‘Be Active And Never Give Up’ – From Selling Shoes To Running A $1bn IT Empire

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Serguei Beloussov was not the typical 10-year-old you would expect. Born in Leningrad (St.Petersburg), Soviet Union, to a family of physicists, from a very young age, he has been hard at work to help out at home and build its own future.

From selling shoes to washing windows in skyscrapers, the Russian entrepreneur has become one of the most successful business faces around and manages today an IT empire worth over $1bn.

This article originally featured in the April/May 2019 edition of the Data Economy Magazine.

Today, he is a Singapore citizen, the founder of more than two dozen companies around the world, CEO, founder and Chairman of Acronis Board of Directors of the data protection company Acronis, Chairman of the Board of Directors and founder of Parallels, Senior Founding Partner of Runa Capital, Phystech Ventures and Qwave Capital venture funds.

In 1995 he left Russia to Singapore and became a prominent Singaporean Technology entrepreneur.

Acronis, which has become one of Beloussov’s must successful brands, was founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008.

To present, the company accounts a workforce of more than 1,300 employees in 27 offices in 18 countries.

With 5 million consumers using its products and 500,000 businesses, including 79 of the top 100 most valuable brands, Acronis’ products are available through 50,000 partners and service providers in over 150 countries in more than 20 languages and there will be 40 supported by the end of 2019.

As the company continues to expand, and Beloussov’s other businesses set sail for further growth, João Marques Lima sits down with the executive for a time travel journey through Beloussov’s life.

How did you go from selling shoes in the USSR to becoming the successful CEO entrepreneur you ate today?

 In the Soviet period and up to 1992 (from the age of 10yo) I was doing different jobs – building houses, repairing roofs, washing windows in skyscrapers, working in geological expeditions, guiding in museums, working as a barman, working as a security guard, making and selling toys, making and selling fishing and hunting gear.

My first real business was Unium.

We helped high school students to prepare for entrance exams and applications to prestigious universities.

Then I went for a number of one-week jobs, selling different things, advertising space in Yellow Pages.

I had just graduated from a top technology and science school in former USSR and I found myself surrounded with qualified, capable people, with technology expertise and opportunities.

It would have been much harder for me without my start with Phystech and the related experiences that followed.

What lessons did the simple job of selling shoes teach you and that you carried through your life until today?

 This type of job hardly teaches you anything in particular.

I did lots of other things during 1991, 1992, and I suppose it taught me that in order to get result you should take opportunities, be active and never give up.

Without a significant financial capital, it was the valuable expertise and human capital that were key to my success as a businessman.

I suppose I already had leadership skills, and along the way, in the process of acquiring expertise I was making mistakes.

Do you think some CEOs in this world lack those sorts of qualities?

 I consider myself an entrepreneur rather than a CEO.

Many entrepreneurs have somewhat similar starts.

I think humbleness is part of being self-aware, and it is important to know your weaknesses and limitations for choosing the right strategy and getting the idea of what not to do.

Some Professional CEOs in comparison to some entrepreneurs lack a sense of alertness, the attention to details, the tenacity, the readiness to make decisions quickly, the responsiveness, but also the passion and the level of interest and engagement.

Again, those are just labels – CEO, entrepreneur, founder – in different contexts, different people, could and should behave differently.

What challenges did you face while starting your business?

 I did not think about it very much when I started my first business because I was 20 years old.

My main challenge has always been self-discipline – staying healthy for productivity, staying organised, fighting bad habits, staying calm enough, and focusing on the right details.

How did that business idea come a long?

 I have started many businesses (unfortunately, better to start one great one – and I am almost sure that Acronis is it).

Starting a business is always a creative activity.

Ultimately, you have a context and you create a form, which fits this context – like in Christopher Alexander book, Notes on the Synthesis of Form.

Acronis was created to bring enterprise level data protection to every person and organisation – to protect all the data, applications and systems.

It evolved to bringing more than just data protection – but full cyber protection – which includes not only safety of any data, application or system – but also accessibility, privacy, authenticity and security.

The modern world is digital, everything is based on data, applications and systems.

Thus, cyber protection is important.

Today, cyber protection is a basic human and organisation need and right.

Where do you want to go from here?

 There are many opportunities for us to develop on different levels.

Our goal is to grow Acronis by 10 times in 5 years and continue to provide better and best cyber protection for the World.

Would you consider an IPO or selling the business?

 Acronis is a for profit business.

One of the most important goals of any for profit business is to generate value for its shareholders.

Which can be accomplished through dividends, IPO or selling the business; we would consider all of those scenarios.

You are also an avid investor through your other business Runa Capital.

Again, how did that start and what’s happening here?

 After ending my engagement with Parallels, the business I previously founded from scratch, having brought it to $100m dollars in revenue and profitability, and hired a replacement, I thought it would be fun and valuable to create Runa Capital.

Venture funds do five things – find investors, find investments, negotiate and structure investments, help portfolio companies to succeed and help to orchestrate exits – which is what Runa does well.

It was fun for a while, especially setting this investment vehicle up.

Now it works, there are seven partners and a couple of dozen other employees, so I am only involved part time, my focus is Acronis, my passion.

Any future investments you can reveal?

 With both Acronis and Runa Capital, we are constantly looking at new potential investments.

The idea is to make 20-30 investments per year, which is 2-3 per month.

There is always something new in science and technology.

Today interesting trends are in new materials, quantum technology, artificial intelligence, distributed crypto architectures, cyber protection and various areas of digital transformation.

However, the most interesting trends are those we have not spotted yet.

If you were to start all over again, what would you do differently and why?

 The context of one’s life is unique.

Time machine is not prohibited by the known laws of physics, but what is likely prohibited is the transfer of knowledge to the past.

Which basically means nobody could start all over again in exactly the same context, because context includes a person’s particular state of mind, and so likely the person would have behaved very similar as he/she did in the first attempt.

I do not have any regrets, and every second, minute, hour, day, week of my life I am trying to improve.

There is no limit to perfection.

I think I would have benefited from learning psychology, sociology, anthropology or other social science in order to better understand people and organisations.

I would have benefited from a healthier and more productive lifestyle and perhaps a perfect knowledge of English and other languages.

I would have also known to rely more on my intuition and listen less to ill-informed advice, even from capable and credible advisors.

Finally, perhaps I would have benefited from managing my emotions better, but I have no problems to admit there are probably so many things I did wrong – it would take an awful lot of time to combine a list! 

 

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