Bumba

2023: Creation of a publishing house

Postgres Professional co-founders Ivan Panchenko and Oleg Bartunov launched their own book publishing house. They told TAdviser about this in October 2023. Their partner in the new business was Elena Kirichek, writer, astrophysicist. She also took the position of CEO in the company. And Ivan Panchenko and Oleg Bartunov on the publishing house's website are listed as founding fathers.

According to the database of legal entities Kontur.Focus, "all co-founders own the company in equal shares, about 33.3% each.

Publishing team "(photo from the site boombabook.ru)"

The publishing house, called "Bumba," is aimed primarily at children of preschool and school age. It has already released several first books: books with fairy tales for children, coloring books.

Unfortunately, now the children have practically stopped reading. And modern parents, as a rule, no longer read books to their children at night. There used to be such a tradition. Reading at night and instills in children an interest in books, and contributes to maintaining contact in the relationship between parents and children. We want to try to change the existing state of affairs and instill in children and their parents an interest in reading, "says Oleg Bartunov.

He added that there are few high-quality illustrated children's books on the market now. Old editions with high-quality illustrations are now very expensive. The publishing house expects to fill this gap and publish high-quality books both in content and in design. To do this, the company hired an art director and collaborates with professional artists.

At the same time, the publishing house also has a category of books for adults, in which the first edition was released in 2023 - the art album "Painting in the Time and Space of Culture," dedicated to the legacy of the People's Artist of the RSFSR, the "singer of Kalmykia" Garya Rokchinsky.

Examples of books already released by "Boomba." According to the publishing house, each page of the book of the series "100 Russian Fairy Tales" is hand-drawn using a pencil, watercolor and liner. No special effects or CGI.

Ivan Panchenko explained to TAdviser that the publishing house has far-reaching plans for the release of popular science and educational literature for children, which will be a good addition to the school curriculum. An example of such literature for him is the classic entertaining works of Ya. I. Perelman, V.N. Bolkhovitinov, V.V. Bianka and others, however, in the changed world it is necessary to create new guidelines. The publisher's focus is on the release of original books, and not reprinting what already exists, and the first fairy tales and coloring can be perceived as a warm-up, although their publishers consider the most important component of human education.

Such non-fiction books will also be useful for adults: there are many familiar natural phenomena around us, but how and why they arise, even many adults cannot explain. In the books planned for release, they too will be able to get answers to many questions outlined in simple and accessible language.

The release of books on astronomical topics is of particular interest to the publishing house, since all co-founders have education and experience in this area.

Ivan Panchenko is an astronomer by education, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences. He taught for 20 years at Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov and investigated the most powerful explosions in the universe - cosmic gamma-ray bursts, was engaged in mathematical modeling of stellar evolution, supernovae and black holes.

Oleg Bartunov studied at the Physics Department of Moscow State University, received a diploma in Astronomy, works in the Department of Emission Stars and Galaxies of the State Astronomical Institute named after P.K. Sternberg. Elena Kirichek - Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences with a degree in Solar Physics, worked at the Main (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its main work is on VUL modeling of active solar formations (spots, torches, flares, protuberances).

Ivan Panchenko and Elena Kirichek, even before creating their own publishing house, jointly published a book on astronomy for children entitled "The Unknown Sun. Investigation. " The first circulation was released in 2021, the second - in 2022. The book received two prestigious awards in Russia - "Auditor" (which released it to the publishing house) and "Book of the Year 2021" - to authors and publishing houses.

According to Ivan Panchenko, funds earned in the IT-Business have been invested in the publishing house.

The development of the database management systems development industry in our country was our dream, which we realized at Postrges Professional. We didn't have a goal to make money for money, but there are other dreams and ideas that we want to realize. But helping to educate and nurture the future generation is not just a dream or a business idea. We perceive this as our duty to society and civilization, to the people who taught and raised us, "he said in a conversation with TAdviser.

According to Kontur. Focus, at the end of 2022, the revenue of Postrges Professional (Postgres Professional LLC) increased by 229%, to about 4.4 billion rubles, and net profit amounted to 3.5 billion rubles. The company entered the top ten fastest growing Russian developers in 2022.