From a Russian Village to Makkah

How I Built a $100M+ Platform While Being Nobody in Tech (And Why You Can Too)

I picked up pilgrims at the airport at 3 AM, checked hotel rooms in 50°C heat, called doctors on my phone. For 15 years I helped thousands of people on their most important journey. And now I’ve built a platform to help millions more. Here’s how I did it—with no code, no diploma, and no money to start.

Part 1: Where I’m From — A Journey From a Village

I’m from Novoye village in Ivanovo Oblast, about 70 km from the city of Ivanovo in western Russia.

In school, we had a computer—but only to play games like “Snake.” I never learned to code. I never dreamed of working in tech. I was just a village boy who somehow ended up serving in the army and studying in a college in Plës on the Volga River.

But then something changed. I started traveling.

Ivanovo → Kyrgyzstan → Tatarstan → Bahrain → Egypt → UAE → Saudi Arabia → MAKKAH

Every city changed me. Every city taught me something. But Makkah—that’s where I understood I had to build something big.

Part 2: Makkah — When I Saw a $1 Trillion Gap

I’ve lived and worked in Makkah for over 15 years now.

What I see:

  • 15,000 hotels
  • 100+ bus companies with ~500,000 vehicles
  • The most expensive real estate in the world
  • Tens of millions of pilgrims every year
  • Trillions of riyals in annual transactions
  • But the entire industry is completely disorganized

What I do EVERY single day:

I pick up pilgrims at the airport. I remember the first time—47 people, middle of the night, exhausted, nobody speaks Arabic. I helped them:

  • Exchange money
  • Buy SIM cards
  • Find their bus (out of 100+ others!)
  • Load luggage
  • Count suitcases

Then I take them to their hotel. But BEFORE that, I personally check EVERY single room:

  • Turn on the lights
  • Check the bathroom
  • Make sure there’s no bad smell
  • Check the AC works
  • Test the key cards (they magnetize and stop working!)
  • Verify there are towels, soap, toilet paper, internet

This takes 2-3 hours for 20 rooms.

Then I take them to Al-Haram mosque. I explain:

  • Where to pray
  • How to do ablution
  • Where women pray, where men pray
  • How to navigate a crowd of millions

And this is 24/7, especially during Hajj.

Over 15 years, I’ve picked up, checked in, and guided thousands of pilgrims. And it’s been a blessing from God for me.

And I see their pain:

  • “Where can I find a good hotel?”
  • “What transportation should I choose?”
  • “How do I get a visa?”
  • “How much will this cost?”
  • “Is the food halal?”
  • “How can I trust this tour operator?”

And I realize: all this information needs to be in ONE place.

Part 3: 2014 — The Moment of Clarity

It’s 2014. I’m at a trade show in Makkah with my friends Ilnaz and Ildar.

Around us: hotel directors, transport company owners, tour operators from different countries. Everyone looking for a solution.

And it hits me: Booking exists. Agoda exists. But they were built for tourists, not for pilgrims.

A Muslim pilgrim needs something DIFFERENT:

  • Is there a prayer room?
  • Is the food halal?
  • How close is it to the mosque?
  • What’s my budget? ($30 or $1500?)
  • Is there a guide who speaks my language?

And I decide: I’m going to build it myself.

Part 4: HAJhotels.net (2014-2016) — The First Attempt

I found two programmers from Tula, Russia. And we started.

In 40-50°C heat, we walked around Makkah:

  • Photographing hotels (higher quality than Booking!)
  • Filming video tours
  • Collecting hotel information
  • Gathering reviews
  • Doing this EVERY SINGLE DAY

RESULT:

  • 1,000 hotels in our database!
  • 200-300 page views per day!
  • Hotel directors started recognizing us—they called us “the Russians”!

It was working. People saw: this is BETTER than Booking!

But then…

The programmer started freelancing for others. The designer got into an argument with him. They both left.

I was left with a dead website and a database of 1,000 hotels I couldn’t use.

End of 2016. I thought: maybe this was just a stupid idea?

