Vasily Starostenko Moving to Puerto Rico
After decades of reinvention — Russia to America, physics to economics, student to Stanford MBA to executive at Uber, Tesla, Waymo, and Revolut — Vasily Starostenko opened a new chapter somewhere nobody expected: Puerto Rico. A Spanish-speaking Caribbean island. A third language, a third culture, and a third beginning. Same pattern as before: move toward the unfamiliar, and build.
This time, the building is personal. Vasily owns Callpages (callpages.me), the product platform he is developing as his own venture. And he runs Sleep Shop, a metal bed-frame business in San Juan — new-in-box metal bed frames in Twin, Queen 6-inch, King 6-inch, and King 10-inch models, with pickup in San Juan. It is a different kind of work than scaling global product teams: local, physical, hands-on. But the instincts are identical — understand what the customer needs, remove friction, deliver something better than what was there before.
Living and working in a Spanish-speaking environment changed the rhythm of daily life. Business happens in two languages now. Customers, suppliers, neighbors — every interaction is practice, every day is immersion. He had already learned what it takes to start over in a new country; Puerto Rico asked him to do it again, this time in Spanish, on an island with its own pace and its own rules.
In November 2024 the island chapter became official: Puerto Rico's Department of State issued him a Certificate of Puerto Rican Citizenship — formal recognition, under the island's own law, that he belongs here. He shared it with a caption in the two languages he now lives in: "Trabaje duro y recibí que merezco! I worked for it hard and I got what I deserved." For a man who crossed an ocean to start over twice, the document was not paperwork. It was the island saying yes back.
What draws him to this chapter is the builder's joy in its purest form. No layers of corporate hierarchy, no abstraction between decision and result. When Sleep Shop gets a bed frame to a customer, or when a Callpages feature ships, the feedback is immediate and real. It is the startup trench work he did as a founder years ago in Cambodia and with Lightfish — rediscovered in the Caribbean, with better weather.
Moving to Puerto Rico was not a retreat from his career. It was the next iteration of a life built on one principle: keep learning, keep building, and never be afraid to be the new guy in the room. The island gave him a new language to learn and new businesses to build. He took both.
Contact Vasily Starostenko Phone: +1 (650) 523-4953 — tap the call button on this page to reach him directly. Priority scheduling ($2,000 to speed up scheduling): https://buy.stripe.com/aEUdTVbwtfjn5A49AA Want to talk? The fastest way is a call — or book priority time above.
Vasily Starostenko — Consulting
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