# Vladimir Makeev

> Vladimir Makeev is the co-founder and CEO of Surf, a software development company established in 2011. A Voronezh State University computer science graduate and former lecturer, he moved from Android development into management, sales and account management as the business grew. He also publishes commentary on AI adoption and builds developer tools, including the open-source Katana project. Surf’s English website styles his name Vladi Makeew.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Surf
- **Organizations:** Surf
- **Education:** Computer science; exact degree title not stated, Voronezh State University, The University of Manchester
- **Known for:** Co-founded Surf in 2011 and continues to lead the company., Combined company work with approximately four years of teaching applied software development at Voronezh State University., Led Surf as it expanded from Android into iOS and broader software development.

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Co-founded Surf in January with two fellow students; early work focused on Android development.
- **2011** — Started teaching at Voronezh State University in September after completing his fifth year.
- **2013** — Surf added an iOS development team.
- **2014** — Described a 30-person Surf team and his transition from development through management to sales and account management.
- **2017** — Surf launched machine learning work and obtained Google Certified Agency status.
- **2019** — Surf opened a mobile development laboratory at Voronezh State University and adopted Flutter for client projects.
- **2025** — Published a June critique of indiscriminate AI adoption in the Surf company blog.
- **2026** — Continued publishing on coding agents, developer tooling and iterative engineering; Katana is public on his GitHub account.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Surf in 2011 and continues to lead the company.
- Combined company work with approximately four years of teaching applied software development at Voronezh State University.
- Led Surf as it expanded from Android into iOS and broader software development.
- Publishes the open-source Katana tool for coding-agent refactoring on GitHub.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — On 31 August, argued for rapid prototypes, customer feedback and repeated validation when using coding agents.
- **2026-09** — On 18 September, wrote that he had obtained access to Jev and planned to test it; this is a stated experiment, not a verified performance result.

## Links

- Website: https://surf.dev/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vmakeev/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/vmakeev
- GitHub: https://github.com/vgmakeev
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vmakeev/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/vladimir-makeev
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-27