Kazakh Entrepreneur Launched a Platform That Teaches How to Build AI Bots for Business. His Project Is Already Valued at $50 Million

Miras Sovetov got into startups by chance. While studying Electrical and Computer Engineering at Nazarbayev University, he started looking for an internship. He applied to Microsoft and other big companies but didn’t have any luck. For that kind of major, most companies were only hiring people with a PhD. “That’s when I thought, if no one’s going to hire me, I’ll come up with something myself,” Miras says. He joined the university’s accelerator and built an AgroTech project to fight weeds. Later, he and a friend launched an anti-cheating system.

Right now, Miras and his partners are working on growing JobEscape, an educational platform that teaches people how to build AI bots for business. As part of the joint project «100 Startup Stories of Central Asia» by Digital Business and Astana Hub, he shared what happened to his earlier projects, what makes JobEscape valuable for everyday users, and why he believes this startup has the potential to generate hundreds of millions in revenue in the future.

«We got an offer and felt that cashing out made sense at that point»

– Miras, your startup journey started with an agri-tech project. What ended up happening with it?

– At the start, everything was going well. After launching the platform, we got paying customers pretty quickly. Then we raised $150,000 from an Australian venture fund based in Hong Kong. But later, it became clear that we’d need a lot more money to really grow. For example, around the same time, one of our closest competitors closed a $10 million funding round, and they didn’t even have any revenue yet. Back then, and maybe even now, that kind of money just isn’t available in our market. So we ended up having to shut the project down.

– What happened next? When did you decide to launch a new startup?

– Almost right away. At the time, my current co-founder at JobEscape, Margulan Yermek, was working on a facial recognition project for BI Group. The situation was that one company handled all the turnkey apartment renovations in their buildings. BI Group needed a tool to track whether workers actually showed up for their shifts, because that directly affected whether the project would be delivered on time.

It quickly became clear that, aside from BI Group, there wasn’t much demand for that kind of solution in Kazakhstan. Around the time I was shutting down my AgroTech project, Margulan asked me to help out with the business side of things. That’s when we pivoted toward education, since it seemed like a more promising market. Plus, the pandemic had just started, and a lot of things were moving online. So we decided to build an anti-cheating system for online exams.

– How successful was that project?

– We managed to make an exit with that project. It was a solid deal by Kazakh market standards. The buyers looked at our profit, ran some valuation models, and bought us out as a private equity deal. The amount was in the six figures, but under a million dollars.

Why did we decide to sell? We got an offer and felt that cashing out made sense at the time. Back then, it wasn’t clear what would happen with online exams after the pandemic. So we figured it was a good moment to exit and move on to something new.

For me, as a 23-year-old at the time, the money from the exit was a big deal. Let’s just say it covered bread, butter, and a bit of black caviar too. All in all, it was a great experience.

«My co-founder and I put in $20,000 of our own money at the start»

– Did the JobEscape story start right after the exit?

– No, not right away. I actually thought I was a bit burned out from startups and wanted to try working a regular job for the first time in my life. I moved to Dubai and joined the strategy department at DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre, a free economic zone with its own financial regulator and a legal system based on English common law — note by Digital Business), doing internal consulting. But honestly, I didn’t enjoy it. Most of my job was making slide decks for the CEO, who would glance at the first and last slide and say, “OK, cool.” That definitely wasn’t something I wanted to keep doing.

At the time, Margulan was working at a company under the Ukrainian holding Genesis (focuses on websites, mobile apps, IT outsourcing, and consulting — note by Digital Business). He was handling performance marketing there running ads on Google, Meta, and other platforms. Eventually, Margulan suggested launching a B2C project in Kazakhstan with a focus on performance marketing. We brainstormed a few ideas and narrowed it down to two products. Then we built MVPs and put them out for testing to see what kind of demand there was.

The first one was Bloomy, a service for pregnant women with various tips and exercises. But we quickly realized that with a product like that, we’d be taking on a lot of responsibility. Every woman needs a personalized approach, and we weren’t looking to get into something that complex. That said, in terms of user acquisition, the product actually performed well.

The second project was a platform that teaches people freelance career skills using AI. It offers video lessons along with all the tools needed for hands-on practice. That eventually became JobEscape. We decided to focus on it more seriously, since it also started attracting users right away but was much simpler to manage. Later on, we became residents of Astana Hub.

– Considering you launched two products at once, how much money did you need to get started?

– At first, Margulan and I put in around $20,000 of our own money. Then we did a small project for a group that paid us $15,000, which added to our initial budget. That was our starting capital. A bit later, we raised external funding, a total of $300,000 from White Hill Capital, Caucasus Ventures, and angel investor Eldar Tolesh. We used that money to run experiments with both products.

Later on, we raised another $1 million, which we put directly into growing JobEscape. But not too long ago, we made a pivot. Instead of teaching freelance careers, we shifted to helping people learn how to build AI bots for businesses using no-code platforms like Make.com and n8n. We saw a lot of demand and real potential in that space.

«Our mission is to teach as many people as possible how to use AI tools effectively»

– What exactly does JobEscape offer?

– Users gain a skill they can start monetizing right away. They learn how to build bots for automating things like sales, customer support, SMM, and even resume screening for recruiters.

For users, it’s an educational platform that combines different types of content, including video lessons, practical exercises, written materials, and a built-in AI assistant. So it's not just passive watching, it's real learning with hands-on practice. The platform also gives access to more than 30 AI tools, from ChatGPT to Midjourney, which students use to complete their tasks.

