Already at the age of 14 he opened a children's labor exchange. Pocket money appeared, but school performance began to suffer and the business had to be curtailed. Volkov's next business turned out to be much more "long-playing": in 1998, as a student at the history department of Moscow State University, he founded Social Discovery Ventures. Starting with the development of software, the company eventually transformed into a venture fund (and its founder from a historian turned into a philosopher and even became a doctor of science). Among the portfolio projects of SDVentures are the famous Lingualeo and Shazam, numerous dating sites and specialized social networks. In an interview with Inc. Volkov told how he chooses projects for investment, why an innovator needs to be able to philosophize, and why his offices are decorated with works by contemporary artists, and his employees participate in art performances.
Link everyone to everyone
Venture funds usually focus on a particular technology or industry. Build expertise in one specific area and then can create synergies between portfolio companies. We focused on products that involve social engineering and help connect people in the virtual space - social networks (used by people of all ages) and instant messengers (they have practically replaced SMS messages and telephone communication).
Good Internet projects can scale to the whole world. We invest in those that focus primarily on Europe and America. And in order to stand out from other funds, we provide companies with marketing expertise. There are many marketers in our office in New York who help projects from Eastern Europe to advance in the American market - so that they do not mess up and reinvent the wheel. In addition, we have developed technologies for chatbots on our own - and we provide them to projects in which we invest. We can also provide them with streaming and video chat technologies.
Facebook, like any universal solution, is not designed for specific task(and always will be). We invest in vertical social networks that bring people together for a specific purpose. For example, Street Life has set the goal of linking people living in the same neighborhood and with the same zip code so that they can jointly solve their problems with garbage, security, or a nearby construction site. We also invested in the Academia community of scientists - where you can publish scientific papers and discuss them together.
It's easier to spend
When choosing a project for investment, I am guided by my interest in the topic (and not just commercial considerations). For example, Halo Neuroscience makes devices to increase the neuroplasticity of the motor cortex. I was especially interested in studying this product, as my doctoral thesis is indirectly related to this topic. At the same time, we had no doubt from the very beginning that the company would become commercially successful (and it did).
My own investment opportunities are wider than those of the fund. When you work with other people's money - the responsibility is still greater. And I have - since these are my personal funds - certainly more freedom.
Startup founders are more important to me than the business idea and structure of the company. Over time, the idea may change beyond recognition, but it is the team that is engaged in its implementation into a successful business. For example, one of my latest investments - Fable studio - wants to make a virtual friend with whom it will be interesting to watch movies, listen to music, study and shop on the Internet. The founder of the company is former Oculus Story Studio producer Edward Saatchi, one of the best specialists in the world to create VR video. We met, and I saw that he has a practical approach to solving problems and understanding the needs of potential customers. In my opinion, this person is able to build a successful business.
Who is Dmitry Volkov
Entrepreneur
Volkov is an active participant in the venture market. In addition to SDVentures, he manages RD Ventures and Gagarin Capital as a GP (General Partner). Volkov is also an LP (Limited Partner) in a number of funds (including 500 Startups, iTech Capital and Blockchain Capital).
Philosopher
Dmitry Volkov is a Doctor of Philosophy and co-founder of the Center for the Study of Consciousness at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. The spheres of his scientific interests are the problems of consciousness, personal identity, free will and moral responsibility. In 2014, Volkov organized an expedition on a sailing schooner to the shores of Greenland with the participation of leading philosophers of the world, and in 2017 and 2018, as part of a group of Russian scientists, he met with the Dalai Lama.
Maecenas
Volkov supports Russian museums (among them the Tretyakov Gallery and Garage) and contemporary artists (in 2015 he financed the release of a series of albums Actual Art). In 2017, the Artgid publication included the entrepreneur among the 50 most influential figures in Russian art. Volkov himself participates in art performances together with his employees.
