"Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner."
Disclaimer. This article is a transcript of the wonderful film "Holivar" by Andrey Loshak. There are people who save time and love text, there are those who cannot watch videos at work or on the road, but are happy to read Habr, there are those who are hard of hearing for whom the audio track is inaccessible or difficult to perceive. We decided for all of them and you to decipher great content. Who still prefers the video - the link at the end.
Yuri Milner:
"Good evening, welcome to the Breakthrough Awards."
Perhaps the most successful figure on the Runet is Yuri Milner, a billionaire global investor and founder of the Breakthrough science award, along with such “pillars of the Internet” as Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Pony Ma. Prizes, more than the Nobel - $ 3 million.
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook, 8th on the Forbes list.
Sergey Brin is a co-founder of Google, 14th on the Forbes list.
Pony Ma is the founder of Tencent, ranked 20th on the Forbes list.
"First of all, I would like to thank electrons."
Milner is a graduate of the physics department of Moscow State University, when he himself was a theoretical physicist, but after the collapse of the Union, he retrained as an investment banker. In 1999, Milner was thinking about where to invest his first capital.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“After studying 10-20 sectors of the economy in succession, I suddenly came across a then young and growing sector called the Internet, in fact, the initial capital was not required, that is, it was possible to start with a small amount of resources and count on success.”
Milner raised funds from other investors and created the NetBridge company, among the first purchases was the fun site Fomenko.ru and the web directory List.ru German Klimenko.
German Klimenko, IT entrepreneur, founder of list.ru
“He was just a physicist, and then when he wanted to eat he became an arbitration manager. Came to the Internet after the pasta factory in my opinion. Somehow he calls me and says, “are you aware that your programmers are constantly late”? And he set a $10 fine for an hour late. Then he calls me in the middle of the month and says, listen, you know you have such a programmer, his name is Maxim, now he has already run out of money. Does he know about it? I say - well, he knows, an adult. And what kind of programmers are they, they always didn’t care, they could work until two in the morning, and they came as soon as they woke up. Yura says: “and what will he do at the end of the month”? Well, at the end of the month, he will probably quit. "Will he walk on time"? I say it won't. And he canceled late tickets. There were no options. If you saw a programmer with a hangover, well, bring him a beer in the end, because it's pointless to scold him, right? But if you bring him beer, he will even do something.
Alexey Krivenkov, like Milner, graduated from the physics department, only in St. Petersburg. While working in an American IT company, he developed the first Russian-language mail service. The mail.ru website became the main asset of the port.ru company, which Krivenkov founded with his American partner Evgeny Holland. In 1999, it was possible to attract the first investments in the history of the Runet.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“And it was then a million dollars. And it was absolutely crazy money worthy of being printed on the front page of Kommersant. Money has come to the Russian Internet.”
Mail.ru entered the top three most visited sites of the Russian Internet. Young Krivenkov, together with an investor, told CNN about the phenomenon of the company's success.
- "Alexey, first of all, such a question, what is your site intended for"?
“This is a free webmail that I programmed a year ago.”
“Jimmy, you joined the project last March to help raise investment. How are things going?"
“We attracted investments, but with great difficulty, Americans have a phobia, they are afraid to invest in Russia, they don’t understand how attractive the country is for investment right now.”
After the Dot-com crisis in 2000, American investors were no longer so optimistic.
The Dotcom Crisis is the collapse of the stock market of Internet companies in the United States due to the inflated value of their shares.
At this point, Yuri Milner proposed a plan to merge Port.ru with his NetBridge company. There was one person against the deal - Krivenkov.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“I was just embarrassed that it didn’t look like a merger of equals and it was much more interesting for us to merge with Yandex than to merge with Fomenko.ru for a little money and, by and large, give up part of the company because of this wise and somehow strategically seeing adult manager."
Without understanding, Krivenkov sold his share to Milner and left the company.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“The only thing I regret is that I did not keep some small part as a souvenir. Now this souvenir would not be badly worth it. But then I was quite an impulsive young maximalist and it seemed to me that gestures should be beautiful.
The new company was named mail.ru after the name of the most valuable asset. The merger turned out to be a takeover. Soon there was no one left of the old Port.ru team in the company. Yuri Milner became the main board of directors. The development was based on the Chinese model.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“I began to travel to China since 2003, I think it was extremely useful in terms of some business models. For example, the combination of social media and games, online games, is definitely something we saw in China.”
