Rhythm: Story of a Soviet startup (2015)
yansh.github.io
yansh.github.io
We see so little innovation coming out of that country nowadays, except for a few fields, that I assume that the atmosphere is pretty bad, like lots of bribes to pay, and if you really get anywhere, a corrupt businessman with political connections will get the courts to take your enterprise away and give it to him. You certainly don't see ambitious techies from other countries flocking to Russia, like they do with the US. Am I reading things right?
Atmosphere is bad mainly for internal projects which we don't see much of, anymore.
And beyond that, there is lots of technological innovation going in the US and other countries, but not Russia, even before the recession. It seems to me this must be due to fundamental problems like the ones I described.
Most of those alive and kicking today, holding against megacorps' offerings.
You can say most of those are copycats of preexisting ideas, but face it, people have copycat needs that still need to be fulfilled. People don't fall for uniqueness alone.
What's technological innovation? Is maps.me one? Because it's a game changer isn't it?
Even those who claim to be anti-Soviet express all the same thinking patterns.
WRT the article: The real start-upers bartered western PCs (faxes, etc) for raw materials, quickly got a good capital and were able to start serious enterprises. You could get a train car of aluminium for a fax machine, since having one was A Thing for late soviet bureaucrats and they had aluminium to spare.
I think Volozh did something like that before he decided to start Yandex.