Company as a person
Great companies have personality traits. People develop sympathy for each other when they find out that there are points of intersection between them, in addition to the profession. For example, singing, stamp collecting, radio or historical reenactments. It's the same with companies. Harley Davidson reflects the free, daring and self-confident masculine ideal, while Coca-Cola reflects the American dream, a symbol of the nation. Apple marketing grew out of the image of a revolutionary - not a conformist and a techie, but a creative free man. A personal characteristic is needed not only for clients, but also for employees of the company - so they can build some kind of relationship with it. You can love this image, feel sorry for it and even hate it, but for the most part people are tuned in to positive emotions.
People who are dissatisfied with their work cannot make a service that will satisfy the audience. Falsehood, one way or another, comes through, and both consumers and employees feel it. If a company has some kind of ideology and values, then they should be transparent for both users and employees. This does not happen 100%, but this should be strived for.
Corporate risk
Contemporary art is part of the corporate life of our foundation. In our meeting rooms, the exposition of paintings is constantly changing, and in the evenings we have lectures by artists, collectors and curators. And the employees themselves participate in various performances. For example, we often travel as a group to the Burning Man festival: with art projects, and not just hanging out. Corporate symbols - on T-shirts, t-shirts and backpacks - contain objects from our collection, and we often offer trips to the Garage as gifts for employees.
When we began to hang paintings by contemporary artists in the meeting rooms, this caused a colossal protest. Many employees reacted angrily: "We want to see the good - birch trees, the sun and the sky - and not these strange figures!" But any emotion - positive or negative - is a success. When you introduce something into a company and it does not react in any way, this is a big problem.
We discuss contemporary art even in smoking rooms. Of the 400 employees of the Moscow office of SDVentures, approximately 30% have a direct interest in this topic, 50% observe from the outside, 20% are skeptical. But the number of people who have become involved in contemporary art is growing. People want the company to have something of its own, and if it is art, they are ready to support it.
Looking at how ordinary objects are seen by the artist, employees willy-nilly become infected with new ideas. For example, our analysts drew a transaction graph in the form of a picture, and developers presented new software in an artistic form. In general, contemporary art stimulates creativity, and this suddenly sprouts in a variety of places. One of our system administrators became an artist himself and made a cool performance.
For business communications, it is important that the image of an entrepreneur is not two-dimensional. When a person simply writes that he founded 3 companies and invested $ 100 billion, this is not something one could feel sympathy for. That is why we include information about all these stories with contemporary art in the presentation for the foundation's partners.
It is more pleasant to entrust your assets to intelligent people. They live not only for today and think about philosophical and ethical issues. But if I built some factories or was engaged in transport loading, perhaps other qualities would be needed there.
Philosophy for innovators
In technology and business, a philosophical approach is very useful. It allows you to doubt the established social and economic practices and teaches a person to doubt that the present situation will remain the same tomorrow. This skill, in principle, is useful to any person, but to an innovator - in the first place.
Developing the ability to think critically is very important. According to American tycoon Mark Cuban, in time a philosophical education will be more in demand than a technical one. Programming can be very much automated, today it is not at all the same as it was 20 years ago.
