Andrey Romanenko at September Moscow Tech Meetup

September 29 at 19:00 we will have a meeting on the topic of electronic payments in the DI Telegraph. Who does not know, mitap is such a meeting format: first startups come out, then the main expert, and then the main thing begins - free communication with pizza and beer.

Here are our speakers:

• AlfaCamp graduates - the first Fintech camp in Russia.
• 2can - mobile payment terminal (Nikolai Zhmurenko, project initiator and co-investor / CEO).
• Tolkachev and partners : about bitcoins in Russia (Artem Tolkachev, managing partner).

This is our fourth mitap, it's time to write about Habr about it. This time, a serious guest will come to us - Andrey Romanenko , Managing Partner of Run Capital venture fund, one of the founders and shareholders of the QIWI Group. He knows about electronic payments firsthand.
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How did you come up with the QIWI idea - was it a long way? As far as I know, your very first company was “by profile” - “Plastic Card Store” (IPC), which distributed and promoted express payment cards for communication services. Or, on the contrary, did you have other alluring roads to foreign corporations, but you left everything and chose your project?

I have never been visited by thoughts and dreams of working for someone, including in the most famous organizations. Already in high school I wanted to organize something myself. Began to try with friends. First there were branded plastic bags for the supermarket, then computer games that we recorded on CD - there is something to remember from childhood.
But, if we talk about something serious, then “yes”, this is the IPC, it was from her that the history of instant payments began for me. Then the company OSMP, which subsequently grew in QIWI.

Tell the story of the development of your startup - how did you put together the QIWI team, what were your attempts and mistakes, what experience did you learn for yourself, what rules did you form for doing business?

I am sure that a startup should have a group of like-minded people assembled, obsessed with its idea and its success. In our case, it was just that, everyone was ready to do everything - to work as a courier, network administrator. Worked on the drive, the concept of "day off" or "work day is over" simply did not exist.

I can say for sure that if you yourself do not believe 100% in the success of your project, you will not be able to convince others. And, of course, the founder must know everything at the stage of building a business, at this stage there is no concept “this is not my area of ​​responsibility” or “I don’t understand anything about it”. You do not understand, it means I must understand.

Is QIWI the most successful Russian startup? Or do you have someone to be like?

You know, for every parent your child is the most intelligent and beautiful :-)
Of course, there are Russian guru-entrepreneurs who immensely respect and admire what they have created. I will catch up with them.

How does QIWI earn money if I get a 0% commission when I pay for my mobile?

QIWI services transactions through remuneration for accepting payments from providers (in this case, cellular operators), the service lists part of this remuneration to its agents.

What do you think about Apple Pay? Why Apple could not buy Square?

On the Apple and Square deal: as far as I understand, the participants simply did not agree with the company's rating, and Apple considered paying more unjustified. Although the fact that the negotiations were going on for a long time confirms the interest of both parties.

What is your forecast - for how long will we still need to carry a wallet in our pocket? Should startups try to enter the market of payments and transfers? The Rocketbank seems to have started up pretty well, even the subway cars are sealed with advertising transfers - apparently, your profits are irresistibly seductive?

Honestly, I do not see a direct proportionality between the volume of advertising and profit. It all depends on the strategy. A company can be unprofitable and have a huge advertising budget. But, you are absolutely right, the financial segment, including remittances, is now very attractive for electronic payment systems. Many hold the course and pin their hopes on him. As for startups, I don’t remember vivid examples that have recently entered the market, but I would really like to see something really interesting.

It is necessary to carry a wallet in your pocket for at least five years, especially for us Russians, given our mentality. Not so quickly, the mass user is ready to change his habits and completely switch to electronic payments. But we see the events aimed at the substitution of cash constantly, including those generated by the state.

For example, I am sure that holders of plastic cards have positively perceived the news that from January 1, 2015, outlets not equipped with a POS terminal will be fined. Of course, for small businesses, this initiative will entail additional costs. But it also accelerates the transition from cash to non-cash payments.

Quite a futuristic question - in your opinion, when will they introduce a world currency equivalent to kilowatt? Or the system of national paper currencies of the 18th century meets the requirements of the time?

Common world currency ?! I can not deny the appearance in this century, but in this case it will be equal to a unit of information - Megabytes, for example. After all, information and the speed of its receipt every day increases in price.

If today you started everything from scratch, what would you do? Would you be a startup? What project would have done? Although, it seems, you did just that - now you are one of the shareholders and a member of the board of directors at QIWI, and do you concentrate your attention on investment activities at Run Capital?

I would not like to change anything in my life. We must not think about the past, but move forward.

As for QIWI, today it is a global company, living by well-structured rules, managed by professional top managers.

The idea to create your own fund and engage yourself in its operational management appeared about a year ago. At that time, there was already investment experience - the ITech Capital and AddVenture III funds. I was no longer engaged in QIWI's operational activities - time appeared. Plus, a successful IPO - I realized that I can still build a lot - there are forces, desires, opportunities.

I considered that the most interesting, although the most risky, to make the Fund, which focuses on investing in projects at the very initial stages, was exactly the same as Run Capital, which we created with our partners at the end of April 2014.

Already in someone invested? How did you choose and who are you looking for?

So far, only one project is officially ready to announce www.weatlas.ru - a tourist startup - a portal that allows you to remotely book, organize, pay for and get instant confirmation of your chosen excursion or entertainment in any city in the world.
Already today you can book more than 3,000 excursions. The project has a real competitive advantage over existing projects,

I think that in the very near future we will announce several more deals.

We are looking for stars - technological projects in the very early stages of development (seed, pre-seed). We closely monitor the segments of training, medicine, all kinds of gadgets. The selection criteria are simple: effective team, project virality, scalability, high growth potential and copying complexity.

And finally, a couple of personal questions - is there any time to sit on the Internet? Come on Habr? Where do you get the news?

My every day begins with watching the news: the main pages of daily publications are simply required to view. Now there are some good news aggregators - they simplify the process and save time. On Habr with pleasure I come when I have time. I read comments on articles with special interest.

Once, a very respected person said: "If you want to do something necessary, to develop yourself, then you simply must know and understand everything that is happening around you." And it concerned not only technologies, but also economics, politics. I heard him.

I almost always read everything electronically, it's more convenient, although sometimes I like to rustle with paper pages, for example, on an airplane :-)

Come!