Every year thousands start-ups are born in Russia. They implement new products and services in the field of information technology.

Many of them are so successful, that could very well take the rightful place in the global market.

This discussion, during which experts will share their experience, give specific recommendations and warn against common mistakes, will be useful for experienced entrepreneurs who set some new and ambitious goals, as well as for beginners who are just planning their first startup.

Moderator: Nikolai Puntikov

President, First Line Software
Editor-in-Chief, Software-Russia.com

Dr. Puntikov is the President of First Line Software, a global company offering broad range of software development and technology enablement services and solutions. Nikolai is a serial entrepreneur and business executive with a proven track record in building successful global organizations. He is also a committed advocate for the development of the Russian innovative ecosystem. In 2010, Nikolai co-founded the Russian Chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures. Currently, he is the Chairman of CEE-SECR, the largest software engineering conference in Russia and Editor-in-chief of analytical portal Software Russia. Dr. Puntikov holds his M.S. degree from the St. Petersburg State University and a Doctorate degree from the Institute of Informatics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Participants

Natalya Kaspersky

CEO, InfoWatch

Graduated from Moscow State Institute of Electronic Engineering with a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics, and has a bachelor’s degree in Business of The UK Open University. Natalya Kaspersky is an active participant of international business community life and actively invests in high-tech companies.

Natalya is a co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, one of the world’s largest antivirus companies, and CEO of InfoWatch Group of Companies, working in the sphere of information security. During her 10-year tenure at Kaspersky Lab Natalya turned a small group of enthusiasts into a world-class international IT company with annual revenues of hundreds millions USD.

Natalya holds multiple awards in Russian and International Business and IT:

• Bronze medalist of “Top-100 most influential Russian women in business” rating.
• “Russian Business Leader of the Year 2012” award honoring her remarkable contribution to the progress of the Russian IT community, according to Horasis, the Global visions community.
• Leader of “Top-1000 highest Russian managers of 2013” in IT according to Kommersant leading Russian business daily and Association of Russian managers.

Dmitry Chikhachev

Managing partner and co-founder, Runa Capital

Dmitry Chikhachev is co-founder and managing partner at Runa Capital, $135M venture fund. His interests span internet, mobile, virtualization and could computing. He led deal execution for NGINX, Jelastic, LinguaLeo, Ecwid, Cellrox, Capptain and other Runa companies. Dmitry is a ‘hands on’ active investor and helps portfolio companies with fundraising, strategy, recruitment and technology.

Dmitry has over 18 years track record as business executive with broad cross-functional experience. Most recently Dmitry was COO/acting CEO of Uvenco Holding, responsible for the stat-up and successful roll-out of the company, which under his leadership has become the leading operator in the field of automated trade in Russian market. Previously Dmitry served as Business Development Director at Ritzio Group, one of the top gaming operators in Eastern Europe, where he headed international business development and managed investment projects – including M&A and greenfield – in Latvia, Romania, Germany, South/Latin America, growing Ritzio international business from zero to $75M.

Dmitry holds MS degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He also has completed an MBA curriculum, graduation with highest honors from the American Institute of Business and Economics.

Dmitri Dubograev

Founder and managing partner, FEMIDA.US

Dmitri I. Dubograev is a founder and managing partner of the law firm FEMIDA.US (a/k/a International Legal Counsels PC) in Alexandria, VA with affiliate offices in Washington, D.C., Paris and Moscow. He focuses on representation of clients in the information technology, software, finance, telecommunication, entertainment and sports industries in cross-border transactions, technology transfers, licensing and corporate structuring and financing.

Mr. Dubograev has extensive experience in practicing corporate law with an emphasis on the legal aspects of start-up ventures, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and technology licensing. He advised numerous international and US companies with respect to complex issues relating to IT ventures in the United States, Europe and Asia and the emerging markets’ challenging regulatory environment. Mr. Dubograev represents numerous Eastern European clients, including IT, software, and e-commerce companies, assisting them in their entry and evolution on the Western markets. He also actively participates in various legal reforms and legal training programs in Eastern Europe under auspices of the US and multinational organizations. Mr. Dubograev’s practice regularly involves comparative review of legal regulations and drafting and negotiating legal documentation in English and Russian. His dual legal education, (law degrees in the United States and the former Soviet Union), practical experience and multilingual capabilities significantly contribute to projects’ effectiveness and efficiency and ensure seamless cross-border knowledge transfer between the civil law and common law environment and diverse cultures.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Dubograev was counsel in the corporate practice group of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P. in Washington, D.C. and earlier, an associate at Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Dubograev has negotiated and documented multiple transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, technology transactions, energy and telecommunication regulations, corporate financing and securities offerings. He has also structured and organized start-up businesses and joint ventures and represented Western and Russian companies in business transactions involving Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Dubograev, under the auspices of the World Bank and USAID sponsored projects, served as legal advisor and consultant to various government agencies of the former Soviet Union. His responsibilities included practical training of private and government attorneys, comprehensive analysis and review of the existing legal framework and advice on the reformation of securities, corporate, property and investment legislation. Mr. Dubograev has been directly involved in drafting corporate and securities laws and regulations.

Mr. Dubograev has published several articles on European Community regulations and US and Russian corporate law issues, and he has been invited to give presentations at numerous conferences of the software industry. Mr. Dubograev received his degree in law with excellence from Belarussian State University in 1991 and his J.D. from Washington and Lee University in 1994. He is admitted to the District of Columbia and Virginia Bars.

Илья Антипов

Co-founder, RIS Ventures

Co-founder and director at TransDecisions Inc, Tekama, RIS Ventures and B usiness incubator Ingria. C onsultant of software development processes in companies: Starsoft-Exigen, Epam-Vdi, Open Technologies, Lanit-Tercom, Ascon, NetCracker, etc. Ilya has g raduated from Carnegie Mellon University and also attended executive programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of California (Berkeley).

Vlad Pavlov

CEO, rollApp Inc.

Vlad Pavlov is the founder and CEO of rollApp Inc., which is his third startup.

Vlad is a serial entrepreneur and global high-tech executive who previously served on CxO/Director positions for a wide range of companies from seed-stage startups to Intel and Microsoft, in Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the US. His experience includes managing market-leading products ranging from browser plug-ins to compilers and FDA-approved clinical information systems. A frequent speaker at scientific and industrial conferences, he has authored major publications on computer science and software engineering (in 2006 was included into ACM Top-10 list). Vlad is a Senior IEEE member, founder and ex-Chairman of the Ukrainian ACM Chapter, Chair-Emeritus at CEE-SECR, his biography is published in Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World.

Alexey Polunin

Academic Initiative Leader, IBM

Alexey Polunin is Academic Initiative Leader in IBM East Europe/Asia.

He is responsible for skills development in IBM software and technologies among university’s professors, students, and post-graduate students. He works on launching of new educational programs jointly with professors of leading universities in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia. Focus areas are business-analytics, enterprise architecture, Big Data, cyber-security, cloud computing, software engineering, mobile applications.

Also, Alexey takes part in execution of the IBM Global Entrepreneur program designed for startups which delivery their projects in IT sphere. He involved into working group that organizes IBM SmartCamp event addressed to expansion of business-expertise of technological startups.

Alexey graduated Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics in 2002. He has degree in automated systems of information processing and control.

Alexey is married and has two children.