She’s Next Talks with Natalya Klimenko

After leading business development at Billz—one of Uzbekistan’s most prominent tech start-ups—Tashkent-based entrepreneur Natalya Klimenko felt driven to create something of her own.

In late 2023, she launched STEMIO, an EdTech platform designed to teach school students STEM subjects and programming. Driven by a desire for meaningful social impact alongside commercial viability, Klimenko stepped into the grueling reality of early-stage entrepreneurship.

Building as a solo non-technical founder proved to be a steep learning curve. Navigating rapid market shifts, hiring difficulties, and high marketing costs, Klimenko made two major product pivots before confronting a hard financial truth. In December 2023, she made the conscious decision to shut down the project. “I calculated all my investments and loss cost opportunities. It was more than 70,000 dollars. I could buy one apartment in Tashkent, but still it was really cool experience,” she reflects, choosing to view the closure not as failure, but as an invaluable professional investment.

For Klimenko, failure in entrepreneurship is a masterclass in adaptability, emotional intelligence, and rigorous planning. She cautions founders against falling so in love with their product that they ignore unit economics or sales. Her advice to female founders is practical: “Take risks, but of course you should have ABCDE plans if something doesn’t work”.

Rather than stepping away from innovation, Klimenko took her hard-earned lessons into her next venture. Today, she serves as COO of an AI project delivering intelligent voice assistants for telecom operators across Central Asia, replacing outdated voicemails and filtering spam calls.

Reflecting on her journey, Klimenko remains fiercely committed to using technology for good. “We are not a charity—we need to earn money, but at the same time, for me, it was very important to have this social impact,” she says, demonstrating that true entrepreneurial resilience lies in knowing when to pivot, when to let go, and how to build again.