Jobs: Ruslan Tugushev, co-founder of Boomstarter

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In an interview with Lifehacker, Ruslan talked about how Outlook replaces any calendars and planners for him, what inspires him in climbing and why he needs a bathrobe at home.

What do you do in your work?

I am the co-founder and CEO of the largest crowdfunding platform in Russia.

The idea of its creation arose from one's own need: there were ideas, but there was not enough money to implement them. My friend and partner Yevgeny Gavrilin and I visited funds, private investors, business angels, and then we thought: it would be nice to exhibit their ideas on the Internet, and if people like it, they will be able to invest money. So in 2012, Evgeny and I opened our own crowdfunding platform.

Crowdfunding means collective funding, when the required amount is raised by a large number of people interested in the idea. Boomstarter is a world where new emotions and impressions are created, people find each other and together create something new. Over four years, more than a thousand projects have been implemented, 250 million rubles have been raised.

What is your profession?

I'm a lawyer. I chose my future profession under the impression of watching films about lawyers and attorneys. When I graduated from the institute, I went to work in my specialty. But I worked for only six months and realized that everything is completely different there, not as fabulous as shown in the movies. Therefore, I abandoned this whole topic: first I went into advertising, and then I opened my own business.

During student vacations, he went to camps: first he worked as a counselor, then as a senior counselor, and then as a director. For me, it was a way not just to make money, but to interact with new people. There was a whole pedagogical team: 30 people from different regions.

Of course, spending five years on a university is worth it. This is still additional knowledge and socialization: a gradual transition from kindergarten to real life.

Now I am mastering the Startup Leadership Program (SLP). This is an international training program for company executives and top managers. In it, the people who are the organizers of the process also learn themselves. The training takes place twice a month: first, there is a presentation by an invited expert, and then a student tells about the work in terms of his skills. Someone, for example, has a story to tell about working with clients, team management, leadership. Others - about finances and so on. Everyone shares their experience, so you get not dry theory, but practical knowledge.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Laziness refers to both strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, you want to get rid of it, and on the other, it allows you to move. After all, laziness can be called in another way - delegation.

When you constantly delegate, your team grows and your business develops. In this case, you need to trust the person as much as possible, not to interfere with him to understand the issue.

But, despite the delegation, I always try to make myself responsible for the result. That is, I can not do it myself, but I constantly think about it, keep it in my field of vision, and soon there will be an opportunity to help the person engaged in this task. I don't know which side it is, but it helps me.

I also have such a character trait - to proceed in any situation from the interpretation of the possibility, not the impossibility. Regardless of the complexity of the task, you need to think about options for solving it, and then it will definitely come. Maybe not right away, in a day, two, a week, but it will come.

You may be said “no” a thousand times, but once you will hear “yes”, and this is exactly what you need.

I also tend to be somewhat closed. In my opinion, being open to the outside world is very useful for achieving your goals. But sometimes I somehow automatically close myself. I try to fight this.

What does your workplace look like?

I don't like cluttering my desktop, I don't need much. On the table is a MacBook. He's my fifth. It is lightweight, convenient, fast, keeps charging for a long time, and meets the maximum number of requirements. I follow the news, when a new model is released, I buy it right away.

Not so long ago, we moved to a new office and changed the design concept. We used to have brick walls, now they are made of wood. The room is small, and in order to remove the boundaries between the offices, we installed panoramic windows: this brings the employees closer together.

I wanted greenery around, but I didn't want, like everyone else, flowers in pots. And when I was in my village, I saw a rather large birch log. My father and I made a trial version of a birch pot and planted grass there. It turned out beautifully, we decided to place these all over the office.

I use Microsoft Outlook as an email client, calendar and planner. In my opinion, this is the most user-friendly email client ever created. I work with mail a lot, process 100-120 letters a day, and Outlook helps out. It works on all platforms, I even have it installed on the iPhone. There is remote synchronization, the ability to work without the Internet.

I don't use text editors. I write only in Outlook. But Word is installed to open and read the sent document.

I also hardly use web services: Outlook is enough. Browser - Chrome and sometimes Safari. But for search I prefer Yandex, not Google.

Messengers: Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack. Slack - only within the team, WhatsApp - only if the person does not have Telegram. Therefore, the main messenger is Telegram: it is faster and more convenient than the others.

Is there a place for paper in your work?

I have a weekly notebook, but I have it since 2015 and have not even been half used yet. I usually use it during a conversation: in order not to interrupt the interlocutor, I write down the questions that I would like to ask when he finishes his speech.

There is also paper, if we talk about contracts that are brought for signature, and some other official things. I do not print articles and emails.

What's in your bag?

