Ivan Astakhov
Host · CMO, Bridge
15 years in fintech, SaaS and enterprise solutions, the last three in Central Asia. At Customertimes, built the regional commercial strategy from scratch: revenue up 78% year over year, a $15M+ pipeline.
Episode 00 · the intro. Seven more follow, one per step.
Seven steps to your first contract in Kazakhstan
The route into the market and the cost of a mistake at each step. Built on Bridge’s practice and the experience of a guest who has walked the route.
DateOctober 22Thursday
Time16:00 AlmatyTashkent 16:00, Bishkek 17:00
Duration75 minutes15 of them for Q&A
FormatZoomfree, in Russian
Speakers
Evgeny Laptev
Guest · SAP
18+ years in B2B sales of complex HR services, recruitment and team management. At SAP: commercial strategy, building the sales team, global HRM implementations for the largest corporations. Founded a recruitment platform that made an industry top 10 and was sold to a strategic investor.
Alexey Timchenko
Moderator · CCO, Bridge
20 years in B2B Enterprise IT. 17 of them with Gartner-grade corporate platforms across the CIS, Central Asia and the Middle East. He has worked on both sides of the table: vendor, integrator, startup. Anaplan, Manhattan, Creatio, Kameleoon, Microsoft, SAP, 1C and others.
What we’ll cover
All seven steps in one session. Each one comes with three opportunities and three difficulties.
- 01
Market
Who to sell to?Market size gets counted by population. Enterprise IT budgets sit with a few dozen companies.
20.6Mresidents of Kazakhstan: the number that inflates demand
Bureau of National Statistics of Kazakhstan, population as of 1 August 2026
- 02
Product
What to change?Home-market reputation does not carry over. A platform sells worse than one clear task.
490 of 2,000Astana Hub companies have foreign ownership
Astana Hub, 2026 data
- 03
Jurisdiction
Where to operate?An LLP opens in a single trip, with two or three days on site in person. Demand does not appear with it.
0% CITfor an Astana Hub resident instead of 20%
The Astana Hub regime runs to 2066, with a 1% levy on revenue. Broken down on our Registration page
- 04
Sales
How to win deals?Meetings in Kazakhstan come easily. A contract rests on local references and a sponsor inside the client.
28 of 204applications for our Base Camp trip reached Kazakhstan
Bridge, Base Camp Kazakhstan results, August 2026
- 05
Team
Who to hire?IT candidates are plentiful, with 87.8% of vacancies in Almaty and Astana. A strong enterprise seller costs above the median.
12.9CVs per IT vacancy
hh.kz, “IT labour market: 2025 results”, February 2026
- 06
Trust
How to become local?You get chosen before the tender. While the market does not know you, someone else defends that budget line.
6-14 monthsfrom the internal decision to the published tender
- 07
Scale
Where next?Kazakhstan holds the regional presence. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan get tested again.
65Mpeople in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan
Statistics agencies of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, 2026
Every step gets its own episode, 01 through 07. One registration covers the series, and we send the dates by email.
Base Camp Kazakhstan is our August 2026 trip: 28 people from 18 companies came to Astana and Almaty for meetings with Astana Hub, banks and clients. How it works →
Program
Seventy-five minutes, four blocks.
01
Market context and the route map
10 min02
Seven steps: opportunities, difficulties, numbers
40 min03
Guest experience: how decisions look from inside a company
10 min04
Live Q&A
15 minWho it’s for
IT companies in Central Asia
You are moving into Kazakhstan’s enterprise segment or into neighbouring markets: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan.
Companies from other countries
You are deciding whether to open Kazakhstan and costing the entry.
Sales directors and BizDev
You are looking for your first corporate clients and partners in the region.
CEOs and CFOs
You are working out the time and money to first revenue.
What you won’t hear: promises that the market is waiting for you, or one-size-fits-all entry recipes.
Let’s work through your company’s entry one-to-one
A strategy session with the Bridge team: segment, first clients, entry budget.