The head of Glavstart, Arkady Moreinis, opens a $5 million venture fund in the spring. The fund invests in 10-15 new projects during the year. The entrepreneur spoke about this in an interview with UNOVA.
What are the criteria for your investment focus?
First, a sound idea (business model + investment attractiveness). Second, the team/project leader. He must be competent to solve one of the key tasks of the company: technological, marketing, sales or (rarely) organizational. Thirdly, the time (the company must achieve investment attractiveness) in 6-12 months. Fourth, money: up to $100,000 per project.
What is the business model of Glavstart itself?
At the initial stage, we issue money in pre-negotiated tranches for a certain period. In return, we get a share in projects. But our goal is not to keep the project, but to bring it to next stage financing. On the way, I have the opportunity to sell part of the share: for example, to a private investor (a person not from the market). There are many private investors, and they have free money. The reason for their low investment activity is the lack of expertise. I can point them to understandable projects and trusted people. Selling shares to investors will help me recoup my own investments in projects.
The second part of the share is brought to the stage of venture investment. This will allow the factory to break even, and it will give me pleasure: after all, I work with startups, not selling boxes of coffee.
How many projects can you still invest in?
My global goal is 30-50 projects per year. It is clear that quite soon I will need other people's money. Most likely, in the spring I will raise the fund. I think that now is the time, because projects are gradually appearing. I also accumulate a pool of private investors. And finally, I invite venture investors to look at my projects.
Tell us about your mentoring system.
We are the first to create such an institution in Russia. Now we already have 40 expert mentors. And at every new event, more and more new people join us. There is only one rule for everyone - this is the “fight club” rule. Work on projects, collect a certain amount of positive feedback, and welcome to join our team.
How is a mentor different from a business consultant?
Functionally nothing. But a business consultant is usually a talker who sells learned business schemes for your own money. The mentor is a participant in the project and is interested in its success. A business consultant works for money. The mentor is not paid money: he gets a share. The job of a mentor is to do business, he is a market participant himself. He has business experience.
You had experience as both an investor and a top manager. What is closer to you?
Of course, your business. I have been in business since 1991, worked as a top manager at Rambler for about 1.5 years. Why I left Rambler: we did not agree on a share, I wanted to be participants in the project and be interested in it. I am not a top manager.
Full interview on the website
1. Mass dislike for the sales process most often stems from fear, especially among people of a creative type. We're afraid it's all like going on a giveaway with our great creations. Standing behind the counter, we cease to be creators. Our culture has been trying all this time to convince us that you can create only for the sake of the very process of creation.
2. Think about it the other way around: in the business world, the best salespeople aren't the ones who know how to sell. On the contrary, they believed in the product and learned how to find people who can also believe in it. In fact, they work like matchmakers, connecting problems and solutions.
3. We must understand that when we launch a product we have created on the market, we do not have to say: "You have to buy it." We can just 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 what you think is 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 mean by marketing "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 vital skill, then we must teach it to our children. However, children need to be made aware of the difference between marketing and “pushing in”, there are too many examples 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 most risky part of this process. Because at the marketing stage, you are not only making your creation available to others - you want to understand if they need it?
6. Therefore, oddly enough, the first thing to learn marketing with is the ability to receive rejections. Only by receiving refusals, you can “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 nurture empathy, empathy is the engine of creativity and the cure for “pushing in”. If you understand other people, you don’t need to “push”, you just need to create what people need.
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 on the dark side
2. He gave one the task of sculpting pots “by weight”. The one who molds 50 pounds of pots will get a five, whoever molds 40 pounds of pots will get a four, and so on.
3. The second group had the task to fashion one pot, but of high quality. They were judged by the quality of the fashioned pot.
4. At the summing up, a funny thing turned out. The highest quality pots among all the students were obtained not by the group that worked for quality, but by the group that worked for 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 was so-so.
5. You can shift this situation to startups. It turns out something good for those who started to do and continue to do. And not those who are always discussing plans to take over the world.
The example is taken from Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.
First, the entire area was sown with grass. Then we waited for people to tread the paths. After that, the trodden paths were filled with asphalt.
This story is said to be 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 lanes should be. Then they sow all avoy. But at night they release special people who tread paths in the right direction. In the daytime, the bulk will break along the marked paths - because they will assume that someone has already begun to walk along the most convenient routes.
One in which we live and another in which we could live. Between them lives the Resistance. Resistance can be used as a compass. The stronger the Resistance, the more reasons we find for not starting to do something, the more likely we are to look in the right direction.
