daniel entered the programme preparing for his first funding round but lacked a cohesive pitch and data insights. Under Jean Kluschke's guidance, he implemented GA4 to track product metrics, refined his valuation story, and aligned his team's strategy. Within three months, Daniel secured pre-seed investment and established a stronger foundation for growth.

"Jean didn't just advise me, he equipped me with systems that made us investor-ready. I wouldn't have closed funding this fast without his mentorship."
Highlight: Daniel secured pre-seed investment within three months and established a stronger foundation for growth.
📈

Igor S.

Support Role → Product Manager at B2B Startup
Mentor:
Leonid Malysh
Growth, AI & Analytics Expert

With Leonid's guidance, Igor moved from a support role in customer success to a product manager position at a fast-growing B2B startup. They worked together on structuring user feedback into actionable metrics and building a data-informed roadmap.

"Leonid helped me understand what makes a product strategy credible. I walked into interviews ready to talk about growth like someone already doing the job."
Highlight: Igor successfully transitioned from customer success to product management, demonstrating the power of strategic mentorship in career pivots.
📊

Diana M.

Data Analyst → Lead Analyst
Mentor:
Leonid Malysh
Growth, AI & Analytics Expert

During her mentorship with Leonid, Diana built her first retention dashboard and used it to pitch improvements to her team's onboarding funnel. Three months later, she was promoted to a lead analyst role.

"Leonid made analytics feel strategic. I stopped just crunching numbers and started asking the right business questions."
Highlight: Diana's strategic approach to analytics led to her promotion to lead analyst role within just three months of completing the programme.
📈

Anna K.

Data Science Graduate → Scalable Analytics Tool
Mentor:
Olga Kovaleva
Data Analysis & Machine Learning Expert

Anna joined the programme with a university project — a basic analytics dashboard — but lacked the technical depth to turn it into a real-world product. During her mentorship with Olga, she learned how to structure data pipelines, integrate machine learning models, and optimise for scalability. Together, they tackled challenges in feature engineering, data cleaning, and deployment. Anna’s final project was presented at a national student innovation competition, where it won a grant for further development.

"Olga didn’t just teach me technical skills. She taught me how to approach problems with clarity and structure, which completely changed the way I work."
Highlight: Won a grant at a national innovation competition for her scalable analytics tool.
📊

Mark S.

Marketing Background → Junior Data Analyst
Mentor:
Olga Kovaleva
Data Analysis & Machine Learning Expert

Mark entered the mentorship with a background in marketing but wanted to transition into data analysis. Olga guided him through selecting learning resources, building a strong portfolio, and mastering SQL and Python. Together, they worked on real datasets, focusing on practical problem-solving and analytical storytelling. Within eight months, Mark secured his first role as a junior data analyst in a growing technology company.

"Olga helped me see that I didn’t need to start over — I could build on what I already knew. Her support made all the difference."
Highlight: Secured a junior data analyst role within eight months of starting the programme.
💼

Lena P.

Passion Project → Sustainable Subscription Business
Mentor:
Anton Zolnikov
Product Monetisation & Digital Transformation

Lena came to the programme with a passion project — a niche online platform — but no clear monetisation strategy. Anton worked with her to identify the core audience, refine the value proposition, and implement a subscription model. Together, they developed pricing experiments, tracked user behaviour, and built a simple growth dashboard. Within six months, Lena’s platform was generating steady monthly revenue.

"Anton showed me how to think strategically about my product. I stopped guessing and started making decisions based on real data."
Highlight: Reached sustainable monthly revenue within six months by introducing a subscription model.
🧭

Pavel D.

New Team Lead → Confident People Manager
Mentor:
Anton Zolnikov
Product Monetisation & Digital Transformation

Pavel had just been promoted to a team lead role and struggled with balancing technical work and leadership responsibilities. Under Anton’s mentorship, he learned how to set measurable team goals, align priorities with business objectives, and delegate effectively. They explored leadership frameworks, communication strategies, and performance tracking methods. Three months later, his team achieved record delivery rates and reported higher satisfaction scores.

"Anton helped me step into leadership with confidence. His advice gave me tools I use every day to keep my team motivated and on track."
Highlight: Achieved record delivery rates and improved team satisfaction within three months.
🔗

Daria K.

