Abrorbek Sharipov spent more than 20 years in finance, working his way up from an entry-level clerk to CFO of Balton Trading Asia, a distribution company based in Tashkent. In 2019, he decided to start his own business and launched Jobster.hr – a recruitment automation platform. Today, the company has more than 70 clients across Uzbekistan.
In an exclusive interview for Digital Business and Astana Hub's joint project “100 Startup Stories from Central Eurasia”, Abrorbek shared why he decided to start his own business after years at a major company, how much of his own money he invested in Jobster.hr, and how long the startup operated at a loss.
“My friend and I spent our weekends working on the startup in a basement”
– Abrorbek, what did you do before launching your startup?
– I'm originally from Marhamat, a small town near the border with Kyrgyzstan. In 2003, I graduated from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent with a bachelor's degree in International Economics and Management. Two years later, I earned my master's degree.
After graduating, I joined Korzinka, a major supermarket chain. I started as an assistant warehouse manager, then worked in accounting before moving to the finance department.
In 2005, the owner of Korzinka offered me a position at another of his companies, Balton Trading Asia, which specializes in distribution. I worked my way up from a finance clerk to CFO and stayed with the company until 2023.
– When did you first become interested in IT?
– In 2009, I was put in charge of implementing an ERP system at the company. I chose Oracle NetSuite, an American cloud-based solution. We ran into plenty of challenges along the way. For example, back then, even the 512 Kbps internet connection NetSuite needed to operate wasn't available in Uzbekistan. If I'd known how difficult the whole process would be, I probably wouldn't have agreed to take it on.
But we managed to pull it off, and a year and a half later, the entire company was using a single ERP system. Balton Trading Asia's performance improved severalfold, and I discovered what I was really good at – automating business processes. We went on to develop more than 10 different solutions.
– You spent years building your career at the same company. What made you decide to start your own business?
– The story of Jobster.hr began while I was working at Balton Trading Asia. One day in 2019, I walked into the HR office and noticed a recruiter struggling to find the CV of a candidate named Sarvar in a huge stack of printed resumes. That got me thinking: a digital database of candidates could solve this problem.
I went to the head of HR and suggested creating a Telegram chatbot that would collect the necessary information from candidates and organize it into an Excel spreadsheet. Balton Trading Asia was often hiring blue-collar workers, who rarely have CVs or use job search platforms. But back then, almost everyone had Telegram.
The head of HR liked the idea, so I started working on an MVP.
– So, was Jobster.hr initially an internal startup at the company?
– No, I worked on the project in my spare time. On weekends, my friend Nurmukhammad, who's a developer, and I would write code in my basement. Back in 2019, Uzbekistan's startup ecosystem was still in its infancy, and we weren't thinking in terms of venture capital or startups. We just wanted to build a piece of software that would solve a real business problem. By 2020, the product was ready, and Balton Trading Asia became our first client.
“I left my corporate job when Jobster.hr had 20 clients”
– What does Jobster.hr help businesses with today?
– It's a recruitment automation platform designed for high-volume hiring. Normally, when a company posts a job opening on a recruitment website, recruiters get flooded with calls and messages. They have to speak to every candidate and answer the same questions over and over again, sometimes even outside working hours.
With Jobster.hr, companies include a link to a chatbot or questionnaire in their job postings instead of the recruiter's contact details. Candidates follow the link, get answers to common questions, and go through an initial screening. The system filters out applicants who aren't a good fit and creates a shortlist of the most promising candidates.
Even if a candidate isn't a good fit, their information stays in the system, allowing the company to build its own candidate database. Employers also get detailed analytics, including how many applications have been processed, how many candidates meet the requirements, and more.
Jobster.hr can also integrate with a company's website, hh.uz, ishGO.uz, 1C, messaging apps, and other business systems.
All of this helps companies cut recruitment costs by an average of 30% and hire five times faster.
– How did you find your first clients?
– After Balton Trading Asia, we started working with another company we already had connections with. I found our third major client, the Safia pastry shop chain, through a cold call. I'd noticed that Safia was run by a young executive with a modern approach to business. I called him, explained what our platform could do, and offered him a chance to try it out. He asked a couple of questions and agreed. Safia then became a Jobster.hr client.
After that, more clients started coming to us through recommendations. Having Safia as a client made it much easier to win new contracts. In 2023, when Jobster.hr had 20 clients, I left my corporate job to focus entirely on the startup.
– How many clients does Jobster.hr have now?
– More than 70. In terms of industries, we see the most interest from hotels, restaurants and cafés (HoReCa), supermarkets, major retailers, and warehousing and logistics companies. We work with KFC, Uzum Market, Korzinka, and other major players. That said, Jobster.hr can be useful for any business with two or more branches and over 30 employees.
