What online services are missing? What services or products are you missing on our market? – But office employees already know by heart the business lunch menus of nearby establishments

The founder of the Russian Ventures fund, Evgeny Gordeev, is known for his project of social buttons Pluso and his active life on Facebook. He publishes different versions of the origin of Dmitry Peskov’s watches, tests the strength of Russian startups and reasons about the madness of entrepreneurs. Having sold social network"Sosedi.ru" to the Moscow government, he concentrated on the development of the application for finding stylists Luuk and a new service for those who would like to adopt a dog during their vacation. The Village spoke with the investor about his projects, the new economy and the future of Russian companies.

Dog service

- Your new project is the Dogsy service. How did you come up with it?

There are several analogues on the American and European markets. We thought that for Moscow and St. Petersburg this could be a convenient service that allows you to avoid stress when you go on vacation and have no one to leave your dog with. Existing hotels for dogs leave much to be desired, especially in terms of service level. In addition, the prices there are exorbitant: 1,500–3,000 rubles per day. With us, each dogsitter sets his own price, depending on his specialization. On average – 300–1,000 rubles per day. Some people leave their dogs with us for a month and a half when they go on a business trip. It turns out 25 thousand rubles per contract, and for a long period they will give a discount. The advantage of the service is a personal approach: you know the sitter, you have his contacts, you can ask him to send a photo.

- Is this an Airbnb for dogs?

Absolutely. We launched in May without any big announcements. We do not advertise anywhere. For now we work only in Moscow, and we have 500 sitters - in each district there are approximately two people to whom you can bring your dog. The monthly volume of orders is currently in the hundreds, but when we move to 1–10 thousand orders per month, it will be possible to select sitters by rating.

- Do you carry out some kind of selection of dog sitters?

Of course, everyone is interviewed, personal data is collected, and we encourage them to talk about their experience with dogs in human language. A person who loves dogs can adopt one or two dogs and receive a thousand rubles of additional income per day. It is clear that at some point there will be a rush for the right to become a dog sitter and gain ratings on specific breeds.

- The project was launched by the Russian Venture fund itself?

Yes, we got together, saw the potential - and moved forward. We have money, we come up with it ourselves and invest it ourselves. Nowadays, many successful entrepreneurs are opening laboratories where they can apply their experience to start projects. They were opened by the co-founders of Uber, Zinga and other companies. When a startup comes, you have to teach him a lot and give him money. But in modern world all the ideas are so primitive that you can sit down with your team and do it.

For hardcore girls

- So the model when a daring startup comes to a smart investor for money no longer works?

No. In the classical model, investors are people who came from the stock market. The fund works at 2% per year of the investment amount. If the startup is successful and after seven years it is sold for $200 million, the net proceeds from the deal are $100 million, of which the fund receives 20%. Our company operates as a laboratory. If someone comes with great ideas, we will invest. We often do this: we enter at the seed level, invest less than half a million dollars, because we know how, by investing 200 thousand dollars, in a year we can turn a company into a project with a capitalization of two or three million, when we can prepare an exit.

- What solutions did you have?

- Pluso?

These are social buttons, the project is self-sustaining, it has global potential. Now we are seventh in the world, we need to break into the top five, but this is a matter of 10-15 years. This is a fundamental project. In Russia it is used by 400 thousand sites, 20 million users per day. We can bring it to billions of dollars, in ten years we can bring its capitalization to billions, but this is a marathon.

- How does the fund make money?

We have advertising networks, a children's clothing store Moms.ru, something else, I don’t remember... In total, there are about ten projects in the active phase. Over the past five years, things have been like this: two or three projects generate profit, we have exited three, and several are in the development and launch stage. For example, the application for finding stylists Luuk does not generate profit, but the increase in orders is 50–60% per month. Now there are all beauty salons in Moscow with ratings, photos, prices and reviews.

- But there are recommendation services like Flamp, which allow you to find not only a beauty salon.

The difference is that there is a supermarket with two types of coffee and a Nespresso boutique, where everything is about coffee. People who are immersed in the topic and often go to salons can download our application.

- But they go to their masters.