About Dmitry Volkov
Dmitry Volkov, co-founder of Social Discovery Ventures (SDV) was born on July 9, 1976 in Moscow. Due to his education in Russia and the US, his character successfully combines Russian Culture with the American entrepreneurial spirit. He began his career with a starring role in the Russian mafia blockbuster, and also with participation in dance performances on Broadway. At the age of 20, he founded his own company, with just $2,000 as seed capital. In 2003, Dmitry together with his foreign partners created a holding Social Discovery Ventures (SDV), which comprises more than 50 projects, including Shazam, site for searching travel companions TripTogether, dating sites (AsianDate, Zang), etc. Dmitry graduated from the historical and philosophical faculties of Lomonosov Moscow State University, holds three degrees – CSc in Philosophy, MSc in modern US history, Executive MBA in Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO, and also has several certificates of Harvard Business School and Microsoft. Dmitry successfully combines business and personal interests. Thanks to his dedication to philosophy, he became one of the founders of the Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2010. This center promotes and supports consciousness researches and analytical philosophy in Russia. The philosophical expedition to the shores of Greenland, dedicated to "the problem of free will in analytical philosophy", which took place in the summer of 2014, has become one of the most notable projects of the Center. The participants included such eminent philosophers and researchers as Daniel Dennett, Nick Humphrey, Andy Clark, Jesse Prinz, Derk Pereboom and David Chalmers. Dmitry Volkov is the author of several philosophical books, including the book "Boston zombies: Dennett, D. and his Theory of Consciousness," which was published in 2012. Being a great admirer and connoisseur of modern art, Dmitry Volkov supported the release of a series of albums "Contemporary Art", devoted to the works of Russian contemporary artists and their role in the context of the development of national and world culture. Dmitry's numerous hobbies include aviation, heli-skiing and piano playing. He tries to devote time on a regular basis to each of these activities. Dmitry conducts stratospheric and aerobatic flights on sport airplanes and fighter aircrafts, loves memorable ski trips to unusual places (eg., Greenland and Kamchatka), and also plays piano with a jazz trio band every week. Dmitry’s projects include LoftMusic.ru, private lecture hall and mini concert hall, where interesting personalities including well-known artists, philosophers, collectors and "storytellers" meet together to share their interesting stories.Entrepreneur and investor Dmitry Volkov likes to talk more about philosophy and contemporary art than about business. He is preparing to defend his doctoral dissertation in philosophy, arranges street festivals for musicians, artists and scientists, sponsors exhibitions in the Tretyakov Gallery and constantly thinks about the meaning of life. At this time, his company is developing its own Internet projects and investing in others, such as the Shazam service, Lingualeo projects, TripTogether, Roomi and others. Volkov told The Secret about how he became an entrepreneur and philosopher, and explained why art and technology strongly influence each other.
I started my first business at school when I was 14 years old. A friend offered to employ our peers, and we opened a children's labor exchange, we did not think about legal issues then. It seems that “Moskovsky Komsomolets” accidentally wrote about us, guys with and without parents began to come, bring applications. We started looking for employers who needed young people, arranged youth and teenagers as couriers and promoters, and took a commission for ourselves. Publishing House Moscow News hired 20 people through our exchange to distribute the Russian-language edition of the New York Times in Moscow, I was also among these 20 - I led the team. At some point, we stopped doing well at school, there was not enough time for lessons, and the business had to be closed. By that time, I was already earning for personal expenses and helping my mother.
How did Social Discovery Ventures come about?
In the 90s, I was one of the activists of the Fido network, the prototype of the Internet. I then studied at the Moscow State University at the Faculty of History, was engaged in translations from English into Russian and vice versa, different people asked for help. One such person, an American, once asked if I could find programmers to translate something from ColdFusion to ASP, and I said that I could. Having requested a decent fee, for which, in my opinion, at that time it was quite possible to translate all of Tolstoy into any language of the world, I set off to look for people who could carry out this task. I found one good programmer, then another, and four years later there were 200 of them. So in 1997, Social Discovery Ventures (SDVentures) was founded.
I am not a programmer. I was bad at programming. But I managed to effectively organize the work, communicate between clients and programmers. That is why I began to develop further as an entrepreneur and leader.
At the age of 28, I discovered that all my time was consumed by work. Moreover, the more time I spent on work, the more it required time and attention. It was necessary to come up with a barrier so that the work would not swallow me whole. I decided to get a second higher education and entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. I had to leave work at 6 pm in order to be in time for classes. But by that time I already had a good team, so some of the functionality could be delegated. As a result, I received a second diploma, defended my Ph.D. thesis on the issues of consciousness and the work of Daniel Dennett. And now I'm preparing for my doctoral defense. This is a continuation of the ongoing research.
Spin-off companies
Photo: © Facebook / Social Discovery Ventures
We were mainly engaged in custom programming. But some of our products and services have become the basis for a new business - spin-off companies. For example, an online sales management system, made for one of the clients, eventually turned into a PayOnline company. She represented processing services for Internet businesses. In the 2000s, we received a $100,000 grant from Microsoft to improve this product. Now it is one of the market leaders.