Affiliate Tool → Transparent, Auditable Reporting System
Mentor:
Andrii Mazurenko
Product Leader: Platforms, Gamification & Affiliate Tech

Daria’s team started with a narrow affiliate commission tracker for small networks. Under Andrii’s guidance, they reframed the problem to solve industry-wide trust issues in affiliate reporting. The team implemented a real-time data pipeline and an auditable reporting system designed to scale to thousands of affiliates, improving accountability and transparency across the ecosystem. The solution is now piloted by mid-sized networks and is shaping a new benchmark for fair partner relationships.

Highlight: Piloted by mid-sized networks; establishes a model for transparent affiliate data reporting.
🎯

Sergey L.

Gamification Concept → Responsible Play Platform
Mentor:
Andrii Mazurenko
Product Leader: Platforms, Gamification & Affiliate Tech

Sergey entered the programme with a generic gamification idea to boost engagement. With Andrii’s mentorship, the project pivoted to address responsible play in iGaming by integrating features like deposit limit reminders, “take a break” nudges, and positive reinforcement for sustainable play. This positioned the product as both competitive and socially responsible, aligning with regulatory needs and consumer wellbeing. The concept has been showcased in industry forums as a forward-looking standard for ethical gamification.

Highlight: Featured in industry forums as a model for responsible iGaming technologies.
🎮

Leo K.

Junior Producer → Structured Pipeline Lead for Student Game Project
Mentor:
Polina Dadabaeva
Game Producer & Production Systems Designer

Polina guided Leo through scaling a university prototype into a structured, collaborative project. She helped define production goals, establish realistic sprint cycles, and apply agile tools like standups and retrospectives. Leo implemented a working sprint dashboard, coordinated a growing remote team, and shipped the first playable demo on time.

"Polina taught me that production isn’t about control — it’s about clarity. That shift helped me keep the team focused and motivated."
Highlight: Leo's sprint rituals and production board are now used by two other student teams as a collaboration template.
🧭

Raya M.

Environment Artist → Technical Producer on a Commercial Indie Game
Mentor:
Polina Dadabaeva
Game Producer & Cross-Functional Workflow Expert

With Polina’s mentorship, Raya transitioned from a creative contributor to a production-focused role. They explored scoping, backlog ownership, and timeboxing techniques. Raya led internal playtesting loops and helped the team optimise asset delivery for Unreal Engine.

"Polina helped me understand what producers really do — create the conditions for others to succeed."
Highlight: Raya’s contributions helped identify blockers early and reduce delivery delays by over 30% during the final sprint phase.
☁️

Nikita S.

DevOps Trainee → Cloud Automation Engineer at a FinTech Startup
Mentor:
Valerii Mankvoskyi
DevOps Engineer · Cloud & AI Infrastructure Specialist

Under Valerii’s mentorship, Nikita transitioned from a junior DevOps trainee to a confident engineer capable of managing automated cloud deployments. Together, they focused on Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring automation. Valerii also guided Nikita in understanding cost optimisation and efficient resource allocation using AWS and Terraform.

“Valerii didn’t just teach me how to automate — he showed me how to think like an architect. Thanks to his feedback, I can now design stable environments from scratch.”
Highlight: Nikita now maintains cloud infrastructure for a FinTech platform processing over 30,000 transactions daily.
🧠

Olga D.

Software Developer → AI-Powered Monitoring Prototype for Outsourced Teams
Mentor:
Valerii Mankvoskyi
DevOps Engineer · Cloud & AI Infrastructure Specialist

With Valerii’s support, Olga designed a proof of concept for a project monitoring system integrating Jira, GitLab, and SonarQube metrics — inspired by Valerii’s proprietary Altamira model. He helped her implement AI-based insights for project health analysis and train an LLM to detect inefficiencies across pipelines.

“Valerii’s mentorship made AI in DevOps feel tangible. I learned how to turn scattered data into actionable insights.”
Highlight: Olga’s prototype was showcased at an internal hackathon, earning recognition for innovation in DevOps automation.
⚙️

Emil R.

System Administrator → DevOps Engineer (Kubernetes & GitLab CI)
Mentor:
Farid Bakhishli
Senior DevOps Engineer · Infrastructure & Tooling

Emil joined the programme with strong Linux fundamentals but limited exposure to cloud-native workflows. Under Farid’s guidance he containerised legacy services, implemented GitLab CI/CD with staged review environments, and deployed his first production-grade Kubernetes cluster with automated ingress and metrics collection. Weekly deep dives on pipeline security and resource optimisation accelerated his transition into a DevOps role.

