Creating an international startup
Today, many entrepreneurs from the countries of the former USSR are thinking or are already creating start-ups in the field of information technologies, which are oriented towards the world as a whole, and not their own region. I talked about this approach with international expert in IT and lecturer in the business school of the Cup of Technovatsia Vladimir L. Pavlov.
Under the cat you can read about the features of start-ups after working in the IT giants, a world without borders, project management, the Silicon Valley Bible, and much more.
Expert dossier:
Vladimir Pavlov ( http://www.linkedin.com/in/vlpavlov )
Born in Ukraine in 1974. In 1991 he entered the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of the Dnepropetrovsk State University. In 1996 he began his career as a programmer in a large outsourcing company. After 5 years, he left her already a technical director in order to start his own software development business.
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In 2004-2005, he worked as a director at Intel. From 2005 to 2007 he was the head of one of the departments in Microsoft Rus. Since spring 2010, a rollApp startup has been developing.
Lives in California, USA. Works worldwide.
Yuri Bryzgalov (Tekhnovatsy Cup): Thank you, Vladimir, for agreeing to the meeting. I would like to talk with you about the practical aspects of international IT business. How did you come to the creation and development of your startup?
Vladimir Pavlov: I have not quite a standard career. Typically, people start as an entrepreneur, and then (after buying a startup by a large company) goes into corporate officials. I did the opposite.
In 1996, I went to work as a programmer at an outsourcing company that wrote software for the medical equipment market. The work was not easy - human lives depended on this software. Our parent company was one of the top three US market leaders in its segment.
In 2001, I went to Florida to this parent company. He worked there as a middle-official position, met people and made a small, but proud, start-up in the field of high-tech software development. Our clients were Microsoft, Nokia, Vodafone, etc.
In parallel, I conducted social activities. At that time, the international standard Computing Curricula became popular in the world, on how to teach computer science students. Andrei Terekhov and I organized a project to translate it into Russian. They began to call me at the conference. At one of them, we met Lyudmila Nesterenko ( copy ), who was then director of technology and development of Russian Intel. After some time, I received an offer from Intel, where I began working as an outsourcing director and supporting software development processes.
However, after a year and a half, Microsoft received an offer, which I could not refuse, and went to head the impudent depreciation, which tried to change the structure of the Russian economy. Make it so that programming gets more attention. In mature economies such as Western Europe, the share of the software industry is between 1 and 2.5 percent of GDP. In Russia, five years ago, it was 0.17%.
YB: And when did you decide to start your own projects?
VP: In 2007, I decided that I had enough to do bureaucratic work, I had to go and do something useful. There were a few more star people with me. We did consulting together. And they decided to spend the money earned in this way on an incubator for startups.
When we had the first projects ready to hatch out of the nest, there was a crisis. Funds were not ready to invest in new companies, only to maintain or close old ones. As a result, our company went bankrupt, but I took it calmly, according to the principle “they give two unbeaten for one broken one”.
In the spring of last year, I came up with a startup that I’m doing now - rollApp .
YB: How did your experience in the IT giants affect you? How do you make decisions?
VP: First, he showed that there are no borders in the world. They really are not. A number of IT giants have an annual budget greater than the budget of some CIS countries. They live in their own world. For example, if you need to talk to someone, you go to him, not thinking at all where the interlocutor is. In the same Intel, you, as a new employee, are required to complete a series of courses during the first quarter, for example, on how to conduct effective meetings. One of the key ideas of this course is the following: if you need to talk to someone - sit on the plane and fly off, talk, if you can't fly - then do a video conference, if you can't again - call, if that doesn't work, then only write e-mail And it is really effective. Such trips become a lifestyle.
Secondly, it showed that there are no unsolvable problems. When a problem arises before you, there are two approaches to it. The first approach is a two-step algorithm. The initial step: evaluate the realism, do it or not. And the next step, if you decided to master it, then you think exactly how to do it. The second approach is that there is no initial step. As a result, assuming that everything is feasible by default, living on the principle of presumption of attainability of goals, you start looking at the world in a completely different way. Half of the tasks that others abandon become possible. Microsoft in this sense, instilled a good culture: just grab and do, there are no unrealizable tasks.
YB: Interesting principles. But they follow well when there are resources of a large company. For a small startup to do so is more difficult.
VP: What do resources mean? The main resource is not money, not a brand, but time. This is exactly the resource that a small startup has, and the big Microsoft doesn’t. A Microsoft official is burdened with so many formal duties that he willy-nilly has less time to work than a person who can fully devote himself to a specific task. In this sense, a young entrepreneur has more resources than people who work in large companies.