The main ideologist of game integration was Baumanka graduate Dmitry Grishin. At the age of 22, he became the technical director of mail.ru, and a couple of years later he became the general director. Grishin himself is an inveterate geek and gamer, he wrote his first game while still a schoolboy.
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“There were popular chewing gums called Turbo. They had liners with typewriters. I won myself an insert with an Alfa Romeo car and I made a game from this picture. That is, I have never driven a car in my life ... Where did the Alfa Romeo car come from in Saratov in the 90s?
“Have you ridden a Tesla before?”
"No, it's my first time."
- "Seriously? OU"…
“Heard mixed reviews about…”
“I won’t do it again, I promise.”
“The pilot works like this. We turned it on, increased the speed and that's it, we're going. Now the road will turn around, look.”
- "In general, this car is a geek's dream, right"?
- “Well, something like that, yes, it’s possible here, the Internet works right away” ...
“Before that, the entire Western world was organized as follows. You pay money, buy a game and play, but in Russia this model does not work very well for many reasons. And they came up with a model when you make a game for people for free, they play it, have fun, and then you offer them all sorts of things that allow them to somehow improve their sense of self.
A successful auto parts dealer from Murmansk, Igor Motsanyuk, in the early XNUMXs became addicted to Fight Club, the first browser game in Russia.
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Game Insight
“There is nothing to do on the weekend, I went in and someone killed me right there. And I'm thinking, what kind of circus in general, how? They killed... No, they must be punished. You have to grow up, upgrade your character. Well, it happened, and after half a year I was one of the top players in Fight Club. I spent enough money and I think, well, that's it, we need to somehow stop it. I honestly don't remember how much, but it's tens of thousands of dollars. Thousands there is nothing.”
There were quite a few high-status people among the Fight Club players. Sergey Zhukov from the group "Hands Up" played under the name "the one who cannot be called."
Sergey Zhukov, soloist of the group "Hands up"
“I went with my children to rest there in Egypt or Turkey, I don’t remember, it means that an adult uncle conquers a tower there at 4 in the morning, Lord ... You understand, I lost the whole vacation, well, it’s just stupid. By the way, it was there that I bought a ring, some of the most expensive for ten bucks. And that’s how I got to know the brotherhood, so to speak, in which all of ours later were, well, in general, yes, horror, yes ”?
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“Why do people buy expensive watches or expensive cars? Well, to be honest, Ferrari is stuck in a traffic jam just like Zaporozhets, the speed of movement in Moscow is different, but not very much, but emotionally, as it were, different sensations. Also in games, people are willing to just spend some money, just to visually look cooler in the game than others. Yes, for show off.
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Game Insight
“Well, we won’t fit in this one, yes. But it's dangerous, let's go to the classics.
In 2003, Motsanyuk decided to sell his character, but instead the owner of Fight Club banned him. Then Motsanyuk with gamers from the same clan developed his own online games - "Territory" and "Legends and Legacy of Dragons". Placed at the beginning in the office of Sergei Zhukov. The villains from the "Fight Club" were defeated.
Sergey Zhukov, soloist of the group "Hands up"
“The thirst for justice and revenge drove us forward and I swear to you, there is nothing in life more energizing than the desire to really like this, in a civilized way, right? Fuck the person."
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Game Insight
“When we floundered with Legend, she was earning up to $6 million a month at her peak, and in fact we took this market. Of course, there were still competitors, in the end we were the biggest, I think that even in Eastern Europe, not only in Russia in terms of online games.
In 2007, Dmitry Grishin offered Motsanyuk, on favorable terms, to merge with the Mail.ru holding and head it. Another co-founder, Sergey Zhukov, sold his stake.
Sergey Zhukov, soloist of the group "Hands up"
“I envy him with such white envy and envied him all my life after that, because Igor was able to see that, even though this industry had bothered us at that moment, that the future belongs to it. And at that moment I said that that’s it, I’m already playing games, I’ll go into music, I said and bought the mp3.ru website and started selling music legally, thinking that this was the future.
Games still bring about a third of the total profit of Mail.ru Group. Motsanyuk became the first vice president of the company, but did not last long. In the corporate framework, he was cramped.
“If Yuri Borisovich calls you, then he needs something. And if he needs something, then it costs money. When Yury Borisovich calls, you have to say, Yury Borisovich, how much is the call, for 100 dollars, for a million dollars? In this sense, he is such an absolute robot, he has no emotions, nothing, but a narcissist. If you personally don’t touch him in any way, don’t offend him, then everything is perfect in general, you work with a robot.”
