8.Relaxed and with hair blowing in the breeze, more looks like in the Pantene ad than in the viral video
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eo of Trump's hair,Relaxed and with hair blowing in the breeze, more looks like in the Pantene ad than in the viral video of Trump's hair, I pedaled over bumpy, dusty dirt paths around my 'dacha', the rural cottage, where like the most of Soviet children were spending the entire summer.
The bike wasn't mine. I have never had one. My family couldn't afford it. I borrowed it from my older neighbor. She was at that age when girls are starting to think more about a look and an outfit, rather than enjoying the thrill of a bicycle ride. But her bike wasn't available all the time, so I had to be persuasive to get a vehicle from someone else or to be an outsider-pedestrian. Recently, I was thinking, what if we would have this ‘sharing-mobility back then (to my childhood time).
But I was growing up before technology was everywhere and the internet was a thing. In those days, hand brakes and gears were unseen. Riders never wore helmets or special clothing and there were no bicycle lanes marked on streets. We couldn't buy a kick-scooter in a store, so we handmade it from wooden crates from landfills. Bicycles were prized possessions in the neighborhood. Much has changed in the 30 years since on both sides of the ocean.
Back in the 2010s, I worked as a project manager of the Russian Innovation Convention in Moscow, со-organized by Skolkovo’s Technopark and took place at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, Russia's version of Silicon Valley.
Working at the conventions of 2010 - 2012, I managed guests lists of 10+ thousand participants, young innovators, and entrepreneurs, looking for self-fulfillment in science and high-tech economy. I also worked closely with government officials and high profile speakers from the sphere of innovation. From 2010 to 2012 there were many renowned guests at the Convention, such as Richard Branson(Virgin); Bill Tai (KiteVC), Steve Wozniak (Apple), Harzh Taggar (“Y Combinator”) and so on. For me it was a unique opportunity to see both sides of the coin - get experience, and useful contacts to launch my venture somewhere in the future.
The Skolkovo "innovation town" outside Moscow, backed by technology-adherent Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as part of his modernization drive, was supposed to become the country's most ecologically friendly town, with cycle tracks, solar panels, and windmills. These ideas have appeared as a result of encouraging / inspirational visit of Mr. Medvedev and other Russian officials to the original Silicon Valley in California in 2010.
I remember when I first visitied Googleplex - Google's campus, it was unbelievable that the bikes come in all shapes and sizes, and are available to pretty much anyone to take just about wherever they please. It was truly brilliant! Google has a large campus that is spread across many miles and buildings. To get from one place to another would be a hassle without the bikes.
Over the past decade, corporate bike fleets have become commonplace on Silicon Valley campuses - Apple, Facebook, and others have campus bikes. Dockless and docked bikes have already occupied big cities. Almost 10 years later, Russia's version of Silicon Valley still doesn’t have anything similar. E-bikes are good, but E-scooters might be the new thing.
Having ties with my former colleagues at Skolkovo, we are negotiating that the technopark will launch BRiZ e-scooters sharing in 2020. The system should help Skolkovo employees move faster across a fairly large area of the center. BRIZ is a smart dock-less mobility platform, which offers dock-free electric scooter rentals to fulfill short distance, urban and other trips. I am the co-founder and CEO of BRiZ Mobility.
But, let's start from the very beginning.
I pedaled over bumpy, dusty dirt paths around my 'dacha', the rural cottage, where like the most of Soviet children were spending the entire summer.
The bike wasn't mine. I have never had one. My family couldn't afford it. I borrowed it from my older neighbor. She was at that age when girls are starting to think more about a look and an outfit, rather than enjoying the thrill of a bicycle ride. But her bike wasn't available all the time, so I had to be persuasive to get a vehicle from someone else or to be an outsider-pedestrian. Recently, I was thinking, what if we would have this ‘sharing-mobility back then (to my childhood time).
But I was growing up before technology was everywhere and the internet was a thing. In those days, hand brakes and gears were unseen. Riders never wore helmets or special clothing and there were no bicycle lanes marked on streets. We couldn't buy a kick-scooter in a store, so we handmade it from wooden crates from landfills. Bicycles were prized possessions in the neighborhood. Much has changed in the 30 years since on both sides of the ocean.
Back in the 2010s, I worked as a project manager of the Russian Innovation Convention in Moscow, со-organized by Skolkovo’s Technopark and took place at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, Russia's version of Silicon Valley.
Working at the conventions of 2010 - 2012, I managed guests lists of 10+ thousand participants, young innovators, and entrepreneurs, looking for self-fulfillment in science and high-tech economy. I also worked closely with government officials and high profile speakers from the sphere of innovation. From 2010 to 2012 there were many renowned guests at the Convention, such as Richard Branson(Virgin); Bill Tai (KiteVC), Steve Wozniak (Apple), Harzh Taggar (“Y Combinator”) and so on. For me it was a unique opportunity to see both sides of the coin - get experience, and useful contacts to launch my venture somewhere in the future.
The Skolkovo "innovation town" outside Moscow, backed by technology-adherent Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as part of his modernization drive, was supposed to become the country's most ecologically friendly town, with cycle tracks, solar panels, and windmills. These ideas have appeared as a result of encouraging / inspirational visit of Mr. Medvedev and other Russian officials to the original Silicon Valley in California in 2010.
I remember when I first visitied Googleplex - Google's campus, it was unbelievable that the bikes come in all shapes and sizes, and are available to pretty much anyone to take just about wherever they please. It was truly brilliant! Google has a large campus that is spread across many miles and buildings. To get from one place to another would be a hassle without the bikes.
