So, I found a basement space and decided to renovate it myself, with help from a friend who works in construction. We installed a barber chair, crafted a custom wooden countertop which we covered in black epoxy resin, fitted a stretch ceiling, and laid laminate flooring. We installed a washbasin at an exact distance so a client could have their hair washed without getting up from the chair, hiding all plumbing neatly inside the walls.

We set up both overhead and front-facing lights, a large mirror, and a smart TV. There was a small storage room where we placed lockers for tools and supplies, installed a washer-dryer combo, added ventilation, and set up an air conditioner. We also added a small sofa for waiting clients, a side table with a capsule coffee machine, and a water cooler.

For access control, we installed a smart lock with TTLock on the internal door and, with the building owner’s permission, placed a magnetic lock on the exterior door. We connected this to a Sonoff smart device with EWelink, and as a backup, installed a call-based circuit breaker similar to what’s used on parking barriers.

The smart device was programmed to unlock the magnet from 10:00 to 22:00 automatically. For those who wanted access outside those hours, calling the number would open the door. We could also add other tenants and the building owner to the system.

After launching that first autonomous space, barbers from all over Moscow came to see it. Within just a few weeks, the room was fully booked. Many called asking me to open similar spaces all over Moscow. The real challenge was finding well-located and affordable spaces.

To automate the process, I built a website and connected a booking system.

Over the next year, my friend and I opened more than ten such autonomous beauty coworking spaces. Then COVID-19 happened. We had to close temporarily. I moved to Minsk, where my daughter and ex-wife lived, and during that time, I began drafting the technical specification (product brief) for developing a mobile app.

During peak occupancy, I barely had time to answer booking inquiries, reschedule appointments, handle cancellations, etc. The operational workload consumed all my time, and no existing solution on the market offered what I needed. Even today, nothing like it exists except for the app I built.

When lockdowns eased but working in barbershops was still restricted, my coworking spaces were fully booked. We created a chat where barbers could swap available slots if someone canceled. The rooms were booked solid for weeks in advance, with weekends booked for months.

While in Minsk, I found a professional analyst who helped me write the mobile app specification for $1,000. Based on my inputs and revisions, we planned from the beginning that:

• The app would support multiple languages.
• It would feature multi-account logic:
• Master/professional
• Client
• Business owner

Each user type would have its own logic and UI/UX.
We also required:

• Payment gateway integration.
• Smart device control.
• Inventory and supply management.
• Review and rating systems, including cleanliness ratings — to identify professionals who didn’t clean up properly after themselves.

For business owners, we included:

• Complete booking analytics: revenue per hour, day, week, month, year.
• Analytics on supplies and customer feedback on their spaces or coworking locations.

For professionals:

• Booking, rescheduling, and cancellation.
• Favorites: saving preferred spaces.
• Subscription packages:
• 100 hours or 200 hours for frequent users.

One-click booking with automatic payment from a linked card. To avoid unnecessary cancellations, we implemented non-refundable booking policies:

• Daily rental (12 hours) cancellations allowed only up to 72 hours before.
• Hourly rental cancellations allowed only up to 24 hours before.
• Subscriptions were non-refundable, offering the maximum discount.

Once all functionalities were specified, I hired a designer through a freelance platform. The design was minimalist — clean, without visible gradients — and required almost no revisions. It was completed within two weeks.
That’s how Beshare was born: from hands-on experience in building real-world autonomous coworking spaces, understanding the market pain points firsthand, and solving them with technology that didn’t exist before.

After developing the idea and the initial technical specification, I started searching for app developers. I found directories listing the best mobile app development studios and sent them my project brief after signing NDAs. Out of 25 studios I contacted, only 3 responded positively, saying they were available to take on the project. The rest declined because they were fully booked for years in advance.

All the studios that responded gave me rough estimates:

• $200,000 and 1.5 years of development time.
• The highest offer was $300,000 and 2 years of development.

Each one of them also emphasized these were preliminary estimates that could increase by 30% or more due to inevitable changes during development.

This situation really frustrated me. I simply didn’t have that kind of money upfront. Although my business generated revenue, laying out such a large sum all at once wasn’t possible. The studios also required substantial down payments.

I began reaching out to various investment funds, but nothing worked. No one believed in the project, or there wasn’t anyone willing to take a chance on it.

That’s when I decided to put together a development team myself through freelance platforms.
Through contacts, I found a guy who agreed to take on the role of team lead. He would select the right developers, and I paid him an hourly rate.

The first two months were tough. Many developers didn’t meet the necessary standards, and we went through a harsh selection process. But after three months, we finally assembled a team that could deliver exactly what I wanted.

They worked fast and delivered high-quality code.

For the backend, we chose Django, and for the frontend, Flutter, so that in the future we could easily scale the app with powerful servers.

The team built everything within four months. We started assembling the team in February (it took three months just to find the right people), and by July, we launched the first release of the app.

In other words, we accomplished in four months what agencies promised to do in 1.5–2 years.
We spent the following month fixing minor bugs and polishing essential features like booking rescheduling, analytics details, push notifications, and more.

Integrating smart devices took additional time.

Once we launched the app, I felt a real sense of freedom. The automation it provided saved me enormous amounts of time previously lost to operational tasks and communication with masters.

Coworking spaces started joining the app organically — even without advertising. Entrepreneurs approached me asking about franchising opportunities, but I never sold any. Instead, I shared everything for free because I understood they would eventually connect to the platform and pay for the owner account subscription.
The app saved them so much time.

Masters stopped messaging me altogether because everything became automated. They loved how easy it was: just a couple of taps, and a booking was confirmed.

Before, the process took much longer, and sometimes payments were missed simply because I didn’t have time to write everything down while dealing with a flood of messages.

In later app releases, we kept adding new features like subscription packages where regular users could buy 100 or 200 hours upfront and reserve time months in advance.

We also began testing the rental of electrical devices connected through Sonoff systems:

• Opening the room door through the app by simply pressing a button.
• No need to enter passwords.

We added smart locker rentals as well: opening lockers through the app, with automatic payment processing deducted from the user’s account.