"Farid helped me see patterns – not just tools. After our sessions I could explain why we made infrastructure decisions, not just how."
Highlight: Emil designed a reusable GitLab pipeline template now adopted by three internal product teams to standardise secure deployments.
🔍

Samira T.

Manual QA → Automation & Observability Engineer
Mentor:
Farid Bakhishli
Senior DevOps Engineer · Infrastructure & Tooling

Transitioning from manual QA, Samira wanted to own reliability workflows. Farid coached her on integrating test automation into CI, implementing ephemeral environments for feature validation, and wiring Prometheus + Loki dashboards to surface regression signals early. She led the migration from ad-hoc scripts to structured pipelines with shift-left quality checks.

"Farid treated every question seriously and always traced root causes. That mindset changed how I debug and design test coverage."
Highlight: Samira introduced automated performance smoke tests that reduced post-release incident volume by 25% in two quarters.
🛠️

Murad K.

Legacy Infrastructure Admin → Container Platform Engineer
Mentor:
Farid Bakhishli
Senior DevOps Engineer · Infrastructure & Tooling

Murad managed a fleet of manually provisioned VMs and wanted to modernise deployment workflows. Farid walked him through designing a migration plan: containerising core services, introducing GitOps for configuration updates, and implementing policy checks in CI to enforce tagging & resource limits. They tackled rollout strategies, blue/green validation, and incident playbook standardisation.

"Farid gave me a framework for change management. It wasn’t just about new tech – it was about predictable, recoverable releases."
Highlight: Murad’s migration reduced average deployment time from 45 minutes to under 8 and introduced automated rollback safety.
💻

Amina R.

Student learning React → Junior Frontend Developer at a fintech startup
Mentor:
Yusif Jabrayilov
Frontend & Mobile Engineer
“Yusif helped me understand React from the ground up and showed me how to structure components in a clean and predictable way. His explanations made difficult topics feel manageable, and he supported me through my first real project.”
Highlight: Amina delivered her first production-ready dashboard and now maintains core UI features used by active customers.
📱

Murad T.

Self taught beginner → React Native Intern at a mobile product studio
Mentor:
Yusif Jabrayilov
Frontend & Mobile Engineer
“Yusif guided me through React Native and helped me build my confidence with real mobile features. He reviewed my code with care and taught me how to handle navigation, storage, and API calls without breaking the app.”
Highlight: Murad released a functioning mobile prototype that helped his new team validate features with early users.
🚀

Leyla S.

University student → Frontend Developer at an e-commerce company
Mentor:
Yusif Jabrayilov
Frontend & Mobile Engineer
“Yusif taught me how to work with state management and API integration, which used to confuse me. He helped me structure my portfolio, prepare for interviews, and understand what companies expect from junior engineers.”
Highlight: Leyla now maintains product listing features and contributes to performance improvements in a live e-commerce platform.
🧩

David K.

Junior Backend Developer → Backend Engineer contributing to open fintech tooling
Mentor:
Ali Abdiyev
Full Stack Engineer
“Ali helped me understand scalable backend design and guided me through building my first financial integration module. His explanations made complex concepts clear and gave me confidence to work on systems used in real companies.”
Highlight: David contributed to an open banking sandbox tool created for small fintech teams, improving API clarity for hundreds of early stage developers.
📊

Mina S.

Computer Science Student → Software Development Intern with published engineering research
Mentor:
Ali Abdiyev
Full Stack Engineer
“Ali encouraged me to think beyond simple homework tasks and helped me approach engineering as a craft. Together we created a performance study for API response times that was later shared at a university technology forum. His mentorship changed the way I learn and build.”
Highlight: Mina’s study on performance patterns in student-built APIs is now used as reference material in her university’s backend engineering course.
🧠

Rohan P.

Manual QA → Junior Full Stack Developer contributing to an engineering community toolkit
Mentor:
Ali Abdiyev
Full Stack Engineer
“Ali showed me how to structure production-ready features and helped me move from only testing software to creating it. He explained technical ideas with clarity and helped me design components used by multiple teams in a learning community.”
Highlight: Rohan created a reusable Next.js component library now part of a public learning repository used by junior developers preparing for full stack roles.
🌟

Leila A.

