The moment of the startup that changed everything

You've probably heard of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, Pavel Durov, the founder of VK and Telegram. You might have even watched the movie "The Social Network" or a film about the company Yandex. These are individuals who created something groundbreaking and immensely beneficial to the world. Back then, I didn't know much about Elon Musk, but I had heard about his company, Tesla. This person launched a rocket with a Tesla electric car, thus promoting the Tesla brand through his own company, SpaceX. I am one of the startup founders who drew inspiration from such personalities and films, dreaming of launching an innovative startup, making it a successful and profitable business that could go public. It's great to have those who inspire!

In the summer of 2012, during an entrepreneurship lecture in Switzerland, the idea for my first startup was born. In the fall, my friend came to pick up his belongings from Switzerland and came to visit. We started talking, and then it was a surprise how the same idea could come to two different people simultaneously. I began describing the startup, and he continued it. That's how we became co-founders of StudList. It was the first sleepless night working on a grand project that we believed could change the world.

For six months, we thought about the logo and the name, and in the end, we bought the domain studlist.com because we wanted to reflect both students and a list, similar to the famous "craigslist" marketplace. Two interesting facts: when buying the domain, we found out that Pavel Durov bought the domain studlist.ru and initially wanted to name VKontakte with this name, but later changed the name. Also, in English, "stud" sounds like a young horse. In general, a lot of time and money was spent on developing logos, different features, and functions that weren't needed initially. At some point, I was even politely kicked out of university due to poor performance, but then I successfully defended my position and was accepted back for the final semester. In 2013, we made ourselves known within our university.

When we launched, we thought it was our moment of stardom. We thought that once we launched, everyone would see us, hear us, and we would become the Zuckerbergs or Elon Musks with a new innovative product. I felt like we were flying into space. And there it was, that moment of realization - we were shouting as a small bug in front of Mount Everest, saying, "Hey, we're here, pay attention to us." That was the moment of realization, a real challenge. It's not enough to have an idea and a product; you also need to effectively convey who you are and what you offer and, along with that, build all the business processes efficiently. We actively worked on this. We went to universities and local businesses, selling them subscriptions so they could advertise their services and products to students in nearby universities. We sent emails to students and posted fake ads with products to create activity and at least partially fill the website with content. One of the co-founders was a Formula 3 racer, and we placed ads on his sports car.

We connected couple of businesses and received payments in cash. We encountered a language barrier, as when Russians clumsily explained who we were in their broken French, and polite Swiss people didn't particularly like any French other than their native Swiss French with an accent. It was challenging, but somehow we managed. The maximum size of our team reached 11 people, with the majority of them in St. Petersburg.

We even bought an old Volkswagen Polo in Switzerland, taking care of our sales managers so they could comfortably commute between cities, although calling them cities would be an overstatement.

We registered the company in Latvia because we positioned ourselves as an international project and obtained the corresponding patents.

We also organized a charity campaign (video) as a socially responsible project and raised money for children in Nepal at the university. During a trip to Tibet and Nepal, we gave T-shirts with our logo to children.

Even today, some tour buses still travel to the holy places of Tibet with our logo.

By 2015, our initial investments were running out, and for about six months, we had been working on a five-year business plan for the development of our startup. We also completed a distance-acceleration program with the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (FRII), and at that time, we were recommended to expand in Switzerland and abroad because this concept wouldn't work in Russia.

In 2015, we made a strategic move and went to a startup conference in Dublin, Ireland, known as the Web Summit, in search of a new investor for a new round. In Dublin, we felt how important it was to choose the right name for a startup and check it in other languages, especially if you're going to Europe. While choosing a name, we had students in mind, which is why a domain with the word "Stud" was perfect. However, we overlooked one thing... Stud translates to "Stallion," so it ended up as "List of Stallions." Perhaps that's why we received mixed reactions from investors who came to our stand.

We played this off a bit with a viral marketing campaign, creating appropriate posters to grab attention and wearing Stallion masks.

(https://twitter.com/studlist_info - our Twitter page. We might be the only ones who hired models and did a photo shoot in a ball. We also launched an inflatable balloon with our logo in the center of Dublin with a person inside.

It looked spectacular. We connected with all the funds and investors through the Web Summit app, but only one responded, and he didn't show up for the meeting. In the end, the Web Summit brought us more expenses than results. We sent a couple of emails to other investors in Switzerland and Russia, but unfortunately, no one was ready to invest in a startup due to the instability of the target audience, students, and the high competition from big players on the online marketplace market - like Avito, despite our efforts to focus on a very narrow segment aimed at students. Unfortunately, our service wasn't particularly popular among students, and our competitors also closed down in the UK and other countries. One competitor in the USA started offering storage for students to somehow monetize their service. We tried pivoting a couple of times, changing the concept and direction of the startup, calling ourselves a Student Guide, but that also didn't work. As true samurai, out of funds, we acknowledged the dire state of affairs and the fact that the market hadn't accepted us. But we didn't commit harakiri, although it was a psychologically challenging decision. We closed the project and buried it in the startup cemetery. I am grateful to Denis Nagulin, Tima Scryabin, Alexander Naumov, Andris Ziemelis, Victoria Tikhonova, Ilya Denisov, Anastasia Ivanova and everyone who participated in the StudList startup and other startups over the years. It was a truly valuable experience.

Closing one chapter opens another. After launching eight startups - from digital marketing agencies and IT studios to managing luxury Airbnb properties, creating travel apps inspired by the Uber model, and working in decentralised funds on Everscale blockchain and DeFi startups - I proudly present NFTerra. This is my 9th venture, fuelled by passion, emotional resilience, and seasoned entrepreneurial experience, anchored in my Hospitality Management degree from the prestigious Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland and a rich international background, having visited 67 countries.

At NFTerra we are on a mission to empower millennials and digital nomads to build lasting legacy and wealth via conscious, secure investments in tokenised lifestyle assets and immersive travel experiences - creating a Safehaven beyond borders in harmony with Earth and a thriving community. We break down real estate investment barriers with ordinary share tokenization offering 12-20% dividends, enabling co-ownership of lifestyle assets like glampings, eco resorts, hotels, vineyards, and other luxury properties once exclusive to the ultra-wealthy.

Fusing New Finance and Terra, I leverage my expertise and global network to develop revolutionary assets and unforgettable travel experiences with our community.

Our vision is to be the leading international fintech wealth-building and travel platform where conscious investors and modern travellers unite to own a shared future - maximising wealth creation and nurturing a borderless, planet-harmonised real estate, lifestyle assets and community.

Join us to champion this transformative journey.

Become part of NFTerra - where visionary innovation meets meaningful opportunity - and make a lasting impact.

Download our pitch deck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bAjVULINMx2fXyFuXx0KSUdl23dxm52-/view?usp=sharing

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