Internet business in Russia: is it possible, is it necessary, is it gentle

Hi, Habr.
Editing Roy together with the IIDF Foundation just now preoccupied with many questions: do you need to do your internet project (if you really want to), where do you actually do it, and who is to blame and how to continue to live. We opened a series of publications with an article on our website , and we decided to post a direct speech on Habr - the editorial view is good, but the details have details. We asked five simple questions to various well-known network figures, journalists and other friendly professionals: from Pavel Durov to Arkady Moreynis. Opinions are published without cuts. And there are really a lot of them.


We asked questions such as:

1. What is missing in Russia, in contrast to the West, for the development of startups?
2. Services in which areas will be in demand in 2 years?
3. Who else should be a startup: programmer or marketer?
4. Where is it more effective to do a startup in Moscow or in a region?
5. If you returned to the past for 5 years, then what Russian project would you personally invest in?

Arkady Moreynis, investor, Glavstart
1. Russia lacks people who understand that a startup is such a naive name for a new business. And who understand that in business it is necessary to earn money, and not to hope for a kind uncle investor who will pour money on satisfying young curiosity.
2. Hypotheses about the trends do not build. Usually shoots something assumptions about what analysts did not even express.
3. A startup is usually done not by one person, but by a team. One of the formulas for a long time was: hacker + hustler, now it is increasingly replaced by the formula: hacker, hustler and designer.
4. It seems to me that geography - Moscow or the regions - does not play a big role. This is so imperceptible parameter against the background of all the other more important things for a startup.
5. Sorry, but 5 years ago, nothing like that directly appeared in Russia, about which I would say “oh”.
')

Dmitry Falaleev, editor-in-chief of Firrma.ru
1. Entrepreneurial and investor culture, banal experience on both sides.
2. Perhaps, it will finally make sense to make services that investors and entrepreneurs meet (it’s too early now, IMHO). Some associations for mentors, angels.
3. I think an entrepreneur or businessman.
4. A very general question, hard to answer. but probably in Moscow time, there is more money here and it’s clearer how to get it.
5. Again, it depends on the goals - if one thing stupidly and quickly caches, if you take part in creating the beautiful of the young in Ecwid, probably (he seemed to be already). and so would be invested in Parallels, Yandex, Qiwi.


Sergey Shalaev, founder of Surfingbird.ru
1. There is a lack of desire to realize that we are not as good as everyone is used to talking around. It is necessary that everyone understands that "our icons are the most beautiful."
2. In the recommendation. MASHINLERNING OLOLO.
3. A start-up should be a human orchestra. Startapper is a multiclass character.
4. In Moscow, it is necessary to do headoffice, in the regions there is a different staf. Although I dream that it will burn already fucking, and we will move to some sort Krasnodar (or Crimea, let Crimea be the return) and we will be wildly consumed by the good weather, the sea and the Crimean wines.
5. In classmates.


Alena Vladimirskaya, headhunter, owner of Pruffi
1. Competences. General. And investors, and startups, and the state, which I would like to really support a small business (which, in essence, is a startup).
2. Big data; Everything related to food flavors; online education; robotics; everything connected with the genome and everything connected with the extension of human life.
3. A start-up should simply be competent in the area in which the startup specializes. And he must be a smart leader and a merchant of people.
4. If the Valley is a region, then in the Valley. And so, of course, in large cities of Russia, where there is at least a minimal infrastructure for startups - from the labor market to coworking and events, where a startup can show its product to mentors and investors.
5. In Game Insight (but no one would give, of course); in LinguaLeo, but provided an opportunity to influence operational activities. Oh, still - after - I would have invested in the Coub necessarily!


Nikita Likhachev, founder of TwiJournal
1. In Russia, there are not enough people in the layer of educated Internet entrepreneurs and developers, and the start-up money lies mainly with those who do not believe that they can be fought off on the Internet in complex start-ups. Most still do e-commerce, because it is understandable and quickly fights.
2. I have no idea. I only know that the mobile direction will already be dofiga everything. Glasses, watches, cameras, robots - they will need applications.
3. The start-up should not be anyone. If there is only a programmer, he will think about features and users. If the marketer - how to cut the dough and on whom. Both entities must either be elegantly combined, or be in two different people.
4. Judging by the main startup of the country, in St. Petersburg.
5. Five years ago, I could have invested, probably, five hundred rubles. So in Futubru.