Over the past decade, corporate bike fleets have become commonplace on Silicon Valley campuses - Apple, Facebook, and others have campus bikes. Dockless and docked bikes have already occupied big cities. Almost 10 years later, Russia's version of Silicon Valley still doesn’t have anything similar. E-bikes are good, but E-scooters might be the new thing.
Having ties with my former colleagues at Skolkovo, we are negotiating that the technopark will launch BRiZ e-scooters sharing in 2020. The system should help Skolkovo employees move faster across a fairly large area of the center. BRIZ is a smart dock-less mobility platform, which offers dock-free electric scooter rentals to fulfill short distance, urban and other trips. I am the co-founder and CEO of BRiZ Mobility.
But, let's start from the very beginning.
I am a politician, public servant and started my career as a grassroots organizer in 2006. In the decade since, I have taken part in several political movements, coordinated numerous political events, organized a political party, run for office, and held leadership positions in the federal government.
Since I became involved in public service, I’ve been always advocating for government transparency. The information era and its accompanying tech boom expanded my toolkit. From 2013 to 2016, I coordinated grant competitions for youth all over Russia at the Ministry of Education and its subdivision Federal Agency of Youth Affairs. Two of the biggest challenges facing my team were securely collecting and storing personal data of the participants (33 million youth people in Russia) and implementing a transparent, fair process for selecting grant winners and distributing funds to them. Our solution, the Automatic Information System (AIS) "Youth of Russia," was implemented in 2014, and since then this system is operating. This experience was valuable in terms of managing developers' team, develop a user-friendly big data platform, as well as pushing the slow bureaucratic structures on digital reforms.
I completed my Master's degree in 2015 and started my PhD, doing my Masters's degree in Public Administration and a Ph.D. in economics simultaneously. I was then recruited by Moscow Government to work on the preparation of Moscow as one of the Host Cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. However, sometime later, my application was accepted by three Ivy League universities and I moved to New York to study at Columbia University, School of international and public affairs in 2017.
The past year at Columbia University has shifted my academic and professional passions towards the Sustainable Development Goals, among them Sustainable cities and communities (including transportation), 'Gender Equality, and its influence on a broad range of fields.
At SIPA, I chose Management & Innovation Concentration. Because my background wasn't in tech, I knew I needed to fill some skill gap areas. So I took the opportunity to load up on courses that focus on innovations, sustainability, and urban policy. One of the extremely useful classes was 'Strategic Management of Information & Communications Technologies for the Public Good with Prof. Robert Z Tumin, where we have been examining different policy and managerial cases, and use of established and leading-edge information and communication technologies, among them in transportation (Uber Case). Another one was 'Implementation of Sustainability Strategies' with Prof. Todd Cort. One of the final research project at that class was related to the environmental impact of transport in Europe and the analysis of the combination of bikes and trains that can provide an alternative to less sustainable modes, such as private motor vehicles. In the Fall of 2018, my final portfolio project at SIPA had transformed into my startup business plan, investor pitch deck, and profound research on the market opportunity and competition.
My team and I launched the company in February 2019. In the past 9 months following up on the launch of BRiZ, I have been working on a series of tasks to get the business off the ground. So that included everything from submitting our incorporation documents, raising capital, negotiating with suppliers, implementing operations, and developing partnerships to get the business fully up and running. Now that we have launched, my job is continuing to fundraise, work towards our expansion goals, work with governments and oversee the day-to-day operations.
Having a public policy background, I also the one who will manage the implementation of technology that will help the company to work smoothly with regulators. BRiZ’s engineers work on imposing parking restrictions so that scooters can’t be parked in spaces rejected by a city; imposing speed limits on scooters within certain parts of a city, and lock scooters that violate those rules. Besides controlling how its scooters work, BRiZ can share its data with city officials to help cities understand traffic patterns and find the best settings for these green transportation solutions. If we have a good relationship with the city, we’ll be able to find the sensible ground where we’re truly improving transportation.
According to my research, made before launching BRiZ, most of the electric kick scooters in the scooter-sharing market were designed with serious downsides, such as short lifespan, loads of unnecessary functions, lacking must-have safety features, etc. So, we recreated something that everyone already knows and creates a functional and smart prototype - more efficient - two times longer lifespan (12 months) and is, therefore, two times more profitable than potential competitors. We are going to start with launching a pilot sharing platforms at the beginning of 2020, in major cities around New York; and in Spring 2020 in several major Russian cities and Skolkovo ‘innovation town’. Now, we are meeting different strategic partners and take negotiations with municipalities.
eScooters have flooded the streets of world cities. Cities are relatively down for this new era of transportation. Fans of micro-mobility praise its ability to provide efficient and eco-friendly rides. Opponents have questioned the safety and sustainability of micro-mobility. In media micro sharing mobility as part of the trend of the sharing economy can be described as the future durable trend so as a new version of communism.
As a millennial leader thinking about trends transforming the global landscape, I would like to utilize my skills, experience, and expertise in issues relating to the interface between sustainable urban development and transport technologies. I am confident that I would bring a strong foundation in understanding the current and future trends. In my objectives to create the multi-functional platform / system to make our urban logistics safer, cleaner, healthier, fairer, and more productive, and to examine the deeper implications of where this new transportation technology wave has led us—and where we want to go next. I see the common ground and research direction with 'The City Science' and Viral Communications research groups. questions cannot be answered in separation. Working under the mentorship at the Lab I want to continue my interdisciplinary trajectory in academic research and practical work.
So, today, I’m back on two wheels, helmet strapped on, following new millennial rules of the road. Relaxed and with hair blowing in the breeze, ride/scoot an electric BRiZ into 2020 to figure out what's going on.
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