Born in 1963.
Education: higher, Faculty of Computer Science and Technology, Moscow State University
Lives in Moscow.

Many people have tried to make money online, but not many succeeded. Businessman Arkady Moreinis is one of the lucky ones. His persistent efforts to use the Internet as a means of doing business were well worth the effort.

His passion for computers began even before the era of general computerization. After graduating from Moscow State University with honors, Moreinis, who was hinted in the party bureau that graduate school was not the best career continuation for him, went to work at the computer center of Moscow University.

In 1989, the University entered into a contract with Apple Computer for the Russification of the operating system for the Macintosh. Moreinis participated in the development of the first Russian commercial program for the Macintosh - "Dialect" with a Russifier for the operating system. Then a spell checking program was written. After some time, the group’s activities were finally transferred to the market and the company “Maximum”, an Apple dealer, appeared.

Later, other projects followed: “Avtodrom”, “Autodrom on the Internet”, ExtraNet, ExtraMail and, finally, the now relevant “Price Express”. The history of these projects (except the last one) was described in detail in an interview with Moreinis, published in the 2nd issue of InterNet magazine in 1997.

Moreinis’s first experience in the network business was the Autodrom project. "Autodrom" was an illustrated catalog of cars in Russian, published on a CD. The main idea was that the owner of this directory was able to connect to the Autodrom server to receive current information from this server about where and for how much he could buy the car he liked. The CD came with the Autopilot magazine. The project was not focused on revenue from catalog sales, but on advertising revenue. The idea was not a great success, but the experience gained allowed us to develop the idea further.

With the growth of the Russian Internet, Avtodrom was internetized - a server appeared www.autodrom.ru- network version of the directory. In fact, this was Moreinis’s first experience in network marketing. The server is still functioning. Its contents were transferred to the CD of Moreinis' next project, ExtraNet.

CD ExtraNet gave the user free access to select servers and email. To work offline (without the Internet), I even had to write my own browser. The project was aimed primarily at users who do not yet have an Internet connection, and was intended to encourage them to “connect.” In two months, about 3 thousand disks were sold, in addition to 15 thousand distributed free of charge with the Grotec Business Directory.

ExtraNet's mistake was not using the IP protocol. The project was focused on regions where IP was rare and communication was built through Sprint, the X.25 protocol (a converter was written that converted this to IP and back). There were problems with X.25 providers (banks, for example SWIFT, use this system). ExtraNet overloaded channels, which was not intended. Moreinis had to retreat somewhat from this field in order to limit the load. A stripped-down version of ExtraNet was called ExtraMail. It was assumed that the project would live off of advertising placed in users' email mailboxes (as HotMail does now). Since the service itself was free, promotion required significant investments, which at some stage were simply not provided. The project, which collected 7 thousand subscribers, was closed.

All Moreinis’s projects were distinguished by the desire for maximum financial independence and independence from external factors - therefore Moreinis did not go into the real estate or provider business, preferring to use the Internet as a communication link between the consumer and the supplier, a kind of information crossroads, the area of ​​which would be controlled by its owner. Here's how he explains his position:

- There are always two external factors: clients and users; there is and will always be dependence on them. I don’t want to depend on the arbitrariness of monopolists; I want to work in a “free” market, when your success (or failure) depends only on the quality of your work.

The latest brainchild of Arkady Moreinis, PRICE.RU, serves as such a link. Unlike Avtodrom, the product catalog plays a secondary role here; the main emphasis is on providing price information. According to Moreinis, the server is operating in a semi-experimental mode, it is not obvious that it will remain or remain in this form.

Our task is not the comprehensiveness of computer information, our task is to be the final authority in making a purchasing decision. The choice of quality characteristics is often the penultimate authority.

The market sector has also changed and this time it is chosen more realistically - PRICE.RU offers up-to-date information on the state of the computer market. The density of competition at this “trade crossroads” of the Network did not frighten him - he expects to win due to the information organization of his strict organizational chart for building a business and an aggressive marketing policy.