I have a backpack.

It contains an adapter from a Mac to various projectors (HDMI, USB), pain pills, a selfie stick, a MacBook charger, a laptop itself, passports (internal and two foreign ones), a wallet and all sorts of little things.

If I'm going on a trip, I take a couple more T-shirts and shorts.

How do you organize your time?

I use Outlook to draw up short and medium term plans. For long-term ones, I hang pieces of paper with inscriptions on the mirror, what I would like to see in six months, a year, two, three. Everything else is in Outlook: that's more than enough for me.

What is your daily routine?

I am an owl, or rather, an owl-lark: I go to bed early and get up late. I try to go to bed on the same day, that is, before midnight. I wake up at eight or nine in the morning. Instead of an alarm clock, my daughter wakes me up now.

Looks about the same every morning. It starts with a 30-40 minute game with your daughter. Now I'm teaching her to get up, well, and so we bite, pinch, fly.:)

Most productive from about 11:00 to 17:00.

I try to do brunch and early supper. My lunch actually flies away, because at this time I am as active as possible and practically not distracted. Sometimes there is also a late dinner, but these are only vegetables or fruits.

In the evening, when I come home, I completely change clothes, put on slippers and a bathrobe: this quickly switches from work to home mode. If I come, I don’t change clothes and I get a laptop in my hands, I can get down to work for another two or three hours. And so, changed clothes - and that's it, you seem to be in a home format.

The day ends with a cup of tea with honey: soothes, it is easier to fall asleep.

How do you while away the time in traffic jams?

Using Microsoft Outlook. If I open my mail and there is not a single letter, I start to write myself.

When I drive to work, I listen to music in the car. I have several playlists for the mood. For example, there is a motivating playlist, I turn it on when I'm in a bad mood in the morning.

What's your hobby?

I travel a lot, about ten trips a year. And if you count the internal crossings, then even more. When I travel, I like to take pictures for Instagram. For me, this is a combination of business and pleasure: you go to work and you can visit new and unusual places.

What place does sport take in your life?

I am engaged in rock climbing: it is both physical activity and the fight against fears. In moments when it is scary, those automatons come out that interfere with achieving goals in work and life.

I work out twice a week with a personal trainer: he points out the problematic points. When I then look at myself from the outside, analyze what mistakes I make on the wall, it often turns out that I make the same mistakes in reality.

In climbing (and not only), I am inspired by examples of success. When they give me some new route, I almost never pass it the first time. I go and somewhere in the middle I fall down. But then I look at the next person who walks along the track and passes it, and I think: "He did it, so I can do it too." The second time, I almost always go through everything to the end.

Life hacking from Ruslan Tugushev

Books

Of course, there are books that somehow influenced my worldview, but you need to understand that I read them in a certain state and at a certain time. It's not a fact that the book I read seven or eight years ago would have given me something today. For example, when I read "" by Patrick Suskind, it was associated with certain events in my life. It talks about the perfectionism with which a person treated his work, and it struck me a lot. I realized that this can be applied in my work as well.

But I did not understand the book "" by Ayn Rand. She didn't give me anything like that. Perhaps I read it at the wrong moment.

But I was greatly influenced by the book "" by Walter Isaacson. I liked not even the story itself, but the structure. Usually biographies are written in a linear fashion, but here, for example, events that took place twenty years ago are described and immediately described what came of it in the end.

There is also an interesting book "" (The Power of Now series). My partner Denis advised me to read it. The book provides a good technique to help stop the running of thoughts a little, relax and see what is happening around, in addition to work.

I am happy when everything is in balance. When there is enough time for family, work, own health and hobbies. A bias to either side is destabilizing.

From business literature I liked the book "". A small but interesting book that made you smile. It is not business rules that are affected, but the rules of morality in doing business. Not the fact that everyone will like it, but it deserves attention.

Films and series

I use the online cinema for viewing. Favorite: Silicon Valley, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Lost, House Doctor, House of Cards.

I go to the cinema two or three times a month. I like films where new worlds are created: reality is already full around. Favorite paintings: The Beginning, The Matrix, Interstellar.

I am currently watching the "" channel on YouTube.

I used to consume a lot more content. Now I have a daughter: she is all my blogs and websites.

What is your life credo?

More than ten years ago, I chose the motto for myself: "Knowing the path and walking it are two different things." I lived with this motto for several years. But after a certain time I realized that knowing the path and walking it are actually the same thing. Therefore, now I am an adherent of a different motto.

If you know the way, you will reach the end.

Do not forget about your long-term prospects, you need to predict them. When you look 20, 30, 40, 50 years ahead, you understand what needs to be done here and now.