Osnovateli: one newsroom for business media

In 2025 I ran the launch of editorial operations at Osnovateli as showrunner and media manager — pulling two YouTube channels, a magazine, a conference and a club into one media outlet that ships every day and holds the bar of a professional publication.

Context and task

Founders is built like a media holding in miniature: two YouTube channels in different genres, a print magazine, an annual business conference and a closed club of entrepreneurs. Five products, each living by its own rules.

The task had two sides. Push the project into Tier 1 of Russian business media — on quality, recognition and engagement. And build an editorial system that solves the brand's product goals while still working as a standalone outlet. There was a personal bet behind it too — to prove that a community brand's media can compete with professional publications on their own turf.

An ecosystem doesn't need a showcase channel — it needs a newsroom that works as a media outlet in its own right.

The solution

My remit as showrunner was the media management of the whole launch. Systematic work with the news agenda and a daily flow of content — news and entertainment alike — so the brand stays in people's feeds all the time. Product goals we stitched into the media environment without direct advertising — the club's services and ideas surface inside the stories. A separate track was traffic to the key platforms: Telegram, Instagram, YouTube.

We built the newsroom from the start around three registers of content — educational, inspiring and practical — where every piece reinforces the brand's overall position instead of living on its own. In parallel we refreshed the visual system and the guidelines: from video to digital communications.

The core of production is a vertical-video conveyor: up to 200 short videos a month for Reels, Shorts and Telegram. It occupies feeds systematically — clips reliably pull hundreds of thousands of views, and the flagships pass a million. It was the verticals that became the main entry point for new audiences into the other five formats and lifted the brand's media weight.

Why does a media ecosystem need its own bot?

A separate web product is the activation bot "Founder's Man-Bag" — it gathers the best practical guides, tips and insights from the media. It isn't a file store but a digital layer between the audience and the content ecosystem — the bot brings organic traffic from outside sources into Telegram and holds engagement. Content starts working as a product with its own funnel.