Part 5: 9 Years of Attempts (2017-2024)

OpenCart attempt (1 year of struggle) — Too complicated for me.

Google Sites attempt (a few weeks) — Simple, but limited. Though I actually made more money on it than I expected!

Finding partners (multiple attempts) — They’d say yes, but their day jobs always came first. They kept leaving.

9 YEARS passed.

By 2023, my hands had completely dropped. Partners had left, family said “just give up already,” and I was doubting myself.

Then the AI agents appeared.

I found someone to tell all my ideas to. And they UNDERSTOOD! Their enthusiasm woke mine back up.

I bought hosting, a domain, a WordPress Business subscription.

And I found a tool where I wouldn’t have to code from scratch.

It was the KEY!

Part 6: How One Non-Coder Built a Platform (2024-2026)

Month 1: I dumped content blindly, wrote about hotels and visas, studied WordPress.

Months 2-3: Learned how to create custom fields, figured out the system.

Month 4: Connected Claude AI (turned out to be better than the others).

Months 5-6: Rewrote old pages through AI. They became beautiful and optimized. 30 minutes per page (used to take an entire week!).

By April 2026:

  • 200+ companies on the site
  • Hundreds of articles
  • Traffic is growing
  • newhaj.com is ALIVE!

But there’s still so much to rebuild, delete, and improve…

Part 7: The Scale of the Problem

HOTELS:

  • 15,000 hotels in Makkah
  • Dead season price: $40/night
  • Peak season (Ramadan, end of December): $800+/night
  • 20x more expensive!

MEDINA (special case):

  • Very few hotels
  • Prices from $200+/night (even in dead season!)
  • In peak season: no rooms available at all!
  • Some tour operators bring people in the MORNING, tour all day, then take them back to Makkah at night (because there’s nowhere to sleep in Medina!)

TRANSPORTATION:

  • 100+ companies with buses
  • ~500,000 vehicles in the city
  • Peak season: ALL 24/7 occupied
  • Can’t find new buses

FLIGHT TICKETS:

  • 2/3 of a Umrah package cost is the flight ticket
  • People constantly searching for cheap flights
  • Huge market

VISAS:

  • 15+ types of visas in Saudi Arabia (tourist, Hajj, student, medical, business, work, etc.)
  • Millions of people searching for visa information
  • Massive traffic potential

INDEPENDENT UMRAH (new trend):

  • People don’t want group tours anymore
  • Want to travel solo
  • New visas allow up to 3 months in Saudi Arabia per year

OVERALL MARKET:

  • Millions of pilgrims per year
  • Trillions of riyals in annual transactions
  • One proper platform could be worth $1-10 billion

Part 8: The AI Revolution — How One Person Became a Team

Before (2014-2023):

  • One hotel page = one week of work
  • 1,000 pages = months of work
  • Needed a team of 5 people

Now (2024-2026):

  • ChatGPT + Claude + Gemini + Manus
  • Give a prompt: “Write an article about Umrah visas in Saudi Arabia”
  • 30 minutes later: done page!
  • One person does the work of a team

HOW:

Claude helps with code: “How do I make a date filter?” → gives working code

ChatGPT helps with ideas: “20 content types for an Umrah guide” → gives list

Gemini helps with content: “Write a guide to getting a Saudi visa” → delivers text

Manus helps with deep content: Expand, refine, improve

RESULT:

  • One person can create 5-10+ pages per day
  • Instead of 1 page per week before
  • 100% acceleration

That’s why I say: AI is a superpower.

Part 9: Real Work — The Unglamorous Reality

People think: “You built a site, you’re at home, you’re making money.”

But my real work is so much harder.