Plus freedom. Any large company is bureaucratic. There are rules, procedures, etc., and in a startup you are free. If you need to dramatically expand the direction of the business, you can do it.
YB: Can you recommend entrepreneurs to work first in a good company, and then take on your business?
VP: That's right, what you said was “good”. It does not have to be a giant multinational, it can be a medium or small company. The main thing to work is not just good, but better. If you gain experience in teams that are the best in something in the world, then you increase your value in terms of resume. But usually such teams and from a financial point of view are very promising.
YB: What are the biggest difficulties you faced in the field of entrepreneurship? And how were they allowed?
VP: The first difficulty is the first contracts. Working with real clients is important not because it brings money (you can always report it from your own pocket, invite an investor, etc.) It is important as an indicator that you are doing something really useful to people. If it is not just a client, but a client with a known name, this is even better.
One day (during my first startup) I promised Microsoft to do what they didn’t ask. They liked the result. And when it turned out that we were ready to give the product for free, they began to ask: “How much money do you need?”. And in the end they paid even more than we would have billed ourselves. But I didn’t have a task to take money from them, it was important to get them to the customer list.
We must look for non-trivial steps. There is nothing wrong with your dad working as a director of an enterprise that is located near the enterprise you want to sell. If you came and just charmed and sold, then it is also fine. The art of management is to make an event come true.
If you believe the modern propaganda of Silicon Valley, then you have to do everything cheaply, first get a client that you pay for something, and then create a product. This is what is called customer development. That is, if the client really needs something, he is ready to pay in advance, even if you don’t have it yet.
YB: What other important point can you name for an entrepreneur?
VP: The second is people. Unfortunately, man is not free. If you look at yourself, you will notice that you are a mirror, you “reflect” those people with whom you communicate. The brain is difficult to engage in creativity, easier to copy. This is manifested not only in small things, but also in large. The main freedom that we have with you is the freedom of choice: who to “reflect”, with whom to be together.
Those people who come to the company at the very beginning form its face and future. I was lucky with people. I think this luck is determined by my attitude towards them. We must hire those people who have something that you do not have.
YB: What are three tips you can give to young IT entrepreneurs?
VP: First, since the world is flat, it does not make sense to do something that can become a leader or is competitive in the local market. Even if you are “the first guy in the village,” tomorrow, anyway, any Microsoft or Intel will come, which is the same, but sells much better in America, and will crush you. Of course, there is always a chance that you will become Nuraliev or Volozhem, but these are rather exceptions confirming the rule. We must immediately try to do something that will be competitive in the global market.
The following practical conclusion - learn English. I, as a member of the program committees of various conferences, review articles whose theses are written in English. Sorry, but often it's like in that movie: “My coming yesterday, you won't be caught.”
English is a working language. A person in the IT field who does not speak English is simply unfit. Point. It is necessary to stop what he teaches now - C ++ or how to program a new controller - let him forget about it, and for several months it will be hidden in textbooks, listening to recordings, etc. And then let him return to the study of the Stroustrap books - but in the original, in English.
Another practical recommendation - do not take the state. money. Never state the official will not think like an investor investing his own funds. At best, he will take care of what the prosecutor’s office does not plant, and make responsible decisions using the “collegial” method - here the motivation is not to get the result, but to cover the backside. About the worst case - when the prosecutor's office really has something to plant - you can think of it yourself. As a result, you will have nowhere to go from any checks, reports. Yes, and decent investors will shy away, knowing that the structure that has created an additional burden has already been invested in you.
YB: Thank you, Vladimir, for the advice. During the one-hour conversation it is impossible to cover all the questions on our topic. Could you name a few books where you can get useful information?
VP: In our area has its own Bible. “The Old Testament” is a book by Jeffrey Moore about bridging the abyss. “The New Testament” is the books of Steve Blanca about four steps to the insight and the team under the leadership of Alexander Ostervalder about the templates of business models. As well as a couple of additional books that I recommend, although in the mass entrepreneurial consciousness they have not yet acquired the status of the “sacred texts” of Silicon Valley:
Electronic versions of three of these five books can be purchased on Amazon in a few seconds.
YB: Thank you, Vladimir, for the conversation.
VP: Thank you, Yuri. I want to inform you that we have several vacancies in rollApp: HTML 5 and JavaScript Ninja and Mobile Apps Virtuoso . I would be glad if Habrahabr readers respond to them.
