Innovating for the Sake of Innovation
An Interview with Michael Kechinov, HackDay Organizer
Mar 28, 2014
Michael Kechinov is the founder of Rees46, an Internet service for e-commerce and co-founder of Coffeelab, an early-stage internet-startup accelerator. An expert in recommending systems and personalization services, Kechinov posses a wealth of experience and often acts as a CTO for the various companies he is involved in. His development studio has played a remarkable role in the development of the Russian startup-community as the organizer of HackDay, a marathon 48-hour event where participants workshop prototypes of projects before presenting them to colleagues, experts and investors.
Mikhail Kechinov Studio has been involved with HackDay from the very beginning — uniting managers, designers, interface developers, programmers, marketing and PR specialists, and all those who have ideas for Internet-based projects but no team to implement them.
HackDay is a high-pressure project development lab that has attracted many adherents with its no nonsense aim of fast and effective project development. The events typically start on a Friday evening when participants announce their ideas and assemble the teams they will work with over the next two days. Saturday and Sunday are devoted to prototype development and discussions with mentors, and on Sunday evening prototypes are presented.
Always challenging, HackDay is a necessary right of passage for anyone interested in cutting-edge technologies and has helped foster a thriving innovation community in Russia.
Software Russia sat down with Mikhail Kechinov, whose Studio has been involved in the event since it first launched in Russia in 2009.
How did you initially come to be involved in HackDay?
The first HackDay was brought to Russia from the U.S. by Yury Livshitz of Yahoo. We were mere participants. After that first experiment, everyone was so excited that Yury offered anyone who was interested to continue the experiment and see where it would lead. There were 14 co-organizers at the beginning, all ready to commit resources, but only four of them remained on board by the time the second HackDay rolled around. The second HackDay was a tremendous success. Over 400 people attended the event at ITMO [the St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics] and it was amazing to see all those folks coming in to work for free on their days off. That was the beginning of the new format, back in December 2009. It was a pure IT event, with people from various spheres: accountants, university professors and so on.
Why did you decide to take over the organization of the event?
In the very beginning we were not that keen on taking on the responsibility, as we were not sure that we could handle it. Then we spoke to our CEO, gave it some thought and decided it was worth the risk. We were motivated by the prospects for promotion and HR-branding opportunities. At the time we were a very small company, employing only five people. We now number about 50.
Do you think HackDay has contributed to your growth?
Well, it was a very successful experiment. We got very good publicity for both HackDay and our company. So we decided to continue and to experiment with various formats. We tried a HackDay for film, where people made short movies over the course of a weekend; some produced really great things by the way, very professional. We also tried a music HackDay but it was not that good because the final part - Demofest, where everyone presented their results, became incredibly complicated to organize. Setting up the stage between each group and the sound checks were very difficult to pull off smoothly. From that moment on we decided to focus on IT, which was our company’s priority. We also began to get invitations and proposals to organize HackDay in other cities. In 2013, we had seven different locations.
What about monetization? Is there any business potential in what you do?
Not really. In the beginning it was almost like a social outreach project for us, we wanted to show that work could be interesting in its own right. Now we have the goal of at least breaking even. Financing all these events has become something of a burden, so now we sell tickets. Although it helps us to raise the money needed for the events, selling tickets also helps eliminate those people who show up just to chat and eat. It also allows us to offer really decent meals because surviving 48 hours on coffee and cookies alone is too much for most people, even keen programmers. At about 10 euros, the tickets are fairly cheap and that includes meals. For us it’s not a business tool, we don’t intend to make any money on HackDay. All we want to do is attract really motivated people — and that is exactly what is happening. We now have up to 25 projects each time, 70 percent of the ideas make it to the prototype stage. What is great is that so many people are actually willing to pay to work, instead of being paid for what they do, which is fascinating.
Has the project or the way you work on it changed much over the years?