1. Massive dislike of the sales process most often stems from fear, especially among creative people. We're afraid that this all feels like going out on sale with our great creations. Standing behind the counter, we cease to be creators. Our culture has tried all this time to convince us that creation can only be done for the sake of the process of creation itself.
2. Think about it this way: In the world of business, the best salespeople are not the people who have learned to sell. On the contrary, they believed in the product and learned to find people who could believe in it too. In fact, they work as matchmakers, connecting problems and solutions.
3. We must understand that when we launch a product we have created into the market, we are not obliged to say: “You must buy this.” We can simply say, “I think you might need this,” and give enough information for people to decide for themselves whether they need it or not. Yes, it is not so easy to go out into the outside world, it requires courage and preparation. But if you do something that you consider important, you have to make an effort and overcome yourself to give it to people, to make sure that people need it. This is the very essence of marketing.
4. If we understand marketing as “the ability to go out into the outside world with what we have created,” then we must recognize that marketing is a vital skill. It is used not only in business - any creativity, any service, any socially useful business is based on this skill. Our life consists of communicating with other people, our life is a constant process of marketing ourselves and what we do.
5. If this is a life skill, then we should teach it to our children. However, children need to be made to understand the difference between marketing and “steaming”; there are too many examples around of how we are manipulated, calling it “just marketing, nothing personal.” They must understand that marketing is a continuation of the creation process, and the riskiest part of this process. Because at the marketing stage, you not only make your creation available to others - you want to understand whether they need it?
6. Therefore, oddly enough, the first thing you need to learn about marketing is the ability to receive refusals. Only by receiving refusals can you “suddenly” begin to understand how you really need to create things that people need. You cultivate courage, courage is the willingness to be rejected. You cultivate empathy, empathy is the engine of creativity and the cure for “steaming”. If you understand other people, you don’t need to “sell”, you just need to create what people need.
A free retelling of a piece from the book “LAUNCH: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student” by John Spencer.
#rereading a classic from a long time ago published on the dark side

2. He gave one the task of sculpting pots “by weight.” The one who fashions 50 pounds of pots will receive an A, the one who fashions 40 pounds of pots will receive a four, and so on.
3. The second group had the task of making one pot, but a high-quality one. They received an assessment based on the quality of the fashioned pot.
4. During the summing up, a funny thing became clear. The highest quality pots among all the students came not from the group that worked on quality, but from the group that worked on quantity. They tried to do more and learned from their mistakes in the process. Those who cared about quality spent a lot of time theorizing about what the “perfect” pot was, but the result turned out to be so-so.
5. This situation can be transferred to startups. It turns out that something good comes out of those who started doing it and continue to do it. And not those who are always discussing plans to take over the world.
The example is taken from the book “Art & Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

First, the entire area was sown with grass. Then they waited for people to trample the paths. And after that, the trodden paths were filled with asphalt.

It is argued that this story is about proper marketing. In general, yes - but at the 80th level of marketing, this story should look a little different. First, the organizers decide where the tracks should be. Then they sow all awy. But at night, special people are released to trample paths in the right direction. During the day, the bulk will be pushing along the designated paths - because they will think that someone has already started walking along the most convenient routes.

One in which we live, and another in which we could live. The Resistance lives between them. Resistance can be used as a compass. The stronger the Resistance, the more reasons we find not to start doing something, the more likely it is that we are looking in the right direction.

2. There is a secret that real writers know, but that amateurs do not know. Writing is not hard. It's hard to sit down and write. Procrastination is the most common form of Resistance because it is simple and logical. We don’t tell ourselves: “I won’t write this book,” we tell ourselves: “I will write a book, but I’ll start writing it tomorrow, because today I need to do this and that.”

3. Looking for support from friends and acquaintances is like gathering them at your deathbed. It's very touching, but at the moment when the ship goes down, all they can do is stand on the shore and wave their handkerchiefs. The more energy we spend seeking support, the less energy we have to continue doing what we are doing.

4. Somerset Maugham was once asked whether he writes by inspiration or by schedule. “Of course, by inspiration,” he replied. “Fortunately, it comes every day at exactly 9 am.” A professional perceives what he does as a craft, not an art.

From the book “The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle” by Steven Pressfield

1. In one of his books, Dan Ariely described such an experience. People were offered a choice - a truffle for 25 cents and a regular chocolate bar for 1 cent. For a negligible difference of 24 cents, most people chose the tastier truffle. In the next experiment, the price of goods was reduced by one cent. A truffle now costs 24 cents, and a chocolate bar becomes free. With the same difference of 24 cents, most people began to choose the free chocolate bar.

2. When one of several options is free, it’s no longer a matter of the difference in prices. "Free" things are always in a completely different category than something that is sold for money.

3. If a startup checks the demand for its product and offers it for free, so that later, if people start using it, they start charging money for it – it’s testing something completely different. The answer to the question “Will people use our product for free?” is absolutely not equivalent to answering the question “Are they willing to pay for it?”

