I'm Ilya

The path

The path made sense in reverse. At seven I built my first video game. At fourteen I knew eleven programming languages and ran with a hacker crew. Then I fell in love with marketing — not the loud kind, but the mechanism: how people think, how they choose, how you earn the right to show up in their lives.

I spent a decade in agencies, then eight years at Nike shaping membership, e-commerce, and partnership strategy across Europe — $65M budgets, programs touching millions of members, transformation work that connected retail, digital, and loyalty into single experiences. Now I lead marketing for developer tools at JetBrains, helping engineers navigate AI and an industry in flux.

What I believe

I'm chasing complexity I can take apart.

Ecosystems over channels. Membership over campaigns. Models over tactics.

Most growth problems aren't solved by more activity — they're solved by seeing the system clearly. The interesting problems sit one level deeper than where most people stop. That's where growth actually lives.

Some proof

• Nike, JetBrains, Zalando, Asos, AboutYou, P&G, Visa, Mars — hands-on, not advisory
• Full stack: advertising, comms, digital, e-commerce, DTC and wholesale retail, membership, loyalty, partnerships, new business models
• $100M+ connected loyalty investment, from strategy through operations
• Strategy Deck app — ~100K downloads, still in use
• Kellogg Executive Education (Customer Loyalty), Moscow State University (Math & CS)

What I'm building here

I built this site to think out loud — and to be useful.

Models are how I make sense of business problems. They're the structures underneath growth, pricing, positioning, loyalty — the mechanics that don't change even when tactics do.

Tools are models you can use. Templates, calculators, frameworks — things that save you time if you're building something.

Notes are the raw thinking. Observations, questions, half-formed ideas that might become models later.

If you're trying to grow something and want clarity before tactics, start with a model.

Get in touch

• Email is the best way to reach me: mail@ilyapetrov.com
• Let's connect on LinkedIn