"Running is an opportunity to be alone with yourself," — Alexey Petrov on his lifestyle

Alexey Petrov, city — Bishkek, consulting, co-founder of the company

About myself

I am engaged in the development of the startup ecosystem in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia in the field of investment consulting. This was prompted by a chain of specific events and acquaintances. The conscious focus on developing the startup ecosystem in Central Asia began about five months ago.

Our Central Asian cohort of several projects will participate in the European accelerator and will compete to attract investment at the European level. Unfortunately, our weight categories differ from those of European partners. We must admit that the upper limit of investments for us in Kyrgyzstan is approximately equal to the lower limit of what Europe offers. Europe is more generous not because it evaluates projects worse, but because the capacity of its monetary market is higher. The need for capital deployment is more pronounced there. In Europe, one project can receive hundreds of thousands of euros, whereas such a sum in our country becomes an event that people talk about for years.

I work on a regular basis with about 20 startups. We communicate, they receive offers, I promote them, introduce them, and act as a networking agent. Their fields are diverse, and it is interesting that MedTech is developing in Kyrgyzstan. There are projects that collaborate with each other, and all of them are focused on mental and physical health, for example, instilling self-care through the regularity of procedures such as taking medication. This is great because FinTech has already become something common and does not particularly excite investors.

Today, PromTech in Uzbekistan is attracting significant interest from capital market participants. They have certain relationships with Kazakhstan, which include energy consumption management and the general ESG agenda. This is an interesting observation across the entire portfolio. All projects are IT-based, with artificial intelligence — about half of them actively use it. This does not mean that they are inventing something; they are using advanced technologies. AI has already entered a routine phase where you can connect many services and use them as needed, training or developing new models or algorithms from scratch. This is more about software engineering or ML engineering, not development from scratch, not computer science.

I like the concept I saw on social media: Work-Life Integration Balance. This is when I can sit at breakfast and simultaneously participate in correspondence, run personal errands and make a business call, squeeze in a run between meetings. I arrived at this naturally and did not set out to understand how my day is structured. It just happened, and for me, this is normal.

There are calendar-bound events for which the whole day is rearranged, but if we take an ordinary day, whether it is a weekend or not, there are no problems. I have been running since 2010, but my official start was only last year, and it is a completely new experience. For the previous 12 years, running was a form of dynamic meditation for me; I didn't even think about running with someone in pairs. Although I had experience of pair running, it is always a trial — you agree, wait, and adjust. For me, running is an opportunity to be alone with myself. Official starts are something else entirely; it is a holiday, but definitely not meditation.

Where and how I learn

On the one hand, working in consulting has taught me that you need to learn from clients at their expense. On the other hand, there are programs that are interesting to take not for new knowledge, but for interesting acquaintances. This year, I completed a three-day school for business angels; it was interesting to see the world of relationships between startups and investors through the eyes of those who invest money.

The program was organized by a partner of IT Park Uzbekistan. It was a Tumaris Tech project; they invited many players from the venture market, and it was great. We still communicate in a closed chat of this group, exchange news, and receive announcements from the Tumaris Tech project. All this strengthens the understanding that your worldview corresponds to accepted approaches, and if it differs, you begin to understand why.

Recently, the final of the Unicorner accelerator, conducted jointly with Accelerate Prosperity, took place. The event was lengthy, but I did not regret staying until the end. Kyrgyz projects know how to present themselves and defend themselves when asked awkward questions. The myth that there are no startups in Kyrgyzstan has been dispelled. If a project has existed for a long time and has a sustainable business model, then it is already a mature business, not a startup. Startups are projects in search, and there are quite a few of them.

Environment

The problem of modern society is atomization, when everyone lives in their own information bubble. But I observe how in local Telegram channels, coffee meetings, one-on-one, are practiced. The main value is to lower the threshold of the first step. There are also thematic business chats where people leave their business cards and find those who respond to them in terms of profession or hobby.

My main value is the desire to change the world for the better. We may approach achieving goals differently, but we all want Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia to become comfortable and open to foreign experience. The main value is the desire to change something, to be first, to take risks and experiment.

Where to buy what

If technology solves tasks, the specific choice of device does not matter. I am a fan of ASUS — this is equipment that never breaks, but in general, the brand is not important at all.

Currently, I am choosing equipment very carefully for long-term video recording. Recently, I was offered to record part of an author's course, and I decided to wait until I could create suitable conditions for high-quality shooting and processing. Fortunately, I was supported. Although many people think that speed is more important than quality, for me, quality comes first.