Well, the status has changed. From 2011 onwards, we have been experimenting with specialists being present at the event. Now we usually have two teams of expert practitioners who can offer advice and make a real contribution. There are the "tech guys" — people with real working success stories, and the "business guys" — people with successful cases and startup exits. We have experts from Russia, Europe and the U.S. — people like Gary Fowler, CEO of Fowler Int’l, Brenden Mulligan, mentor at 500 Startups and Ryan Junee, CEO of Inporia, Inc. The U.S. consulates help us to get travel grants for international participants. We are very grateful for their support; they are always very considerate and have never imposed any restrictions on our programs.
Why do you think HackDay has become such a success in Russia?
It’s all about motivation. People attend because they want to have fun, to connect with people with a similar outlook, to accomplish something and to face a challenge. Sometimes the ideas are already there; sometimes they emerge during the event. It’s also about testing and implementing ideas that people were sort of thinking about but never had the time or resources to develop. But these people are in the minority, most people just come to "relax" and do something different from what they normally do at work. Sometimes we have whole teams attending — like teams from Yandex, for example. For them it’s like an off-site team-building event.
Have you thought of offering a HackDay as a team-building tool to companies then?
Yes, we have plans to create motivational training programs for developers based on the HackDay model. We know who to talk to and how to talk to them. We hope it will become our monetization strategy. We ran a pilot project within our company and it was very successful. Our friends at FirstLine Software also held a similar event recently. The important thing to remember is that this project can only work if the initiative comes from the bottom up. It’s about organizing and driving communities, and that’s something that cannot be done by management.
How do you attract people and promote HackDay in new cities?
The issue of communities is a very important part of HackDay. We have a methodology for finding and enrolling local teams. We find them, and they find us. We look at their competence, their set of goals and priorities, and the members of the teams. We target leaders of local communities, people who are doing something, who are active at the local level. Our first goal is to identify those local leaders. We have analysts who study the local situation, gather information about local IT communities and explore communication channels. This leads us to opinion leaders. We combine all the information and then decide whether to go into a particular city or not. It must be an informed, rational decision — we do have to make ends meet, after all. We need to get some publicity and we have to maintain the reputation of the project, so we really don’t want to fail.
Do you have any sponsors to help make ends meet?
Actually, we do. We have several agreements with different companies who are interested in supporting us, although raising money is not easy these days. We’ve worked with Intel, Skype, Aviasales, Microsoft, Yandex, CFT, Technopolis GS and Fast VPS, among others. Companies are starting to realize that there are benefits in terms of promoting their products and attracting workforce. For instance, Intel came to us with their new SDK technology, which is based on gestures. They had the technology, but didn’t have any projects based on it. After 48 hours with us they had something in their hands.
What is next for you?
Well, we are about to start HackDay City, a pilot project in urban IT development. At the end, we plan to have working prototypes of things that are useful for the city. On Apr. 27 we’ll show something that functions, not simply an idea. We have support from both the St. Petersburg municipal government, the Foundation for Internet Initiative Development (FIID) and private enterprise, like Aviasales. We are also planning to invite specialists in urban development and city planning. The projects that will be developed are to be used to improve people’s lives. We hope to create a successful pilot and then to repeat in in other cities.
Is what you do any different from similar events in other countries, like Hackathon?
What we do is not like Hackathon, which is a very important distinction. Our teams don’t really compete against one another; there is no financial motivation and no real prizes. People do not come to HackDay to win anything; they come to work and to be part of something larger. We do have some abstract awards, of course, like the Coolest Technology Project, Best Business Idea, the Hack Award for the simplest and most straightforward idea, and even an award for the Craziest Project. We want to see the craziest stuff that people can come up with. We have even developed a program that measures audience reaction to the presentations — it measures the noise they make and their cheers.
