What associations come to your mind when you hear "Belarus"? Purely, good roads, potatoes, stability, the last dictatorship of Europe - surely something from this list. And what about "startups"? I will now explain.
Since Soviet times in Belarus, everything is fine with a hard-core business - there are schools, and cadres, and production. With the software is also not bad: in 1993, EPAM appeared - the forge of developers of all stripes. Following her - IBA, Belhard, Itransition and others like them.
For many years this IT-machine worked exclusively for outsourcing, and it's natural: its market is small, and our developer for the western customer manages (though, all the less) cheaper than the local one. Gradually began to arise "food outbreaks". Companies that sawed the code for outsourcing began to make their software, applications and services.
You probably heard about the "tanks". They are made by Wargaming, a company from Minsk. Its founder Victor Kisly - the first Belarusian (official) dollar billionaire. Well, as the Belarusian - lives in Cyprus, the company headquarters is also there.
From the success of the "soft" companies are not lagged behind "hard": the products "Adani", "Regula", "Polimaster" know, without exaggeration, all over the world. If you have not heard about these companies, do not write in the comments "the bullshit heard!", But simply google it.
But this post is not about the history of Belarusian IT, it's about the prospects of the industry as a whole and start-ups in particular.
Although there are no greenhouse conditions for the growth of start-ups in Belarus, they are still growing. You can say, not thanks, but in spite of. Well, judge for yourself. We do not have venture funds, in fact, there are few business angels, and the conditions for their work leave much to be desired. And this despite the fact that the annual capacity of the Belarusian venture market is estimated at $ 100 million. Yes, in Israel such money can be managed by one fund. But they are already a start-up nation, but we are not yet.
But we still have the principle of subsidiary liability. An investor, investing money in a startup, by law becomes his co-founder, and in the event of bankruptcy of the company (which is 9 cases and 10) is responsible for this. Well, if only material.
Imagine, yes? The person has invested his money -> the startup has burned out -> the investor lost his investment and ... must answer for the bankruptcy of the company to the full extent of the law.
Convertible loan? No, did not hear.
But it is not all that bad! Companies are created and are developing. Someone goes abroad and works there. Someone buys whales (not Golos) of the industry. In 2016, the Belarusian startup MSQRD bought Facebook. The guys called Zuckerberg, in short.
And this year startup AIMatter bought Google. And this deal is noteworthy - the company was not redeemed to close, did not integrate into Google's unknown processes to forget. The company's headquarters and developers stayed in Minsk, and already under the patronage of Google will continue to conjure with neural networks and technology of computer vision for smartphones.
Here Yuri Melnicek, the founder of AIMatter, tries on effects from his application Fabby, a photo from his Facebook page:
Perhaps you are using the Maps.me application? His same Yuri Melnychek did. The application is sooo useful and convenient, I recommend!
Girls, there is an excellent app for women's health - Flo. Leading in its category in the US. Yes, also ours.
Adherents of the crypt, you check out the Belarusian crypto-cash payment terminal CopPay. Recently the company successfully conducted ICO.
Do you want to transfer the workflow online? PandaDoc's help!
One Soil Service threatens to make a revolution in agriculture with the help of neural networks, drones and computer vision. And they will do it!
And many more great projects are waiting for success: robotic manipulators, the service of creating the viral content, AI-consultant for surgeons, certification on the block, AR-clothes for online games, sensors-scanners of the sounds of the heart and lungs, etc.
What are the prerequisites for success?
Yes, and besides mentioned "historical" reasons there are three more.
The first is the cause of the scale
As I said, our domestic market is small, and this makes (make, helps) startups, immediately oriented to the global market. We can not afford to do exclusively Belarusian start-ups, as it can, for example, Russia. The capacity of the market and the number of potential customers we have much less.
Yes, you can do local projects. For example, an online bulletin board. Or a network of cheburechnyh. All cool, these are useful services, but they are not start-ups.
At the heart of the startup is an original idea or a fundamental improvement of the existing one. It offers a new product or business model. It is focused on growth, scaling and exit.
The second is the reason for moving
Companies and individuals who are not indifferent to the industry invest their time and energy in its growth. For 4 years, the Imaguru start-hub has been holding hackathons, mitapes and conferences with unique speakers for Belarus. He also carries out start-up tours for Slush (Helsinki), Latitude59 (Tallinn), Login (Vilnius).
For a year, the AID Venture venture capital industry development program has been working. This is a cool multipolar engine that shakes, introduces people and technologies, teaches and inspires.
Imaguru conducts its blockade-mitapas Cyber•Fund, operates a blockade academy. And it's very cool. Even if you want to — do not get bored.
The third is the cause of hope
The last six months, the entire Belarusian IT-get-together and sympathizers with a sinking heart are waiting for the new decree of the President on HTP (High-Tech Park). The document is conditionally called so, but it is expected that it will present unprecedented privileges not only for OEMs, but for the whole IT sector.
In the meantime, we are chewing pancakes and we see how soon the drones will travel along the Belarusian roads, cryptomas will appear in the shops, and the business will switch to smart contracts. Venture capital, tools of English law and IT-spring will come to the country. Or not.
Thank you!