Tech’s Great Reset: How This Bootstrapped Ukrainian Software Firm Thrives Without Middle Managers in 2025’s Job-Cut Era

In 2025, the tech industry is experiencing a seismic shift. Companies worldwide have slashed over 100,000 jobs as they streamline operations, eliminate bureaucratic layers, and reimagine what efficiency looks like in the digital age. While giants like Google, Amazon, and Meta continue their rounds of layoffs, one Ukrainian software development company has been quietly demonstrating an alternative path forward—one without investors, middle managers, or flashy marketing campaigns.

Redwerk, a Kyiv-founded software agency established in 2005, has built a global reputation by doing things differently. The company designs, builds, and maintains custom digital products for businesses across the world, handling everything from architecture and UX design to engineering, quality assurance, deployment, and ongoing support. Their teams have delivered complex systems across e-government, healthcare, fintech, media, and marketplaces, often modernizing legacy infrastructure or building mission-critical platforms from scratch.

What makes Redwerk particularly fascinating in today’s tech landscape is their organizational structure. In an industry where bloated hierarchies are being dismantled, Redwerk has operated without middle management for two decades. This flat, founder-led approach has allowed them to remain agile, responsive, and remarkably resilient through multiple economic cycles and even war.

From BASIC to Building a Global Software Empire

Konstantin Klyagin, Redwerk’s founder and CEO, traces his journey back to childhood curiosity. “I first saw a computer when I was six, at my mother’s office, and started playing games,” he recalls. “Very quickly, I became interested in how these things were made.”

By age eight, Klyagin had written his first program in BASIC. At 15, he built a free bulletin board system (BBS) that allowed users to communicate over telephone lines, exchange files, and leave messages. “At one point, it was among the top three systems of its kind in the world.”

His teenage years were marked by increasingly sophisticated technical achievements. At 17, he launched CenterICQ, an instant messaging client that evolved beyond its initial ICQ roots to support multiple protocols including MSN Messenger, AOL, and Jabber. “I was even in contact with the founder of the Jabber protocol,” Klyagin shares. “That technology is still widely used today underneath many modern messaging systems.”

This open-source work attracted international attention. “I received a request from someone in the Netherlands who had seen my open-source work and wanted me to develop a SaaS product. That became our first client.”

At 23, Klyagin assembled a small team in southern Ukraine—operating “in a town that is today about 30 kilometres from the frontline”—and later opened a second team in Kyiv. The company gradually grew through organic revenue, never taking venture capital or external funding.

The Flat Organization That’s Defying Industry Trends

In an industry where companies are frantically trying to flatten hierarchies after decades of middle-management bloat, Redwerk has been living this reality since its inception. “We don’t have heads of departments,” Klyagin explains. “We do have functional verticals, but within them people work as equals and collaborate based on projects and tasks, not hierarchy.”

This means a developer might work with one project manager on one assignment and a different one on another, with no rigid chain of command. “Everyone can talk directly to everyone else. Our customers can also communicate directly with engineers if they want to go deep into technical details. We don’t hide people behind layers of management.”

The results speak for themselves: less bureaucracy, faster problem-solving, and increased accountability. “People are more involved and more responsible for the outcomes,” Klyagin shares.

This structure has proven particularly valuable in 2025’s challenging environment. While other tech firms struggle with communication bottlenecks and slow decision-making in their flattened organizations, Redwerk’s teams move quickly and adapt seamlessly to changing client needs.

How Careers Actually Work Without Middle Management

I was curious about career progression in a flat structure. In traditional companies, the path is always upward—more responsibility, more people to manage, more prestige. But what does growth look like when there’s no ladder to climb?

Klyagin’s perspective is shaped by both Redwerk’s unique structure and the current market reality. “It’s an employer’s market now. Many companies are downsizing, and hiring has slowed.” As a result, Redwerk’s hiring is always driven by real demand rather than growth projections.

“We don’t hire in advance and hope work will appear. We manage closely around utilization. When around 70 per cent or more of our team’s time is billable, that’s healthy. The remaining capacity allows us to onboard new projects.”

When demand grows, Redwerk doesn’t immediately hire full-time employees. “We often start with contractors or part-time contributors, and only move to permanent roles when there is stable, long-term work. This avoids giving people false expectations and helps us stay financially responsible.”

This lean structure makes Redwerk’s teams remarkably flexible and cost-efficient for clients. “We sell what we call managed teams,” Klyagin explains. Depending on the project, a team may include full-time developers, part-time QA, a part-time designer, and a project manager. “We can scale resources up or down quickly and move people between projects as needed. Because we don’t lock ourselves into rigid organizational structures, we can adapt faster and avoid unnecessary overhead.”

Four Hard-Won Lessons from 20 Years of Bootstrapped Growth

Redwerk’s journey offers a masterclass in sustainable business building. Without venture capital or external funding, the company has grown entirely through revenue, maintaining profitability and independence for two decades.

Klyagin distills this experience into four core lessons:

Profit discipline drives every decision. “If you can’t afford something, don’t buy it. Don’t rely on debt or outside money. Build reserves and grow responsibly.”

Utilization is critical in services businesses. Headcount alone means nothing if people aren’t working on paid projects. Growth must be tied to real demand, not projections or investor expectations.

Diversification is essential. A diversified customer base across industries and company sizes makes the business far more stable. When one sector slows down, others can pick up the slack.

Never neglect small projects. “Some of our largest, most valuable long-term clients started with very small engagements. One fashion company initially came to us to fix a single webpage, and later outsourced their entire digital presence to us.”

Another client discovered Redwerk through a public QA report published as part of their “bug crawl” initiative, hired them for a small project, and eventually grew so much that they were acquired by Squarespace. “That relationship later turned into work with Squarespace itself. Small beginnings can lead to very big outcomes.”

The Future of Management: Could AI Replace the CEO?

As someone who has spent decades building and running a company without middle management, I asked Klyagin about the future of leadership. Would he consider replacing his own role with AI?

“Anything that gives me more time for my daughter, travel, and learning new languages is welcome,” he asserts. “I’ve spent decades in software development, and I’m very open to automation, including in management.”

This openness to AI replacing traditional management roles is particularly relevant as 2025 sees companies experimenting with AI-powered management tools, automated workflows, and reduced human oversight. Redwerk’s flat structure may be ahead of its time, but it also positions the company perfectly for an AI-driven future where human management layers become increasingly unnecessary.

Why Redwerk’s Model Matters in 2025

As tech companies continue cutting jobs and rethinking their structures, Redwerk’s approach offers valuable insights:

• Resilience through simplicity: Without complex hierarchies to dismantle, Redwerk can adapt quickly to market changes.
• Client alignment: Teams are structured around actual project needs, not internal politics or departmental boundaries.
• Sustainable growth: Organic revenue growth without external funding means no pressure to scale before the market is ready.
• Talent retention: In a flat structure, people stay for meaningful work and direct impact, not promotion prospects.

The company’s “build + break + perfect” model, delivered through Redwerk and its sister brand QAWerk, has powered platforms for clients including Universal Music Group, Northeastern University, and even the European Parliament. This track record demonstrates that you don’t need a traditional corporate structure to handle enterprise-level complexity.

As 2025 unfolds with continued tech industry turbulence, Redwerk’s 20-year experiment in flat organization offers a compelling alternative to the traditional corporate playbook. In a world where companies are desperately trying to become more like startups, Redwerk has been operating like a lean, efficient startup since 2005—proving that sometimes the most innovative approach is simply to remove what isn’t essential.

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