Crowd funding (skladchiny) in Russia: Interview with the head of the project “With the world on the thread”

After the publication of the topic "And again, crowdfunding: today in American style" containing the Kickstarter project analytics, many readers became interested in the state of affairs of similar Russian projects and the reasons for their rather slow development.

To understand, I decided to ask about this directly from crowdfunding projects working on the Russian market.

And the first article in the series is an interview with the head of the project “From the World.”
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“From the World” is a platform for co-financing creative projects in business, creativity, education and ecology.



- Good afternoon, please introduce yourself.
Andrei Dunaev, head of "From the world on a thread."

- Andrei, tell us a little about the project.
Our goal or objective is to enable project organizers to collect money conveniently and securely. Today, a lot of people are engaged in collecting money, but it’s very difficult to carry money in hands, ring up people, keep accounts, and often takes a lot of time. Our platform provides all the necessary tools to collect money, plus it allows you to effectively promote your project. When dozens, hundreds and thousands of new interesting projects, enterprises, businesses, ideas, in which people threw themselves together and did a common thing, will start to be realized all over the country - we will understand that we did everything right :)

- Now the prevalence of the method of collective financing is gaining momentum in the US, slightly inferior in Europe. Despite the fact that in Russia the first projects began to appear in 2008, in our country they are still developing slowly and hard. What do you think is the reason?
People are intimidated by the legacy of the collapse of a great nation. They are still afraid to trust each other, they are very afraid to pay via the Internet, they are afraid that they will be deceived again, thrown. On the other hand, project organizers rarely can yet clearly, clearly, openly and tasty describe their project. So that people want, it was willing to support him. We are committed to introducing these people and showing that they can trust each other. And we give them convenient tools for interaction.

- There is a popular opinion in runet that our mentality simply will not allow crowdfunding projects to truly develop, what do you think about this?
Consciousness (mentality) is a very plastic thing. 5 years ago, they were afraid that online stores would not work in Russia (which people would not buy on the Internet), today look at the pace of KupiVIP or the Platypus (hundreds of millions of dollars). Volumes of charity (inherently crowdfunding) are huge in Russia, but few people know about it. The last few years have been afraid that no one will invest in startups, but things are moving and the number of transactions is growing. We are no different from the Americans and Europeans in this regard - it's time to admit this to ourselves.

- Often, the lack of good project results is explained by people's distrust, it can be like distrust of the site itself (all the money is stolen), the method of financing itself (it still does not work to collect any significant amount, therefore I will not invest). How do you think this is relevant and how are you struggling with the distrust of users?
There is nothing unusual here. The same principles work again as in other countries. You trust the one you know. If you do not know, recognize and verify - call the author of the project, talk to him, do not be afraid to get acquainted and try. Social networks, mobile phone and skype help a lot;)

- What obstacles to the development of the project do you see from the state (tax, legal and other)? Perhaps there are any other difficulties in the development of the project?
The state does not interfere. It does not help. It does not have time to respond to changes in people's lives, does not provide a legal basis for new processes that come into our lives. What is crowdfunding in Russian law? Donation - no. Donation is not. Earnings project organizer? No again! So what is it ?! The state does not know (it answers us that way). The same is true in people: Internet users do not help projects that are currently waiting for their participation on our site. Do you like the project? Remove skepticism! Call the organizer, talk to him, read the description and give him money. 200-300 rubles, instead of buying a kilogram of cheese, or a couple of cans of cool drink to the beach. And make sure he does what he promised.

- Why do you think crowdfunding is better developed in the USA and Europe?
They have already been crowdfunding for 10 years. In modern internet form. And the collections of money occur constantly and everywhere. They know how to ensure that their money goes to the stated goals and knows what results can be achieved in this way. We just have to find out. And we will be pleasantly surprised when we see that this is possible in Russia too. Crowdfunding is so arranged that it is very difficult to cheat. He fosters the culture of spending money.

- Could you disclose any quantitative indicators achieved by the project?
Yes, all this can be seen on our infographic , which has already become famous in Runet :) The figures have a little outdated, but the scale is visible. This once again confirms that people all over Russia are trying a new way of money for themselves, but so far have not really learned to trust it. It is fixable.

–And lastly, if it’s not difficult for you, please tell us how the project began? Who was a member of the project team and are there any changes in it now?
The project began spontaneously, when we realized that we could not raise money for our own project, while in the United States the same project collected the necessary amount, and even with a large margin. We started the project together: programmer, financier, organizer. Since then, the team is constantly changing. Now it is even difficult to say how many people are in a team: someone is our permanent mentor, someone is engaged in a project in his free time. There are three people who work on the project, giving it all their time and all their strength - you can see our contacts and roles on the website in the contact section. We will be happy to help ideological, enterprising people who are ready to promote this project with us, so if you are willing, you are welcome: journalists, translators, programmers, designers - for you on “On the world” full of the most interesting work in RuNet .

- Could you tell us about the technical component of the project?
Technically, crowdfunding is like an online store. There is hardly any special technical details. And judging by the fact that in RuNet there are already about 10 projects that have copied the kickstarter, there are no secrets here.

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Read in the following publication: an interview with the coordinators of the project "Tugheza" - a community of people who like to do good things .