4. If we want to understand whether people will buy our product, we must sell it.

1. The graph shows that the number of children earning more than their parents in the United States has been steadily declining. Already, more than half of today's American children earn less than their parents.

2. This is not because America is rotting, but because it is a side effect of capitalism. Big money is moving to fewer people, human labor is being replaced by machines and a bunch of other trends.

3. This is not the case with us yet. We probably earn more than our parents. Not because our trend is different, but because my parents lived in another country.

4. We already live under capitalism, and our children will live under capitalism. And most of our children will earn less than we do.

5. Are you still asking why teach children entrepreneurship? And do you still hope that the path taken by the majority - good grades at school -> Unified State Exam -> decent university -> decent job - will lead them to live better than us? Look at the graph - harsh statistics say no.

Arkady Moreinis

1. The word “motivation” always seems to me to have a connotation of stimulation. Show a delicious bun ahead, poke a stick into the wound of dissatisfaction, inspire, set an example, draw a picture of a bright future, that’s all. Whether it’s self-motivation or external motivation, you still need to constantly give yourself or receive a magic kick from the outside in order to move on.

A true entrepreneur is not “motivated.” He just got bitten by a vampire one day and became a vampire. He can no longer help but drink blood (crossed out) and take action. No inspiring examples of how one vampire drank blood and woke up famous. No pictures of a bright future - during daylight hours you still have to lie in a coffin. No spells like: “if you didn’t drink blood today, it means you’re a failure.”

No “motivation” – only hardcore, only initiation. Something happened - and, oops, you're already initiated. And then you just can't stop. Idea, action, sale, refusal with an aspen stake, got up, went into acceleration mode, got into the throat of the next buyer, gathered your clan, fight with another clan, idea, action - and everything again in a circle.

Entrepreneurs are not motivated - they are initiated. How were you initiated?

Dark side: https://telegram.me/temno

1. Whatever active sport you engage in, in your training program you will have GPP - General Physical Fitness. You need a base in order to then fine-tune the subtleties inherent in each specific sport.

Well, or like in fitness: if you want your biceps to grow, you need to pump up your legs. And not only biceps - it applies to all muscle groups: if you want them to grow, pump up your legs. Legs are the base.

Entrepreneurship also has a general physical stage - a basis without which you can start a business, but you cannot make it work normally. Only this abbreviation stands for differently:
– O: organization building and management
– F: financial accounting and planning
– P: sales in a broad sense – building a sales system, marketing and sales management.

Do you want your business to work? Do general physical training.

Dark feed: https://telegram.me/temno

100% of people without serious disabilities learn to speak their native language. But not all people master other subjects. In this case, they are told or they reassure themselves with the words: “I don’t have the ability for this.”

Cool, right? Everyone is capable of mastering their native language, but for some reason not everyone is capable of mastering something else. Why is language acquisition so special? It seems that the whole point is only in a) the lack of necessity as a source of motivation, b) the lack of regular training caused by the lack of necessity and c) the absence of the right teacher or, most likely, the presence of the wrong teacher.

In fact, I recounted in my own words the beginning of the book "Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education" written by Shinichi Suzuki, who wondered why everyone around him learned to speak their native Japanese language, and when it comes to learning music, excuses begin about “no hearing”, “no abilities”. He not only asked himself this question, but also opened a school for learning to play the violin for all children without any entrance exams - and it turned out that everyone, without any exceptions, can learn to play the violin.

The corollary from this is very simple. If you “can’t” learn something at a basic sufficient level, it means you don’t really want it. If your child doesn’t learn something, it means you simply haven’t created the need and the appropriate environment for it. Blaming the inability to do something on a lack of ability is a rotten excuse. The myth about the 5% of people who are capable of entrepreneurship is simply snobbery.

1. Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator) wrote in one of his old essays:
   “Many successful founders are good people, but you can still see some kind of pirate shine in their eyes. Although they adhere to moral principles in general, they do not adhere to generally accepted standards in detail. They can't be called "bad guys" but they can't be called "good guys" either. They enjoy breaking rules that they consider unprincipled. This quality is very much related to the ingenuity required for founders.
   Sam Altman [the current head of Y Combinator] is one of our most successful alumni, so we once asked him what question we should include in a candidate questionnaire to find more people like him. He suggested the following question: “When was the last time you were able to hack a system to your advantage?” It was not about computers, but about circumventing or violating the rules of generally accepted rules in one's own interests. Since then, this has become one of the important answers that we pay special attention to when considering candidates.”
2. When was the last time you “broke the system” yourself?
3. Do you encourage your children, if you have them, to “break the system”—to bend or bend the rules to their advantage?