This is a common misconception. If a company can retain 80% of its customers, it is a super investment. But that's not true. In any salon, 50% of clients come from the street. Not everyone goes to the same salon, people tend to experiment, sometimes you need to go to the nearest salon or find one in another area. I test everything on myself. Yesterday I called a girl into the office who did my manicure in 50 minutes, and I paid 1,500 rubles. I recently found Chop-Chop on the map, decided to go, I saw: a haircut costs 1,700 rubles - not bad... Let's check the phone ( Calls on the phone.). We collected a database of 50 people, they called salons for several months.

We have been working on the project for a year and a half and are surprised: in Moscow there are more beauty salons than restaurants - why are they talked about less? After all, people rarely go to restaurants, girls go often, but they don’t pay for themselves. At the same time, in the salons they pay themselves - this is an investment. If we take the hardcore version, a girl needs a salon once a week: manicure, solarium, cosmetologist, hairstyle. She goes there 50 times a year. On average, she spends, for example, a thousand rubles, which is 50 thousand a year. How many such girls are there in Moscow? Even if it’s 300 thousand, that means the market for services only for such hardcore girls is 15 billion rubles. Taking into account our commission, ours is 3 billion rubles.

What Moscow doesn't have

- What services is Moscow currently lacking?

Very many. I can come up with a hundred projects in a day, if I set myself a goal. Name any area of ​​life, I will tell you what you can do.

- Shopping.

To digitize all the clothing of offline stores will cost a penny. A team comes to the store and digitizes all the clothes in a day - we have at most a thousand main stores. Then customers can choose a product, come to the store, show a coupon for a 5% discount.

- Restaurants.

There you have to wait for an order all the time - it’s not that difficult to digitize restaurant menus so that using the app you can make a pre-order with a linked credit card, and then come, sit at a table and eat right away or take the food with you. This is great for restaurants; customers won’t occupy tables while waiting for food.

In addition, the city is full of business lunches for 200–300 rubles. You can make a guide only for business lunches.

“But office employees already know by heart the business lunch menus of nearby establishments.

It's an illusion. When we started making Luuk, we didn’t expect that there would be so many salons around us. People think they know everything, but establishments are opening all the time.

You can also deliver business lunches to the office if you order many portions at once. Nowadays, restaurants have delivery services, but they transport lunch across the entire city. It would be possible to hire a local courier who would deliver food to surrounding business centers.

- What can be done for home and everyday life?

I think the biggest need is a system for selecting household staff: nannies, cleaners, and the like. There must be some service that selects permanent assistants.

New economy and “Cheburashka”

- Don’t you think that the rage of startupers has noticeably subsided?

I think that a certain flair that the children were inflating has gone away: easy money and so on. But this is a new economy. The CEO of Cisco recently said that in 10 years, 40% of businesses that cannot adapt to new conditions will die. I have been observing the rat race that exists in the startup business since 1995. Survived several Russian and American booms. In the late '90s, everyone hoped to make a $10 million company and serve a million customers. In the 2000s, everything was done by social networks with 10 million users. New startups will reach a huge audience. Airbnb is the largest hotel chain without rooms, Alibaba is the largest supermarket without goods, Uber is a taxi network without taxis...

- And she has problems now.

That's what always happens when you take business away from the old economy and its lobbyists. This is a cool model when you do nothing, act as an intermediary and earn money. It is important who has the first screen, who has the attention of the audience.

The biggest startups right now are Uber, Xiaomi and Palantir, Peter Thiel's big data analytics engine. The most successful investment in the history of the market is Instagram. It was bought for a billion, and now it is worth 45 billion dollars. WhatsApp is the most expensive startup purchase and has huge potential.

- How does this relate to Russia?

We are the largest country in Europe in terms of capitalization of Internet companies. We have Kaspersky Lab, Yandex and so on. Our underdevelopment in certain areas of the economy helps us, because we will not take a step forward, but a leap.

- For example?

Russia will be able to complete the healthcare system that Obama has been building for eight years in a couple of years - digitize everything. Google and Musk want to launch satellite Internet. And Roscosmos says that it can easily do this. Everyone laughed at the alternative network “Cheburashka”, but the idea is sound: if the Internet is cut off in Europe, it will be possible to maintain communication here.

- But many Internet entrepreneurs are now leaving.