2. There is a secret that real writers know, but amateurs don't. Writing is not hard. It is hard to sit down and sit down to write. Procrastination is the most common form of Resistance because it is simple and logical. We do not say to ourselves: “I will not write this book”, we say to ourselves: “I will write a book, only I will start writing it tomorrow, because today I have to do this and that.”
3. Seeking support from friends and acquaintances is like gathering them at your deathbed. It's very touching, but the moment the ship sinks, all they can do is stand on the shore and wave handkerchiefs. The more energy we spend looking for support, the less we have left to keep doing what we're doing.
4. Somerset Maugham was once asked if he writes by inspiration or by schedule. “Of course, by inspiration,” he replied. “Fortunately, it comes every day at 9 a.m. sharp.” A professional perceives what he does as a craft, not an art.
From 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. With a marginal difference of 24 cents, most people chose the tastier truffle. In the next experiment, the price of goods was reduced by one cent. The truffle cost 24 cents and the chocolate bar became free. With the same difference of 24 cents, most people began to choose a free chocolate bar.
2. When one of several options is free, it's not about the difference in prices anymore. "Free" things are always in a completely different category than something that sells 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 taking money for it - it checks something completely different. The answer to the question "Will people use our product for free?" is absolutely non-equivalent to the answer to the question "Are they ready 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 who earn 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. It's not because America is rotting, but because it is. side effect capitalism. Big money is moving to a smaller number of people, human labor is being replaced by machines and a bunch of other trends.
3. This is not the case with us yet. We earn, most likely, more than our parents. Not because we have a different trend, 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 kids about entrepreneurship? And still hope that the path taken by the majority - good grades in school -> USE -> decent university -> decent job - will lead them to the fact that they will live better than we do? Look at the graph - harsh statistics answer "no".
Arkady Moreinis
- The word “motivation” always seems to me to have a connotation of stimulation. Show a delicious bun ahead, poke a dissatisfaction wound with a stick, inspire, set an example, draw a picture of a brighter future, that's all. Even though self-motivation, even motivation on an external carrier, you still need to constantly give yourself or receive a magic pendel from the outside in order to move on.
A real entrepreneur is not "motivated". He just got bitten by a vampire one day and became a vampire. He can no longer drink blood (crossed out) or undertake. No inspiring examples of one vampire drinking blood and waking up famous. No pictures of a bright future - during daylight hours you still have to lie in a coffin. No spells like: "didn't drink blood today - it means you're a loser."
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, switched to acceleration mode, dug into the throat of another buyer, gathered your clan, you are at war with another clan, an idea, an action - and everything is in a circle again.
Entrepreneurs are not motivated – they are initiated. How were you initiated?
Dark side: https://telegram.me/temno
- Whatever active view you would not be engaged in sports, in the training program you will have OFP - General Physical Training. We need a base in order to then debug the subtleties inherent in each specific sport.
Well, or like in fitness: if you want your biceps to grow, you need to swing your legs. And not only biceps - applies to all muscle groups: if you want them to grow - swing your legs. Legs are the base.
Entrepreneurship also has an OFP - a base without which you can start a business, but you can’t make it work normally. Only this abbreviation is deciphered in a different way:
– About: 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? Take care of the OFP.
Dark ribbon: https://telegram.me/temno
100% of people without serious deviations learn to speak their native language. But not all people master other subjects. In this case, they are told or they comfort themselves with the words: "I do not have the ability to do this."
Cool, right? To development mother tongue everyone is capable, but for some reason not everyone is capable of mastering something else. Why is language learning so special? It seems that it's all about a) lack of need as a source of motivation, b) lack of regular training caused by lack of need, and c) lack of the right teacher, or, most likely, the presence of the wrong teacher.
In fact, I retell in my own words the beginning of the book "Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education" by Shinichi Suzuki, who wondered why everyone around him learned to speak his native Japanese, and as soon as it comes to learning music, excuses about “no hearing”, “no abilities” begin. He not only asked this question, but also opened a violin school for all children without any entrance exams - and it turned out that everyone can learn to play the violin without any exceptions.
The consequence of this is very simple. If you “can’t” learn something at a basic sufficient level, then you don’t really want it. If your child is not learning something, it means that you simply did not create the need and the appropriate environment for this. Blaming the inability to do something on the lack of ability is a rotten excuse. The myth of the 5% of people capable of doing business is just snobbery.
- Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator) wrote in one of his old essays:
“Many successful founders are good people, but in their eyes you can still see some kind of pirate gleam. Although they adhere to moral principles in the grand scheme of things, they do not adhere to generally accepted standards in detail. You can't call them "bad guys", but you can't call them " good guys". They enjoy breaking rules that they consider unprincipled. This quality is very much related to the ingenuity required for founders.