Roberto Panchvidze, founder of MDK
1. Firstly, openness, many startups, if they want to take money, do not know where to get it. The funds are not too public, which causes some suspicions among young entrepreneurs. It is necessary to stimulate a positive policy.
Secondly, there are not enough mentors with experience of ready-made projects, a great distrust of the accelerator. It is often necessary to acquaint startups passing the first stages with the same young people, a positive experience.
2. If I knew, I wouldn’t say exactly.
3. I can not unequivocally answer this question. It all depends on the human qualities, I have always believed that a successful startup is a product of the work of the team, where the marketer and the programmer work in the same bundle.
4. It does not matter. But if you still do not know for whom you are doing your project, then it is better to change the situation and the people.
5. Whatsapp, Coub, Snapchat.


Ilya Dronov, Chief Livejournal Russia
1. There is no infrastructure in Russia to launch them ( startups ). Abroad, not only Internet start-ups are actively “firing” now - and almost always they are created by young guys with burning eyes - even in garages, but these guys have everything available: today they ordered some necessary parts, tomorrow they will be brought, yes and these parts cost three kopecks, and test kits are completely free. In Russia, this is not. Our country lacks basic things to use — and this applies not only to the Internet. And even then, even if something came up with a practical one - give it to him, give it to him, get a certificate here - you just can’t run anything.
2. I think, above all mobile, medicine, biology, agriculture, various service components - Internet restaurants and so on. Mechanics are changing, the world is changing, there are so many opportunities that did not exist before, and because of this, people are starting to dream more.
3. And that, and another. In Russia, people are angry, often want fast money, the culture of interaction is strongly lacking. It is impossible to give a definite answer - neither the marketer nor the programmer alone can handle 100%, we must look wider.
4. More effectively, of course, in Moscow - here you can meet with different people, communicate in person, make contacts that will allow you to shoot faster. In the regions, however, it is easier to find people on their own wave, people there are "not spoiled" by Moscow and easy money.
5. Almost all the projects of recent years are tracing from successful, foreign or ours. I know a lot of Russian people who run projects abroad - I would invest in them not just to discourage investments, but because they make an interesting product.


Vlad Sitnikov, manager HungryBoys
1. Everything is there. Not enough intelligent and penetrative people. Not enough will. The generation is kind of strange, it is waiting for the money to come from somewhere. Invented - money cap. He ruined the team - anyhow - money - cap ... It's funny. Those who work and believe in their idea - they achieve everything.
2. All that will help and facilitate the lives of people. SERVICES WILL BE DEMANDED. Reducing the size of the chips will lead to the fact that the electron will be everywhere. Next question is how it will help people with their laziness. Everything that will help people to be lazy - everything will be popular. Bread and circuses - all have long been invented. People are full, the rest gives them more time for entertainment.
3. Startup must be educated. And in what specialty is more - all the same. The idea can come up with anyone, find a team - any. But to realize it and bring to mind - not everyone. Not every.
4. You need to do where you live comfortably. Any startup is a choice of business for life. Probably. Or for most of his life. And if you do not live where you feel comfortable, then your project will be - gloomy, dull, not interesting. And it's not about the amount of money and salaries, but about the pleasure and satisfaction of what you do.
5. In your advertising agency. You need to invest in the business that you do yourself.


Nikolay Kononov, editor-in-chief of Hopes & Fears
1. It depends on what the West. Watching some startups. In general, it is the certainty that it is possible to do business in white, without the threat of being dragged into a corrupt history, or to remain without a company. Mentors and Graham-level investors, powerful universities and research centers.
2. Well, you have questions. Same as the last few centuries. Communication, trade, medicine, reducing the time available to the information on all imaginable occasions and improving the quality of this information.
3. In a normal team equilibrium - programmers, productologists and marketers.
4. Depends on the product or service. In the regions, almost all costs are lower, but there are markets where it is better to start in Moscow. The same media.
5. LookAtMe. Other than jokes.


