Today we publish an interview with George Hausman, founder and CEO of Project Group. His team creates sustainable and market-ready brands and web products, develops websites for startups and promotes them.

The group's clients and partners now include major companies such as Headhunter, Bosco, Formula 1, Discovery, Crocus Group and Mercedes-Benz Panavto.

How Hausman achieved success and how his business is progressing, he told in an interview with the "Innovators" channel. In addition, Hausman named what he considered to be the three main criteria for the success of a startup.

The founder of Projekt has been a guest of the project before:

- Tell me about how your business is doing right now.?

- Currently I work with partners Vasily Bondarev and Andrey Zaruev on "Project" group, which includes a small advertising agency, "TopTop Indoor Media "(.topindoor.)and the Digital studio "Project" (.project.rf.): we provide services in the field of custom web development, online and offline marketing, brand platform development and design in general.

- Tell us your success story, how did you enter the startup market?

- I always say that it can not be called a success, it is rather just a start. But even at the moment - it was quite a winding path: I changed a lot of niches. If we talk about the main stage, the results brought me the educational project "ASE» (https://rb.ru/interview/fu-ase/). It was noticed, thanks to which I won many contests, both in our country and abroad. For a long time we had been developing this project, and later, when looking for investments, we managed to sell it. In addition, working on ASE, we managed to form a team of designers and developers. Next it was necessary to develop. And the first thing that came to mind was to make custom software for large companies. And this is how the company Project was born.

- What difficulties did you encounter on your way into the startup market?

- There were indeed many difficulties. It started with the fact that we were starting to develop as a platform and needed funding. I met a storm of misunderstanding about how to develop: I didn't know where to look for investments. Having gone a certain route, I realise that I could have done things a little differently. I dealt with the problem of financing as best I could. The startup idea was financed by a good acquaintance of mine. Of course, after a specific promotion you need money further down the line and, in fact, we decided to take part in international competitions and solve the problem of financing through contest money. I managed to take part in acceleration programmes and competitions in China and the CIS countries. Thus, the first problem was finding the money.

The second difficulty was the emotional component. A startup is not only a monetary venture, but also a loss of time and energy. , "will it be relevant and special?" Although it was difficult, but to be honest, it is important for me to be confident in my head in any business, rather than convincing others of the right thing to do.

- If you had the opportunity to go back to the starting point, what would you change in your actions??

- I'm happy with everything, without any extra pathos. We had an interesting route, it was complicated in some places. But it was really exciting. I miss the time when we worked with the team from home, it was very interesting. Now of course there is a different pace and format of work. At the moment I already have experience, and I will use it in my other ventures, and I would not go back and change anything.

- Three pieces of advice for aspiring start-ups.

- My first piece of advice is to pay a lot of attention to team selection. This is very important. Few people at a startup devote enough time to it. I am very grateful to our partners, at ProJect our Art Director Ivan Bondarev is a genius, despite his creative work, he is very responsible for the fast pace and changes. The path can change, transform, the circumstances will not always be the best, but if the team is well selected, the path will be easier.

The second tip is consistency. First-time entrepreneurs should not expect quick results. This is the most common problem - people burn out quickly, they don't get the first expected millions, subscribers and so on. It is very important to consistently go towards your goal. In general, what is a goal is a route, a kind of "road.road Map" consisting of problems, sub-problems, and objectives. All of them should be passed at the outset. Also, a lot of things remain beyond prediction. Based on its route, I can say exactly, literally, more than half of what awaited us, we have not considered from the start. But thanks to the team we were able to overcome all the difficulties.

Thirdly, it is important to dream, think big, be enthusiastic, but this should not imply expecting quick results. Think over your idea of what you are doing it for.