How an immigrant from Azerbaijan became an engineer on Twitter and sold them an idea for $ 50 million - ForumDaily
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How an immigrant from Azerbaijan became an engineer on Twitter and sold them an idea for $ 50 million

Tural Badirkhanly is the first student from Azerbaijan to receive a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Born in the city of Guba, 160 km from Baku, today he works as an engineer for Twitter, in the heart of the IT industry - in Silicon Valley.

“I never thought I would ever end up in this place.” Dreams really do come true if you really want it...,” says Tural in an interview 1news.az. — I left Azerbaijan in 2002. First to Turkey, then to Boston, where he studied and received a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree. I have been living and working in California for the past five years. I am attracted to technology and innovation, in particular computer technology. This is one of the main reasons why I live there.

When I finished my studies, in 2009, the financial crisis was still going on in America. After graduating from university, as a rule, a year is given so that graduates can find a job. If during this time you have not settled anywhere, you will have to leave. Some guys from my university could not find a job. But I was very lucky. I received several job offers, including from one advanced Admob startup. I knew that I wanted to work in such projects. In such companies, the result of your work has a multiplier effect. In this company, I began to develop advertising programs for mobile phones. In 2009, this was not a very popular area, but now everything has changed.

A year later, Google acquired this company for nearly a billion dollars. Google competed with our company, but we were ahead of them with our products, and it was easier for them to just buy us. The whole team, the 150 man, continued his work under their wing.

You know, I always wanted to create something of my own. Being in the center of innovation, in a country like America, it is impossible not to create, not to create. If I fail to do what I want, it will still be an experience. Therefore, having worked at Google for almost two years, I decided to separate from it and start my project. My friend and I had ideas that we wanted to implement. But we could not complete them, as he had to go home to Turkey. I continued to work on my ideas alone for six months. By the end of that year, I met a guy with whom I shared my ideas in the field of mobile apps. He, like me, worked for some time at Google. We had an idea to work on new types of mobile phone ads, called native advertising. These types of advertisements have already brought very high returns to some companies, such as Facebook and Twitter. And we decided to create this technology for media companies, for example, for ESPN, Fox, New York Times, etc.

— How long did this project last? What successes have you achieved?

— This company existed for a year and a half. During this period, we worked with Twitter on some advertising standards. They had similar ideas to us. But we were again ahead of them, so they expressed a desire to buy our company. This happened in June last year. We integrated our technologies into Twitter technologies and became part of it.

— I heard that you sold an application developed by you and your company to Twitter for $50 million...

- This is confidential information. Neither Twitter nor we have spoken on this topic. Now our company is part of this company, and I have been working there as an engineer for the last year.

— And yet, why did you sell this startup?

- There were several reasons for this. Twitter had resources that we didn't and vice versa. By joining forces, we could get ahead of our competitors. This is the market where Facebook is entering and Google plans to enter. We are talking about the advertising segment.

Advertising is an area where it is always important to be first and it is necessary to move very quickly.

— This is one of the profitable areas, if not the most profitable...

- Agree. Twitter makes money only from advertising, just like Facebook. Google's turnover is 60-70 billion per year. Twitter launched this process at the company only a year ago.

— What are you doing now, being part of a company like Twitter?

— Our task was to integrate the product we created into the Twitter system. We have completed this process. We are currently working on mobile technologies in this company. At Namo Media, we had a lot of ideas on how to stay ahead of any competition in this space. Now these ideas belong to Twitter, and we are working on their implementation.

— You started working in startups, and now you work in a large and well-known company. Can you feel the difference?

— In small companies there is always more risk and stress, but at the same time, when you achieve something, it is immediately noticeable. Let's take WhatsApp for example.

A small company with 50 employees and 500 million users was sold for 20 billion dollars. Successes such startups motivate. You have the feeling that you can also create something that can change people's lives.

— Do you think it’s possible to achieve this by working on Twitter?

— Twitter is not as big a company as, say, Google.

