About Us
Welcome!
This is Alexander Selishchev, head and founder of Limetime.
We are a close-knit team passionate about sports. Organizing competitions has become more than just a hobby for us — it's a true passion that led to the creation of Limetime.
2011
We have a cycling club called Zelbike in Zelenograd, which for many years held an annual bike race called «Rootlets», taking place in our very rooty forest. It was fun, but at registration participants would line up in hour-long queues, and during the race judges would record laps on paper and then spend several more hours compiling the results into a table.
Something urgently needed to change.
2014
We eliminated registration queues and introduced online registration. Along with it, we launched a program now known as manual timing — the judge simply enters participant bib numbers on a tablet, and the system automatically records the time and instantly calculates results.
It immediately became clear that when participants passed through in a dense group, even two judges could make mistakes — enter a wrong number or miss someone entirely.
We started thinking about the next step.
2015
The first version of electronic timing — we rented German UHF RFID equipment and it actually worked well, but revealed a whole range of new problems: a tangle of cables, a slight tug and the connection would break, it took a long time to assemble and disassemble, we didn't even manage to hang the antennas on top of the arch, and of course due to our limited understanding of RFID technology at the time, it was unclear why some tags read perfectly while others only every other time.
2016
That's me in front of the modular arch and equipment tent. The first attempts at commercial timing showed that even with careful preparation, the setup involving a computer, a large number of cables, a reader, and bulky antenna structures proved unreliable. It required a lot of time and effort to implement, so a different solution was needed.
2017, Decoder #1
Having systematized all the experience gained, I came to understand that the equipment, from an operational standpoint, needed to be as simple as it could possibly be. That's when the concept was born: «the decoder should be placed on the ground, four antenna cables connected, and switched on with a single button — from there it loads the race data on its own and sends the results back to the cloud». At the time I was already looking at imported equipment, but it was covered in buttons and required a computer connection — I genuinely couldn't understand this, as it was not much better than the tent full of cables. Ours, on the contrary, had not a single button from the very start except «Start», because it was controlled via the internet from a mobile phone.
We purchased off-the-shelf antennas and that immediately backfired, because they failed quickly, and not owning the technology, we couldn't figure out why.
2017, Limetime
After several design cycles we arrived at Decoder #2, which already featured a great welded panel, laser-engraved labels, and updated electronics.
Somewhere around this time the name Limetime was born. The company's main focus was directed toward equipment manufacturing and organizing mass races.
2018, Decoder #3
Endless iterations improving the decoder's internal software, the platform, and constant work on fixing issues. Preparation for mass production.
It is specifically the emergence of Decoder #3 as a functioning product that marks the founding date of Limetime as a company. We still cannot run large-scale start lines without our own mat antenna, which is essential for races with 1000+ participants.
2021
Development of our own mat antenna was completed, the first race with 1,000 participants in spring, and by autumn already 3,300 participants.
A new global goal — the ability to time an event at the level of the Moscow Marathon. For this we need a 20-meter antenna line and super reliability.
2022
We built an 8-port decoder, now featuring a large touchscreen, and together with it you can create a finish line up to 20 meters wide!
2023
All resources focused on scaling and growth. A bigger team, more equipment, more capabilities for the platform and race organizers!
2025
The prototype of the active system demonstrated an accuracy of
±0.001 seconds, we are preparing for mass production.
2026
We created the world's first decoderless timing system that runs on a standard USB power bank.
Our current ambitious goal is equipment for elite sport, expansion into international markets, and a new, even more advanced version of the mat antenna.
Come visit us, follow our pages on VK, Dzen and Telegram — we'll be sharing exciting new updates soon! 🚀
