Michael Kogeler: “Armenia should create environment where startups would want to stay”

On October 28-29 Dilijan Training and Research Center hosted Armenia’s first Fintegration hackathon in FinTech format, aimed at combining financial services and digital technologies.

Itel.am talked to General Manager of the CEE Multicountry region at Microsoft Michael Kogeler, who came to Armenia to attend the hackathon.

- This is your second visit to Armenia. What surprised you here?

- Last time I was here in December, when Liana Korkotyan was appointed Director of Microsoft Armenia. I didn’t know so many talented people lived here. During the first visit I went to Microsoft Innovation Center, where several startups worked at that time, and I was surprised by the solutions that young people were working on.
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I am also very surprised by active participation of women in IT sector. In general, Armenia doesn’t have natural resources to be known for, but it has another value – human capital. It is a value the world is yet about to know. In this issue Armenian government should play a part and represent Armenia’s human capital. I think it’s characteristic not only for IT, but for other sectors as well.

- What are your impressions from the startups and their products, as a member of Fintegration jury?

- I will give a triple “Wow”. I was surprised to see such ideas, all different. It was marvelous to see what people can do in just 24 hours. In this case imagine what they can do if they cooperate for 365 days. These events need to be continuous, and the people need to keep in touch.

- Nevertheless, what do Armenian startups need to improve?

- I think they need to organize such events every quarter. I am sure that Armenia has many talented people who will want to partake in these events. I think we should support young people more, assist them in preparing for pitching. We could spend some time on trainings.

I often say if you have a fantastic solution but a bad presentation, no one will believe you. You need to move forward in coding and business directions too. For instance, there were wonderful ideas at this Hackathon, but there was a question on how the startups will earn money on them.

- You said in one of your recent speeches that the simplicity of startup is a defining quality. Do you believe Armenian startups think simply?

- That’s a good question. Some startups I saw here were very ambitious and were trying to save the world in one stance. It’s not bad, you just come to understand gradually that you need to begin with smaller things. I learned these from my previous work – if you have a big problem, don’t try to solve it at once, but divide into small parts and solve them by one.

A startup is simple by itself from the beginning, because three or four people start something without money and try to make it a hit on the market.

- Your three recommendations to Armenian startups.

- Be daring, and don’t get embarrassed. I noticed that young people here are shy, perhaps because of the language barrier. Don’t be arrogant, but don’t be shy either.

I walked around at the hackathon, and when I approached each table and asked people what they were doing, the participants immediately got serious, as if they were talking to a teacher. Don’t be shy, because you do a good thing actually, but it is not enough, and you’ve got to be able to make noise on the market with your courage, so that people know about your product.
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I would like to address my next advice to the state: IT ecosystem needs to be built, if you wish to be competitive on the international market. The interesting part of this Hackathon is that the event is organized jointly by a number of partners: Central Bank, Microsoft and NASDAQ OMX Armenia. You can link IT to lawyers and organize another Hackathon with their participations.   If you are a baker, you are likely to be doing your job perfectly. You do not know anything about IT, yet IT can help you bake easier and provide higher quality.

My third advice will be the following: do not be afraid of failures. I always tell my teams that once you manage to learn something new from your failures, you will achieve more successes in the future.  

- Have you planned any joint initiatives with Microsoft Armenia in the nearest future, relating to Armenian IT?  

- We already have projects at this moment, aimed at supporting startups.  We need to provide mentoring to startups, as we do in other countries. Microsoft Innovation Center operates in Armenia now, where many startups learn how to write codes and many more.

I spoke to the management team of NASDAQ OMX Armenia during my visit to Armenia on possibilities of establishing startup incubator there. This kind of an incubator was opened in Bulgaria recently, where 60 startups will receive support and consultation 24/7. I wish such an establishment operated in Armenia as well. I think that we need to discuss this topic with the Central Bank and private organizations. This is a rather realistic vision, if we find partners.
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-Thinking globally, what steps need to be taken to support development of entrepreneurship in the region?

-It is not about adding new startups, it is about maintaining the existing ones. According to the new tendency, if a startup has the necessary means and successes, then it moves to Silicon Valley. You need to create an environment, where startups would like to stay in the region. Who knows, maybe one of the teams at this Hackathon will become a successful company. Everyone speaks about the Diaspora; they say Armenia is a wonderful place. Then tell me please, why won’t you come back to Armenia if that is the case? This proves that there are, nevertheless, problems in the country. Unless those problems are tackled, any startup will try to open the window and fly away, once it is successful.

-Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are the leading directions of the world of technology. What do you think the development will bring about?

-I do not think that robotics will lead the world. I also do not think that one day we will live in a world, where we will not speak to each other, where computers will do everything for us. In fact we should let computers do whatever we do not want to do ourselves.

We should remember that computers are not creative, and I do not think they will ever become so. The most complicated machine in the world is human brain. I know that many people are afraid of robots; they are created to ease our lives. Moreover, their development can help people discover their potential.  
-What Microsoft products are in use in real world now?  

-There are plenty of them, for instance, Office 365, Wunderlist, Skype, OneNote, OneDrive, and Linkedin:

My smartphones is Android compliant; I have iPad and Microsoft Surface Book. I use everything. This is normal, as we are a cloud company and make money on cloud services.  

Narine Daneghyan talked to Micheal Kogeler