Junior Data Specialist → AI Research Associate contributing to open datasets
Mentor:
Andrew Persh
Digital, AI, and Web3 Leader
“Andrew helped me understand how to analyse model outputs and document results with clarity. He taught me how to approach research questions in a structured way and encouraged me to publish my work openly.”
Highlight: Leila now maintains an openly available dataset used by early stage AI developers to test small language models.
🔗

Roman T.

Entry-Level Analyst → Web3 Ecosystem Contributor recognised by community groups
Mentor:
Andrew Persh
Digital, AI, and Web3 Leader
“Andrew showed me how to review decentralised systems critically and ask the right questions about security and user flow. His feedback helped me grow from basic research tasks to contributing ideas that others could build on.”
Highlight: Roman now authors technical notes adopted by several Web3 community groups as reference material for their workshops.
🧭

Daria K.

Graduate Student → Product Researcher shaping tools for early startup teams
Mentor:
Andrew Persh
Digital, AI, and Web3 Leader
“Andrew helped me learn how to create decision frameworks that product teams can use immediately. He pushed me to build research that stays practical and supports real product improvements.”
Highlight: Daria’s evaluation framework is now used by several young startups to assess early product hypotheses and reduce wasted effort.
📱

Daniel K.

Senior Product Manager → Platform Product Lead at a Consumer Tech Company
Mentor:
Vladimir Pronin
Principal Product Manager at Holland & Barrett
“Vladimir challenged me to stop thinking in terms of features and start thinking in terms of product systems. Our sessions completely changed how I approach ownership, prioritisation, and long term platform decisions.”
Highlight: Daniel designed a shared mobile platform model that aligned multiple squads and reduced duplicated product work across teams.
🌍

Elena M.

Head of Mobile Product → Platform Strategy Lead in a Multi Market Organisation
Mentor:
Vladimir Pronin
Principal Product Manager at Holland & Barrett
“Instead of discussing roadmaps, we focused on decision making frameworks and trade offs. This helped me redesign how product strategy actually works under delivery pressure.”
Highlight: Elena introduced repeatable strategy rituals that improved cross team alignment and are now used as a reference practice within her organisation.
📊

Marcus L.

Senior Product Lead → Product Steward for Mobile Platforms
Mentor:
Vladimir Pronin
Principal Product Manager at Holland & Barrett
“Vladimir helped me rethink the role of product leadership in mobile teams. The focus shifted from coordination to stewardship and long term value.”
Highlight: Marcus documented new product leadership principles for mobile platforms that were adopted across regional teams and shared internally as best practice.
📈

Maksim K.

Product Manager working on a multi product fintech platform
Mentor:
Pavel Rybalchenko
Senior Product Leader, FinTech and Digital Investment Platforms
“Pavel challenged the way I justified product decisions. Instead of relying on intuition or stakeholder pressure, he pushed me to formalise assumptions, define success metrics, and validate decisions through structured experiments. This changed how our team approaches roadmap discussions.”
Highlight: Maksim introduced a shared decision framework for product discovery that is now used across multiple teams to evaluate risk, impact, and long term platform implications before committing to delivery.
🧩

Elena S.

Head of Product at a B2B SaaS company in regulated markets
Mentor:
Pavel Rybalchenko
Senior Product Leader, FinTech and Digital Investment Platforms
“Working with Pavel helped me see the gaps between strategy documents and everyday product decisions. We focused on ownership models and decision rights rather than features. This reshaped how our teams collaborate across shared services and core platforms.”
Highlight: Elena redesigned the product governance model for her organisation, reducing duplicated platform work and establishing clearer ownership boundaries across four product lines.
🌐

Daniel R.

Founder of a data driven Web platform
Mentor:
Pavel Rybalchenko
Senior Product Leader, FinTech and Digital Investment Platforms
“Instead of advising on growth tactics, Pavel focused on how our product systems would behave at scale. We worked through data contracts, feedback loops, and failure scenarios. This influenced how we design features that interact with financial and analytical infrastructure.”
Highlight: Daniel’s team implemented a system level metrics model that improved cross team alignment and became the basis for long term product planning and investment decisions.

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