Sam Altman [current head of Y Combinator] is one of our most successful alumni, so we once asked him what question we should include in the candidate questionnaire in order to find more people like him. He suggested this question: "When was the last time you managed to hack the system in your favor?". It was not about computers, but about circumventing or breaking the rules of generally accepted rules in their own interests. Since then, this has become one of the important responses that we paid special attention to when considering candidates.” - When was the last time you "broke the system" yourself?
- Do you encourage your children, if you have them, to "break the system" - to bend or break the rules in your favor?
Arkady Moreinis
The Internet for me is not a luxury, but a means of transportation. First, I myself use it as the fastest and effective way get the information I want. Secondly, it is on the Internet that I try to implement interesting business ideas for me. True, I want to note that the Internet business for me is first of all a business, and only then the Internet.
Arkady Moreinis was born on December 26, 1963 in Moscow. After graduating from the 876 Moscow school, he served two years of military service in the chemical troops of the Soviet army. On demobilization he entered the Moscow State University them. M.V. Lomonosov at 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 researcher 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, created the first free e-mail system in Russia Extranet, an online catalog of prices and cars "Autodrom".
In 1997, A.F. Moreinis founded the popular online service Price.ru, of which he remains the director to this day. Price.ru is the largest CIS directory of 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 the winner of the "Business Site" award and the nominee for the National Internet Award.
In 2001, Price.ru released new version server, again significantly expanding the capabilities of the service (updated search, added search by synonyms). A professional club Price.ru was opened, uniting computer companies from Russia and Belarus. The server has begun publishing product ratings based on the "expert opinions" of visitors. A virtual "showcase" has appeared, allowing users not only to evaluate the product in terms of cost, but also to see how it looks.
At the end of July, TechCrunch published an article by journalist Quinton Wall about the "revolution" in the world of mobile applications. According to the author, the era of "free hands" is coming, which will bring with it the "Internet of Things". An interesting commentary on the article was published on his Facebook page by a well-known Russian businessman and investor Arkady Moreinis. McRadar contacted Arkady and discussed what the future of mobile applications actually holds.
Is it true that your first business was related to the supply and development of software for Apple computers?
Yes, I did Mac development. This is where I started my career. Firstly, under a contract with Apple, I led the localization of the first Russian-language operating system Mac. It was a version, if I'm not mistaken, Mac System 6.0.7 ( The familiar name Mac OS X appeared in 2001. - Approx. ed.). And after that, we have been translating documentation for Apple computers for several years. Secondly, I was engaged in programming, and it so happened that one of the programs somehow got to the USA, and one of the American companies bought this program from me. It was called Talker and transmitted voice over a local area network. With the proceeds, I created the Macsimum company, which was engaged in the development of software for Mac and the sale of Apple equipment in Russia. It was at our booth at one of the Comtek exhibitions that the slogan appeared, which I came up with: “A good thing will not be called a pisyuk.”
Why did you stop selling Apple products?
Well, the box moving dealer business wasn't for me. And as for software development, at that time there were not yet enough Macs to live on. Also, there was a period when I had to go back to PC because Macs got too slow, too expensive, and were just not as good as PCs. But when Jobs returned to Apple ( 1997 - Approx. ed.), everything changed. I returned to the Mac when the black MacBook came out in 2006.
And after that, the famous “Moreinis lemma” appeared about the unidirectional transition from PC to Mac?
It's been around for a long time, my temporary switch to PC and back is proof that, albeit in the long run, it works. If you have read the book by Evgeny Butman "Retail from the first person" ( Evgeniy Butman is the founder of Re:Store. - Approx. ed.), then just in the first chapter he mentions this lemma: "Many people switch from PC to Mac, nobody back."
The reason for our conversation was an article in TechCrunch, where the author Quinton Wall raised interesting topic"death" of mobile applications in the form to which we are all accustomed. How would you comment on this statement?
In fact, in the last 5-7 years, the application industry has only just emerged. This was the stage of the revolution, when people pinned their hopes on the format of mobile applications. Many thought it was enough to make cool mobile app and win. And therefore, we are talking, most likely, about the fact that this euphoria and revolutionary spirit have already “dimmed out” and we are returning to the roots. And the origins are such that it's not about the mobile application as such, it's about the service that you are promoting. And in this sense, a mobile application is one of the channels for using this service.
But everyone says that mobile will win in the coming years. What do you think about the popular mobile first idea?
