From junior to CEO in 20 months: expert column by Oleg Kupets

Oleg Kupets is an affiliate marketer with over 5 years of experience in iGaming and over 15 years in marketing. He presents case studies at industry conferences and actively develops the community of arbitrageurs in Ukraine. He is the founder of KuPartners, a private affiliate network that works with Tier 1 and Tier 2. He is also the owner of Telegram channels on arbitrage, pwa.pro, kuSpend agency accounts, and other projects: KUPETS_TRAF, ФЕЙСБУКович, KuParthers, Pwa.pro.

This is Oleg Kupets, the owner of KuPartners, KuTeam, and today I want to talk about “How to grow from a junior and a buyer’s assistant to CEO.” We personally have such a case, which we consciously worked on step by step, so we have something to say.

In 2025, changes in arbitration are gaining momentum: KPIs from recs have significantly increased, while LTV has decreased. This is just part of what Facebook has changed. In particular, the Advantage Plus algorithm was modified, along with many other aspects. All these changes present us with new challenges.

2025 is not just a budget race, where the one with more capital wins, but also a race of learning speed and the ability to adapt to new conditions. How quickly we can master new tools, implement changes, and react to stress — this is what will determine success.

Skill development based on our team’s example

We want to share a real example from our team. Anatoly came to us with a negative from previous projects, lived in a shared apartment, and worked on an old laptop. His career could have ended at this stage. However, we changed the focus. Instead of focusing on problems, we focused on skill development.

We created a development map for each team member, where we consider not only hard skills but also soft and meta-skills. And this brought results.

Hard skills: The foundation of success

Hard skills are the basic technical skills needed to achieve results. For example, you can be a great specialist, communicative, or responsible, but if you don’t know how to generate profit and monetize your time, this won’t allow you to establish yourself in your profession.

The first step to success is developing hard skills. Only by mastering technical knowledge can you become effective in your field.

Soft skills: You can’t succeed without them

But hard skills don’t work without soft skills. You can be an excellent specialist with great achievements, but if you don’t know how to interact with the team, take responsibility, or manage your emotions, if you’re toxic — success will be in question. And sooner or later, the person making the decisions, your CEO, team lead, or owner, will make a decision in favor of the team, because a rotten apple will spoil the whole basket, and your negativity will spoil the productivity of the team or subteam you work in.

Second — time management and stress management, the ability to allocate time properly and respond to stress. And since our niche is very dynamic, there’s plenty of stress. And of course, delegation. Without this, you can’t grow beyond being a buyer. How can you become a team lead and manage a subteam without knowing how to delegate tasks, control them, and so on?

Meta-skills: Preparation for the future

Meta-skills are the skills that allow you to not only cope with challenges but thrive in the face of change. Among them: systemic thinking, the ability to see the big picture, and analyzing decision-making.

These skills are becoming increasingly important as the largest tech giants, like Google, Microsoft, and Apple, are already paying attention to them. Mastering these skills allows you to not only adapt to changes but also predict them. One of the key meta-skills is anti-fragility. It differs from stress resilience in that it includes not only the ability to respond correctly to stress but also the ability to grow in stressful conditions. A person who has anti-fragility can withstand stress and use it to their advantage, becoming stronger in the process.

How our team’s learning system works

Our success is the result of a system. We’ve created an effective learning model where we constantly update our knowledge and increase qualifications.

We integrate learning as part of the system in the team. It’s not just external courses we’ve taken a lot of: leadership, marketing, design, or operational management, but also internal initiatives: lectures, brainstorming sessions, daily flight debriefs, book-sharing, and podcasts. They create an environment for continuous development.

6 reasons why growth is impossible:

1. No discipline — chaos instead of a system.
2. No desire to learn — the market will eat you.
3. Solo — without a team, it’s hard to succeed.
4. No clear learning roadmap in the team.

No support within the team.

Nepotism in the team — it hinders growth.

Of course, we now set an example with Anatoly, but he is not the only one. He was able to listen, adapt, and switch, but all CEO heads in our team are absolutely everyone who came in as either a farmer or a junior. Success is inevitable when there’s a system, support, and a team.

If you want to develop faster than others, than the market, then be part of a team that already has this system. It will give you the tools for success and the unlocking of your potential.