Interview by Paris Demetriades and Zoe Telegraphou
Photography credits Giorgos Charalambous

“Limassol is my home” – life in Cyprus and the career path

You’ve been living in Limassol since 2003. Do you feel like a Limassolian?

When I moved to Cyprus, I first stayed in Paphos for a year and then moved to Limassol. I feel Limassol like home as I have been living here for a long time and two of my three kids were born here.

Do the Limassolians make you feel like a Limassolian?

Home is where your family is, your physical home, your business, where your kids live. So, it is not just a matter of how other people make you feel. I certainly feel Limassol is my home.

What brought you here?

I come from a very cold place in Siberia, a very small city, just about the size of Larnaca.

Cyprus was a very safe place for family so as soon as I started making some money from my business in the IT industry I decided to try and live here.

What kept you here?

A lot of changes and developments have occurred since then. I founded new companies and I built a lot of business relations. Two of the companies I founded are headquartered in Limassol. Servers.com, which is among the top 5 hosting providers in Europe, and Palta, a health and well-being technology company. It is a co-funding company. We partner with ambitious founders and exceptional talent to transform great ideas into life-changing products that make a positive impact on a global level.

Flo – the App counting 200M installs

Can you elaborate on this? You know, there is a lot of discussion about the morality of technology nowadays.

One of the great ideas Palta has funded is an application called Flo, which is the number 1 application for women’s health and well-being worldwide. The App was launched in 2015 and got installed by 200 million women. Because of the use of this App, 5.7 million kids were born!

We have co-funded many other applications with a positive impact on people’s lives, applications we first use for ourselves. It is important to like the product yourself before introducing it to anyone else.

A lot of people make apps. What does it take to make an app so successful globally?

You have to create a really good product which people will like. You know, positive impact doesn’t come by just downloading an app. The most important is to use the app and continue using it.

How can a start-up become a successful product?

Everything starts from a good idea. The second important key factor is the target market. You need time to make sure the product is good for the market. Sometimes, if you are lucky, it happens quickly, other times it might take longer. The chance of never happening is also a possibility. Especially, if your application idea addresses a very small audience.

“We need more IT specialists,
not lawyers, doctors and teachers“

Do you see innovation, ideas, and promising start-ups here in Cyprus?

There is some development but it’s very slow. We have a substantial amount of IT companies that have created a market but still, it’s not enough. We need much more companies, people and students from the industry. Start-ups are about a whole ecosystem that needs to be built.

What do you believe the problem is?

One reason is that Cyprus is a small country. A second reason is the wrong orientation of the education system. Education creates mentality. If you asked locals ten years ago what they liked their kids to be, most of them answered, public servants, doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers. I never heard anyone say IT specialist. Things are starting to change, but to be able to see real results within the next decade, it will require at least 20% of the students in Cyprus to follow studies in the field of Information Technology. Computer science needs to be enhanced in the school curriculum. Also, I believe there is space for a big top-level IT university in Cyprus.

The vision to make Cyprus a Tech Hub

As one of the founders of Tech Island Association, you envision placing Cyprus on the global tech map. How close to reality is this?

Five to ten years ago Cyprus was not even on the regional tech map. Nowadays, it is more and more visible with many potentials ahead. In order to achieve the target, we need to attract foreign talent and grow the tech community bigger. The only way for Cyprus to go up is to double its GDP in the next 10 years. And the easiest way to reach this target is by transforming it into an IT Hub. You can never reach this target by building more hotels, or with exports, or by hiring more accountants and lawyers. Cyprus already has a few good examples of IT companies. We just need to increase them.

Have you shared this vision with the government? What’s the reaction you got?

Some state officials are on the same line. People in Cyprus seem to share the same belief as well. A study Tech Island made in collaboration with the University of Nicosia showed that a huge percentage of Cypriots believe we need to go in the direction of IT in order to change the country. But the big question is, can Cyprus handle more companies moving in? Unfortunately, the answer is not, if a number of things don’t change. For example, the transformation of the immigration system, and the digitalization of the tax system. In Estonia to register a company, it takes you one hour; in Cyprus, it takes you weeks. It’s not enough just to bring in IT companies, but you have to become an IT country yourself.

You said about the need to attract foreign talent. What’s the procedure for high-tech specialists to come and work in Cyprus?

First, I’d like to stress out that these specialists do not pose a threat to any job position here. On the contrary, they contribute towards the creation of new jobs. According to a study, for every three new tech jobs, two more job openings follow. The procedure to bring them here is not easy. On top of that Cyprus has to compete with many other countries, like Latvia, Estonia, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands.

Sun and the beach are not enough

Yes, but these countries are not sunny with nice beaches…

The sun and the sea are good benefits, but not the most important ones. Quality of life involves other aspects as well, such as housing, education, entertainment, environment, provided services, social security etc. In an overview, compared to other countries Cyprus is quite behind.

Why are you and other entrepreneurs still staying here then?

The tax legislation is very favourable for the owners of the companies. And that is the only reason we see companies moving their offices here. But to be able to bring in talents, we’ll need to make the legislation more favourable for middle and high-level employees and their families. The proposed legislation focuses on this exact purpose.

