Let’s start from the beginning.
I was born on June 4, 1999, in a small town in Belarus called Zhlobin. It was (and still is) a town of steelworkers, home to one of the largest steel production plants in Belarus. I spent my first 11–12 years in Zhlobin. Sometimes my dad would bring me Happy Meals from his out-of-town work trips.
It was a good time. I could walk across the entire town in an hour or two. I would have never imagined back then, living in that small town in a country that almost nobody knew existed, that I would one day be doing what I’m doing and be where I am now.
I’m giving you this background story to help convey the emotions and feelings I have today.
June 5, 2026, 3:10 PM.
I’m showing my ID at a security checkpoint in front of crowds of tourists in the heart of New York City. I’m going to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for the IPO of one of our clients.
It feels less and less real with every passing minute.
We go inside, and the woman at the reception desk asks for my last name and hands me a metal badge with my full name engraved on it. I walk around looking at some NYSE memorabilia, including a pair of Birkenstocks displayed in a glass case. Pretty funny, if you ask me.
Then they take us to a large ballroom with drinks and cookies (we’ll come back to those later).
About ten minutes later, a couple of senior NYSE representatives come in to greet us and share some history about the building. One of the most interesting stories involves bonds from the Russian Empire. Tsar Nicholas II took out a $1 billion loan through the NYSE to help build a massive railway system across Russia. To thank them, he commissioned Fabergé to create a gift.
It’s an urn made of stone and silver, a beautiful piece. It has been standing there since 1904. Imagine that.
So, back to the event.
People begin walking onto the stage, and the NYSE representative talks about the company and the stock. The founders say a few words and receive custom NYSE coins. I got two as well, regular ones, one for me and one for my wife.
After that, we were guided onto the trading floor, the heart of the NYSE.
In real life, it’s much larger than it looks in pictures, and you can almost feel the amount of money moving through the place. We walk across the floor to the area directly beneath the bell balcony. I stand back, thinking they probably need to handle all the founder-related activities first, signing the “Book of NYSE,” taking photos of important people, and so on.
But then, when it’s time for photos, I get called into the picture.
At that moment, it feels ten times more surreal than it did at the entrance. It genuinely feels like I’m dreaming.
The final step of the IPO ceremony is the closing bell.
We walk up the stairs to the balcony, and NYSE staff close the LED wall behind us. We’re here. I’m here, looking down at the trading floor, seeing myself on the CNBC feed while an NYSE representative explains exactly what we need to do when the moment arrives.
4,549.97 miles, seven hours behind, and 26 years and one day away from Zhlobin and now I’m standing at the NYSE, appearing on TV during a closing bell IPO ceremony.
Wow! It feels unreal. It feels completely made up, like I’m not supposed to be here and that this is all some kind of mistake.
The bell rings.
We clap, exchange high-fives, take pictures, and head back downstairs.
The final stretch of the day is a tour of the NYSE, including its renovated vaults, before eventually returning to the ballroom, as I like to call it.
I take two cookies to go, one for me and one for my wife, of course.
Before leaving, we stop by one of the conference rooms where I see my first Andy Warhol paintings in person. They look pretty good.
We ride down in the elevator, take a few pictures outside, walk back to the office to collect our things, and head home.
I’m probably the first person born in that small town to have the honor of attending an event like this at the NYSE.
Actually, you know what?
I’m going to say it.
I AM THE FIRST PERSON FROM ZHLOBIN TO ATTEND AN IPO CEREMONY AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE.
See? That felt good.