I have experienced many crises and I believe that when there is a crisis, it unique opportunity earn money. If you are so weak that you cannot feed yourself, go where the sun shines and bananas fall on your head. The greatest fortunes were created during the crisis. Look at Galitsky’s “Magnit” - it’s taking off.

- What about you?

We now have a backlog, we are working on several projects. Now it’s more difficult to attract money, but when the boom begins... We did a study for the presidential administration and calculated that in ten years the Internet industry will become second in terms of taxes. The country must take steps towards Internet entrepreneurs so that they feel that it is profitable for them to conduct Internet business around the world through Russia. You have great specialists, a comfortable tax environment (I’m talking about the future now), protected intellectual property and the ability to take out a loan against it. And you understand that you don’t need to go. Now they are going to America to trade with the whole world. You can create a free economic zone: if you want to trade to the whole world, go to Kazan and sell stickers on Instagram from there.

Photo: Shutterstock.com (cover), Timur Anikeev (1)

The economic crisis forces companies to rebuild and live in a new way. Changes, even negative ones, give a chance to look around and feel for someone Right way development, and for others to find their “gold mine”. We invite readers of the magazine and visitors to the website www.mybiz.ru to participate in our discussion, which will help young entrepreneurs find ideas for developing their own business.

Dmitry Agarunov:

I personally missed the delivery of inexpensive simple food to the office - such as “proper” pasta, noodles, kosher food. The delivery speed of what was available was unacceptably slow. There was a lack of corporate travel services, one where the manager knows the needs of our company and offers a very narrow selection focused on our needs.

There was a lack of delivery and online payment for everyday goods at discounted prices. (“Platypus,” unfortunately, constantly confuses orders.) There is a great need for car, motorcycle and scooter rentals on terms hourly pay, hourly driver. In Moscow there is not enough parking or “valet” parking, and there are no inexpensive simple fitness clubs.

There is a need for vegetable stores, simple self-service vegetable stores. Supermarkets nowhere in the world manage to sell fresh fruits and vegetables well. Storage is short, in the evening you need to reset prices for fading ones, etc.

Site visitor:

There weren't enough repair tickets. So that in the event of a breakdown, brave guys will come and instead of evacuating to the service (and at night, as a rule, not only does it not work, but there is no place to leave the motorcycle nearby until the morning) the breakdown moderate severity liquidated on the spot. Let's say we called an electrician quickly or repaired a burnt-out muffler. You can’t even carry a tool with you (a candle holder + a screwdriver, it doesn’t fit anymore). And there is also a tire service in the car (nowadays, in case of even a serious tire cut, you need to take the motorcycle on a tow truck to a service station).

Motorcycle parking is bad; you have to look not so much for a hole near the sidewalk, but for a hole with a nearby pole so that you can chain your motorcycle to it. The solution is L-shaped structures made of pipes at intervals of half a meter, installed near the roadway (I have seen this many times in Europe). There are not enough normal services!

Site visitor:

Vending machines selling metro tickets. A telephone helpline that answers any questions. There is one in Latvia, where I found out the height of Kilimanjaro, the time of dawn in Issyk-Kul and how to get to such and such a street. Delivery of products I bought at the supermarket to my home.

Site visitor:

What services would you like:

1. Convenient operation of sites where you order something: the interface is terrible and inconvenient in most cases.

2. Purchasing football tickets via the Internet. Traveling from one end of Moscow to Luzhniki to stand in line for an hour and a half in November sucks. You can only buy tickets for top matches (national team, European cups) from speculators, and again you have to go to the stadium. Vicious circle.

3. Convenient small universal sports grounds throughout Moscow: so you can go out, pick up a ball and play with children, friends, etc.

4. Inexpensive bicycle rental, like in Paris.

5. A normal, convenient, reliable system for online payment and delivery of all sorts of things + payment (without charging interest) for all kinds of services: from utilities to others.

6. Chains of children's cafes: everything is just for children - menu, entertainment, etc.

7. Loyalty systems for football fans: a card that would give various discounts in sports equipment stores, on subscriptions to Total Football magazine, on tickets and season tickets for matches at stadiums in other cities.

Comments:

When: 2008-12-19 14:29:41

services that are missing

I miss the delivery of Lenten food to the office during Orthodox fasts, I lack a garage for bicycles, a place to store them outside the apartment, especially in winter...

