Workspaces: Aynur Abdulnasyrov, Founder of LinguaLeo

Thanks to the innovative project created by Aynur Abdulnasyrov, learning foreign languages has become engaging and enjoyable. LinguaLeo stands out as one of the most vibrant and successful startups in recent years. Today, Aynur, the founder and CEO of this service, shares insights into how his workspace is organized.

What is your role at work?

I am the founder and CEO of LinguaLeo.com, an online platform dedicated to learning and practicing English.

My responsibilities include developing the company’s growth strategy, communicating with investors, overseeing new product development, financial planning, recruiting staff, public speaking, media interactions, expanding into new markets, meeting partners, and engaging with every team member.

A typical workday for me looks like this:

• 10–15 tasks listed in a simple text document;
• 30–50 new incoming emails and about 100 ongoing conversations;
• 1–3 meetings with partners, journalists, or others, plus around 4–8 meetings with colleagues;
• 5–10 phone calls.

What does your workspace look like?

Our company office is located in the Technopark "Strogino." We occupy four rooms: one for the web development team, one for mobile app developers, one for marketing, and one for Product Owners (POs) responsible for product development and quality. I share a room with the POs.

We are quite mobile and sometimes take extended team trips. For example, at the end of August, we returned from Montenegro, where we rented a villa and spent two months working on localizing the service into Portuguese, enhancing mobile apps, and improving the web version.

The project itself was born on the island of Ko Chang in Thailand, near the jungle, where we lived for six months before launching the beta version of the service.

My personal workspace includes a MacBook Air and two phones (an iPhone 4S and a Nokia E52). I keep two phones handy to ensure I always have a backup if one runs out of battery. I mostly use the regular phone for calls and the iPhone for emails and internet browsing. I've bought an iPad twice but ended up gifting both, as it didn’t quite fit my workflow. :)

What hardware do you use?

Before switching to the MacBook Air, I used several Sony Vaio laptops from different generations. I transitioned to MacBook because it boots quickly, is lightweight, has long battery life, and is very user-friendly.

Occasionally, I need to work with Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, so I use Parallels Desktop installed on my Mac to access Windows applications.

Regarding phones, as mentioned, I use two: Nokia E52 and iPhone 4S.

What software do you rely on?

We use Google Workspace for email on the lingualeo.com domain. I check my mail in the morning, midday, and evening. Emails that require more time to respond to are marked as unread after reading, so I can return to them later. About half of my correspondence is in Russian, and the other half in English.

Google Docs is my go-to platform for creating texts, spreadsheets, and presentations. Its biggest advantage is the ability to collaborate on documents in real-time. Within our company, sending offline documents is uncommon.

For task management, I use a simple TXT file where I list tasks and meetings, updating it as new tasks come up and reviewing it at the start of each day.

Dropbox is where I store all files, including my task list, in the cloud so I can access them from any computer. Our company also uses Dropbox and Yandex Disk for shared access to files and folders.

Parallels Desktop for Mac allows me to run both macOS and Windows on the same device seamlessly.

Pocket is my tool for saving articles and content to read during free moments. I use both the web version and the mobile app.

Skype is essential for messaging, conference calls, and international calls. When I’m not in meetings, I’m usually online. Our company has several work chats: LinguaLeo for general work discussions, LeoFlame for casual conversations and lighthearted banter, and separate chats for each team to facilitate quick communication.

On Facebook*, I respond to questions and occasionally engage actively. Most inquiries relate to work—collaboration offers, event invitations, and so on. I also have a VKontakte account but rarely use it. I created a Twitter account only recently.

LinguaLeo’s browser extension is invaluable when reading English materials online or PDFs. Even with fluent English, I occasionally encounter unfamiliar words.

Is there a place for paper in your work?

Yes, but only for signing paper contracts and occasionally for thinking things through with pen and paper—not much more.

Do you have a dream setup?

Ideally, we’d be simultaneously in Thailand (with its five advantages), Moscow (another five benefits), and the United States (five more perks). But teleportation hasn’t been invented yet!

Also, I wish our team could sometimes exchange thoughts directly to speed up synchronization. :) But since that’s still science fiction, we just communicate a lot instead!

*Please note that Meta Platforms Inc. and its social networks Facebook and Instagram are restricted in certain regions.

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