The fact that tiny coherent insertions of the semicon ductor material having a small band gap in a wide band gap matrix, or quantum dots (QDs), may completely reshape modern micro and optoelectronics became evi dent many years ago. Several competing approaches were tested on the way of practical realization of QDs, including those based on different processing techniques, on direct growth methods and on combination of both. Initially, the research was concentrated on processing techniques. The breakthrough occurred, however, when direct growth ef fects, people were initially fighting with (surface faceting, formation of islands, phase separation of alloys, etc.), were intentionally used for fabrication of nanostructures. Here I report on the history of quantum dot laser, and our experience and efforts in growth and studies of QD heterostructures at the Zhores Alferov's laboratory of Ioffe institute in close collaboration with the group of Prof. D.Bimberg at the Technical University of Berlin.