Founder's advice. Evgeny Ryzhkov, Director General, “MCPROVER” and PVS-Studio developer

Business is not a sprint, not a long-distance race, but a marathon (maybe not one)

It is extremely interesting for all of us to read articles about young guys who just started their project, and in a couple of months or a maximum of a year they are bought by Amazon, Google, Apple. Yes, and for a bunch of millions.

Inspired by such articles, we begin our project. Having collected all the forces, we give it our all, we launch it and freeze in trembling anticipation. After all, according to our inner feelings, Microsoft or Facebook should write to us, if not now, then no later than a month later. And to offer a bunch of stocks and cash for the fact that our company (of three to five people) will join them. But Microsoft does not write and does not write. Do not write a year, two, three ...

Guys, three years is at least how much a company has to live in order for its product to form at least a little. Only after five years can it be argued that the company's clients are indeed willing to pay regularly. And only after ten years, many companies can boast that they have found their niche and have learned how to make money by releasing more than one unfortunate release version. To this must be prepared.

About business partners

There are different opinions on whether partners are needed in the business or whether everything is worth doing alone. There are a lot of examples of success, where there are several founders. There are not less examples where one founder and everything is also good. I do not know how to. I know, like me. Since we agreed that business is a marathon, that is, at least 5 years, then the fact that people are changing cannot be ignored. The mood changes, the life situation changes, everything changes. This is a project for six months, you can hope that everything will remain as it is. And if the project will last at least five years, then once you get tired. Sometime you will have depression. Sometime you will want to quit. And it is at such moments that a partner is needed. He will be able to replace you for several months, will be able to support both personally and in terms of business. A wife is good, but you can't hang a business for your wife for a couple of months while you are sad. A partner can.

For this reason, I am not saying that “an ideal founding team should cover all competencies,” as is customary in books. Yes, it's great when someone is a techie, someone is an entrepreneur, someone, for example, a designer.

But in our Russian reality, if you can find yourself a business partner who understands you and can support sadness in minutes (and months), this will already be a big plus compared to the lack of partners in general. This text is a good reason to thank my business partner Andrey Karpov (Andrey2008). Without him, nothing would have happened. Andrew, thank you!

You must be ready to sacrifice something: personal life, money, time. Sometimes all together. Ideally - it will pay off

Business never comes easy. Like magic, he takes away strength. He demands something in return. I do not know of cases when people managed to start a business effortlessly, without straining, without sacrificing anything. Surely there are such cases. And a lot of articles are written about this. I just did not see this in life.

In most cases, a business requires a lot of time. Speech about start. Of course, later, when you become successful, you will spend 300 days a year on holidays. And only occasionally check by phone notifications of regular sales. Occasionally - because you turned off automatic sales notification, because there are too many of them. But while you have not grown up to this, a lot of time will be spent on trying to figure out how to do business, what clients need, how to communicate with colleagues. Almost everyone donates time. At least at first.

Many sacrifice and personal life. In this regard, it is easier for young people and students. If there is no family, then you should not think about how to feed her and how much time she needs to be given. But these are obvious platitudes.
Often you need to donate and money. All those years that are needed to ensure that a business at least comes to self-sufficiency, you must “feed it”.

Imagine that you are a 4-6 year student who has been working as a programmer for several years. And since programmers are now more expensive than ever, for several years he has saved up for a good machine that he can buy without a loan. Are you in the place of this student ready to give up the car? Are you ready to spend all this money on “your project”, which with a probability of 99% will fail? If yes, then you can try a game called “your business”.

About investors

I am convinced that you need to earn your start-up capital. At least because now you can still run into the last car until serious financial resources are required to start your IT business. In 10-20 years this will not be the case.

But there is a more serious reason for earning your start-up capital. This reason lies in the fact that apart from how to earn it, it is simply nowhere to take it. If you are lucky with rich relatives or friends, then I envy you. However, this is not available to most people.

And then a crazy thought arises - and let me go to the investors! After all, there are so many articles on the Internet about investors, which give little or no idea.

Do not waste your and other people's time. No one will give you money. After all, if you have not invested anything in the project, then why should someone invest in your project? Only when you invest something (and serious), you can try to look for someone else. But you should not hope for it much, it is better to earn your start-up capital yourself.
Calculate (with a margin!) How much money you need to start. 100,000? 500,000? Or even 1,000,000? Earn! First, it will be wiser to spend them and find out the price of money. Secondly, you will feel more confident. Thirdly, nobody will give them to you anyway. When you are at least 40 years old and there are several successful businesses behind, then you will have the right to say: “My time is very expensive, so I cannot spend it on the first steps, let someone else invest.” And yet - a bit early.

But how to earn this money? After all, I need to "cut" my project !? Here the math is simple. Working week lasts 40 hours. In a week - 168 hours. So, at first, they worked at the main work 40 hours “for an uncle”. Then 40 hours is already possible and “on myself”. More and sleep to stay.