1gr14/igrich/
Sergei Dmitriev
I'm a fullstack TypeScript developer, 32 years old. I build web services, mobile apps, and desktop apps; I work remotely and live where I want. I started building for money at 14 — that's 18 years of commercial development, the last 11 in startups.
Over these years I understood what I enjoy most: not the end products, but the process of building them. So now I build products for developers — the Point0 framework, the *0 libraries, and the Start0 boilerplate. This site is their home.
The story
Instead of describing skills and background, it's clearer to just show the chronology of my work. Newest first
1gr14
Now I build my own tools in the open: the Point0 framework, the *0 libraries, the Start0 boilerplate, and this site. The name 1gr14 reads as «Игрич»: 1=И, 4=Ч — from Sergei Igorevich.
The turn to developer tools
Year by year I understood what I enjoy most: not the end products, but the process of building them — and the tools that shape that process. I stepped away from almost all of my own and client projects and turned to open-source development.
Video dubbing at $2 an hour
I wrote a quick script that dubbed video into other languages for $2 per hour of footage — the market leader charged $100. The owner of the company I worked with liked it: I got a raise and a share, and we set out to turn the script into a product. We tried, did not find clients, and closed the project.
5 billion pushes a day
I joined a web-push delivery service — the biggest load of my career, about 5 billion pushes a day. The core was already built, so I cannot say I created it from scratch; I helped it grow. Then, for the same client, I moved to pure backend work: servers for mobile apps, mostly AI ones, including a ChatGPT app for smartphones.
A dashboard for an investment fund
All these years, in parallel, I was building a member dashboard for an investment fund — purely for a share in it. I hope one day they get rich, and me together with them.
Notifications for US clinics
A year and a half in a company that serves large US medical clients. I started as a fullstack developer and shifted towards backend; the product sent notifications to clinic patients. I was glad to work there and they were glad to have me — then the end client moved the work to another team, and I moved on.
Side projects
Smaller things along the way: a Shopify plugin that writes SEO texts and keywords for products with ChatGPT, a habit tracker for Android and iOS in React Native, and a PWA for a businessman in Montenegro — his beach managers marked which sunbed was rented and for how much, and he watched the day's numbers online.
My fullstack course
After the startups and the jobs I saw that I have my own view on how to build products from scratch. I recorded it as a fullstack development course: 28 hours of video and 140+ lessons.
Health Samurai
I wanted to see how work is organized in relatively big companies, so I joined Health Samurai as a fullstack developer. I grew a lot there — in particular technologies and in approaches to building high-load applications. Everyone was happy with my work; then the project I worked on was handed to another company, and I moved on.
A niche CRM
No new clients came through word of mouth, and I had never learned to search for them myself. So with a marketer friend I made a CRM for stretch-ceiling installers. I finished all the programming; the business side never moved. I am still glad I got the experience.
A worker exchange for builders
A client from Estonia ordered a service where construction companies lend workers to each other — a headhunter for builders. I drew the prototype, passed it to a designer, and built the project alone, bringing in a markup developer at the final stage. I delivered it, but the client's main business ran into trouble, and he never launched it.
SureTask
The client from England ordered an analog of YouDo for the UK market. I had no team anymore, so I built it myself: drew the prototype to agree on the vision, then made the web service and the iOS app, hiring a helper developer midway to move faster. The project launched and works to this day: suretask.com. The client later joined BinKing as a product manager — and recommended me to his friend from Estonia.
BinKing
My own small startup, built in parallel: an API that returns a bank's logo, colors, and phone by card number, so a payment form can be as responsive as the ones in banking apps. It works to this day: binking.io. When the first free version was ready, I published a promo article on Habr and wrote at the end that I was looking for a startup to build from scratch — startups are my passion. That is how the client from England found me.
A marketplace for crypto miners
The next client ordered a wholesale marketplace for the crypto-mining industry: immersion baths, computing power, a thousand units and more per deal. The same team worked on it for 7 months — then the client disappeared. I paid the team monthly, so the debts were mine; I took a loan, paid everyone, and lost heart for a while. The team broke up, but I came out in full command of our stack, sure I could handle any project alone — and gather a new team when needed.
A platform for online courses
A client ordered a platform for creating and running online courses. I did not have enough experience to build it alone, so I hired two developers — one backend, one frontend. I set their tasks, learned from them, and wrote the frontend myself. A year and a half later everything worked, but the client decided not to launch for his own business reasons. He stayed very happy with our work and recommended the team to his friend.
Websites from age 14
I started earning with turnkey websites at 14: design, markup, CMS setup. In time it got boring — I wanted to learn to build complex services, not pages.
Building open-source software for the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ ☦️
With love for developers
of all backgrounds around the world ❤️
of the Lord Jesus Christ ☦️
With love for developers
of all backgrounds around the world ❤️