Arkady Moreinis

The Internet for me is not a luxury, but a means of transportation. Firstly, I myself use it as the fastest and most effective way to obtain the information I am interested in. Secondly, it is on the Internet that I try to implement business ideas that interest me. I really want to note that Internet business for me is first and foremost a business, and only then the Internet.

Arkady Moreinis was born on December 26, 1963 in Moscow. After graduating from Moscow school No. 876, he served two years of military service in the chemical forces of the Soviet army. After demobilization, he entered Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov to the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, which he graduated with honors in 1989.

After graduating from the University, A.F. Moreinis worked as a research assistant at the Scientific Research Computing Center of Moscow State University. In the early 90s, he created his first company, Macsimum, which was engaged in the sale and development of software for Apple Macintosh computers. In the mid-90s, he became interested in online projects and created the first free email system in Russia, Extranet, and the online catalog of prices and cars "Avtodrom".

In 1997, A.F. Moreinis founded the popular online service Price.ru, of which he still works as director. Price.ru is the largest directory in the CIS on companies and prices on the computer and hi-tech equipment market, both on the Internet and among paper publications. The service has representative offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Minsk. The Price.ru server has repeatedly become a winner of the Business Site award and a nominee for the National Internet Award.

In 2001, Price.ru released a new version of the server, again significantly expanding the capabilities of the service (the search was updated, a search by synonyms was added). A professional club Price.ru has opened, uniting computer companies from Russia and Belarus. The server began publishing product ratings based on “expert opinions” of visitors. A virtual “showcase” has appeared, allowing users not only to evaluate a product in terms of cost, but also to see what it looks like.

This, if I understand correctly, is the most successful startup that you gave money to?
— Well, not most often - they just probably attract attention more than other posts. There are some pretty girls there. In general, an interesting side effect: girls publish their brand-ins (Photos of people wearing clothes that are tagged with brand names. — Approx. ed.), and the men get stuck. It’s too early to talk about success. But a project that made its way to the TechCrunch Disrupt stage in less than a year is cool. In my opinion, TagBrand is actually the first Russian startup that received an invitation to perform on this stage. There is already strong interest in it from investors, and most importantly, it is clear in what commercial direction it will develop. After all, this is not just a service about beautiful pictures.

— Is the startup boom in Russia continuing?
— The boom continues. Competition is beginning to be felt even among business angels (Entrepreneurs who are ready to invest personal money in startups. — Approx. ed.), which was difficult to imagine a couple of years ago. For every Startup Weekend we receive about 200 applications from projects - this is already scary. But no, no, it’s not scary: only with a large flow can you find something really worthwhile.

— Any new ideas in this thread? If you look at the list of projects on your websites glavstart.ru or wanted.vc, you can see that people are still intensively studying the TechCrunch database.
— The problem is that people don't study TechCrunch intensely. They invent a bicycle, confident in their genius. And they don’t even bother to Google it to understand if anyone has done something similar and what the result was.

Speech by Ivan Olenchenko, who invented the TagBrand application, at TechСrunch Disrupt. Six months ago, with approximately the same speech, Ivan won in Russian "TechCrunch"

— Okay, then which startup’s application this year really surprised you? Let’s say there’s a new mobile app that will give her another reason to buy an iPhone.
— Believe this simple thing: 90 percent of people use their phone just as a phone. In addition, unfortunately, there are practically no cool things at the level of ideas. Well, take the same TagBrand. A year ago, some guys from Barnaul at the Novosibirsk Startup Weekend suggested filming and tagging something there, and initially they weren’t talking about brands - well, of course, in general. And now American Forbes writes about them. An amazing thing becomes amazing only later when it is used. Or you know, all brilliant ideas go through three stages: it’s all bullshit, there’s something in it, well, who didn’t know that.

— In general, what ideas are most often proposed?
— It’s impossible to single out anything in particular - there’s a pair for each creature, but the fact that there are a lot of similar ideas is absolutely true. I can immediately list what I probably shouldn’t offer. Applications that show something around (coupons, discounts, stores) or for some reason unite people (by interests, likes on Facebook). Feedback or question-answer services. Another single discount card. There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes a person brings something called a social network only because this word seems fashionable to him, but inside, if you delve into it, there is some completely different meaning.

