Page 36 - Журнал «Русский Берег» #16-2023

ПЕРСОНА | PERSON RUSSIAN COAST | № 2/16 2023

on, rather, crippled these people more, and they did not complain about the narrowing of the horizon, but this
dare to enter other markets. Because the overall energy happened.
level dropped a lot. And this is a very uncomfortable and R.C.: That is, perhaps so, people live in their
energy-consuming act to enter other markets. And if access field of activity and do not think beyond...
to some European markets, where they mainly went, or A.I.: … and do not suspect the existence of other
American markets, where ours also tried to enter, is more markets. Sincerely do not suspect and do not plan. Yes.
understandable for us, then these Asian or Latin Ameri- Generally, not interested. For example, in Brazil, there
can markets that are now only open to us are much more are more than 100 startups that work in the digitalization
difficult for a Russian person. Almost all of us like to get of the agricultural sector. Over 100 unique projects. But
into micromanagement, and there you must trust people in they are mostly aimed at domestic consumption. Most of
places of completely different cultures - this has become a them are not even aware of exits of other countries.
deterrent for most. And plus, it turned out that it costs a lot R.C.: Interesting. But is the economy growing in
of money (laughs) - to enter these markets. And this, too, Brazil? Do you feel it?
additionally, of course, turned out to be difficult. A.I.: Well, everything is fine with them there. Not
R.C.: Your clients are mostly digital, and from like in Argentina. But there is a lot of political instability,
what industries? which, of course, does not allow ... Even in Peru, there
A.I.: Completely different. We started as an agency that were some rallies or something else. And in Chile. Only
worked with startups, but now it is mainly large corpo- nothing is happening in Paraguay for me: peaceful
rate clients, such as Avito, and medium-sized clients, but elections, they came, they passed, they gave people a
well-funded, since we are in a rather high price segment. day off.
Because we solve rather significant tasks, small clients have R.C.: Can you tell us how you moved?
few such tasks. And so, clients from various industries: ban-
ks, mining, and service companies - b2b and b2c.
But this is not so important, because communication is
necessary and important for everyone. Because now, un-
fortunately, if you do not build a clear and understandable
recognition with your client - say a partner in the b2b sector,
whether it be b2c end users - it is difficult for them to make
decisions about what you use, stay with you and take part
to you knew clients.
R.C.: This is interesting, because here, for
example, there are a lot of Russian-speaking
people who are used to all services, and there
is even an attempt, to create something alike,
but sun, relax ... taxi drivers refuse to work with
applications.
A.I.: Well, yes. Plus, here we must consider the mentality,
because, of course, it is different, and the level of education
and the purposes of development is different.
R.C.: And what is the Brazilian or South Asian
mentality?
A.I.: Not everyone is so smart in Brazil either. There are
projects that are very good on paper or are acceptable
in Moscow. And in Brazilian realities, I had to reshape the
entire business model, because the world works differently.
And you can't see it from afar. And it seems that people
could tell that there is something different, but you need
to feel it from the inside. Therefore, access is through local
partners, but they also have their own difficulties since they
are very local and closed in their local world. And what
generally distinguishes Latin America, especially now - ha-
ving lived there, I understand this - such a serious narrowing
of the horizon compared to Moscow, where we can just

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