Anton Nosik: There is a lot of money in RuNet

Anton Borisovich Nosik needs no introduction. This is one of the most prominent figures of the Runet. Such resources as Gazeta.ru, Vesti.ru, Lenta.ru were created under his leadership. Anton Nosik was the President for Development of Rambler.ru.

According to Roem.ru, Anton Nosik has been on the board of Reveality Venture Capital for six months already and it is possible that Anton Borisovich will soon announce his departure from the company "Soup" .

Venture Magazine (VM) decided to talk with Anton Nosik about investing in Runet startups.

VM: How can you characterize the investment market in Runet startups?
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Anton Nosik: A very strange situation has developed. A lot of money and a lot of projects. At the same time, worthy objects for investment are as few as at any other time.

VM: How do you think the market will develop further?

Anton Nosik: The way of existence of any market is Brownian motion. The market, like the process of exchanging goods for money and vice versa, has no development. Individual invested projects will develop, each tenth of them approximately. The rest will be bent, not waiting for the second round of financing.

VM: Are there universal criteria for selecting applicants for investment?

Anton Nosik: There are no universal criteria. All projects have certain disadvantages: one is not sufficiently calculated, the other is not beautiful enough, the third is not sufficiently enough for any investor criteria ... In order to distinguish critical shortcomings from easily resolvable, intuition is needed. No rules, and even more so - formulas, do not save here.

VM: Which way do you think is better: investing at the idea stage, or after launching the beta version to the market?

Anton Nosik: Investing at the idea stage is cheaper. At the stage after the beta is released - safer, but more expensive, and the competition for working beta is higher than for ideas, you can lose the race. This is an eternal dilemma when spending money. Either more risk or less profitability.

VM: Investing in startups is risky. Which start-up topics are more attractive to investors now and in the foreseeable future?

Anton Nosik: And now, and in the foreseeable future, the subject of the project does not have the slightest importance.

It's like a movie and books. You can’t say “This film will be successful because it’s about the war.” Or “This book will become a bestseller because it’s about love.” Everything always depends on a combination of three factors: idea, implementation, luck.

VM: Now there are more and more investors willing to invest in Internet projects. What is the reason for this? Will their number increase?

Anton Nosik: This is due to the fact that there is a clear excess of money in the market, which require meaningful use for themselves, and there is no stock market as such. Where to put the money? Apartments to buy Moscow? They are already more expensive than in Kensington or on the Cite Island. You don’t invest in raw materials, you need a serious political roof, and everything has been divided for a long time. Therefore, the eyes of investors turn to IT. There is rapid growth, there is no domination of bandits and officials. In addition, the theme is fashionable.

VM: Many start-up developers are faced with a choice: to develop the project on their own and be the owner of the business, or to seek help from the investor by giving up a controlling stake. Your advice, which path to choose and under what circumstances?

Anton Nosik: If you believe in your business, it is silly to give up a controlling stake. Better in the bank borrow. And if you created a project for the sole purpose of pushing it to an investor, then get ready to run very quickly. Investors are different. Some jokes do not understand at all.

VM: Do you think an investor should own a controlling stake? Will not a developer’s hands fall if a key role in decision making is not assigned to him?

Anton Nosik: No, they will not: if the project earns a million, then even the owner of 1% gets 10 thousand. It is quite easy to calculate that it is better to have 10 percent in a project earning 100,000 than 100% in a project earning ten times less, because in the first case, as a rule, you do not invest your money.

VM: Can you give an example of successful Runet projects that received investments (except for classmates, VKontakte, buying my circle)? Your opinion about these deals.

Anton Nosik: If you remembered MoyKrug, then in that chronological period, the two best investments were made to Finam by purchasing Mambu and Runner.

VM: Everyone knows the failure of top4top.ru and periodic promises to reanimate it. What do you think was the reason for such a disastrous start and will it be possible to make a successful project from the site now?

Anton Nosik: I do not think that someone will reanimate Top4top. The reason for the failure was that the creators and investors of the project agreed among themselves “by concepts”, there was not a hint of an external audit of the technological platform or business model. We decided that it would be cool - and this decision was replaced by a serious analysis of both the market and its own product. By the way, this does not mean that they were initially doomed. The vKontakte project was based on exactly the same “conceptual” assumptions: let's steal the interface from a fashionable American toy, it will be cool. Stolen. Indeed, it turned out cool. And the creators of Top4top just out of luck. It turned out not as cool as I wanted.

VM: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.

upd Anton Nosik has already left Soup. koskeller thanks for the tip.

Original: venturemag.ru/2008/09/11/anton-nosik-v-runete-ochen-mnogo-deneg