Under the cat you can read about the features of start-ups after working in the IT giants, a world without borders, project management, the Silicon Valley Bible, and much more.
Expert dossier:
Vladimir Pavlov ( http://www.linkedin.com/in/vlpavlov )
Born in Ukraine in 1974. In 1991 he entered the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of the Dnepropetrovsk State University. In 1996 he began his career as a programmer in a large outsourcing company. After 5 years, he left her already a technical director in order to start his own software development business.
')
In 2004-2005, he worked as a director at Intel. From 2005 to 2007 he was the head of one of the departments in Microsoft Rus. Since spring 2010, a rollApp startup has been developing.
Lives in California, USA. Works worldwide.
Yuri Bryzgalov (Tekhnovatsy Cup): Thank you, Vladimir, for agreeing to the meeting. I would like to talk with you about the practical aspects of international IT business. How did you come to the creation and development of your startup?
Vladimir Pavlov: I have not quite a standard career. Typically, people start as an entrepreneur, and then (after buying a startup by a large company) goes into corporate officials. I did the opposite.
In 1996, I went to work as a programmer at an outsourcing company that wrote software for the medical equipment market. The work was not easy - human lives depended on this software. Our parent company was one of the top three US market leaders in its segment.
In 2001, I went to Florida to this parent company. He worked there as a middle-official position, met people and made a small, but proud, start-up in the field of high-tech software development. Our clients were Microsoft, Nokia, Vodafone, etc.
In parallel, I conducted social activities. At that time, the international standard Computing Curricula became popular in the world, on how to teach computer science students. Andrei Terekhov and I organized a project to translate it into Russian. They began to call me at the conference. At one of them, we met Lyudmila Nesterenko ( copy ), who was then director of technology and development of Russian Intel. After some time, I received an offer from Intel, where I began working as an outsourcing director and supporting software development processes.
However, after a year and a half, Microsoft received an offer, which I could not refuse, and went to head the impudent depreciation, which tried to change the structure of the Russian economy. Make it so that programming gets more attention. In mature economies such as Western Europe, the share of the software industry is between 1 and 2.5 percent of GDP. In Russia, five years ago, it was 0.17%.
YB: And when did you decide to start your own projects?
VP: In 2007, I decided that I had enough to do bureaucratic work, I had to go and do something useful. There were a few more star people with me. We did consulting together. And they decided to spend the money earned in this way on an incubator for startups.
When we had the first projects ready to hatch out of the nest, there was a crisis. Funds were not ready to invest in new companies, only to maintain or close old ones. As a result, our company went bankrupt, but I took it calmly, according to the principle “they give two unbeaten for one broken one”.
In the spring of last year, I came up with a startup that I’m doing now - rollApp .
YB: How did your experience in the IT giants affect you? How do you make decisions?
VP: First, he showed that there are no borders in the world. They really are not. A number of IT giants have an annual budget greater than the budget of some CIS countries. They live in their own world. For example, if you need to talk to someone, you go to him, not thinking at all where the interlocutor is. In the same Intel, you, as a new employee, are required to complete a series of courses during the first quarter, for example, on how to conduct effective meetings. One of the key ideas of this course is the following: if you need to talk to someone - sit on the plane and fly off, talk, if you can't fly - then do a video conference, if you can't again - call, if that doesn't work, then only write e-mail And it is really effective. Such trips become a lifestyle.
Secondly, it showed that there are no unsolvable problems. When a problem arises before you, there are two approaches to it. The first approach is a two-step algorithm. The initial step: evaluate the realism, do it or not. And the next step, if you decided to master it, then you think exactly how to do it. The second approach is that there is no initial step. As a result, assuming that everything is feasible by default, living on the principle of presumption of attainability of goals, you start looking at the world in a completely different way. Half of the tasks that others abandon become possible. Microsoft in this sense, instilled a good culture: just grab and do, there are no unrealizable tasks.
YB: Interesting principles. But they follow well when there are resources of a large company. For a small startup to do so is more difficult.
VP: What do resources mean? The main resource is not money, not a brand, but time. This is exactly the resource that a small startup has, and the big Microsoft doesn’t. A Microsoft official is burdened with so many formal duties that he willy-nilly has less time to work than a person who can fully devote himself to a specific task. In this sense, a young entrepreneur has more resources than people who work in large companies.
Plus freedom. Any large company is bureaucratic. There are rules, procedures, etc., and in a startup you are free. If you need to dramatically expand the direction of the business, you can do it.