But we are not a platform for competition; we are a platform for cooperation. That’s why people like it so much. We have an incredible return rate — people who attend once almost always return for more. That is probably what’s most different about the Russian IT community; people are motivated by interesting tasks and challenges more than money. It’s not like we have professional Hackathon programmers who do regular business by participating and winning prizes; Russians are motivated by dialog, mastery and achievement. We also offer people a chance to socialize. We encourage them to speak publicly about their work and for some of them it is the first time that they speak into a microphone on stage. HackDay is a place where people can bring their weirdest ideas and no one is going to laugh at them.
Mikhail Kechinov Studio has been involved with HackDay from the very beginning — uniting managers, designers, interface developers, programmers, marketing and PR specialists, and all those who have ideas for Internet-based projects but no team to implement them.
HackDay is a high-pressure project development lab that has attracted many adherents with its no nonsense aim of fast and effective project development. The events typically start on a Friday evening when participants announce their ideas and assemble the teams they will work with over the next two days. Saturday and Sunday are devoted to prototype development and discussions with mentors, and on Sunday evening prototypes are presented.
Always challenging, HackDay is a necessary right of passage for anyone interested in cutting-edge technologies and has helped foster a thriving innovation community in Russia.
Software Russia sat down with Mikhail Kechinov, whose Studio has been involved in the event since it first launched in Russia in 2009.
How did you initially come to be involved in HackDay?
The first HackDay was brought to Russia from the U.S. by Yury Livshitz of Yahoo. We were mere participants. After that first experiment, everyone was so excited that Yury offered anyone who was interested to continue the experiment and see where it would lead. There were 14 co-organizers at the beginning, all ready to commit resources, but only four of them remained on board by the time the second HackDay rolled around. The second HackDay was a tremendous success. Over 400 people attended the event at ITMO [the St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics] and it was amazing to see all those folks coming in to work for free on their days off. That was the beginning of the new format, back in December 2009. It was a pure IT event, with people from various spheres: accountants, university professors and so on.
Why did you decide to take over the organization of the event?
In the very beginning we were not that keen on taking on the responsibility, as we were not sure that we could handle it. Then we spoke to our CEO, gave it some thought and decided it was worth the risk. We were motivated by the prospects for promotion and HR-branding opportunities. At the time we were a very small company, employing only five people. We now number about 50.
Do you think HackDay has contributed to your growth?
Well, it was a very successful experiment. We got very good publicity for both HackDay and our company. So we decided to continue and to experiment with various formats. We tried a HackDay for film, where people made short movies over the course of a weekend; some produced really great things by the way, very professional. We also tried a music HackDay but it was not that good because the final part - Demofest, where everyone presented their results, became incredibly complicated to organize. Setting up the stage between each group and the sound checks were very difficult to pull off smoothly. From that moment on we decided to focus on IT, which was our company’s priority. We also began to get invitations and proposals to organize HackDay in other cities. In 2013, we had seven different locations.
What about monetization? Is there any business potential in what you do?
Not really. In the beginning it was almost like a social outreach project for us, we wanted to show that work could be interesting in its own right. Now we have the goal of at least breaking even. Financing all these events has become something of a burden, so now we sell tickets. Although it helps us to raise the money needed for the events, selling tickets also helps eliminate those people who show up just to chat and eat. It also allows us to offer really decent meals because surviving 48 hours on coffee and cookies alone is too much for most people, even keen programmers. At about 10 euros, the tickets are fairly cheap and that includes meals. For us it’s not a business tool, we don’t intend to make any money on HackDay. All we want to do is attract really motivated people — and that is exactly what is happening. We now have up to 25 projects each time, 70 percent of the ideas make it to the prototype stage. What is great is that so many people are actually willing to pay to work, instead of being paid for what they do, which is fascinating.
Has the project or the way you work on it changed much over the years?
Well, the status has changed. From 2011 onwards, we have been experimenting with specialists being present at the event. Now we usually have two teams of expert practitioners who can offer advice and make a real contribution. There are the "tech guys" — people with real working success stories, and the "business guys" — people with successful cases and startup exits. We have experts from Russia, Europe and the U.S. — people like Gary Fowler, CEO of Fowler Int’l, Brenden Mulligan, mentor at 500 Startups and Ryan Junee, CEO of Inporia, Inc. The U.S. consulates help us to get travel grants for international participants. We are very grateful for their support; they are always very considerate and have never imposed any restrictions on our programs.