All zero Milner continued to actively collect various assets under the roof of Mail.ru. Soon, social networks began to be added to the games. networks.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“Here, inspiration came from the West, at that time myspace already existed and Facebook was developing quite actively, and of course we began to look for something similar in the Russian segment and found that there was not just one, but even two companies - Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte . Very unusual on a global scale, usually one social network dominates the country in the end.”
Odnoklassniki became the first social network in Runet, the founder Albert Popkov, having no higher education, makes a brilliant career as a programmer, at the beginning of the XNUMXs he headed the development department in a large British reference service, in parallel, the company is trying to launch a social network similar to the American Classmates.com, Odnoklassniki translated from English.
- Run the wallet quickly ...
— Eric Fisher?
It's me Jay, Jay Anderson, dude, when was the last time we saw each other?
- Zippie party!
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“There was already a Classmates system, but it could not be called strictly a social network in today's sense. Then it was, you register, you see there such a list of the same registered ones, no photos, no chats, you have to pay 24 dollars a year for the right to send messages, which in principle would not have taken root in Russia. We decided to create a similar site in other countries in order to project the same on Germany, France - on Europe.
In 2006, Popkov was lured away by a competing company, while the registration process was underway, the programmer wrote and launched Odnoklassniki. The audience grew so rapidly that Popkov gave up his London career and returned to Moscow.
“In many ways, we got into the flow precisely because digital photography came in and there was an explosion in high-speed access, people had computers that were always connected to the network, and people moved from using in offices to using at home.”
A year after Odnoklassniki, the Vkontakte network appeared. High school friends Lev Leviev and Vyacheslav Mirilashvili are children of reputable entrepreneurs with Jewish roots. In the middle of the XNUMXs, both studied in the west, where they met the then student network Facebook.
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of the Vkontakte network
“The idea to create Facebook in Russia came only in St. Petersburg, when we both moved there and it happened when my partner Vyacheslav met Pavel, with whom he studied at school in St. Petersburg in the middle classes. And when Pavel told him about his website, the St. Petersburg State University forum, I think it was called, Slava immediately got the idea and he said that you are aware of such a project as Facebook? I showed it to Pavel, Pavel was not in the know, and then here's the story.
Leviev and Mirilashvili borrowed money from their parents and invested in a startup. Pavel Durov involved his older brother Nikolai, a multiple winner of international olympiads in mathematics and programming, to develop the site.
"As the classifying topus of the profinite group, we take the detailed fundamental group of our curve."
In 2007, the Milner DST fund bought a stake in two networks at once, first in Odnoklassniki, and a few months later in Vkontakte.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“Yuri, he just offered an order of magnitude more. And he offered even not so much money as faith in the project. That is, he really said that the future is yours. If you do everything as you do, then I believe in you that you will be one of the leaders of the Runet there. Another thing is that I did not know that there were several of them to whom he told at the same time.
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of the Vkontakte network
“Half a year after we created the company, Yuri Milner came, personally contacted us, personally came, talked. We were struck by the fact that he himself came, that is, he really wanted to. There were other funds that came, but the estimates were about 10 times less than Yuri gave us. We had very good friendly relations and all the boards of directors were held very informally, we met in a restaurant, went through the statistics of the site and then we talked about some more philosophical things.”
Durov turned out to be a brilliant marketer, the company rented the most spectacular office in St. Petersburg - the Singer House, on Nevsky. Durov himself built a mysterious image of Neo from the Matrix. And both figuratively and literally, having made several plastic surgeries.
Georgy Lobushkin, employee and then head of the press service of Vkontakte in 2011-2016
“Durov had a position that programmers should be separate, in such a closed world, they should be in a cocoon, the Singer House was a cocoon. This is 15-20 people, employees. This is an absolutely magical atmosphere, some kind of workshop of secrets, a gathering of like-minded people and Durov, their leader, and they all followed him, helped everyone move forward. A sect, yes, a real sect, absolutely. And there are many sectarians right here, and I think that I was like that too. I still don't seem to have let go. That is, if I had the opportunity to return to this sect, I would return and become exactly the same sectarian. But in fact, I did not cease to be one, the sect simply moved. There, for various reasons, well…”
The ridiculous eccentric actions of Neo from Peter alternated with gestures that commanded universal respect.
