Hello! If we haven’t met yet — I’m Andrey Ryzhov. I was born in Omsk, graduated from Oxford, I’m a longtime Warcraft fan, a former game developer, and for the past six years, I’ve been building the TIMELESS bar and lounge network.

To mark the launch of our sixth location — this time in the heart of Moscow City — I want to share how ambition turned a basement lounge into a premium franchise, and the key role our custom-built IT system played in that transformation.

Our team has already launched six successful lounge bars in Moscow, kicked off our expansion in Dubai, and spent the past three years developing a proprietary IT system for HoReCa — which I wrote about in detail in a previous article.

Not Following Standards — Setting Them
TIMELESS is a project born of pure ambition — and as lofty as that might sound, it’s the truth. We started with a small basement lounge, using basic Google scripts to automate payroll, and spoke in awe about the IT system behind Dodo Pizza, which at the time felt like the peak of evolution in the industry.

As we grew, those Google Sheets gradually evolved into real software, and we poured serious investment into scaling the brand. All the while, we kept getting the same questions in article comments:
 “Why build something that already exists?”
 “Who are you trying to compete with?”
 “What’s the point of investing so heavily in a lounge?”

Today, TIMELESS has six locations open across Moscow — each one a clear step above the last. And that’s not just my opinion, but the consistent feedback we hear from our loyal guests — many of whom have been with us since the very beginning.

Our IT division has also evolved dramatically. What started as a patchwork of scripts and tools has grown into a full-fledged next-generation cloud-based CRM & ERP system, designed specifically for the HoReCa industry. It’s now fully integrated into the daily operations of our venues — powering everything from staffing and service flow to performance analytics and inventory.

TIMELESS’s Most Ambitious Moscow Project Yet

Each new TIMELESS location is more complex and creatively ambitious than the one before. That growth has been fueled by two core principles woven into everything we do: we want to be the best, and we want to do what no one else is doing.

These goals have been both liberating and demanding. On the one hand, they gave us endless creative freedom. On the other, they set the bar higher with every opening — not in comparison to some abstract competitor, but to ourselves.

For our very first venue, my partner and I raised just enough investment to bring a few modest interior ideas to life. For the second, we spent several times more. And with every new launch, the scale of the space, the ambition behind the concept, and the size of our investment have all grown exponentially.

The challenge wasn’t just the increasing size of our venues—though that certainly played a role. For us, the true complexity began with our thirst for experimentation. It was further compounded by the number of unique custom pieces, the quality of equipment and materials, the scale of the teams and contractors involved, and consequently, the growing complexity of processes, decisions, and compromises.

We needed to preserve a warm, homely atmosphere for our guests and ensure each venue was intuitively comfortable — yet we didn’t want them to feel stylistically identical. This meant more design compromises between our creative ambitions and the technical realities of our contractors, as our desire to deliver a genuine “wow” effect grew exponentially.

This journey ultimately led TIMELESS to Moscow City. Here, we opened our most expensive venue per square meter — a project we consider the pinnacle of our vision, both in terms of guest experience and team development. I’m confident this will be redefined again after we launch our first location in Dubai.

Visual Evolution: From Handmade Sofas to Yacht-Inspired Interiors

Design holds a special place in the story of TIMELESS. For me, it all began in 2017 with a small basement lounge where we reupholstered furniture ourselves, assembled artwork, and even worked behind the bar. There were no designers then — we simply built what we envisioned.

Later, together with a new partner and a small group of adventurous collaborators, we opened another bar at Chistye Prudy, which soon evolved into what TIMELESS is today.

At the heart of every project was one key goal: to create an atmosphere that embodies our philosophy. People spend most of their lives at home or at work, but there’s always a “third place” — a sanctuary where one can breathe freely and be alone with their thoughts. This “third place” is exactly what we’ve strived to make TIMELESS, as much as our budgets and team resources would allow.

