How Craft’s Ilya Levtov Built A Software Company Without Coding

Crunchbase News frames Ilya Levtov’s story as the fourth profile in a series about founders from non-technical backgrounds who launched venture-backed companies. Levtov, founder and CEO of Craft, says he has never written a line of code, yet built a San Francisco-based supply chain intelligence software company. His background includes Stanford Business School, venture capital experience at Venrock, startup operating roles and a music path that included cello training and a Columbia-Juilliard exchange.

The article highlights a clear disadvantage for non-technical founders: they cannot simply build the first product themselves. Levtov said his first coder was hired through Odesk or Upwork, and that relying on others slowed the path from idea to working software. He also described the challenge of evaluating technical talent without deep engineering expertise, especially when the product depends on the quality of the underlying code.

Craft began after an unsuccessful attempt to build an enterprise social network, during which the team created company profiles from public sources. Those profiles started appearing in Google searches, which suggested there could be a business in company intelligence. The company later found a supply chain use case when Lockheed Martin identified that Craft’s data could track signals such as hiring changes, executive departures and new product offerings across suppliers.

Levtov raised $42 million for Craft and says the company now works with 35 federal agencies and generates double-digit millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue. He also said the U.S. Air Force reached out in 2020 about monitoring 300,000 companies in the defense industrial base, leading to a five-year, $6.5 million deal. The broader takeaway is balanced: technical founders may have an early execution edge, but non-technical founders can bring strengths in customer understanding, fundraising, hiring, selling, positioning and dealmaking.