Another company grew out of our internal training needs. I have always devoted a lot of time to training teams, and Western experts often came to us. Once one of my comrades, also the owner of an IT business, asked if he could also join the course. technical specialists. This is how SoftwarePeople was born.
Another spin-off company is UsabilityLab. A very strong interface designer Dmitry Satin came to our team. The work went great. But at some point we noticed that our employees are engaged in "hack work". They design not only for internal tasks, but also for external customers. I decided not to fire them, but to make separate business. After some time, this company also became a leader in its industry. We have designed for many large customers: Beeline, MTS, Alfa-Bank. While everyone was designing, we were focusing on conversion.
In parallel with this, SDVentures invested in various Internet projects. Many investments have proven to be very profitable. In particular, investments in the field of social discovery industry, in social technologies. We invest in sites for finding fellow travelers, community sites for learning foreign languages, technologies for instant messengers, dating sites. Now the portfolio includes about a hundred companies.
In general, since childhood, I understood that the world is global, so I immediately chose priority work with global partners. One of these is the DNCapital fund. DN Capital is headquartered in London and the fund is looking at many projects in Europe. In Silicon Valley, the startup market is overheated, where anyone with an idea is worth $10 million. There are many good projects in Europe, and they are priced more realistically. So we focus on Europe. Our other venture investment partners are also working in this direction, for example, the ITech fund.
Our latest investment of $1 million is in social network Academia.edu scientists. I have a lot of hopes connected with this project. I think that the scientific sphere is waiting for the same revolution that happened in other areas. Music and video content is now available through a subscription. It's good for content creators, and it's good for consumers too. But the market for scientific publications is still controlled by large publishers. I think if changes come in this area, both scientists and consumers will be better off.
How art helps business
What is the main difference between SDVentures and other international Internet holdings? Firstly, we help Internet projects in the field of social discovery, that is, resources that connect people with common interests for joint travel, language learning, and dating. Secondly, I am convinced that creativity inspires innovation, which is why the corporate values of SDVentures are based on innovative technologies and contemporary art. We actively participate in the support and implementation of cultural initiatives at the intersection of art, science and technology.
Why do I think that art helps IT business? When we began to invest in art, we became more interesting to our own employees, and an additional level of communication appeared with partners. For investments in art, we have the SDV Arts & Science Foundation, whose projects can be attributed more to philanthropy than to making a profit. Although we, for example, are gradually forming an impressive collection of contemporary art, which can bring profit in the future. The collection was recently replenished with the technological installation Sillk by the famous Russian artist Dmitry Morozov. It's automatic musical instrument, similar to a harp, in which the strings are stretched depending on the exchange rate of bitcoin in relation to different currencies.
Our office center in Riga, which we named OraculeTangPlaza after an art object created by artist Oleg Kulik for participation in the Burning Man festival, has a co-working space for technology companies. There is also organized a space in which artists can work. By immersing programmers and artists in one environment, we create a creative space. Its first guests from the field of art should be artists who received a grant from the Garage Museum in the field of "technological art" this year. The SDV Arts & Science Foundation has spearheaded this special grant as part of the annual scholarship program Museum for Young Artists 2016–2017.
We have many more projects. One of them is to collect a collection of the first editions of treatises that influenced the formation of modern analytical philosophy. Finds have already appeared: the first edition of Kant's 1787 Critique of Pure Reason and Hume's 1748 Essay on Human Knowledge. These works are the foundation of modern philosophy. I think art, philosophy and business will always be part of my life.
Cover photo: Social Discovery Ventures
The sailing schooner "Rembrandt van Rijn" has received different companies over its century-old history. But world famous philosophers, cognitivists and neuroscientists gathered there for the first time.
A tall man with a lush gray beard and a large wooden staff is none other than the American Daniel Dennett, professor of philosophy, winner of the Erasmus Prize, one of the most influential thinkers of our time.
A rock-singer-like charismatic cell phone lover is Australian professor David Chalmers, whose philosophy of mind courses are popular with students at the Australian National University and New York University. There are well-known neurophysiologists Paul and Patricia Churchland, British philosopher Andy Clark, lecturers and graduate students of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. On a sailboat they all gathered on business - to the conference "Problems of Consciousness and Free Will in Analytical Philosophy."