Pavel Durov, founder of the Vkontakte network
“Wikipedia does a lot for all of us and I think it is right to repay it in the same way. I personally made the decision to donate $1 million to Wikipedia. I hope that Jimmy and his colleagues will approve my decision and accept the donation.
“Before I answer you, I have a question. And how old are you? 27. When I was 27, I didn’t give anyone a million dollars.”
The Vkontakte network grew so rapidly that in a year it was ahead of Odnoklassniki in terms of the number of users.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
We had certain postulates that we did not want to cross, but Vkontakte could. Porn, content theft, Vkontakte made music very quickly, made video sharing.
- “That is, Vkontakte were less picky”?
“Well, I wouldn’t say they were less picky, they faced all the same problems, they were bolder and more mobile.”
Lagging behind young and daring competitors, Odnoklassniki nevertheless retained the loyalty of a more mature, more feminine and more provincial audience. In Runet, the social network has become an inexhaustible object for jokes.
“Every week we read news publics in Odnoklassniki and choose the strangest comments, this is “Class of the people” - another reason not to buy a laptop for my father. Oh, rushing ... Look, fashionable hawks have been brought into our village. Seriously? This shit is also paid"?
Anton Nosik, Runet evangelist
“For people who have lived their lives unsuccessfully and in vain and in adulthood see that they have surrounded themselves with some kind of wrong people, the Odnoklassniki network, as well as Classmates.com, allows you to take an eraser and erase all this random foam. Odnoklassniki, obviously, is not for those for whom Facebook, Vkontakte. Facebook, Vkontakte for those who have everything ahead, and Odnoklassniki for those who have everything there 30 years ago there were last interesting meetings.
In 2008, Popkov's former British employer sued him, accusing him of stealing the source code for Odnoklassniki, as compensation the plaintiff demanded to give the site and all the profits. They managed to fight off the lawsuit, but Popkov was removed from the management of the company.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“The company was headed by another person. Accordingly, at the same time, the same paid access was introduced, which greatly squandered Odnoklassniki in the competition. He ruined the hype. There was such a hype that such a young resource, wow, is developing, you can find pictures there. And suddenly, at some point, another hype went that they were greedy, rowing money, pay for this, pay for that, pay for gifts, pay for access. And that's where it sank."
After rebranding under the leadership of the new CEO Ilya Shirokov, the social network managed to maintain the second place in Russia, still many times ahead of Facebook in terms of audience. Among the fashionable innovations are streams, the best way to see Russia Odnoklassniki without leaving your home.
In 2008, the global financial crisis broke out, which also affected the Runet, in order for the company to continue growing, Milner himself needed a large investor and he found him.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“I talked to almost all representatives of the Forbes list, Russian at that time, to which I had at least some way. And everyone said no, except for one, Mr. Usmanov.”
Alisher Usmanov - founder of UMS Holdings, 118th on the Forbes list.
“But I don’t think he was familiar with this industry at all and there was some kind of process”
"He used a computer"?
“Well, I didn’t see him actively using the computer. But somehow he showed real curiosity and interest, he listened to my arguments and he became first an investor in Mail.ru, and then the first investor in DST Global.”
Milner, together with Usmanov, create the DST Global fund and begin investing in foreign Internet companies. The first investment is the purchase of a little less than 2% of Facebook. This video was taken right after the deal.
“First of all, I congratulate each of you, Mark, you have more money. Yury, you got a part of Facebook, how much exactly, based on the company's valuation of $10 billion?
- "1,96%".
“Plus you will increase the share when you can buy shares on the exchange in a couple of months.”
"Yes, but we'll see how much."
Why did you decide to invest in Facebook?
"Because it's a great company."
“Are you happy with the estimated value of the company at $10 billion?”
- "Absolutely."
“Would you pay more? How much maximum?
“You don’t ask questions like that after a deal, I don’t want to know the answer.”
“Watching how Vkontakte is developing, and also having the opportunity to be an investor in Odnoklassniki, it became clear to us that Facebook is the company that can really make money. But this was not clear to almost all international investors. But it was a successful investment, perhaps one of the most successful in the history of international investments in technology companies, but we do not officially disclose the exact parameters.
In 2012, Facebook entered the IPO, a stake in DST Global, increased to 10%, began to cost billions of dollars, after which investors sold it.
Alisher Usmanov
"I admired Facebook, but I told him arividerchi, you can't earn all the money, you have to let others earn."
“I have a much deeper relationship with the Internet than you do, I don’t use it, I develop it.”
“Are you developing the Internet? Seriously? You are not developing the Internet, you are spoiling it for us.”
