News | 18 January, 2019

‘Our biggest challenge made us stronger,’ Vadym Synakh, AMC Bridge COO

AMC Bridge—having been present at the market for about 20 years, working with the leading vendors of the industry, having over 500 employees and opening the 5th development center in Ukraine.

In the run-up to the opening of AMC Bridge development center in Lviv, Vadym Synakh, COO and Co-Founder, speaks on what lies behind the success: friendship, wins and losses.

What is the company’s origin story?

The company was established in 2000. I have known Igor (Igor Tsinman, AMC Bridge President—author’s note) since we were kids. He immigrated to the U.S. in the early ‘90s, where being a software engineer, he has changed several jobs. Eventually he found himself working in a startup dealing with bank brokerage software.

At the time I was in charge of Laboratory of Groundwater Mathematical Modeling at the Institute of Science. Concurrently, I have founded Aquasoft company in Dnipro. Being a small group of programmers, we were dealing with groundwater software development. Once, out of old habit, Igor gave me a call from the U.S. Their company was looking for experienced software engineers and he proposed a collaboration. In 2000 this call seemed bizarre.

So, it was not the engineering software we started with.

Where does the company’s name come from?

The name has nothing to do either with our business or partners’ names. We started in cooperation with our partner AM Crystal Bridge engaged in crystal growing and owned by a friend of ours—Michael (Michael Ludensky, AMC Bridge CEO—author’s note).

Before long, the software development services sector has excelled the one of crystal growing. Therefore, we took a decision to register it as a separate company, and not to perplex customers with a new name, we cut Crystal short to C.

However, we have heard of more interesting versions. For instance, during one conference one of our customers asked another, 'What does this name mean?' And the latter replied, 'These guys from Ukraine wanted to make their own CAD and called it Another Mechanical CAD. But they failed, so now they provide services under this name.’

This version has nothing to do with the truth but sounds interesting.

 

How did you appear to be at the engineering software market?

In late 2001 SOLIDWORKS (one of the most popular 3D CAD manufacturers) became our client. At the beginning, we were not searching for new customers, it was something like semi-amateur business based on personal contacts and sales from the existing accounts. We had merely 5-6 clients. Nevertheless, by 2008 we have grown up to 100 people. SOLIDWORKS was our major customer and ensured around 40% of our total works.

"We had one year to diversify our business and save the team"

During crisis of 2008 we were doing not bad, the number of developers decreased insignificantly, however, in 2011 we lost our major client. French company Dassault, then a holder of SOLIDWORKS, took a decision to relocate all contract software development to India, where they had a major partner that time. We had one year to diversify our business and save the team.

Another issue was that SOLIDWORKS and we signed an exclusive agreement—we could not cooperate with Dassault’s competitors. Until the agreement expiry date, we were not allowed in the engineering software development sector, where we have developed our deepest expertise.

Later on, we signed agreements with several big CAD suppliers and, sadder but wiser, never signed any exclusive agreements with anyone again.

It is clear, that we faced 2012, reporting financial and staff losses. But it made us seriously tackle the sales and start building a professional sales organization. Currently our strong sales team, which we are planning to expand, is dealing with the U.S. sales.

"Now the challenge is reverse—we need to hire new people for new projects.
That is why we decided to open a development center in Lviv"

What is the most remarkable moment in the company history?

Perhaps surprisingly, but that “terror” we went through in 2011. It was a challenge, and it was not that we have just met it, it has worked in our favor. In fact, due to it we could define our line of business and enter the market of engineering software development services.

The interesting thing is that SOLIDWORKS came back to us after 4 years, and nowadays it is one of our largest customers.

What is AMC Bridge today?

First of all, this is a company where one would love to work. It sounds a bit slogan-ish, but it is true. Our developers help clients to solve complex problems, whereas we do not identify our business with the one of our clients’ and do our best to stay true to ourselves.

The engineering software is our area of expertise. Our main clients are so-called the Big Four in CAD and PLM Software development: Autodesk, Dassault Systems, PTC, Siemens PLM. We also work with a number of startups dealing with cutting-edge technology (artificial intelligence, VR, 3D printing), as well as the hardware manufacturers (of 3D printers, for example). Our tools are used in manufacture, construction, architecture, etc.

Are you still managing the company together with Igor?

At present there are four partners in AMC Bridge: Michael Ludensky—CEO, supervising the financial and legal issues and responsible for the company development strategy; Igor Tsinman—President, in charge of Sales, Marketing and PR; Boris Shoov—in charge of Account Management Team; me—COO, responsible for operating activities, HR, training, internal projects, reginal offices performance.

What will the company be like in future? What are your near-term plans?

We intend to increase our influence at the manufacturing and construction market, as well as to expand at the IT market in Ukraine.

Our plan to grow by at least 30% in 12 months looks pretty ambitious. To make it happen, we will use new growth capacities, such as the intensification of the regional offices’ development and reinforcement of our recruitment and HR strategy. The first step will be the opening of our development center in Lviv.

Why Lviv?

Firstly, it has a broad market of IT professionals, that matters a lot for quick growth and experience exchange. Secondly, good mathematical and technical training in higher education institutions are crucial for us. Lviv has many talented students. And lastly, this city has convenient logistics system, as we already have our offices in Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi.

What should a person aspire after to say, “This company is right for me”?

Our people are professionals, on one hand, who want to advance. On the other hand, we have a friendly environment. Any employee may contact each of the partners, if they have any question. We try to maintain the communication style applied in American startups, that is fundamentally different from the Soviet one.

"We foster the atmosphere where everyone can speak up and suggest ways of solving a problem. We try to maintain a small business company culture, however hard it may be" 

Our regional offices have big teams and it is impossible to bring everyone together in one room. Therefore, we do our best to pass on this culture by personal example through the team leaders.

Return to News page

Subscribe to our news

We will keep you updated with the latest news

scroll down to explore
to the top