The unusual event off the coast of Greenland was organized by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Volkov, CEO of SD Ventures, PhD in Philosophy and co-director of the Center for Consciousness Research.
How did a Russian entrepreneur end up in the company of world-famous thinkers?
Small world
Muscovite Dmitry Volkov became interested in philosophy at school, but nevertheless chose the history department of Moscow State University. Already in the years of study he began to do business. His propensity for entrepreneurship manifested itself even earlier - the first money, as Volkov recalls with a laugh, he earned at the age of 13, in the late 1980s: “It was a children's labor exchange. The idea seemed brilliant to us, the business started, but my friend and I didn’t know then that child labor was prohibited in our country.” Working as a translator from English led the student of Moscow State University to projects related to programming and the Internet, he soon founded his first IT company. And in 2003, together with foreign partners, he created the Social Discovery Ventures (SD Ventures) group of companies, which has more than 50 projects, including Shazam, a site for finding fellow travelers TripTogether, dating sites (AsianDate, Zang). In Russia, SD Ventrues develops PayOnline projects and UsabilityLab, an ergonomics and user behavior research studio. The company's offices are located in Moscow, New York, Chongqing (China), Medellin (Columbia) and Minsk. Therefore, Volkov spends most of his time outside of Russia.
On the SD Ventures website, information about the philosophy conference in Greenland is posted right below the video tour of the New York office. There is no contradiction - all the group's projects are aimed, as stated on the website (Volkov himself is reluctant to talk about business), just to make the world a better, happier place, to unite people. The same problems are solved by modern philosophers.
Discipleship
For Volkov, philosophy is no less serious than the development of new projects. At the age of 27, when the business was already established, he decided to get a second higher education and entered the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. He remembers this time as the happiest. “For the first time I started leaving work at 18:00. I didn’t know before that this was possible, ”says Dmitry. The group was small, all students sincerely wanted to learn.
Thanks to his supervisor, Professor Vadim Vasiliev, the student decided to go to graduate school and defended his Ph.D. thesis on the issues of consciousness, free will and the work of Daniel Dennett. Thus began Volkov's acquaintance with one of the main representatives of modern analytical philosophy.
Before the defense, Volkov decided to get to know Dennett personally. Having learned that the philosopher would take part in lectures on a cruise ship in Mexico, the businessman bought tickets for himself and his wife for this cruise.
The Russian businessman and the 70-year-old philosopher have become friends. Volkov flew to Dennett's dacha in a rented helicopter, and was at the Erasmus Prize ceremony in Stockholm. Once they agreed to meet in some secluded place to discuss issues of "mental causality," as Volkov recalls. Dennett, a former yachtsman, proposes a yacht trip off the coast of Greenland.
As a result, instead of a chamber meeting, a full-fledged philosophical expedition turned out: for a whole week from June 12 to June 19, 2014, more than 30 philosophers from all over the world discussed issues of consciousness and will on the schooner Rembrandt van Rijn.
The ship of the sages
The route of the expedition ran around Disko Island, located west of Greenland. Debating sessions were held every day in the spacious saloon. The format is as follows: on the basis of predetermined texts, each speaker presented the ideas of the other participant, who then took the floor, clarified and argued his position, after which a general discussion followed.
The topics discussed on the schooner - free will and consciousness - are exactly what worries the candidate of philosophical sciences Volkov most of all. The questions are abstract, but during the interview, Dmitry puts everything on the shelves in a few minutes. The natural sciences have shaped the modern concept of man. It is a living organism, the result of evolution, a physical system. But in such a picture of the world there is no place for either human consciousness or free will. Subjectivity remains behind - the subjective perception of color and sound, emotions - in a word, all those things that are individual. Philosophers who believe that subjective sensations are an illusion and that everything ultimately comes down to a single principle call themselves illusionists, or monists. Among them is Daniel Dennett, and partly Volkov.
