Tilek Mamutov

Wow! It feels like the number of Central Asian founders in YC is growing exponentially! 🇰🇬🇰🇿🇹🇯🇺🇿 Only in 2020 there were only 2 or 3 depending on how you count (Shoptiques YC W12, Outtalent YC S19, and Farel YC S20). What I found interesting is that this time out of 5 founders funded by YC in 2026 it looks like 3 graduated from a university abroad: Bek A. 🇺🇿 -> Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology 🇰🇷, Muhtasham O. 🇹🇯 -> Sabanci University 🇹🇷 & Technical University of Munich 🇩🇪, and Sardor Rahmatulloev 🇺🇿 -> Cornell University 🇺🇸. Awesome to see a woman on this list as well! It is still quite rare in the region. Not sure if she cares at all but as far as I recollect Alina Park is the first female founder in YC from Kazakhstan. 💪 Hopefully the first out of many! And lastly, there is another prodigy from Central Asia - Iqbol Temirkhojaev 🇹🇯. Here is his crazy bio: "I had my first VC-backed startup at the age of 13. I had my first exit (acquisition) when I was 14 - to the United Nations. Got a software patent when I was 15." 🤯💨💨💨🧠 😂😂 Congrats to all the founders and I hope to see something similar in every region of the world! 🌎🌍🌏❤️ -- Tilek

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A lot of agency owners say yes to every project because they’re scared to lose money, but I love it when I see founders do the opposite. Try flipping the strategy: Focus on people first, project second, payment last. (shoutout to Wilián Iralzabal for this beautiful framework) That means he turns down work even if it pays if it doesn’t align with his team, values, or quality bar. This leads to clients who trust him and a team that sticks with him.

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When Wolt announced its exit from Uzbekistan, most competitors did what competitors do. Slide into DMs. Post a generic "we're hiring" banner. Circle the wounded. Uzum Tezkor built an entire onboarding program instead. In 24 hours. I've spent months working in the region. Tashkent, what an impressive city. There are probably only a handful of airports in the world I've seen more frequently. I know what it takes to move fast in Uzbekistan and I know why most foreign players eventually don't. So when I saw what Uzum pulled off, I paid attention differently than most. Some context, because it matters: Uzum isn't just a delivery app. It's Uzbekistan's first unicorn. A super-app used by one in three Uzbeks every month. Backed by Tencent. Valued at $1.5 billion. Their download numbers rival Telegram and Instagram in-country. The truth in my opinion? Wolt made a rational call. Uzum had simply built something that's very hard to compete against from the outside. Which makes what Uzum Tezkor did in those 24 hours even more interesting, because they didn't act like a dominant player. They acted like a company that still has something to prove: - Fascilitation for A1 motorcycle licenses: Sounds bureaucratic. Isn't. In Uzbekistan, a motorcycle license is a real financial barrier for gig workers on thin per-order margins. Uzum didn't say "come join us." They said "we'll remove the thing that's been stopping you." That's not simple recruiting, it is pure listening. - Double tips during Ramadan:  Any company can announce a signing bonus. It takes actual cultural fluency, to time an incentive around the month when family obligations peak, cash matters most, and employer loyalty can shift for good. Ramadan isn't a marketing moment in Uzbekistan. It's the moment. - E-bike and scooter subsidies for pedestrian (walking) couriers: Yes, pedestrian. In Tashkent's dense old-city neighborhoods, delivery radii are short, streets are narrow, and a motorcycle is a capital investment out of reach when you're earning per order in one of Central Asia's lower-income markets. Some couriers simply walk. Most platforms don't design for them, too complicated, too marginal. Uzum subsidized the gap instead. Infrastructure thinking dressed up as an HR move. Three measures. Zero generic. Every single one required someone in that room to actually know this market, probably at midnight, while the announcement was still trending. None of it happens in 24 hours without a team that was already built to move that fast before the crisis arrived. Speed is a culture metric. https://lnkd.in/dU8nJKVA

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