Natalya Kasperskaya: In no case should investors be trusted

The co-founder of Kaspersky Lab and InfoWatch CEO Natalya Kasperskaya told how startups talk to investors, can they be trusted and whether there will be a Silicon Valley in Russia. Roem.ru published a transcript of the #tceh coworking meeting, which took place on May 19th.



Natalia Kasperskaya expressed an opinion on the work of investment funds. To start, the fund must “sell itself” in order to receive funds from the market for investment. The fund needs a management company that will take 2% of the value of the fund. This money is needed to attract specialized experts and other professionals, and for the salaries of lawyers and financiers in the state.

According to Kaspersky, the biggest difficulty is that people who know how to conduct transactions and not select projects work in the fund. Such people try to make a deal with the best conditions, and not select the best project in order to help it develop.

You can’t believe investors, so what? In no case. You have the only way to live well - it does not take the investor. This is the only way. Because investors are divided into two categories: bad and very bad. No "good" investment, "smart money" and all this garbage is not easy.

The fashion for startups has led to the replacement of a success story with a money attraction story. Entrepreneurs are measured by the amounts attracted by them, and not by the conquered market share for a small number of years. It is possible to attract funds with the help of charm and a good presentation, because investors often do not understand a particular area of ​​business.
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Venture model works only in the United States. In the US, you can get a loan for business development. Natalya told about a familiar German company with a turnover of several million euros, which needed a loan of 10 thousand euros. The loan was refused because the IT company could not pledge the property.

Natalya Kasperskaya answered the question of how to find a “bad” investor and not run into a “very bad” one. Prior to the transaction, it is necessary to agree that the investor will not interfere in business and products, the maximum is to bring customers and make advertising. It is better not to take an investor for a majority share: in the event of a failure in the project, such an investor will throw out the founders and put his own general director.

This CEO is usually an emasculated dude who has graduated from an MBA and does not understand your business. And he, absolutely for sure, will ruin him for good.

It is important to carefully read the contract and not to trust the lawyers that the investor provides. The task of the venture capitalist is to get as much as possible from the deal. Be prepared for failure. But the most important thing in the negotiations is the opportunity to get up and leave.

And we must be prepared for failure, it is very important. If you have this last chance in life, and you understand that you are in no way without this investor, then, unfortunately, you are in a very bad situation.