3:00 AM — A group arrives

  • Meet them at the airport (in Jeddah, 4 terminals, 15 minutes between them)
  • Find my bus among 100+
  • Help with money, SIM cards, luggage
  • Count suitcases
  • If baggage is missing: file reports
  • Time: 5+ hours

Hotel inspection

  • Check every room: lights, bathroom, AC, key cards, towels, soap, TP, internet
  • Time: 2 hours for 20-25 rooms

Group briefing

  • Explain where everything is, WiFi password, dining hall, elevator locations, parking
  • How to get to Al-Haram mosque
  • Time: hours

Al-Haram mosque

  • Take the group to the mosque, explain the rules
  • Show where men and women pray
  • Explain the rituals
  • Time: 6-8 hours

24/7 on-call

  • 3 AM: “My head hurts!” → I drive to the hospital
  • 4 AM: “I’m lost!” → I go search
  • 5 AM: “I need a doctor!” → I call a doctor
  • 6 AM: “My luggage didn’t arrive!” → I deal with the airline

I’m a translator: People don’t speak Arabic. I translate between them and hotels, police, doctors, tour operators.

During Hajj:

  • 2-3 million pilgrims in a month
  • Working 24/7
  • Sleeping 2-3 hours a day max
  • Meeting 10-20 groups per day

Why I’m telling you this:

When I built newhaj.com, this isn’t just a tech project.

It’s 15 years of real experience. It’s understanding real problems. It’s knowing what people ACTUALLY need.

I don’t Google information. I remember it. I don’t theorize. I speak from experience. I don’t build for profit. I build to help.

Part 10: Mission Over Money

Yes, I need to make money.

But my PRIMARY goal is to help.

When I built newhaj.com, I asked:

  • How do I help people find a good hotel?
  • How do I help them avoid scams?
  • How do I help them save money?
  • How do I help them prepare properly?
  • How do I help them understand Saudi culture?

Money is a byproduct.

The real goal is HELP. The real goal is MISSION. The real goal is bringing GOOD into the world.

And when people use my site, they should FEEL this.

Feel that I CARE. Not just making money. Actually HELPING.

And that creates TRUST. And trust is the foundation of everything.

Part 11: Why newhaj.com Is Different

Booking and Agoda built for tourists. I built for pilgrims.

On newhaj.com you’ll find:

✅ Directory of 15,000 Makkah hotels — with information about prayer rooms, halal food, distance to Al-Haram

✅ Visa information — 15+ types of Saudi visas with step-by-step guides

✅ Tour operators — ratings, reviews, contacts of people who actually help pilgrims

✅ Useful articles — about preparation, culture, what you really need to know

✅ Help from someone who KNOWS — not a bot, not absent support, but a real person with 15 years of experience

You won’t find this anywhere else.

Part 12: The Final Message

When you come to Hajj or Umrah in Makkah—this is the most important event of your life. It’s a spiritual moment that may only happen once.

And you deserve it to be perfectly organized so you can focus on what matters—your pilgrimage—instead of worrying about hotels or scams.

I built newhaj.com for exactly this.

So you can come here, find everything you need, and know that I’ll help you if anything goes wrong.

Because I KNOW this industry. I KNOW its problems. And I KNOW how to help.

With respect and prayers,

A village boy from Ivanovo Oblast who refused to give up.

For Investors

If you’re reading this and thinking about investing in newhaj.com, here’s what you should know:

The Founder:

  • 15 years of direct industry experience
  • Proven ability to persist through failure (9 years of attempts)
  • Built an MVP to 200+ companies with zero budget
  • Capable of learning and adapting (from OpenCart to WordPress to GeoDirectory)

The Market:

  • 15,000+ hotels in Makkah alone
  • 100+ transport companies
  • Millions of pilgrims annually
  • Trillions in annual transactions
  • 15+ visa types creating information demand

The Traction:

  • 200+ companies already listed
  • Growing content base
  • Positive market feedback
  • Multiple revenue stream opportunities

The Vision:

  • Aggregate Makkah, Medina, and pilgrimage destinations globally
  • Become the trusted reference platform for 2 billion+ Muslims planning pilgrimages
  • Potential $1-10 billion market opportunity

Let’s talk: [+966536161330 hujuzaty@gmail.com]

P.S. Thanks to Ilnaz and Ildar for believing in 2014. Thanks to the AI creators who helped me build what would have required a team of 5 people. And thanks to you for reading this story.

Written at 2 AM. Eyes are closing. But the story had to be told.