YB: Can you recommend entrepreneurs to work first in a good company, and then take on your business?
VP: That's right, what you said was “good”. It does not have to be a giant multinational, it can be a medium or small company. The main thing to work is not just good, but better. If you gain experience in teams that are the best in something in the world, then you increase your value in terms of resume. But usually such teams and from a financial point of view are very promising.
YB: What are the biggest difficulties you faced in the field of entrepreneurship? And how were they allowed?
VP: The first difficulty is the first contracts. Working with real clients is important not because it brings money (you can always report it from your own pocket, invite an investor, etc.) It is important as an indicator that you are doing something really useful to people. If it is not just a client, but a client with a known name, this is even better.
One day (during my first startup) I promised Microsoft to do what they didn’t ask. They liked the result. And when it turned out that we were ready to give the product for free, they began to ask: “How much money do you need?”. And in the end they paid even more than we would have billed ourselves. But I didn’t have a task to take money from them, it was important to get them to the customer list.
We must look for non-trivial steps. There is nothing wrong with your dad working as a director of an enterprise that is located near the enterprise you want to sell. If you came and just charmed and sold, then it is also fine. The art of management is to make an event come true.
If you believe the modern propaganda of Silicon Valley, then you have to do everything cheaply, first get a client that you pay for something, and then create a product. This is what is called customer development. That is, if the client really needs something, he is ready to pay in advance, even if you don’t have it yet.
YB: What other important point can you name for an entrepreneur?
VP: The second is people. Unfortunately, man is not free. If you look at yourself, you will notice that you are a mirror, you “reflect” those people with whom you communicate. The brain is difficult to engage in creativity, easier to copy. This is manifested not only in small things, but also in large. The main freedom that we have with you is the freedom of choice: who to “reflect”, with whom to be together.
Those people who come to the company at the very beginning form its face and future. I was lucky with people. I think this luck is determined by my attitude towards them. We must hire those people who have something that you do not have.
YB: What are three tips you can give to young IT entrepreneurs?
VP: First, since the world is flat, it does not make sense to do something that can become a leader or is competitive in the local market. Even if you are “the first guy in the village,” tomorrow, anyway, any Microsoft or Intel will come, which is the same, but sells much better in America, and will crush you. Of course, there is always a chance that you will become Nuraliev or Volozhem, but these are rather exceptions confirming the rule. We must immediately try to do something that will be competitive in the global market.
The following practical conclusion - learn English. I, as a member of the program committees of various conferences, review articles whose theses are written in English. Sorry, but often it's like in that movie: “My coming yesterday, you won't be caught.”
English is a working language. A person in the IT field who does not speak English is simply unfit. Point. It is necessary to stop what he teaches now - C ++ or how to program a new controller - let him forget about it, and for several months it will be hidden in textbooks, listening to recordings, etc. And then let him return to the study of the Stroustrap books - but in the original, in English.
Another practical recommendation - do not take the state. money. Never state the official will not think like an investor investing his own funds. At best, he will take care of what the prosecutor’s office does not plant, and make responsible decisions using the “collegial” method - here the motivation is not to get the result, but to cover the backside. About the worst case - when the prosecutor's office really has something to plant - you can think of it yourself. As a result, you will have nowhere to go from any checks, reports. Yes, and decent investors will shy away, knowing that the structure that has created an additional burden has already been invested in you.
YB: Thank you, Vladimir, for the advice. During the one-hour conversation it is impossible to cover all the questions on our topic. Could you name a few books where you can get useful information?
VP: In our area has its own Bible. “The Old Testament” is a book by Jeffrey Moore about bridging the abyss. “The New Testament” is the books of Steve Blanca about four steps to the insight and the team under the leadership of Alexander Ostervalder about the templates of business models. As well as a couple of additional books that I recommend, although in the mass entrepreneurial consciousness they have not yet acquired the status of the “sacred texts” of Silicon Valley:
- Geoffrey Moor. “Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers”
- Steven Blank. “Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win”
- Alexander Osterwalder “Business Model Generation”
- Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson. “Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist”
- David Cohen, Brad Feld. “Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup”
Electronic versions of three of these five books can be purchased on Amazon in a few seconds.
YB: Thank you, Vladimir, for the conversation.
VP: Thank you, Yuri. I want to inform you that we have several vacancies in rollApp: HTML 5 and JavaScript Ninja and Mobile Apps Virtuoso . I would be glad if Habrahabr readers respond to them.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/128414/
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