Two thoughts struck me as I waffled (which I do very convincingly):
How many truly entrepreneurial Russian companies are there across all sectors. The random list below is a start, please add if you think I have missed any.
I am not sure what the objective criteria for success are. Here are some random thoughts;
- I am going to create an arbitrary floor of a sale price or ongoing value of at least $100mn
- Any company built on the base of a privatized Soviet asset is disqualified.
- As is any business which built itself on government contracts - I think this disqualifies
- IBS,
- all system integrators
- outdoor advertising
- all natural resource companies (?),
- all real estate businesses (but not brokerages)
Here's the list:
- ABBYY
- STS/CTC Media
- TV3
- 36.6
- InterMark
- Kalina
- Pyatorchka (sp?)
- Sedmoi Kontinent
- Which Radio businesses?
- A4 Vision?
- SW Soft
- Yandex
- Ozon (does it qualify on the valuation front on a stand alone basis?)
- The two Nizhny Novogorod mobile outsourcers
- EPAM Systems
- Luxoft (but not IBS)
- actually more than I thought.
The second idea that struck me as I waffled was that in the technology / tech services sphere that a necessary (but not sufficient) criteria for success was; a Russian who had spent considerable time doing business outside Russia or a westerner who could act as an “translator” between western sales/management teams and Russian tech teams. Exceptions which prove the rule - SW Soft and ABBYY.
Your thoughts are requested.
[composed and posted with ecto]
Technorati Tags: entrepreneur, Russia
1 comment:
Glad to know I'm not the only person who can waffle (sometimes, I might even be convincing).
And, since you specifically requested comments ...
1) I'm not really qualified (ok, not AT ALL qualified) to speak to the entrepreneurial nature of individual Russian companies, since I don't really know any that well.
2) Your criteria seem pretty good. I don't know about the US$100mn cutoff, only because it's certainly possible, in the US, to have a successful entrepreneurial tech company worth far less than that ("successful" = in operation for several years, with revenues greater than expenditures and prospect for future growth/stability).
So I guess there's another couple of criteria for success that I'd add:
a) "Revenue-positive cash flow", as the MBAs like to say
b) Been around for a few years (say, 5-10)
Voila -- comments!
Yours,
twicker
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