Breaking Barriers: Alesia Dvorkina's Journey to Cloud-Based CRM Solutions Success

Alesia Dvorkina, founder of Hmara Solutions, never planned on becoming a tech entrepreneur. Born and raised in Belarus, she was once told that girls simply don't code. "We were given options in high school, nursing for girls, coding for boys," she recalled. "But I always knew I was drawn to technology." That early discouragement didn't extinguish her interest. Instead, it simmered quietly, waiting for the right conditions to surface.

When she immigrated to the United States at 21, she started from the ground up, working in hospitality and fast food while studying and gaining experience. Eventually, she found herself in a finance role, where a new system, Salesforce, opened an unexpected door. "I still remember sitting down on my first day with a CRM administrator and thinking, 'This is what I want to do.' It just made sense to me," she shared.

Without a computer science degree or formal training, Dvorkina leaned on curiosity, persistence, and long nights. "Every weekend for probably a year, I studied technical documentation, just dense help and training articles, no pictures, no videos, just raw text," she said. "But I loved it. It wasn't about being the smartest person. It was about being relentless."

That relentlessness defined her 15-year journey in technology. She climbed the CRM ladder from junior administrator to director, eventually managing entire CRM teams. Through it all, she discovered her gift not only for problem-solving but also for building high-functioning, collaborative teams. "I realized my strength is building communities, bringing the right people together, and organizing the work so it flows," she said.

In 2021, that realization became action. After years of quiet ambition, it was a conversation with her young son, who was then dreaming of launching rockets to Mars, that pushed her over the edge. "He asked me, 'Should I start my own company or work for a space mission company first?'" she said. "I told him, 'You probably need to work for a space mission company to learn.' And he said, 'But if I start now, I'll learn more, faster.' That line stuck with me. The next day, I registered my LLC."

That company became Hmara Solutions, named after the Belarusian word for "cloud." Today, it's a boutique consultancy specializing in cloud-based CRM systems, with a small but powerful team of about 10 experienced professionals. "We are not a big shop, and that's by design," said Dvorkina. "Everyone here has at least 10 years of experience. There are no juniors. No learning curves at our client's expense."

The work Hmara does is technical, but Dvorkina's mission is deeply human. Her goal is to make technology invisible, removing friction so people can focus on the work that matters. "A grant writer doesn't want to struggle with a database. A salesperson wants to sell, not do data entry. When systems get in the way of that, people become frustrated. I see it as our job to create solutions that are intuitive, helpful, and tailored to how people actually work," Dvorkina said.

Hmara's clients span sectors, but nonprofits currently make up about half of the portfolio, a choice that reflects Dvorkina's values. "We want to work with organizations doing meaningful work. It excites our team to know their efforts are amplifying impact," she said.

Flexibility and agility are cornerstones of the Hmara approach. Unlike larger consultancies, where clients might get passed off to a junior staffer, Hmara ensures that "who you see is who you get." The same expert one meets on the first call is the one who helps architect the solution. "We're small enough to stay close to the work, and that's where we shine," Dvorkina noted.

The team also understands that optimizing a CRM system is not just about software. It's about aligning people, processes, and technology. "You can have the best system in the world, but if your team is not trained or your processes are messy, it won't work. We focus on all three elements, people, processes, and platform, because they have to evolve together," Dvorkina said.

What sets Hmara apart is not just its technical precision but its commitment to empathy and trust. "Technology should not feel like a burden," Dvorkina said. "It should feel like support. Like something that helps you be your best at work."

It's a philosophy shaped by personal experience, of pushing through cultural expectations, breaking into a field that once seemed out of reach, and choosing to build a business on her own terms. "I used to believe that only geniuses or rich people could start companies," she said. "But I looked around and thought, 'Wait, I already have the skillset, I already know the market, I just need to take the leap.'"

And leap she did. With a son's curiosity as inspiration and over a decade of experience as a foundation, Alesia Dvorkina has built more than a consulting firm. She's built a workplace where purpose and precision live side by side, a cloud-based partner for organizations that want clarity, not complexity.