40-50 employs thousands of people around the world on Google, 3 thousand on Twitter, 10 thousand on Facebook. There are a lot of tasks on Twitter. There are opportunities there, and compared to the other two, it is relatively young, and any achievement can become meaningful for her. A lot of smart guys work in this company, with whom you can learn a lot.

— Do you think it would be possible to do something similar in Baku?

— Baku is a different world for me, because I can’t do anything close to what I do in the States here. This applies not only to Baku, but also to any other city. Of course, I can return, but I won’t be able to work in technology here anymore.

- What are your plans for the future? Share.

— I never plan anything for more than 2-3 years. The world is changing rapidly now, and plans can change just as quickly.

Photo gencol.az

- How old are you? Where are you from?

— I’m 29. Born and raised in Guba. After 7th grade I entered the Turkish Lyceum. I thought for a long time about where to continue my education and chose Turkey. He entered Bogazici University to study physics. At that time, I knew nothing about getting an education in America. I only knew that the tuition fees there were high, and I could not afford it, since I did not have such funds.

In Turkey, I began to learn English while on a preparatory course. This stage must be passed before entering the first course. At that time, I learned a lot about education in the United States. I often talked with other guys who wanted to go to an American university or had already studied there.

As it turned out, there are such educational institutions in America that consider a student’s resume, without considering the financial factor. I knew that I could not pay 50 thousands per year, and only applied to those who could give me a scholarship.

I was accepted to the Massachusetts University of Technology - the best university in the world that specializes in engineering. I was extremely happy.

- So this is how you got to America, or more precisely, to Boston...

— I managed to get a bachelor’s degree using the funds that the university allocated to me. My master's degree was paid for by my professor, with whom we worked together on a research project. I managed to pay for the second semester of my studies by working as a teaching assistant at the university. I taught some seminars in a computer systems class.

— What problems did you encounter in your first year of study?

— Knowledge of the language was not a big problem for me. I was more interested in people, different mentality and culture. For the first time I was so far from my homeland and my culture. I began to get used to a new relationship for me: teacher-student, and I got used to a lot over time. The most interesting thing is that I learned not only from professors, but also from the students themselves. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

— Why didn’t you continue teaching? This is one of the most respected and well-paid professions in the United States.

— The Academy is, so to speak, too theoretical for me. Yes, you can do research and discover something new, but most of your innovations will most likely not find practical application. Many of them remain on paper. I'm more interested in creating products that can impact people's lives and change them for the better. So I decided not to continue teaching, even though I enjoyed it. Computer engineering is a field where you can create without having a lot of resources. There is no need to build factories, collect spare parts, or solder cords. One computer is enough.

— Tell us about your parents. Are there physicists or mathematicians in your family? Where does such a craving for exact sciences come from?

— Mom is a physics teacher, dad is a mathematics teacher. My grandparents on my mother’s side were also physicists. The answer suggests itself.

My parents were always interested in my education and knew the value of education. They tried to give my brother and me a good education. By the way, my younger brother now lives with me in San Francisco. He is an electronics engineer. Studied in Turkey.

— How often do you visit your parents?

— For the last 10 years I have been coming to Baku every year for the New Year holidays. When I was a student, I also came for vacations. My parents recently moved to Baku. Before that, we visited them in Guba.

— What do you like most about San Francisco?

- Two hundred and sixty sunny days! It only rains for a couple of weeks a year. Lots of cafes and restaurants. Many people lead a healthy lifestyle and always look good.

I manage from time to time to get out in other states. Each state, each city has its own culture, its own values, its own energy. San Francisco is a very liberal city. Maybe that's why it became the center of innovation. But as a city it is very small. The population is less than a million.

— Has America changed you?

— I became more open in communicating with strangers, but in my soul I remained the same as I was 10 years ago when I came to this country. There are values ​​from our culture that I want to keep within me forever. It seems to me that you need to be able to adopt something good from another culture without changing internally.

— And finally, what are your wishes to Azerbaijanis who live abroad?

— We Azerbaijanis often have low self-esteem of ourselves and our nation. When you live abroad, it's wrong. Many people need to think about this.

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