There is not enough vegetarian fast food. In general, a vegetarian in Russia feels quite uncomfortable when he wants to eat out. I know one vegetarian restaurant in Moscow, they say there are a couple more, but it’s still rare, and I’m not ready to go somewhere far away on my lunch break. Of course, it cannot be said that there is absolutely no suitable food - for example, there is “Kroshka Potato”, in Chinese food stalls you can find fried rice and noodles with vegetables, spring rolls, etc. But it is impossible to eat all this day after day. Restaurants that offer business lunches will usually not offer you a vegetarian version of the business lunch. And this despite the fact that such food is cheaper - it should be profitable for restaurateurs. In England, according to statistics, 5% of the population consider themselves vegetarians. And every fast food restaurant has a vegetarian alternative. McDonald's has a vegetarian cheeseburger, Burger King has a Veggie Whopper, even KFC, which specializes in chicken, has a chicken-flavored vegetarian "substitute"! I also wonder why there are so few Indian restaurants (and Indian fast foods) in Moscow, because Indian food is so delicious! In Europe and the States they are everywhere and are very popular. Dishes such as thali, dosa, idli, malai kofta, palak paneer are very easy to prepare (the main thing is to have the right spices plus a little skill), made from cheap ingredients, and at the same time very tasty. But for some reason they don't make them here. I think it's a huge untapped market. If such points appear, shawarma and hot dogs will immediately go to rest. Especially during a crisis, it is important for people to have some positive stimuli for their taste buds

Hello. You are not entirely right about Indian restaurants, or rather their abundance abroad. I live in the USA, specifically in New York. This cuisine is not in great demand here and most Indian restaurants eke out a miserable existence. I declare responsibly. If you have the desire and finances to start a business, concentrate on the Internet - the field is unplowed there. Good luck.

There are not enough natural, eco-friendly, soul-made body care products: soaps, shampoos, creams, etc. As a guideline to follow, you can take the products of Lush and The Body Shop, which are pleasant to hold in your hands, smell, and smear on yourself... But in Russia these brands are very expensive and are accessible to few. In other countries, there are small local firms (private, family-owned) that make products just as good, but sell only limited editions on the domestic market. I don’t know anyone like that in Russia.

I think all office workers (who work primarily with text and spreadsheets) are missing products that use e-ink technology. Nowadays they mainly produce devices for reading books (Kindle, Sony Reader), but I would like to buy an e-ink monitor or laptop. This technology still has many disadvantages (monochrome image, low refresh rate), it is difficult to compete with LCD, but for long-term work with text information it is very good - the eyes do not get tired.

There are not enough affordable and quality women of easy sex who are able to come to the office at lunch and have a variety of sex. Those “girls” who come are either impenetrably illiterate, or scary, or disgustingly mercantile!

I look at the products on Amazon.com and lick my lips. What you can buy on Amazon for $85, in Russian online stores costs from 6,500 rubles. The product, moreover, made in China. Residents of the Russian Federation can buy books and CDs on Amazon, for example, but not electronics and other goods (this is their policy). Delivery to the Russian Federation is quite expensive, parcels take a long time, they are not guaranteed to arrive, and you also have to pay tax upon receipt. I don’t understand what’s missing. Either a Russian Amazon with a similar range and prices (apparently, this is still a long wait), or a reliable intermediary who will deliver purchases from there to Russia, or, perhaps, just normal importers who will offer the same goods in the Russian Federation at adequate prices, and not three times overpriced?

Alexey, I live in the USA, specifically in New York. and I want to upset you a little about Amazon.com: there’s no need to lick your lips too much about the quality, in any case, because 95% of the goods sold there are made in China. The price is really lower. I can help with delivery, because... I have my own transport business, as well as clients in Russia. In terms of timing, I can only say that it really takes 2-3 weeks. My contact information: phone in N.Y.1 718 373 7447, e-mail: [email protected] Vladimir.

This is a surprise for me - sauces (ketchups, etc.) and seasonings (pepper, etc.) are not made from beef a priori. Anastasia, share your secret - where you found spices from meat - this is really rare in Moscow. And the products for preparing vegetarian food... where did you look for them (and couldn’t find them) - in the meat department or what?

