Igor Shoifot, start-up and investor from Silicon Valley

Very lively interview with Igor Scheufot. Igor lives in San Francisco, has created 10 startups: Epsilon Games, Fotki.Com, TMT Investments, etc. He is currently working on a new startup, investing in the framework of TMT Investments, and also teaches at the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley). He started the project Fotki.Com with his co-founder Dmitry in the late 90s with the idea that sooner or later people will start keeping their photos on the Internet. The guys were among the first to come up with tools for promotion with various viral mechanisms.


Hello, Igor. Can you talk about what you do and how did you come here in San Francisco?
With great pleasure. Born in Siberia, grew up mainly in Moscow. Spent 12 years in New York, a half years in the beloved city of Boston. Three years ago, at the insistence of my friend and partner at Fotki.Com, Dima Don, he moved to San Francisco and has been happy ever since.
Now I am working on my 11th startup. Before that, two successful projects can be noted: one is Epsilon Games, a large gaming portal on microsoftworld.tv, the other is Fotki.Com. And now, together with very nice people, we are engaged in seed and venture investments in TMT Investments.
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Tell us about your project Fotki.Com.
How did you start it? What difficulties did you encounter? And how did you manage to overcome everything?
Basically, we overcame everything very ineptly. And now, looking back, I think that a handful of barriers through which we tried to jump and caught there with claws, shoes, tails were not those barriers. They jumped in the wrong direction, they did not run like this.
But, probably, honest startups do not say: “We moved from one success to the second”.
The project was started back in the 98th year, as a hobby, by my very good friend, Dima Don, whom I have known for more than 15 years, and then I joined. We made one of the most photo-sharing sites out of it - several million users, millions of revenues, large B2B clients: Telecom-Italy, Telecom-Argentina and other companies.
And out of success: we were able to grow and were always profitable (profitable), we never raised a penny of money from anywhere.
From failures: we, unfortunately, lived on the East Coast (US west coast). Guys, don't live on the east coast. Move here, to San Francisco, Bay Area, it's warm here, nice, nice people, gulls, pelicans, water, sea food, girls are wonderful. And we made a mistake. It was necessary to move here many years ago. And then there would be no flickers, no ftakberov. But we did not.
We created several growth mechanisms, the names of which we did not know at that time. “Viral mechanisms”, when our clients themselves would drag other clients. And here we have grown from zero to several million people. Constructed quite intelligent business processes.

How did you get the idea of ​​this startup?
And how did you get started?
And, the beginning was funny. Dimka, who is my very good friend, bought an absolutely amazing camera for insane money.
It was the end of the 90s. It cost about 2 thousand dollars.
The resolution was about one and a half megapixels. And Dimka began to rush with her and tell everyone that the future is with a digital photo. Everyone, including me, said: “Yes, okay, what are you loading? Why is all this necessary? ”And he had a cool vision (point of view), and, over time, he and me and the others reassured me.
I persuaded that the photo will be digital, and people will not send them by e-mail, but will keep it somewhere “on the Internet”. And will share links to these albums.
And at first Dimka started in a completely amazing way. He just hid the server on the sly under the table on the sly from the bosses. The bosses found out about this, but allowed him to continue to keep the server.
Our project began to grow, and we have made hundreds of thousands and millions of tens and hundreds of users.
Our main difficulty was that there were already projects, like ours, which are thinking about the same thing as we.
Just like the iPad - not the very first tablet. There was a lot to him. The iPhone is far from the very first smart phone.
But for someone, it turns out to be done in such a way that the users “dragged themselves on so much” that they simply sent it to each other and said: “Guys, this is a thrill!”.
And, in general, without false modesty, I will say that we did enough on the high for the time for the end of the 90s.
And, probably, for the early 2000s, we also made a lot of goodies.
We made albums that could be protected with a password, folders, a lot of things that were very interesting, which was not there, and still do not even exist.

What important lessons did you learn from this startup experience, besides moving to the Bay Area?
By the way, this is the very first and most important lesson.
Guys, do not listen to anyone, drop everything, move to the Bay Area.
Here everything is so high that everything will work out for you.
And even if you do not succeed, it is also completely normal. Here, those who try are respected.
And even now, as an investor, when I talk to people who are “pitch-ayut” (a brief speech describing a startup that is being said to an investor in order to receive investments) is something, I see a huge contrast. New York or Boston are completely different, not to mention other countries.
No offense to any of those who live there. I love New York, I love Boston very much. But even the attitude of investors there is completely different. This is probably the most important thing.

As for the tips, and why something turns out or does not work:
The more mistakes you make, the more you will learn something.
I have this proverb, I thought up (in English):
“Few things are as misleading as your own successes.” (“Few things are as deceptive as your own successes.”)
So the first is to be in the right place.
Secondly, you need to be with the people you love.
If you are in a startup working with some people with whom you don’t get along on a personal level, then it’s better, as they say, to move away.
Probably, as in a marriage, it’s a relationship.
And the third moment, he, probably, is very much concerned with these places.
Do not be afraid of investors. In fact, investors are very cool guys. In addition to money, they can open many doors for you, but they need to be carefully chosen.
So that there are those people with whom you are pleased to communicate, with whom you enjoy working together, who will really help you as partners.
And the fourth is the most important thing: whatever you do, the most important thing is not a product. The most important thing is growth.

We want to motivate our Russian startups and businessmen to create more businesses, so that Moscow also flourishes.
That is, in fact, our goal is not to “energize” San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Our goal is to make Moscow so much cooler than San Francisco.
What are your ideas on how to improve the “climate” and infrastructure of innovation in Russia?
You can also share your opinion on what is happening in Russia lately.
I love Moscow as the city of my youth. Very important is the attitude.
This applies not only to Moscow, but also to New York or Boston, which I also love.
It is important that the mood be: “Screw it, let's do it!” (Drop everything, take it and do it.)
There are also a lot of smart, talented people!
It amazes me that when someone fails here, no one ever spits. No one ever says: “Oh, scoundrels, they have done wrong. They stole it. "
As Picasso said: “Talented artists copy, ingenious artists steal.”
But if everyone starts infecting each other with such an attitude that, guys, let's do it, no one is a boss, no one is subordinate. All on a par, all together, all help each other. I think this is the most important thing.
Everything else: investments, distribution channels, virality, the sale of companies - all this will follow.
If there is such a society in which people treat each other positively and with respect, everything will work out.

What can you say to Russian startups to motivate them?
The most important wish is this: sometimes you have to step back, sit, think, try to understand and weigh everything.
Many, especially those who have already succeeded in something, are confident that they are doing their job properly. But there is always something that can be done better. And the most “star-like” moment of each person occurs when a person thinks: “What did I do in the way that I did wrong”. And just, as it were, is trying to weigh its life, to realize it.
I had such a moment. I sat and thought: "Damn, you're already over 40 years old."
Julius Caesar had such a wonderful diary entry when he participated in the Gallic wars: "Damn it, I'm under 30 years old." And for ancient Rome it was like 60. “I haven’t done anything yet, am I some kind of a small official there, what will happen to me?” He had a moment of realization that something needs to be done.
Julius Caesar would not have been so famous if he were somewhere that Spain is now,
I did not sit once, with an open amphora of good Greek wine,
and did not say: "I do something wrong." The main advice: sit down, look at yourself, at your partners, at what you do, at your business, and think.

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