After the video battle with Navalny, it is customary to laugh at Usmanov on the Internet, but it was the oligarch's money that helped Milner to conduct a successful IPO of Mail.ru Group on the London Stock Exchange, increasing the company's capitalization by almost a billion dollars.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“What happened in Runet is a unique thing on a global scale. There is only China, where they managed to build their own local Internet, but they used state protectionism to a large extent, but we in the Russian segment did not have any protectionism and nevertheless managed to maintain our leading positions.”
“On the contrary, everything was built without state intervention.”
“Well, at least when I was still participating, that is, until 2010, the Runet developed in general absolutely independently and very competitively, there was absolutely such an ideal competitive environment.”
After Mail.ru Group entered the London stock exchange, Miller sold his stake, transferred powers to Dmitry Grishin and moved with his family to California, where he bought one of the largest and most expensive houses in Silicon Valley. Now Milner is a global investor, he no longer invests in Runet. Milner's first departure from Mail.ru Group was felt by Pavel Durov.
Nikolai Kononov, writer, author of the book "Durov's Code"
“Milner was very tired of the Russian Internet and they formalized with their co-investor Usmanov that all global projects remained with him in one unit, and all Russians fell under Usmanov’s control and at that moment the connection with Mail.ru Group on Vkontakte was lost. Usmanov wrote to them on Vkontakte that now you are one structure, let's communicate somehow, interact, and mail.ru wanted to eat Durov administratively, so that he would obey them, fit into their corporate structure. Durov didn't want that."
Former Vkontakte PR manager Georgy Lobushkin today works at mail.ru, but his soul is still with Durov.
Georgy Lobushkin, employee and then head of the press service of Vkontakte in 2011-2016
“I just came when Pavel Durov posted his middle finger on his Instagram. Of course, we were all in shock, well, it's nice, because to strengthen the position as a leader in the team, this is an absolutely competent step. And after that, he probably pumped Vkontakte even more, as an hr-brand. Durov's reputation has skyrocketed, because there is a small Vkontakte, a small team and some huge holding wants to absorb it. This is absolutely a story of heroism, success, if you can call it that.
- “You personally did not want to personally show him the same thing and say, well, you go”?
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
Look, I think there are just different genres. There is a genre of shocking, and there is a genre of systematic work. This genre is probably not in my DNA, but Pavel does it wonderfully and therefore everyone should do what he is good at.
The troubles did not end there, Durov quarreled with his closest co-founder partners, Milirashvili and Leviev. The co-founders sold their stake to an unfriendly buyer, an unfriendly investor, Ilya Shcherbovich.
Georgy Lobushkin, employee and then head of the press service of Vkontakte in 2011-2016
Then a new era began, an even more powerful, constant attack, media on Vkontakte and Durov. Auditors. Auditors are like bloodhounds. That magic, where outsiders, even journalists, could not be called, people came to the Singer House, sat next to the developers and, in general, with employees, some of whom were not even 18 yet, they were still children, and they behaved like bloodhounds. It seems to me then that maybe emotionally it crippled him a little, everyone could be under suspicion, and when there is distrust, it is very difficult to work. It's already losing team spirit. Probably the main one. One of Durov's main assets.
The head of Vkontakte, Pavel Durov, will be interrogated by investigators in the St. Petersburg TFR department, lawyers confirmed that he was given a summons, we are talking about a high-profile accident in which a traffic inspector was injured.
Soon after the purchase of Shcherbovich's shares, another blow, for allegedly hitting a traffic cop, a criminal case is opened against Durov, the founder of Vkontakte temporarily leaves Russia.
Nikolai Kononov, writer, author of the book "Durov's Code"
“Having entered the capital of Vkontakte, although Durov tried to challenge it, Shcherbovich began to bend his own line very clearly, it was clear that this was connected with the criminal case brought against Durov, they saw in all this the handwriting of Igor Sechin, with whom Shcherbovich was familiar . Durov did not travel to Russia for some time. Thus, he received a clear signal that it was better to somehow realize his Usmanovsky option, take the money, deal with Telegram and no longer know anything about escaping from the cops and about Igor Ivanovich Sechin.
- "It was you who attracted them"?
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of the Vkontakte network
“Well, they actually found us on their own.”
- "Who was behind him, that is, many different ..."?
- “Well, I don’t want to comment on this, that is, I don’t know, we didn’t encounter anything like that, it was not the only fund with which ... The exact motivation is not known, but it’s obvious that after they sold Mail.ru they made money, so I think it was a financial investment.”
