Community is essential

28 октября 2022 г.

Skolkovo resident, Tekvel is running three offices simultaneously: in Skolkovo, in downtown Moscow and in Cheboksary. We interviewed the company founders, Aleksey Anoshin and Aleksandr Golovin to learn why Tekvel chose Skolkovo and what exactly the technology-based companies are missing.

 

 

About Tekvel

 

Tekvel was established in 2010, but active operations started only in 2012. Soon we’re going to celebrate our [tenth] anniversary. Our business is electric power generation. 

 

In a nutshell, to get from the power plant to end users electricity makes a long way - this is called energy infrastructure, and sub-stations are part of it. Electrical sub-stations are what our equipment is designed for. Our equipment is a kind of on-board computer. It monitors the equipment operation, controls and checks its operability. In case any problems occur with the electrical equipment, our devices deliver relevant signals. 

 

Why Skolkovo?

 

We were looking at Skolkovo from the very beginning. Right after we had decided that the company would deal with R&D. The starting point to apply for Skolkovo participant status was our participation in Energoproryv competition. We took the first place and were recommended to become Skolkovo residents in the future.

 

Then we decided that our headquarter would move to Skolkovo. At that point we faced a typical problem for Moscow - distance or remoteness. However, we had no doubts about our decision in terms of future prospects for our company.  

 

Our first location was Nobel Street - this is not far from the Technopark. It felt nice that everything around us was new, but it didn’t have the atmosphere of the Technopark. Here, at the Technopark, you can enter a community-room and discuss all relevant issues, or go to somebody’s laboratory and borrow a 12’ wrench. This value that a lot.

 

For technology-based companies Skolkovo is the center of the world. Here we have everything we need. A simple example: part of our job is production of telecommunication cabinets. Sometimes we have to assemble this cabinet at our office, in order to configure it and check the equipment operability. At the Skolkovo office you can have a workplace with a PC, and at the same time you’ll be able to bring in some large-sized items to have them tested. In Moscow it’s rather challenging to find production facilities offering more than just a hangar with some equipment, but a real technopark. 

 

Things are arranged in a smart way here. You can assemble large-sized equipment, or bring it with you if you use another production site to assemble it. And you won’t face problems with transportation. Usual office centers do not offer services like this. 

 

Something is missing

 

There is no clearly arranged events uniting larger businesses, and only few ways for large businesses to interact with SMEs. There are some occasionally held events, but it not enough. 

 

Having ways for constant interaction would help smaller companies promote their businesses in the market and would offer more opportunities. 

 

Tomorrow we are having a presentation in front of the Brazilian ambassador. And this is an example of a really tough ‘start’ to promote our services. The problem is that we are preparing only a presentation, and it appears quite difficult to have it grown into something more promising. Though this is not precisely the Skolkovo’s task. In the regions, the chain from the presentation to sales is very long. And this part needs to be more systematic. 

 

We make all our profit here, in Russia. One of our goals is entering foreign markets and making earnings abroad. We would like to get some interfaces and points of access to our customers. There are more rapidly growing markets and that’s where we would like to get to. Here they offer events where they tell about those markets, but it would be great to make these activities more targeted. This would help us. 

 

About advantages and drawbacks

 

There’s sometimes a feeling of isolation which often becomes a problem in daily household routine. For example, it takes 2 hours to send a carrier to deliver documents, instead of one. Remote location was one of the common reasons for candidates to refuse the offered job. Too far to commute. 

 

When comparing the rent rates in Skolkovo and across other districts outside the Moscow Ring Road, many people find them too high. The rent rates are high only for those who actually pay rent. For employees, the prices are rather affordable, for example, for meals in the canteen during work hours. So we considered all factors and chose this place. 

 

The first and major advantage here is community. The Technopark accommodates a lot of technology-based companies sharing common interests. People here are like us, in many ways: they are also technology entrepreneurs, some are larger than us, some are smaller. This entrepreneurial community is well organized. The Technopark does a lot to make all of us acquainted with each other. The rent department communicates to the community information about the new residents. The community capsule comes to make acquaintance with you, to invite you and tell how it all works. Then there comes the Board of Directors where you have a chance to meet the other residents. That’s how we all ‘intercross’. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we literally ‘stand shoulder by shoulder’, but this is an opportunity to meet and communicate. 

 

Our industry is special, quite conservative and isolated. But Skolkovo attracts our customers; they visit Skolkovo with excursions, taking pleasure to discover this place. Being a company, we offer events and trainings, so we not only show and tell what we do and who we are, but also make our guests acquainted with the other project participants.

 

Skoltech deserves being mentioned individually. Two years ago we had a couple of interns for summer internship - the Skoltech students. We are still in touch with one of them. They were really tough! Well-educated, with excellent knowledge base and skills. Young and active guys are a good asset for any technology-based business. Being close to a university like this is important for us.

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