A person's upbringing can be judged by how he behaves in an argument...:) I apologize, I forgot to indicate the city where it is difficult to find vegetarian restaurants and cafes - Tyumen. There are very few high-quality seasonings, for example Indian ones, and what is sold as a subtype of seasonings is actually flavored husks (I’m not talking about all seasonings, sometimes there are lesser quality ones). Indian seasonings vary significantly in quality. In stores and supermarkets you can buy fruits and vegetables, it is difficult to find substitutes for milk, eggs and products such as soy, almond, rice milk, etc. And you, Sergan, read the ingredients of your ketchups and some seasonings more carefully, maybe you will see something interesting ?!))))))))))

For reference: Vegetarians do not eat meat, poultry, fish or seafood of animal origin. Dairy products and eggs are ignored by only a part of vegetarians - vegans. ABOUT! I'm reading. Is ketchup made from meat? No - FOR meat. Read more carefully for yourself. Summary: Either clearly state your affiliation, or don't write nonsense.

Somehow I doubt that you are reading where you should))..You should read not the name, but the composition))) E120 (from cochineal beetles) E542 (phosphorus from bones) E407 from spinal cord cows E471 are extracts of animal fats E1000 Cholic acid - From beef (bile). Casein and caseinates - From protein cow's milk. Gelatin - From animal bones, mainly from pork after the increasing incidence of mad cow disease. etc.

Anastasia, normal vegetarians do not eat meat and fish, and their choice is guided by certain considerations, often either religious, or in protest against violence and eating their own kind. Which category do you belong to? By the way, read the composition cosmetics. I strongly advise you not to use cosmetics, almost all of them consist of animal fats! By the way, what do you wash with? I hope you don't use soap? or shower gel? =)

I miss restaurants with different cuisines worlds in which there would be rooms for children if you came with children (for example game rooms), a designated special place for animals where they will be fed and looked after.

There is no need for elite ones, give us ordinary gardens, not for crazy money. Commercial ones today cost up to $400-700, but no one is building municipal ones. So there are queues for kindergarten and a bunch of parents who have nowhere to put their child. They agree to pay money, but reasonable money. The very opening of a business with a kindergarten is associated with such problems that it is scary to undertake it. For example, such a requirement as that the windows are private kindergarten should go to opposite sides of the house. I agree that safety is more important, but first we need to at least provide places for children, because in this context this task is a higher priority than safety.

Hmm... I have a feeling that what is not being said here is not what is missing, but New Year's wishes are being voiced - there are so many unrealistic requirements for business. Okay, then here's my New Year's wish: I want flying cars to enter the world market. They invented it, but didn’t make it available to the mass consumer. The cost of even the simplest models is no less than 80 thousand dollars. And it should be 10 thousand. Or five - even better I also want the screen small lung The mobile phone was large, wide and did not spoil the eyes. At least make it foldable or something :) They said well about business lunches... I also want to eat cheap, tasty and healthy

It seems to me that in our time there is a problem with organizing leisure time. After a hard day at work, I would like to call somewhere and name the priority direction and receive information in style. Let's say about concerts, exhibitions, or restaurants with a specific cuisine. And the correct selection of information center operators is very important, they must be psychologists in order to guess the client's mood as much as possible. You can attach to the case the booking and delivery of tickets, a limousine - taxi service for delivering the client to the venue leisure or delivery of location to the client

In my opinion, you simply don’t know how to search, or you don’t need leisure, but a person to save you from loneliness. The Internet is full of resources where you can find out what is where and when. leisure.com is one of them, for example. For those who don’t know how to use the Internet, it’s time to either learn or live with dinosaurs.

I don’t know how it is everywhere, but in the outback there are not enough authorized workshops of various kinds. Neither your mobile phone, nor your saw or kettle can be repaired promptly, under warranty. Within the time period specified by the Health Protection Regulations... Yes, it’s just normal to repair something, as if the money is no one’s business Not needed!!!

Hello. Today I will tell you about the kind and smart Internet. Spoiler: this doesn’t exist in Russia.

Unfortunately, I fail again (who exclaimed: “Well, get out of here!” - I would have given you a prize, but they ran out). But first of all it's great way to attract your attention, secondly - I am writing this purely out of love. In our country there are a lot of kind, smart, beautiful and open people; I wish there were more places on the local internet for them to gather and things for them to do.