Our main mission is to teach as many people as possible how to use AI tools properly. That’s why we’re now moving toward building an AI builder, a platform where people can create different types of AI bots and integrate them into client systems, all in one place. For example, someone can launch an HR document-processing chatbot right from their phone using tools like Make.com or n8n. They can connect it to WhatsApp, and the business ends up with a solution that collects all the necessary documents in one place and sends them out for signatures to the right people.

We're also working on launching an AI agent that will basically call up businesses, mostly in the U.S., and offer them a chance to work with our students. It’s kind of like a job marketplace where companies can order custom AI bots tailored to their needs from freelancers. Everyone who completes our courses will get access to those job opportunities.

These steps will help us increase LTV, or lifetime value. Right now, it's around 3 to 4 months, but after we launch the AI builder, we expect that number to go up by 2 to 3 times. We're also aiming to grow our MRR from $800,000 to somewhere between $2 and $2.5 million.

– How many paying users do you have right now?

– A little over 20,000. In terms of geography, about 40 percent of our users are from North America, mainly the U.S. and Canada — that’s our main market. Another 30 percent come from the UK and parts of Europe, and the remaining 30 percent are from the rest of the world.

In the near future, we're planning to scale into Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, mainly in Latin America. It’s a huge market with millions of people looking for ways to earn money online. This move could potentially double our revenue using the exact same product, since content-based businesses are relatively easy to localize into two new languages. There’s no need to rebuild the whole platform. It’s mostly about translating videos and text, and adjusting the examples to fit the local market. Especially since we create all the content ourselves.

We're also planning to move into the B2B space by helping companies train their employees to build AI agents. We've already lined up our first deal, a pilot contract with a company in Kazakhstan. If it doesn’t turn out to be too demanding operationally, we’ll start scaling the corporate training side of the business.

«In the next 3 to 4 years, we can easily grow to $100 million in annual revenue»

– Are you planning to raise investment to scale into Latin American markets and launch the AI builder?

– More likely a loan than traditional investment. Somewhere in the range of $500,000 to $1 million. My broader goal is to raise around $20 million in loans for JobEscape over the next couple of years.

Why go that route? The project is already profitable, so there’s not much point in diluting our shares any further. Once we hit $100 to $200 million in annual recurring revenue, then we’ll consider raising equity investment. At that scale, the numbers will look very different, and outside funding will make more sense.

– What’s the current valuation of the startup?

– Around $50 million. At least, that was the valuation during our due diligence process. But we decided not to move forward and chose to focus on growing through debt instead. I believe that within the next 3 to 4 years, we can easily reach $100 million in annual revenue, or even significantly more.

My real goal is to hit $1 billion in ARR. The unicorn status doesn't excite me much — today you’ve got it, tomorrow it’s gone. They pop like bubbles. But hitting $1 billion in annual revenue, that’s something I truly believe is achievable. Just look at Genesis, the company I mentioned earlier. Those guys built a business doing $3 to 4 billion in ARR. And honestly, I don’t see any real reason why we couldn’t do the same.

– What makes JobEscape capable of hitting numbers like that?

– It’s going to be a mix of things. First, scaling to new audiences. After Spanish and Portuguese, we plan to add other major languages around the world. Second, strengthening the product itself by using AI to automate our internal processes and launching the AI builder. We’re also considering acquiring smaller EdTech projects in Kazakhstan. They might not be making much money yet, but they align well with what we’re doing, and that kind of move could give a serious boost to everyone involved.

In the near term, we want to significantly increase our LTV and grow our annual revenue to around $30–40 million. That’s a realistic goal, especially once we roll out the AI builder. Tools like Make.com and n8n are powerful, but honestly, they’re pretty hard to use. Our aim is to lower the entry barrier so that everyday people, like an accountant or a welder with no prior experience using no-code tools, can start building AI agents on their own after a short training. One of my bigger personal goals is to help one million people learn how to use AI tools effectively and with confidence.

– To wrap up, what advice would you give to aspiring startup founders?

– First of all, don’t stop, no matter how tough things get. The most important trait of an entrepreneur is being willing to take risks and deal with the consequences. Yeah, some days are hard, but that’s no reason to lose hope. At some point, the right opportunity will come along. Personally, when things get rough, I just go to sleep so I can wake up with a clear head and start figuring things out. That approach works really well for me.

People tend to imagine the worst because they’re afraid of ending up with nothing. But honestly, things are rarely as bad as we make them out to be. What really matters is accepting from the start that the worst-case scenario might happen, and still choosing to move forward anyway. As long as you haven’t given up, it’s not over.

Secondly, don’t get too hung up on fundraising right away. Most of the time, it’s a completely subjective game. Basically, there are two ways to raise money. One is to generate buzz, make noise, and tell everyone how awesome you are. Eventually, someone will believe it and invest. The problem is, the buzz will fade at some point, and then you’re stuck not knowing what to do next. The other way is to build a solid product and show real results. When that happens, investors will come to you.

Third, do something that brings you joy and energy. For example, I felt totally out of place working with colleagues at DIFC. Honestly, I think there’s nothing worse than being stuck with people you don’t enjoy being around. So my mindset is this: I’d rather make a bit less money but work with people I actually like and do things that genuinely excite me.