Why do you think HackDay has become such a success in Russia?
It’s all about motivation. People attend because they want to have fun, to connect with people with a similar outlook, to accomplish something and to face a challenge. Sometimes the ideas are already there; sometimes they emerge during the event. It’s also about testing and implementing ideas that people were sort of thinking about but never had the time or resources to develop. But these people are in the minority, most people just come to "relax" and do something different from what they normally do at work. Sometimes we have whole teams attending — like teams from Yandex, for example. For them it’s like an off-site team-building event.
Have you thought of offering a HackDay as a team-building tool to companies then?
Yes, we have plans to create motivational training programs for developers based on the HackDay model. We know who to talk to and how to talk to them. We hope it will become our monetization strategy. We ran a pilot project within our company and it was very successful. Our friends at FirstLine Software also held a similar event recently. The important thing to remember is that this project can only work if the initiative comes from the bottom up. It’s about organizing and driving communities, and that’s something that cannot be done by management.
How do you attract people and promote HackDay in new cities?
The issue of communities is a very important part of HackDay. We have a methodology for finding and enrolling local teams. We find them, and they find us. We look at their competence, their set of goals and priorities, and the members of the teams. We target leaders of local communities, people who are doing something, who are active at the local level. Our first goal is to identify those local leaders. We have analysts who study the local situation, gather information about local IT communities and explore communication channels. This leads us to opinion leaders. We combine all the information and then decide whether to go into a particular city or not. It must be an informed, rational decision — we do have to make ends meet, after all. We need to get some publicity and we have to maintain the reputation of the project, so we really don’t want to fail.
Do you have any sponsors to help make ends meet?
Actually, we do. We have several agreements with different companies who are interested in supporting us, although raising money is not easy these days. We’ve worked with Intel, Skype, Aviasales, Microsoft, Yandex, CFT, Technopolis GS and Fast VPS, among others. Companies are starting to realize that there are benefits in terms of promoting their products and attracting workforce. For instance, Intel came to us with their new SDK technology, which is based on gestures. They had the technology, but didn’t have any projects based on it. After 48 hours with us they had something in their hands.
What is next for you?
Well, we are about to start HackDay City, a pilot project in urban IT development. At the end, we plan to have working prototypes of things that are useful for the city. On Apr. 27 we’ll show something that functions, not simply an idea. We have support from both the St. Petersburg municipal government, the Foundation for Internet Initiative Development (FIID) and private enterprise, like Aviasales. We are also planning to invite specialists in urban development and city planning. The projects that will be developed are to be used to improve people’s lives. We hope to create a successful pilot and then to repeat in in other cities.
Is what you do any different from similar events in other countries, like Hackathon?
What we do is not like Hackathon, which is a very important distinction. Our teams don’t really compete against one another; there is no financial motivation and no real prizes. People do not come to HackDay to win anything; they come to work and to be part of something larger. We do have some abstract awards, of course, like the Coolest Technology Project, Best Business Idea, the Hack Award for the simplest and most straightforward idea, and even an award for the Craziest Project. We want to see the craziest stuff that people can come up with. We have even developed a program that measures audience reaction to the presentations — it measures the noise they make and their cheers.
But we are not a platform for competition; we are a platform for cooperation. That’s why people like it so much. We have an incredible return rate — people who attend once almost always return for more. That is probably what’s most different about the Russian IT community; people are motivated by interesting tasks and challenges more than money. It’s not like we have professional Hackathon programmers who do regular business by participating and winning prizes; Russians are motivated by dialog, mastery and achievement. We also offer people a chance to socialize. We encourage them to speak publicly about their work and for some of them it is the first time that they speak into a microphone on stage. HackDay is a place where people can bring their weirdest ideas and no one is going to laugh at them.