Evgeny Gordeev, investor, Pluso.ru
1. First of all, there is a shortage of quick seed investments. That is, amounts up to $ 1 million and transactions concluded within 2-4 weeks. Young growing companies are experiencing any difficulty in reducing or delaying financing.
2. E-commerce is the No. 1 trend. Advertising, content generators, banking services, business services between people (sign up to a doctor or tutor), and so on.
3. The ideal team is a product specialist, marketer and programmer. You always need a person who understands what the end product should be. This product should be not just great, but also take its place in the market and get a decent promotion. And, of course, someone has to develop a product.
4. Moscow remains the center - here people, money and a general understanding of how the market will develop.
5. I would quickly invest and exit the games. It was an absolute hit, but very quickly passed. From long-term projects - niche electronic stores - there is a very good margin. Advertising projects are also increasing momentum. The rest is all very subjective, and depends on the specialization of the investor.


Ruslan Fazliev, Ecwid
1. First: Common Law based systems of law in English - it adapts most flexibly to rapid changes in technology and society. Second: respect for human rights and freedoms - bright people prefer to live in free countries. Third: running mail.
2. Services at the interface between electronic and offline commerce; Everything related to mobile commerce; Crowdsourcing
... and everything, everything, everything, you can’t answer the question "what will they buy in the next 2 years" - there will be many.
3. A start-up first of all must be HR'om.
4. It depends on where customers are and what employees are needed. If clients are not in Moscow, and if the necessary employees are in the region, then it is more efficient to start in the region.
5. In Ecwid.


Sergey Plutogarenko, Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC)
1. What is also called the “favorable business environment”. Too much bureaucracy, too much paperwork, high taxes, lack of personnel (and a poor educational and migration system that could correct this deficiency). Finally, there is a catastrophic lack of comfortable places for housing that could attract educated young people - this is where the Valley originated.
2. It is difficult to make plans, but it is clear that universal orientation to mobile devices and cloud services will not go anywhere, another thing is that it will be much more difficult to acquire an audience and customers. In many ways, therefore, in the West now, from the point of view of investors, startups of a corporate orientation are considered the most promising. The farther, the more companies will appear, working at the intersection of offline and online, but not only in e-commerce or advertising, as now, but in transport, medicine and biotechnology, engineering.
3. Almost all well-known founders of Internet companies are programmers. Well-known investor Paul Graham wrote that bad programmers kill startups, and the only way to find good ones is to be them.
4. Depends on what kind of startup you are doing. In Moscow, access to the infrastructure of start-ups is easier, investors, in the regions - less costs. An ideal start-up city should be comfy for living, inexpensive, with good universities, access to investments. So the regions have every chance of overtaking Moscow, the same Kazan or Novosibirsk.
5. To any of the companies that during this time went for an IPO. Now, according to market results, Qiwi looks very attractive.


Anton Mazhirin, Free-lance.ru
1. In my opinion, we, too, startups are developing well. But, of course, there is a lack of nutrient medium in the form of Silicon Valley and a developed investment market. And still not enough large-scale thinking. For some reason, Russian startups very often launch startups only for the Russian market.
2. The direction will change from online to offline, to offline to online to online. The Internet is digitizing reality and it is time to digitize it from reality itself. For example, in network stores there is a huge traffic that is not used in any way. Doors open and close, love pass through turnstiles, etc. Why are actions with the real physical world still not digitized?
3. He must be an inventor. And should be an idea. He must be ready to sacrifice so much for its realization.
4. In Moscow, because here a friend has a collective consciousness. Here you want to work and other thoughts come to mind.
In this regard, in Silicon Valley, the quality of the collective field is an order of magnitude more creative.
5. VKontakte and Yandex.


Alexander Chernyavsky, Mediurg
1. To be honest, I can not answer, but I think Russian legislation in many respects can prevent many startups.
2. Mobile applications, or services that will give the user information, based on his behavior on the Internet, and with the advent of Google Glass, I think that behavior in real life can be taken into account.
3. It is ideal if this and that is so that he can provide a ready-made prototype to investors, and, moreover, competently tell about it. Although the team from the marketer and programmer will also be very good in this situation.
4. Looking at what the startup is targeting. There are more ideas in the region, especially in the outback.
5. I can not answer, to be honest.


Pavel Durov, philologist
1. For the development of any business we need permanent rules of the game, transparent courts and guarantees of property rights.
2. In any, around the mass of poorly solvable problems.
3. A programmer who solves an actual problem.
4. If the business is related to trade, then in Moscow.
5. In no way.

These are the pies, Habr. Everyone who mastered this wall made a small step towards enlightenment. And then you are free to decide: what to do, where to do, what to do and for whom.
Have a good work week everybody!