7 October 2019
Content creators and online experts are increasingly turning their work into full-fledged businesses—and those businesses need more sophisticated digital infrastructure. Subler founder Maxim Popov explains why a business management platform shouldn't depend on a single messaging app, and why sometimes the best product decision is to rethink the approach altogether.
Interviewee: Maxim Popov, founder of Subler | subler.ru
Maxim, how did Subler get started? And where did the name come from?
Like a lot of ideas, it started almost by accident. I was building a Telegram bot for Viktor Blud, a popular fitness creator. He needed a way to handle paid requests from followers through his channel. Eventually, we decided to go beyond a bot and build a full-fledged product.
The name is a nod to the word “subscribers.” That name was already taken, so we went with Subler. It's short, memorable, and doesn't have any negative associations.
What sets Subler apart from competing platforms?
I'd point to three things. First, flexibility. Subler isn't built around a single use case, like subscriptions, online stores, or courses. Creators can put together the applications they need to support their own businesses.
Second, we're building an ecosystem. Customers shouldn't have to juggle separate services for an online store, event registration, webinars, lead capture, subscriptions, and team management. Those functions can all live in a single workspace, supported by shared, customizable analytics and forecasting.
Third—and this may be the most important—is the underlying architecture. We're building the platform to support new channels and use cases without having to rebuild the entire product each time.
It doesn't really make sense to think of Subler as just a messaging-app product anymore, even though that's how it started. We've moved beyond that original concept and are gradually building something closer to a business operating system. We started with Telegram, then expanded to MAX, a Russian messaging app, and VKontakte (VK), a social network. Now we're designing Subler to rely as little as possible on any single platform. We don't want to dictate how people run their businesses. We want to give them tools to manage their workflows efficiently and consistently.
Five to seven years ago, the number of creators and experts making money on online platforms was growing rapidly. Has that boom ended?
I don't think so. The nature of the market has changed, though. A few years ago, a lot of people were just experimenting with blogging or selling their expertise. Today, more and more creators are turning those activities into full-fledged businesses. The market has matured, and with that comes a greater need for serious business infrastructure.
Creators are building teams and developing their own brands. Take Viktor Blud, for example. His business has reached a point where he needs a wide range of tools: online store management, event registration, paid Telegram channel subscriptions, course payments, and donations from livestreams. He also needs internal tools, such as task management. We can bring all of that together on one platform.
Having a creator with such a wide range of needs as a client sounds like a great opportunity.
Yes and no. One thing I've learned is that it's risky to put all your eggs in one basket. You can make plans, come up with ideas, and build features—only to lose touch with the client or have the manager you've been working with disappear. You can count on other people, but you can't depend on them for everything.
Have the changes to Russia's advertising laws in 2025 and 2026 affected your industry?
I can only speak for Subler. We haven't yet reached a scale where those changes have had a major direct impact on our business. But the regulatory changes did push us to rethink the product itself.
I realized there was no point in continually adapting the old model to shifting market conditions. It made more sense to step back and ask how we could build the platform around a broader idea. Sometimes the right move isn't to add another feature. It's to recognize that you need a different approach altogether.
Many businesses are trying to make their services work across both Telegram and MAX. How smoothly is that going?
It's not seamless at all. MAX isn't necessarily a bad platform; it's just still pretty rough around the edges. I wrote an article on VC.ru about gaps in its developer tools and debugging capabilities. We haven't been able to reproduce our Telegram solution in MAX with the same level of functionality and polish. At times, it feels like looking for a black cat in a dark room.
Having Russian apps removed from international app stores doesn't make things any easier. It forces developers and users to come up with workarounds—like installing the web version of MAX on an iPhone to get notifications.
What's Subler's business model?
Subscriptions. At first, we considered a hybrid model that would make it easier for smaller creators with limited revenue to get started. The thinking was simple: if you make money, we make money. If you don't, we don't.
Eventually, we dropped that idea because it was expensive and legally complicated. A fixed monthly or annual subscription is much simpler than taking a percentage of what customers earn. Under the model we were considering, we could effectively become a payment aggregator, with additional regulatory reporting requirements. So we stuck with subscriptions. Customers can connect payment systems, tailor the platform to their needs, and get support through a single point of contact.
What are your priorities for Subler now?
Right now, our priority is getting the product to a point where demand in the market speaks for itself.
Our biggest supporter at the moment is Maxim Bornovolokov, who owns the cloud services provider Syncweb. He provided the server infrastructure for our project, solving several problems at once—especially financial ones, but also issues related to operations and support.
I've known Maxim for a long time, and I know I can reach out to him directly whenever something comes up. Throughout our collaboration, we haven't had any issues with access, security, or technical support. Everything has worked exceptionally well.
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