As our budgets grew, professional designers joined the team for our third venue. We brought in a design studio, though the budget still limited what we could realize. At the same time, I contributed a lot of my own vision—and, to be honest, suggested quite a few elaborate and somewhat unconventional ideas. While guests liked the results, from a professional design standpoint, some of those choices were considered a bit outdated.

By the time we reached the fourth and fifth TIMELESS locations, experimentation was in full swing. We invested more in design studios and opted for more modern, higher-end materials. Ultimately, I stepped back from direct involvement in the design process, and noticeably, the amount of gold and ornate details in our interiors was scaled back significantly.

Moscow City represents the pinnacle of our vision, largely thanks to the design. This project allowed us to fully express ourselves.
First, we finally partnered with the studio we had long admired — a major win for us, since for the past eight years they had declined public projects and worked exclusively on private commissions.
Second, through close collaboration, we found a shared creative vibe, which was crucial for true co-creation.

The larger the project, the more complex the execution. It was honestly challenging — our concept of a “third place” diverges significantly from the typical vision of public spaces, and our design philosophy emphasizes this in every detail.
We needed to create something trendy yet timeless, design zones with distinct styles that still belonged to a unified concept, and ensure every area was thoughtfully planned for comfort and guest experience. For any design team, this is an almost surreal task.
The level of detail was so intense that some contractors simply threw up their hands. A simple example: one wall required five different finishes, each from a separate contractor. Try coordinating that seamlessly under tight commercial deadlines.

Every venue with such complex design involves constant hurdles and compromises at every stage — from collaborating with the studio and ordering custom pieces to installation and endless revisions. But I can already say that this process helped every team member grow professionally, and together we delivered a cohesive, carefully crafted work of art.

And when we talk about art, it’s not just for show. We have a deep love for references to both classic and contemporary culture, and we constantly experiment with these influences in our menu. At Moscow City, supported by an experienced design studio, we gave ourselves full freedom to pursue our vision — and the studio full creative license. As a result, the interiors feature nods to premium yacht design, classic interior design traditions, and iconic contemporary artists.

Of course, the experience we aimed to create in Moscow City went far beyond just stunning interiors. The sixth TIMELESS added some unique features to its repertoire: karaoke, a cinema, a two-ton mirrored bar, and a Chef’s Table — a guest counter designed at the same height as the bartenders’ workspace.
Technology was a whole other level. While the fifth TIMELESS at Yakimanka featured partial smart home integration, here we pushed further, implementing intelligent lighting and ventilation control throughout the entire venue.

Technology in HoReCa — Building for the Market, Testing on Ourselves

From the earliest venues, I devoted a lot of time to automation and optimization using Google scripts, which I’ve discussed in detail in other articles. Even these makeshift solutions helped us allocate resources efficiently and, crucially for a young business, save money. As the network grew, new unmet challenges emerged for me as the chief visionary. Yes, the market offered various niche products for specific needs, but to my surprise, there was no single, high-quality all-in-one solution that integrated all necessary software. That’s how the idea for the TIMELESS Intelligent System was born.

If I were to sum up the core reason behind TIS’s existence, I’d say this: I always dreamed of a system that would allow a business to solve as many tasks as possible across different areas — and do it at a revolutionary new level. One that could be used by everyone, from top executives to waitstaff. And since I’m not just a dreamer but also an entrepreneur, I simply made it happen.

Imagine this: you’re a business owner managing operations across countries and regions, analyzing finances, and planning revenues and expenses. On top of that, you have a guest database linked to a loyalty program. Using these, you collect feedback, perform complex cohort analysis, and launch marketing campaigns with personalized offers. Finally, you have a team — and you need to assign different levels of access based on roles, calculate salaries according to grades, motivate employees, issue bonuses, and monitor performance. These are just a few examples of tasks handled either through integrations or custom solutions — and it’s great if you have the resources to do it all.

The same applies at other management levels. Managers need to create staff schedules, monitor bookings, oversee cash registers and menus, control inventory, and generate reports. And all of this should exist not as isolated tasks but integrated within a single unified system.