— That is, you can come to you with a rather crude idea?
— Look. Firstly, Glavstart is a search not only for good ideas, but also for people who can work on the project. That’s why we have such a multi-stage selection system. Secondly, almost all initial ideas change during development. Our project “Sea of ​​Salons” was a system that allows you to order supplies for a hairdressing salon. Now it is more of a system for recording clients. You don’t know exactly what will hook the user. Therefore, it is necessary to launch a prototype as early as possible and change the concept depending on the circumstances. A couple of weeks ago we rolled out the Yolki mobile chat for communicating with random people around...

— It somehow resembles the American Highlight or Glancee.
— Well, yes, everyone does about the same thing. And in fairness, it must be said that the progenitor of these applications for spontaneous communication is the Russian-origin Cybiko communicators, which were invented by David Yan ten years ago. So, about Yolki: immediately after the launch, it became clear to us that people do not understand the simplest thing - what they should talk about there. And then it turned out that there was a funny scenario: strangers in the same area of ​​Moscow, in the evening after work, use Yolki to meet and have a drink. In the new version we will test this hypothesis - in a couple of weeks the “Meetings” option will appear in the application.

3 more startups in which Glavstart invested

Over two years, Arkady Moreinis invested approximately 100 thousand dollars (personal money, according to him) in 13 Russian sites and applications. Eight of them continue to operate.

— You typically give a startup $100,000 and take 40 percent for yourself. Is not it too much? Who ultimately controls everything?
— Now we don’t really want to give (and take) so much at once. This is also a problem. The situation is like with a hard drive: no matter what its capacity, it will still clog up. That is, the project will be ready when all the money runs out. And if users don’t like it, then there will be no money (and time) to change anything. Therefore, now we have a staged investment system, starting from 20 thousand for a share of 10 percent. After this first stage, you can continue working with us, or you can go to other investors if they give a higher assessment. Everything is in the hands of the startuper. Our main task is not to control, but to help, advise and evaluate results.

— I think you recently hosted a retreat in Taiwan. Are startups there different from ours?
— And also in Turkey. It was an experiment called Startup Labs - to look at and invest in startups in emerging markets. We invested in a dozen projects there, about 30 thousand each. But there is only one conclusion: everything is the same everywhere, except for America, probably. Most people have the same thoughts. Each project had some analogues in Russia. Well, okay, not everyone. There was one Taiwanese service for checking vulnerabilities in website code. In general, I’m not yet sure whether we will continue to hold such meetings. as retold by Arkady Moreinis.

1. Send an application to [email protected] .
The application includes three documents: the project concept, the development schedule (roadmap) and the budget for the next three months. “In this case, we do not strictly stipulate the format of these documents in order to see how a person himself understands such things. This is already an indicator,” says Moreinis.

2. Pass an interview on Skype.
“I talk to the person personally after the first letter if it is clear that he is normal.”

3. Come to a meeting with Arkady Moreinis.
Cooperation and all the most interesting things are discussed.

You will spend 12-14 hours a day promoting both a small project and a breakthrough product. Why then waste your time on trifles, if you can implement an idea that will change the market. Speaking recently in Minsk in space Profitspace, Russian investor, mentor, entrepreneur Arkady Moreinis (founder of Price.ru, the “startup factory” Glavstart, formerly one of the managers at Rambler Media) shared his thoughts about this before the audience.

Here are a few emotional points from Arkady's speech. See how to create and promote a revolutionary product. To whom it is relevant - do it.

1. “Sad crap” - that’s what many entrepreneurs do today. We are good, we do good things, our thing will be useful, people will buy it, because it differs from competitors in “28 parameters”: this is the attitude of many startups.

In fact, everything in life is not like that. The main question to ask yourself is: what existing need that ALREADY exists that people are ALREADY spending time/money on, will your product satisfy.

Here's an example:

2. Marketing is not a struggle to be liked. Marketing is always a fight against someone.

Ask yourself, what products will people stop using if they choose yours?

Find a market leader. You must be focused on knocking out his product.

See details here:

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3. Look for another way. A revolution occurs when a new way to spend money on something that people already use is invented. Uber created a new way to get from point A to point B. Most other unicorn startups (capitalization over $1 billion) also took this approach.

Here's an example:

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4. The experience of revolutionary propagandists will help you. Study Russian history :)

See this video for details:

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