The things that I will now list are, in my opinion, very difficult to find in Russian. There is simply nothing of this on the Russian-language Internet. If this is not so, tell me about it in the comments, I will admit that I was wrong and quit without experiencing the shame.

“I made a mistake on the Internet
and must be punished"

It may be surprising to some, but people all over the world use the Internet for wonderful things: to support each other, educate themselves, open borders and make funny but good-natured jokes. Personally, this is the only reason I still spend time here, and did not go to live in the forest in a tent.

Let's start with YouTube: this seems to be a popular thing in Russia now, right? Who are your favorite video bloggers? The guy who cruelly mocks viral videos? Or one that is very much swears and mocks video games? Or some inarticulate teenager? Sorry, but you're watching YouTube wrong.

I will share with you one and only channel: PBS Idea Channel. It's hosted by a charming young man named Mike Runietta (he has something to do with PBS), and the video is the best thing you can watch today. Runietta raises witty cultural questions and looks at things around us from an unexpected angle: from pop culture to Internet memes and, for example, IKEA furniture. Most importantly, Runyetta is genuinely interested in the opinions of his viewers. In each video he encourages people to leave comments, and in the next he devotes an entire segment to them. Runietta encourages people to debate and that is priceless. Do you know how much smarter you become by participating neutrally and well in a discussion? By 1%. Proven. Do this 100 times - and you will be a different person, with a different brain.

“Sorry, brain, you've gotten too big. We will have to
breake down"

But that's not all. One good YouTube channel is not proof that somewhere out there there is a kind and smart Internet!

As you might guess, I love conversations. This is the main quality of the Internet: there is feedback, no one says anything into emptiness. User-generated content inspired people in the mid-2000s, but the West has learned to handle it now. My favorite example is io9. Site about science, technology and pop culture (about half LAM). They write brilliantly on their topics, maintaining the light style of the publishing house Gawker Media, to which they belong, but at the same time diving deeply into the material.

But the main thing is that io9 has an amazing community. The authors constantly communicate with readers, ask them questions and encourage them to share their opinions. And there are no trolls on io9. No stupid, useless comments. Each person adds something to the discussion. Recently, however, they introduced pre-moderation of comments, but not because everything was bad, but because there was a lot of dirt on other Gawker Media sites (see, I don't deny that on English language she exists!), so they changed the comment system on all sites.

io9 even has . Once a month, everyone reads one book together and then discusses it in the comments. I participated once: these were the best two comments I have left in my life.

In general, io9 successfully prove that on the Internet you can not only exchange monosyllabic sentences and get personal.

"No! Too polite a discussion! This is not why I open the Internet."

On the English-speaking Internet, people know how to help each other. You've probably heard about Reddit. If you suddenly just crawled out of the cave in which you spent the last 15 years (hey! Watch The Avengers), then know: this is something like a colossal forum, in which there are thematic subsections dedicated to everything. Yes, there are a lot of unpleasant things on Reddit - they also discuss photos of naked celebrities and mock people, but in many Reddit threads they really like to answer people and help them. I turn to Reddit all the time when I need to figure something out. And they help me all the time. One single time I was rude - and then the person was reprimanded that I simply asked for help and there was no point in mocking me.

And the last thing: on the English-speaking Internet they know how to make good jokes. Not just without insulting anyone, but rather in a kind, positive and encouraging way. The key difference between the Russian YouTube channel +100500 and English equivalent Equals Three can be formulated exactly like this: in the first show, the host viciously mocks people who seem wretched to him, in the second, he often sincerely admires people. "Today Gruk will try
laugh with the meat
and not just hit him"

Why am I writing all this? I just wanted to show the Internet where I live,- unfortunately, it exists in English. I’m not saying that you can’t be on the Russian-language Internet at all, but I don’t have enough goodness and intelligence on it. And I want to make it better. I want a smart YouTube channel; I want a site where people discuss books with each other and don’t resort to insults; I want a community with millions of visitors, where they are always ready to help you; and I want internet memes that aren't just based on evil banter and corruption.

It seems to me that we at LAM are trying to create such an Internet, but, of course, we need to try better. Think, maybe you personally are capable of changing something?! We need to fight less and love more. Or in the words of Skeletor: today I eliminate my rivals by making them my friends.