– Which countries do you operate in?
– We've previously worked with a few clients in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, but for now, our main focus is on Uzbekistan. At the same time, we're expanding into neighboring countries alongside our major chain clients as they open new branches there.
“We were operating at a loss until 2022”
– How does Jobster.hr make money?
– We use a standard B2B SaaS subscription model. Pricing depends on how many recruiters and managers use the platform and which features they need.
On average, access costs around $65 per recruiter and just over $5 per manager per month.
– Is the business profitable?
– We were operating at a loss until 2022. Today, Jobster.hr generates $27,200 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR), with an average of around $400 per client.
– How did you fund the project?
– For the first few years, I funded the project with my own money. I initially invested $18,000, followed by another $125,000.
In 2020, we raised $60,000 from angel investors. In 2022, we secured $150,000 from MohirDev, followed by another $150,000 from Aloqa Ventures in 2024.
Also in 2024, we took first place at the President Tech Award competition, organized by Uzbekistan's Ministry of Digital Technologies, IT Park Uzbekistan, and Plug and Play. We won $100,000 in the Entrepreneurship and Financial Technologies category. On top of that, we received a $100,000 grant from Google.
– In February this year, you also launched another project within Jobster.hr called ishGO.uz. What does this service offer?
– It's a platform that aggregates job listings and resumes for HR professionals and recruiters in Uzbekistan. While Jobster.hr is better suited to large companies, ishGO.uz is used by smaller businesses that don't have frequent hiring needs, as well as freelance recruiters.
With ishGO.uz, employers can create a Telegram chatbot to screen candidates, post job openings on our platform, and access a resume database and other features.
“You should launch a startup after 30, not while you're still a student”
– You spent more than six years building Jobster.hr largely on your own, but in 2025 you decided to join an accelerator in Silicon Valley. Why?
– Most unicorns are built in the US. I wanted to be right in the middle of it all and see firsthand how the American startup industry works. I eventually joined AlchemistX – a program organized by Alchemist Accelerator, Astana Hub, Silkroad Innovation Hub, and IT Park Uzbekistan.
For me, it was an incredible school for B2B entrepreneurship and a great opportunity to build valuable connections. The program helped me shift my mindset from thinking locally to thinking globally.
– How has your perspective changed?
– During the accelerator, I realized where we were falling short. According to the “Hacker, Hipster, Hustler” concept, you need three types of people to launch and grow a startup: a hacker who handles development, a hipster who focuses on user experience, and a hustler who drives sales. We were missing that last person. As a result, many of our genuinely good ideas never really took off.
When choosing a startup idea, it's also important to pick one that has the potential to spread largely through word of mouth. Otherwise, you could spend a fortune on marketing and still not get the results you're hoping for.
I also became convinced that it's better to launch a startup after 30 rather than while you're still a student. You need to spend some time working for established companies, gain experience, and only then build your own product.
With advances in AI, developing almost any IT solution has become much easier. And with competition growing so rapidly, founders who really know their industry have the upper hand. There are plenty of accelerator programs today aimed at young people with little or no experience, but I don't think that's quite the right approach. I believe we should prioritize supporting experienced entrepreneurs. After all, there's a reason why the average startup founder in the US is 40-45 years old.
– And what about expanding into the US market?
– During my three months in the US, I spent time studying local supermarkets. Some stores still collect paper resumes, while large chains have already automated their hiring processes. But Jobster.hr was developed in Uzbekistan and is designed specifically for emerging markets. To succeed in the US, we'd need to build a completely different product.
The trip to the US was an invaluable experience and gave me a realistic sense of what we could achieve. I realized that entering the American market would require a radically different product and a founder who was physically based there full-time.
We also realized that our biggest strength, and where we can offer the most value right now, lies in Central Asia's emerging markets, where demand for recruitment automation is high. So I returned to Tashkent to focus on expanding our business in these markets.
– How many people are currently on the Jobster.hr team?
– We have 20 employees in total, five of whom work on ishGO.uz. I'm still heavily involved in the company's day-to-day operations, and I believe a CEO can't completely step away from running the business and expect it to remain successful.
– Where do you see Jobster.hr in a couple of years?
– Our goal is to become the number one platform for hiring blue-collar workers in emerging markets. We want companies to be able to automate the entire hiring process for blue-collar staff with Jobster.hr so managers no longer have to worry about it.
For me, being a global company isn't about MRR figures. What matters is that millions of people use my product and find jobs based on their skills and abilities rather than their connections. My dream is for the idea of “getting a job through connections” to become a thing of the past in Uzbekistan and other emerging markets.