“There is an idea that philosophy is an occupation divorced from reality,” the entrepreneur argues, “but in fact, philosophers must know the physiology of the brain in order to talk about consciousness. You need to know how it works. Analytic philosophy is strongly aligned with science.”
All members of the expedition were well acquainted with each other: professors often meet at conferences and at universities. On the schooner Rembrandt, two camps immediately formed - the monists, led by Dennett, and the dualists, who defend the reality of subjective ideas and believe that consciousness cannot be explained by processes in the brain or anything physical. The leader of this camp was David Chalmers.
There were more monists, since Dennett himself invited the philosophers, and he was pleased with the choice.
“I have never seen such a high level of discussion as on this boat,” Dennett wrote in response to a question from Forbes. “We all talked and argued about many things, but there was no arrogance, no quarrels, it was an unforgettable meeting of great minds.”
Volkov also notes that all the organizers were pleasantly surprised by how constructive the discussions turned out to be, despite their diametrically opposed positions. Representatives of both camps communicated emotionally, but extremely respectfully. So, during his speech, Chalmers from excitement for an hour took sips from an empty bottle. But no one ever got personal.
Disputes alternated with landings and acquaintance with the Arctic nature. In one of the towns, travelers were met by an Inuit guide, who, as it turned out, studied philosophy in Copenhagen. As a result, he spent an hour expounding his vision of the world to professors of the best universities, touching on the topic of free will. “Inuit men have free will, Inuit women cannot have free will,” Volkov cites the main points.
In addition, the harsh and picturesque nature of Greenland sometimes itself put an end to disputes. During the landing in the area of the Smallesund Canal, whose banks are covered with soft moss, and thousands of gulls circled near a sheer cliff, Chalmers made a powerful argument: “Just look! How can they say it's an illusion!" Even the most convinced illusionists did not argue with him.
During the trip, Dennett found somewhere an old board and already in America he cut out a whale figure from it. Dan was written on one side, Dmitry was written on the other. “It was a great intellectual journey,” Dennett wrote to Volkoff in a letter after returning.
Questions of Philosophy
After the PhD, Volkov took up the book, on which he worked for a total of six years. And in 2011 he published his work - "Boston Zombie: Dennett and his theory of consciousness", a book-discussion with Daniel Dennett and other modern philosophers. The plans include a doctoral dissertation, which Volkov intends to complete in a year, and another book.
How does a 38-year-old entrepreneur make time for philosophical studies? “This is my second profession,” Volkov says. And tells that main function philosophy in his life is "self-preserving".
“At 25, I began to discover that work is like an octopus, expanding to the end,” says the businessman. - You need to put up a Rublev wall to stop thinking about work. I built it with the help of philosophy.”
The second reason why it is important for an entrepreneur to engage in philosophy is the development of critical thinking. Philosophy teaches selective attitude to information. “In business, this is also very important,” Volkov is sure. - It is impossible to accept information, arguments on faith. It is important to critically evaluate statements. And in the end, this leads to a more perfect society, where there is more tolerance and independence.” That is why Volkov is trying to promote philosophy in Russia. In 2006, together with Vadim Vasiliev, they opened the Center for the Study of Consciousness at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. “This is my gratitude to the society for free education.”
The third reason is the aesthetic pleasure of philosophical reasoning. “I see beauty in intellectual constructions. As you can see it in paintings, in architectural structures, where engineering is visible, the entrepreneur admits. “The combination of technology and art is close to me as an idea both in life and in business.”
Expensive hobby
Colleagues and business partners react to Volkov's passion in different ways. To some it seems curious, someone refers to such a hobby with irony. Volkov laughingly tells about his acquaintance, the owner of a large travel company, to whom he once presented his book about Dennett. He sincerely thanked: "An ideal sleeping pill, I read two phrases - I instantly fall asleep." Then Volkov gave him New Year Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. “It will be even stronger,” he laughs.
Most of his friends consider philosophy just an expensive hobby, the same as helicopter flights (which Volkov also does professionally, received a license a few years ago) and heli-skiing.