Inside TIS: The Macro Level

TIS is a complex system. It currently comprises seven fully integrated products, which we call modules: location geography, team management, scheduling, payroll and quests, finance, an internal CRM system, and a booking system. Each of these could easily compete with standalone solutions in their respective market segments.

Moreover, each product contains development and visualization blocks so sophisticated they could be considered separate modules themselves. For example, in the booking section, we implemented a floor plan editor with a level of detail down to power outlets, speakers, and TVs. To the best of our knowledge, we have surpassed all existing competitors in both visuals and functionality.

What did this mean from a development perspective? With each module, we followed a full cycle: analyzing the market, reviewing existing solutions, and conducting interviews with the people who would actually use the system.

Still, we based everything on our own vision — through endless brainstorming sessions, we imagined and defined how each module would be not just functional, but truly epic.
In the end, we tackled a massive list of our own ideas alongside existing features. For example, in the internal CRM, we prototyped, designed, and developed around 50 macro- and 150 micro-scenarios for module usage.

One of our main advantages is a deep, thorough approach — from development to user testing. As a mathematician-programmer educated at Oxford, I treat each module like a research project, diving literally into the Mariana Trench. And the TIMELESS network is perfect for this.

First, our venue teams are deeply immersed in the market, the business nuances, and existing software, which helps us clearly identify real pain points. Second, developers often joke that TIMELESS is their favorite and most honest client. It’s a funny joke, but it reflects a great reality: TIMELESS is an anchor client. Every solution is tested in real-world conditions, and venue teams provide feedback almost instantly.

Human-Centered UX: Detail and Gamification

The challenge with any article about TIS is that it’s hard to convey all the details that make the system special. We have broad macro-features—essentially entire modules. But the system is so complex that each individual block contains many micro-features. Let me try to illustrate the depth of this work with the payroll module. This case is a great example of how design and gamification can package complex calculations into easily understandable content.

This module solves a fairly straightforward task on the surface — calculating how much money an employee will earn and managing their motivation. The system includes a standard set of scenarios: we have a role system, which is further divided into grades, allowing salary configurations both at the role and grade levels. This is done across several parameters: hourly rate, shift rate, monthly salary, percentages from personal sales, shift sales, and more. A small enhancement we developed specifically for TIMELESS is a reward for examination — regular payments for successful certifications.

Additionally, this module needs to be user-friendly not only for managers calculating salaries but also for employees who want to easily view and understand how much and for what they are being paid. This is what an employee profile looks like, displaying all salary cards, earned bonuses, and completed targets.

The most interesting part begins at the motivation stage: we introduced quest settings — an interface where managers can configure flexible targets for employees. These are designed to enable additional incentives for shifts, weeks, or months.

A key feature of this module is its deep level of detail and customization. Managers can set targets for employees based on goals such as guest list sign-ins, personal sales, average check per table, unique items per check, average quantity of products per check, plan fulfillment, and over-fulfillment — both for shifts and individual performance.

There are also complex quests defined by formulas. Employees earn rewards for quests in various forms: fixed hourly, monthly, or per-shift payments, one-time bonuses, or additional percentages based on different parameters. This is what the employee’s personal dashboard looks like in the web version, where they can track their quest progress in real time.

This is exactly the kind of calculation I was talking about. But its complexity shouldn’t affect the end user — the employees. That’s why we’ve wrapped everything into a user-friendly format specifically for them. This is how the mobile app looks, where team members can track their quest progress effortlessly.

And, of course, to view their projected end-of-month salary in real time—with full, detailed breakdowns.

Although this is just one module, the depth of immersion in planning, development, and testing is the same across all parts of our system.

Summary

To wrap things up: TIMELESS didn’t grow chasing quick wins but with the vision to create a timeless venue, paying less attention to competitors and more to our own unique path. At the start, our resources were limited, so not all ideas could be realized. But over time, more talented and passionate people joined the team, bringing TIMELESS ever closer to its original vision.

By the time we opened our sixth venue in Moscow, I can confidently say that — both in HoReCa and in product development — we had pushed our vision further than ever before.

And I can say with absolute certainty: we’re only just getting started.