Recreating Silicon Valley

admin · Site Admin Joined: 28 Mar 2011 Posts: 3

Dear Team,

in order to jump-start collaboration, I'm posting a small assignment that will benefit both our Russian and American members.

In recent lecture we discussed IP rights in Russia and America. In your opinion,
1.) What is the biggest obstacle to development of business in Russia?
2.) What is the biggest obstacle to development business in America? [This is a harder question, but nonetheless it was still discussed during the lecture]
3.) Will these obstacles impact the development of your project, and if so, what are the ways of overcoming them?

Teams: I'm looking forward to reading your responses. Also, I am reminding you to post here on the forum, as this is the ground for our assessment of your progress in the class. Additionally, it seems that Group 6 has been lagging in communication, at least forum-wise. Thank you.

-Pawel

jaekyun · Joined: 10 Apr 2011 Posts: 2

Dear Team,

Hope everyone had a great weekend and a fresh start to a new week.

Here is my brief opinion on the issues mentioned.

1) What is the biggest obstacle to development of business in Russia?

The biggest obstacle I would say is the mentality of the people. Because Russia has been a controlled economy for numerous years, I think people in general find it hard to break away from a mindset that does not allow for adventures and risks. Russians, as we all know, are very well educated and skilled in areas like math and engineering, but the general lack of interest for entrepreneurship that has dominated the past is still affecting the minds of young people who may find it easier to pursue their dreams in other environments.

2) What is the biggest obstacle to development of business in America?

In contrast to the obstacles to entrepreneurship in Russia, which can be characterized as ones that come from a lack of interest, those in the US come from an abundance of interest. Especially in entrepreneurially-spirited environments like the Silicon Valley, the concept of starting a business is not new at all. Almost everyone thinks about it at least once, and many in fact do start one, and the result - an excess of startups. Many ideas overlap, and the competition makes it hard for startups to survive let alone succeed.

3) Will these obstacles impact the development of your project, and if so, what are the ways of overcoming them?

I don't think these obstacles, at least not the Russian ones, are affecting the spirit of our team. Oleg and our team has been engaging in active communication via email, and it does not seem like Oleg is affected by the general fear of adventure. Since IP2P will be a business based largely on the web, I don't think there are many legal restrictions or physical obstacles that will hamper the execution of such a business. On the contrary, I am somewhat concerned about the uniqueness/viability of this idea. Probably due to the abundance of entrepreneurship, there are already businesses such as figcard (figcard.com) that have ideas similar to those of IP2P. The concept of paying with "reputation" instead of "money" in my opinion is not unique either because if you replace the word reputation with "credit," which is essentially the same thing (in my mind at least), we have the credit card, which has helped people lighten the weight of their wallet for years now. The way to overcome this obstacle will not be easy. We need to make the business plan more unique and attractive so that we can beat the other startups with similar ideas.

Best,
Jae Kyun Hwang

amartinsu13 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011 Posts: 2

1.) What is the biggest obstacle to development of business in Russia?

There are several big obstacles to the development of business in Russia. First, Russia's economy is highly dependent on its natural resources, specifically natural gas and petroleum. It's economy is dependent on the price of oil, and as a result is very volatile.
Also, the government is ruled by oligarchs and is corrupt.
However, most importantly, there is not an entrepreneurial mentality in Russia. As several of our speakers have mentioned, entrepreneurism was prosecuted and not allowed in Soviet Russia. As such, there is not much of an influence from the older generation to take risks and start new companies.

2.) What is the biggest obstacle to development business in America? [This is a harder question, but nonetheless it was still discussed during the lecture]

I'd argue the biggest obstacle to the development of businesses in America is a lack of financial resources. The spirit of entrepreneurism is high in America, versus the lack of this spirit in Russia, and many people can easily come up with ideas of how to improve our world. However, the vast majority of people do not have the monetary backing to start their companies. Of course there are other ways to finance, such as going through VCs, but many people also do not know how to efficiently talk to VCs.

3.) Will these obstacles impact the development of your project, and if so, what are the ways of overcoming them?

While our Russian members have the entrepreneurial spirit, if they decide to work in Russia, it is unclear if they will have trouble navigating the many bureaucratic laws surrounding new companies. Money seems to be the biggest problem with this idea, but if our team is successful hopefully our team can secure VC funding at the end of the quarter.

Cheers,
Andrew Martin

dngo11 · Joined: 04 Apr 2011 Posts: 2

1.) What is the biggest obstacle to development of business in Russia?

I agree with Jack. The biggest obstacle is the mentality that is held by the majority of people. Mindset is definitely contagious. This goes both negative and positive ways. I believe the majority of people in Russia have embraced the mentality of limited and conventional paths. This may be due to the confining property rights and laws that inhibit the spirit of entrepreneurship. Break away from this, break away from limitedness.

2.) What is the biggest obstacle to development business in America? [This is a harder question, but nonetheless it was still discussed during the lecture]

The biggest obstacle in entrepreneurship in America is the array of start-ups. This results in extreme competition and common overlapping of ideas. The overcrowding of start-ups, especially in Silicon Valley makes it extremely hard for entrepreneurs and businesses to succeed. However, the successes are extremely successful as we can tell. Facebook, Google, Yahoo, etc.

3.) Will these obstacles impact the development of your project, and if so, what are the ways of overcoming them?

I don't believe there will be issues, assuming iP2P will be based in America and not Russia. Oleg and Sergei both have the entrepreneurial drive to succeed, as seen in this proposal. They have a vision, and they are going after it. Supplementing the drive they have, we are in silicon valley. We are at Stanford. We also have the entrepreneurial drive--that is why we are in this class. We will help them grow their fire to succeed.
_________________
David Ngo