“It’s really a colossally expensive hobby,” agrees the businessman. Because I invest the most valuable thing - my time. Work on a doctoral dissertation, on books requires personal presence, I cannot delegate it to anyone.
Philosophical works in Volkov's work schedule take about 30% of the time. All holidays and weekends of Volkov are scheduled until the end of the year - they are given for a doctoral dissertation.
Volkov co-finances the work of the Center for the Study of Consciousness and its projects. Only for a trip to Greenland, he laid out almost $ 250,000, flights for all participants and the expedition itself were paid. Eminent philosophers did not take money for participating in the conference, although usually their fees for public speaking run into the thousands of dollars.
Volkov is ready to continue spending money on scientific work. “I want to help create a philosophical community in Russia,” Volkov says. - Communities of philosophers who could work with each other, communicate, study creativity, read books, criticize. This is what the center was created for. He is sure that the most interesting thing in modern philosophy is the possibility of a dialogue in real time, because "it is no longer possible to discuss with Plato or Kant."
In addition, scientific studies allow a businessman to solve the question of the meaning of life. “Comprehension is necessary,” says Volkov. “I don’t want to live my life and not understand what world I was in.”
For 2018, the Social Discovery Ventures company, co-founded by Dmitry Volkov, is engaged in supporting and investing in Internet projects, of which there are more than 50 in the company's portfolio. Among them are Shazam, TripTogether, a website for finding fellow travelers, an application for learning languages (LinguaLeo) and many other. Representative offices of SDVentures are open in (New York), Hong Kong, Latvia (Riga), Russia (Moscow), Belarus (Minsk) and other countries.
Biography
1998-2012
In 1998 he graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, then postgraduate studies at IMEIMO with a degree in International Relations. In 2003, together with foreign partners, he created the Social Discovery Ventures holding. In 2006 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, in 2008 he defended his Ph.D. thesis in philosophy. In 2010, he became one of the founders of the Moscow Center for Consciousness Research at Moscow State University. In 2012, he published the book Boston Zombies: D. Dennett and His Theory of Consciousness.
2019: Entry into Forbes 200
In December 2019, Dmitry Volkov entered the top 200 richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes. The magazine estimated the fortune of the co-founder of one of the world's largest dating services Dating.com at $750 million.
The publication does not specify what place Volkov occupies in the Forbes 200 ranking. In the 2019 list itself, there are nine businessmen with a fortune of $ 750 million, they are in 137-145th places.
In October 2019, Volkov and his business partner Alla Gubenko merged their assets and created the Dating.com Group, which includes such dating services as Dating.com, DateMyAge, Cherish, Tubit, AnastasiaDate, ChinaLove, AsianDate and Amolatina. At that time, the total audience of all applications and sites reached 73 million registered users.
Dating.com Group plans to expand: at the end of November 2019, the company bought 100% of the American service Dil Mil for expats from India for $50 million, part of the deal was paid for in shares.
Dmitry Volkov is actively involved in investing. He was one of the first to invest in Shazam, a music recognition app, and also invested in the popular Patreon service, which allows you to donate money to content creators. The total investments of the entrepreneur in venture funds by December 2019 are estimated at $50 million.
In the most relevant Forbes rating for December 2019, among the richest businessmen in Russia, Leonid Mikhelson, the chairman of the board of Russia's largest private gas production company Novatek, with a fortune of $ 24 billion, is in the lead. In total, there are 100 dollar billionaires and 100 multimillionaires in the rating. The total wealth of the 200 richest Russians is $496 billion.
Public and scientific activities
As part of his philosophical activities, Dmitry Volkov in 2014 organized a philosophical expedition to the shores of Greenland, which was attended by world-famous philosophers Daniel Dennett, Nick Humphrey, Andy Clark, Jesse Prince, Derk Pereboom and David Chalmers, as well as students and postgraduates of Moscow State University. In addition, Dmitry Volkov is actively interested in contemporary Russian art. With the support of Social Discovery Ventures, the Actual Art albums are published, introducing the public to the work of contemporary artists from