Usmanov Alisher Burkhanovich, founder of USM Holding.
The conflict was resolved by Alisher Usmanov, who bought out the shares of Durov and Shcherbovich and thus gained full control over the social network.
Most of the Vkontakte team moved to Moscow to the new office of Mail.ru, two skyscrapers on Leningradsky Prospekt, Durov's nightmare about the complete takeover of the social network by the Mail.ru holding became a reality. Durov himself, with a team of his closest associates, finally left Russia to develop a new business - the Telegram messenger.
- "You were essentially squeezed out of Vkontakte by people associated with the authorities, is that so"?
“Roughly speaking, yes.”
- "Roughly speaking? Why rudely? It's not quite true"?
"I'm more like it's true and it was rude."
Having sold over $100 million worth of shares after Mail.ru's IPO, Igor Motsanyuk left the holding and opened a new gaming company, Game Insight, with his girlfriend Alisa Chumachenko, who succeeded in the growing mobile games market.
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Game Insight
“You can't make games without playing games, because it's part of the profession. I spend, well, at least 2 hours a day playing games. Well, you have to cut yourself of course, I especially love it with Tolik Ropotov, he is the CEO of Game Insight. He is also a fan. And so they sat down and let's drive to stud. Well, of course, a cool job, and a hobby at the same time and development.
Games are a serious matter, Game Insight is one of the largest global companies in Russia. Now nothing prevents you from enjoying the ideal climate and your favorite pastime (in Tenerife).
“Laptop and all. Laptop and mobile phone.
— “That is, you don’t have to sit in an office in Moscow”?
“Well, sometimes you have to show up, people forget your name, you come to the office - you don’t recognize the employees, they don’t know who you are. Yes, it happens. Well, a big company, now how many, more than 600 people work, that's why.
Alexey Krivenkov, after working on various types of business, returned to Mail.ru Group, the company he once founded, only now as a hired manager.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“I thought that I would have some kind of feeling, I would gnaw my elbows every evening and think that oh, it could all be mine, how could I screw it all up and blunt my eyes. But really, absolutely not."
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“Well, that's all we see now - Silicon Valley. Some iconic companies can be seen. The most iconic is ours, of course - Grishin Robotics. Here's Facebook, here's Google, and here's Apple. By the way, my daughter collected this.”
Mail.ru co-founder and chairman of the company's board of directors, Dmitry Grishin, as well as most of the actors in this story, have been spending a lot of time away from their homeland in recent years. In Silicon Valley, not far from Stanford, where he opened the Grishin Robotics Foundation.
“In general, it seems to me that the next 21st century will be about how Internet technologies are combined with the physical world. Here he will be about it. And robots are exactly what brings technology and the physical world together.”
- "There are investments in Russia"?
“No, we have a very cool engineering education, but the ability to create a business from engineering products, it needs to be pumped and developed.”
Welcome back to the Breakthrough Awards, the only ceremony in the universe that makes you smarter.
Yuri Milner, having become one of the most respected venture capital investors in the world, can afford to make childhood dreams come true. Thanks to the Breakthrough award he founded, the entrepreneur managed to make friends with Stephen Hawking, shortly before the death of the great scientist, and launch a joint Starshot project with him, a flight to the stars.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“This is the project that I, one might say, dreamed about since childhood, since I read the book “The Universe. Life. Mind”, which was written by the famous physicist Shklovsky. In a nutshell, I have Scientific American at my fingertips, where the details of this project are described. Mission to Alpha Centauri. Actually, in order to implement this project, we need a fairly powerful source of light that is on the Earth and a kind of sail that will allow the spacecraft to move at a speed of 9-10% of the speed of light.”
Milner has already spent $100 million on his space projects. All this might seem like a sweet eccentricity, if only it was not about Milner, a man who is used to making dreams come true.
"Professor Hawking, you once said, 'I can't move, I'm talking on a computer, but my mind is free, free to explore the universe and ask big questions like if there are other civilizations,' today we join your mission ".
"We are alive, we are endowed with intelligence, we must know."
If we return from outer space to Mail.ru Group, then the company's revenue shows stable growth, but since 2014 the interest of Western investors in Russian IT companies has noticeably weakened. Stock prices have fallen 40% over the past year. The company is run by Boris Dobrodeev, the son of Oleg Dobrodeev, the longtime head of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
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Source: habr.com