Let's break it all down. Firstly, mobile is not only and not so much mobile applications. This is, generally speaking, the use of services from mobile devices. For example, through a mobile browser. And this is quite a common pattern. There is some illusion that if you are targeting mobile users, then you definitely need to create a mobile application. This is not always the case, because the vast majority of mobile users use 3-5 mobile applications on a regular basis. This means that if you want to achieve something with your application, then you need to be able to get on the first screen of the smartphone. Among the million apps in the App Store, about 1% are actually used.
Secondly, indeed, people began to use mobile phones to access services. This is clearly noticeable. The pattern for such people is quite specific - it's like doing masturbation. Here they have nowhere to put their hands in traffic jams, in queues, in conversations - and they are always doing something on their mobile phones. In fact, they do nothing meaningful, they browse Facebook, Instagram. This must also be taken into account.
On darkside.vc, you write that you are ready to invest in mobile applications as an investor, but the question arises: in which applications, given that we are discussing the topic of their “death” right now?
Here you have confusion in terms. The point is not in the format of one of the channels of communication with consumers. First of all, a person must come up with a service as a product. Which he thinks people want and will pay for. And how the product will be delivered to people - through a mobile application, website or even a call center - this is already a toolkit. Never put the cart before the horse. It makes sense to deal only with a mobile application with games, but they have their own specifics.
How have they changed for last years app startups? Do they still think that it is enough to release a cool application - and the whole world is in their pocket?
I recall Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which states that the instrument of observation influences the outcome. If earlier I myself came to startups, that is, I held events, created startup conventions, invited experts, now I work differently. I tell them not to email me business plans, spreadsheets, and so on. If you want to tell me something, then come to me on Tuesday at the Good Republic coworking and tell me face to face about what you want to do. Ironically, this is an awesome filter that cuts off a large number of people in the “I have a cool idea for a new app” category. Many of them are lazy people who are reluctant to go anywhere, it is easier for them to sit and wait for the magician in the blue helicopter to fly in and give them investments. This filter cut off the category of lazy people and began to attract, let's say, more pragmatic people.
Many believe that the advent of devices like the Apple Watch marks a new era wearable gadgets. But the approach to applications for them is old. What do you think about it?
The Apple Watch is not the first smart watch to hit the market. In this sense, the approach is old, since this is not the iPhone, which appeared in 2007 in a new form factor, with the App Store and so on. I don't know how promising this is. I personally forced myself to use smart watches twice. It was painful. A week later, I put them off. I don’t yet see them as a “killer feature” that would change the world. Usually the new comes from where you do not expect. Well, who in the early 2000s could have known that Facebook would appear, which now has over a billion people? In this sense, the story with wearable gadgets is exactly the same. At 99.99%, the “killer feature” will be one that we are not aware of right now.
And the “Internet of things”, from my point of view, is not the introduction of the Internet into every “iron”, but the filling with meanings real life of people. Just the article says about this, that it's not about mobile applications, but about the availability of services that satisfy your needs.
Recently, BMW announced a system that will allow the car to anticipate traffic light changes. This is like an example of the "Internet of Things" that will help in real life.
The example is interesting, but it is rather the development of technologies that have been conceived for a long time. At one time there was a scientific and educational book series "Eureka". And one of the books was called "I need a car." And there just the designer of the car talked about what awaits the car in the future. This book is from 1967. And I still remember the story that the car of the future will predict the switching of traffic lights, slowing down or, conversely, accelerating. Here, relatively speaking, technology has only now allowed the introduction of such a system, because a real need has arisen.
And the last question. As an experienced entrepreneur and investor, what advice would you give to app developers?
Tip number one is to forget that you are a mobile app developer. Secondly, what you want to do should be related to the real needs of people, what they already want or may want from the new service. The third is to check if people really need your service. Fourth, find out if they are willing to pay for your service. And then the last question - is it necessary to make a mobile application for this? That's all.
General Director of the company "Glavstart"
General Director of the company "Glavstart".
Graduated with honors from Moscow State University.
The first place of work was the Computing Center of Moscow State University. Here he is a research assistant.
Arkady devotes the next few years to the Macsimum company he created (trade in hardware and software development for Apple Macs (hence the name of the company)).
The next frontier is the Internet.
Arcady's first online project was the Extranet e-mail system. Later there was a specialized electronic catalog "Autodrom". According to Moreinis, these projects were commercial failures.
In 1997, he launched a truly successful project - the Price.Ru portal (an online directory of companies and prices on the computer and hi-tech equipment market). The project has received several significant Internet awards. Leaves office in 2008 CEO Price.Ru.
From 2008 to 2009, he held the position of Project Development and Development Director at Rambler Media.
Currently, he is the founder and head of the Glavstart company.