Employee Success Story: When Hard Work Moves You Across the Globe

US Regional Director Armen Haroyan has been with Ucraft since the very beginning, yet little did he know that his passion for his work at the company would later move him across the globe.

Armen shares his thoughts on his journey at Ucraft, the intricacies of his position, how he started as a co-founder, and much more. 

Check out the interview here for those mentioned above and more!
 

1. Tell us about your role and journey into technology. What made you join Ucraft?

   Since childhood, I’ve been interested in physics, math. With the rise of computers, I started to explore different technologies, gadgets and eventually ended up on the Web. Nowadays, the internet is a global infrastructure, which is the core of every aspect of our lives, and it feels wonderful to be a part of it. With my technical background, I started to build websites, then went into coding.

   What made me join Ucraft? I didn’t just join - I was one of the co-founders. We decided that the world needed easier and more intuitive ways of creating websites instead of coding, so we combined our extensive experience and started Ucraft. We grew from a small startup into a big company with nearly  200 employees. That has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.
    

2. How did you find the transition from CTO to Regional Director? 

   After 10+ years in coding, I felt I needed some change and decided to move into the business aspects of our company. I moved to the US and started our branch there. 

   It was complicated to continue being the CTO of Ucraft managing the team remotely from the US, so I transitioned into management and sales. I was learning about sales and closing deals at the same time. After being a technical guy, it was tough to do sales, but eventually, I was able to bring in lots of deals.
    

3. Where does your nickname of “Whitelabel God” come from?
   Haha, I always get nicknames. Sometimes I am not even aware of them. When I was in school, my classmates called me “brainy,” and now I am the “Whitelabel God”? The reason, I guess, is that I was able to bring in the most partnerships and sell our products in the US.
    

4. How do you find working at Ucraft from a different continent? Are there any differences between working with clients in the US and Armenia?
   I really miss being a part of the team physically, to be honest. But it is also great to work remotely and still bring value to our company. From my experience, it can be easier to work with clients from the US since they are more straightforward. They usually know what they want, what they need. They are ready to pay for something they are looking for. The most significant difference is the mentality. It felt very strange at first, but I got used to it over time. 
    

5. What are some challenges you faced when switching to sales?

   There was a company that wanted our software but with many tweaks. The email conversations continued for weeks - the tuning of the platform for months, but eventually, they became one of our biggest partners. My technical background helped me a lot in closing the deal.
    

6. Tell us one fun fact about your time at Ucraft.
   Well, I can tell a fun story from the early days of Ucraft. I remember, when we were about to release a new version of Ucraft, which was every few weeks back then, I used to grab a bunch of papers and run back and forth through our office. I was throwing the papers into the air and was screaming “Release, Release,” and everybody was laughing. I miss those days.