<commit_before>---
image:
  feature: ""
layout: post
share: true
bibliography: ../citations.bib
categories: articles
modified: ""
date: "2015-09-21T10:03:05-04:00"
csl: ""
excerpt: A story of a Soviet start-up
comments: true
tags:
  - start-ups
  - USSR

title: Rhythm
---

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a fellow named Mark, and as it turns out, he had quite a story to tell me. This is a story about him starting a company in the Soviet Union, in 1988! Speaking of the wrong time and the wrong place!

The venture didn't make him rich, but it had real clients and even revenue. I kept asking him more questions and even recorded some of it, so I could put it down on paper. Talking to him, and the re-listening the recording, I can still feel the passion he had (probably still has) for the idea. To him it wasn’t about the money (we are talking about USSR here), rather it was about solving problems, that he could so clearly see and others didn’t!

I decided to explore the topic a bit deeper, starting with this post. Interestingly enough, as he was telling me about the venture, I could see a pattern emerge. Mark, obviously, never read any of the start-up books; many of them weren't permitted nor existed in USSR, thus he didn't follow a particular script. Things are always much clearer after the fact.

In this post, I would like to point out some of these points and hope to dive deep into the story in the subsequent posts.

# Opportunity

The mere idea of attempting a private venture in USSR was only possible due to new reforms that were introduced by Gorbachev. In particular, The Law on Cooperatives, that was introduced in 1987:

> The Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1987, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev regime. For the first time since Lenin's NEP, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors -- [Globalsecurity](http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/gorbachev-perestroika.htm)

This was the first time in many years people could start thinking, and maybe even say something about owning a business. Nevertheless, many still remembered Lenin's  [New Economic Policies (NEP)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy), and the aftermath when Stalin came to power. This was a highly risky proposition.

NEP was well before Mark's time, so he was optimistic about the prospect. He was educated as an economist in chemistry production (rough translation from инженер экономист химической промышленности). Long story short (actually it's a great story, but for another post), he ended up as head of the production in the region's canning factory (консервный завод). Part of his role was to make sure that things run smoothly and efficiently. As you might've guessed they didn't, but more on that later.

After some time in that position, he noticed a room where they had an old computer. The room wasn't used because nobody knew how to use the machine, but more importantly everyone thought there was no real need to use it. It turned out the machine was part of a so-called control and automation unit (контрольно-измерительные приборы и автоматизация (КИПиА) in Russian). The obscurity of the name translated into its actual activity when it came to utilising the computer. Although, there were a number of people assigned to the team, nobody really knew what was the purpose of the computer and subsequently how their roles attached to it. For the record, this unit was designed to monitor the meters and other machinery in the factory. Please, remember we are talking about the 80s, USSR, Moldova region. I am not entirely sure that there was any devices or machinery that supported such capabilities, but still the machine (or a pile of metal, as Mark refers to it) was there.

This is not the first time Mark was exposed to computers. The two unis he attended used computers such as [Ural 2](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural_(computer)>) — and
[Nairi](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_hardware_in_Soviet_Bloc_countries#Nairi>).<commit_msg>Minor edits<commit_after>---
image:
  feature: ""
layout: post
share: true
bibliography: ../citations.bib
categories: articles
modified: ""
date: "2015-09-21T10:03:05-04:00"
csl: ""
excerpt: A story of a Soviet start-up
comments: true
tags:
  - start-ups
  - USSR

title: Rhythm
---

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a fellow named Mark, and as it turns out, he had quite a story to tell me. This is a story about him starting a company in the Soviet Union, in 1988! Speaking of the wrong time and the wrong place!

The venture didn't make him rich, but it had real clients and even revenue. I kept asking him more questions and even recorded some of it, so I could put it down on paper. Talking to him, and re-listening the recording, I can still feel the passion he had (probably still has) for the idea. To him it wasn’t about the money (we are talking about USSR here), rather it was about solving problems, that he could so clearly see and others didn’t!

I decided to explore the topic a bit deeper, starting with this post. Interestingly enough, as he was telling me about the venture, I could see a pattern emerge. Mark, obviously, never read any of the start-up books; many of them weren't permitted nor existed in USSR, thus he didn't follow a particular script. Things are always much clearer after the fact.

In this post, I would like to point out some of these points and hope to dive deep into the story in the subsequent posts.

# Opportunity

The mere idea of attempting a private venture in USSR was only possible due to new reforms that were introduced by Gorbachev. In particular, The Law on Cooperatives, that was introduced in 1987:

> The Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1987, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev regime. For the first time since Lenin's NEP, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors -- [Globalsecurity](http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/gorbachev-perestroika.htm)

This was the first time in many years people could start thinking, and maybe even say something about owning a business. Nevertheless, many still remembered Lenin's  [New Economic Policies (NEP)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy), and the aftermath when Stalin came to power. This was a highly risky proposition.

NEP was well before Mark's time, so he was optimistic about the prospect. He was educated as an economist in chemistry production (rough translation from инженер экономист химической промышленности). Long story short (actually it's a great story, but for another post), he ended up as head of the production in the region's canning factory (консервный завод). Part of his role was to make sure that things run smoothly and efficiently. As you might've guessed they didn't, but more on that later.

After some time in that position, he noticed a room where they had an old computer. The room wasn't used because nobody knew how to use the machine, but more importantly everyone thought there was no real need to use it. It turned out the machine was part of a so-called control and automation unit (контрольно-измерительные приборы и автоматизация (КИПиА) in Russian). The obscurity of the name translated into its actual activity when it came to utilising the computer. Although, there were a number of people assigned to the team, nobody really knew what was the purpose of the computer and subsequently how their roles attached to it. For the record, this unit was designed to monitor the meters and other machinery in the factory. Please, remember we are talking about the 80s, USSR, Moldova region. I am not entirely sure that there was any devices or machinery that supported such capabilities, but still the machine (or a pile of metal, as Mark refers to it) was there.

This is not the first time Mark was exposed to computers. The two unis he attended used computers such as [Ural 2](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural_(computer)>) — and
[Nairi](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_hardware_in_Soviet_Bloc_countries#Nairi>).
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