The new-founded Tech-Island Association: 140 member companies and 8,500 employees

So, these are the issues raised before the government to find solutions?

We have to say that since the Tech-Island Association was founded last Spring, the government had never spoken before with the companies of the industry.

Why?

They didn’t believe we are here and we are so many. When we had our first contact with state officials and started to explain the needs of the industry, the first reaction was, which industry! So, as a first step, we actually had to show them how many we are.

You are a lot indeed. Since last Spring Tech-Island already has 140 member companies. How did you manage to grow big so fast?

It is a huge Association, in terms of manpower. Our member companies employ 8,500 people in Cyprus and 50,000 people in other countries. It was easy because we know each other, we organize networking events for many years now, and also, we provide support for every company moving to Cyprus.

What type of companies are members of Tech-Island?

Technology, IT, gaming, financial services. It is quite a big range of different industries.

Which stage are the discussions with the government at?

We have a good collaboration with state officials. We concentrate only on the three most important issues raised by the industry.

What are these?

First, we ask for a more favourable naturalization for high-quality specialists. In Cyprus, it takes 10-12 years to get a passport, while in competing countries the procedure takes about 4-5 years. Second, we ask for a favourable tax discount for a certain level of high-quality specialists.

Our third very important request is to give work permits to expats’ partners. Cyprus is the only EU member-state that doesn’t allow this right.

Are you close to satisfying these 3 requests?

There is some way to go, but I hope that by the end of March the proposed legislation will pass.

“In Cyprus, anything takes ages to happen
and rubbish is everywhere“

Can you bring back to memory how Limassol was when you first came in 2002 and how it is today?

When I first came to Cyprus, Limassol didn’t have almost 90% of the new buildings we see today. For us, it felt like a small village, with much less population, much fewer activities, and entertainment. The community was much smaller and it was completely different. Limassol has seen the biggest change in the last 7 years.

What do you like most and what do you like the least about Limassol?

I like the climate; the safety and the stressless environment. What I do not like is, that anything you want to do takes ages, and even if someone gives promises they never do it on time. This characteristic applies to both the state and local authorities as well as the private sector. Another thing I don’t like about Limassol and Cyprus generally is that it is very dirty.

Is this the reason your wife and you founded the NGO City Friends Club?

It was actually my wife’s idea and I gave her my full support. One of our actions was to buy green garbage trucks, which are ready to go out in the streets to clean the city. Our vision for Cyprus is to make it not just a nice country to live, in but most importantly a clean country. I’ve experienced first-hand the dirt in many areas of the city, on my long walks during lockdown period. We even organized some clean-ups and to our big disappointment, a few weeks later we would discover that rubbish would be all over again. The protection of the environment is a huge issue that needs to be handled as a priority from the first years of school education. I don’t understand why people don’t see the size of the problem, but Cyprus is very dirty. If Cyprus was as clean as Switzerland, the income per capita would be much higher, because a lot more people would move here. We need to preserve clean beaches, clean roads, clean neighbourhoods, and more green.  

That is why you are also involved in the creation of green parks?

Yes, I believe that things need to be done right. In Limassol, apart from Molos which is a beautiful park, almost 95% of the rest of the parks are badly designed and no one maintains them properly. So, when we heard the plans for a new green park by the sea at Parekklisia, a group of friends and me, decided to get involved. My friends, Igor Makarov, Arsen Agadzhanyan, and Sergey Konnov and I re-designed the park and fully funded its development.

How much did it cost?

Around 240,000 euros. We keep financing the monthly maintenance of the park, to ensure that it is properly carried out. We are currently working on a new plan for a green park in Yermasogeia. I hope we’ll get the license by March and finish it by next year.

The childhood dream to become an astronaut

You are described as a tech businessman. Was that your dream as a child?

My distant uncle was the Soviet astronaut Alexey Gubarev. As a child I had the utmost admiration for my namesake uncle, therefore to become an astronaut was my childhood dream. But the reality was far from different. I was born in 1980 in the era of the Soviet Union and just a few years before Perestroika. Things were very difficult for us and life was hard.

What about now? It’s never too late to make a dream come true.

Four months ago my wife and I had the opportunity to live the great experience of watching closely the launch of a spacecraft, at Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. There was a shooting of a Russian movie taking place and we were invited by the producer, who is my friend, to watch the launch. So, in a way, I fulfilled my dream!

The plan to make a pioneering Audio Museum

We also heard that you want to make an audio museum. What’s this story about?

For nine years I have been collecting vintage high-end audio equipment. It is around 8000 items which I believe is the biggest collection worldwide. I have vinyl players, speakers, amplifiers, the first cinema systems from 1920, as well as original guitars signed by famous players. The idea of the museum is to create a unique music experience. Different types of vintage audio devices will be installed in separate rooms and visitors will be able to live various music and audio experiences. 

What stage is this idea at?

I created the whole concept and we submitted the building designs to the government for approval. I’m fighting for over a year now. If my application is rejected, I will make the museum in another country.