4 ms·

B12 Bishkek: How we extended our team in Central Asia

49 points by marcua 8y ago

dforrestwilson 8y ago
Have spent a small amount of time there...Kyrgyzstan is truly beautiful and the people are great! No mention of the political risks though? https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/10/21/kyrgyzstan-holds-an-election-that-was-not-a-foregone-conclusion?zid=307&ah=5e80419d1bc9821ebe173f4f0f060a07 https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/10/21/kyrgyzstan-holds-a... Even factoring that risk in, getting great talent so cheap seems like a win.
- fyfy18 8y ago
  > No mention of the political risks though? Do they really need to be mentioned? For most people, i.e. those who aren't getting involved with the country's politics and won't be seen by the government/regime as a threat, it's not going to even remotely be an issue. It's like saying that I, as a non-American citizen, should be concerned if I ever want to start a blogging startup based in New York.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - gotts 8y ago
    >For most people, i.e. those who aren't getting involved with the country's politics The moment 1/3 of your neighborhood in "downtown" area is heavily looted and internet is turned off completely(2005) or unidentified groups of people with AK shooting near your house(2010) is when you are involved despite your desire. dforrestwilson made a great point about instability risks. PS speaking from personal experience. I no longer live there
- kkamalov 8y ago
  (B12 team member and head of B12 Bishkek) Hey, @dforrestwilson, thanks for the comment! I moved back to Kyrgyzstan last year to grow the Bishkek B12 Team. Our country has had some political instability in the past, but it has been stable during the last 8 years. I am grateful that Adam and Nitesh took a chance to grow our startup here. Kyrgyzstan's government also has been focusing on helping small businesses and IT sector specifically.
baybal2 8y ago
Once did project working on tourniquettes for rapid transit in Astana for Beijing Second United Construction Group. Later, we somehow stumbled upon custom made drone tender for Kazakhstan's border guard (which later was found out to be just a cover for presidential guard regiment...) My intention was to try to hire few juniors as assistants, and UI devs. Seemed trivial at first, but the moment applicants heard of us being a foreign company, they instantly switched the talk to paid relocation package, hiring immigration lawyer, and if we can bring them a Chinese passport on a golden platter... This was the case with like 4 out of 5 applicants. My advise, keep quiet about you being an overseas company till the last moment.
- nurgasemetey 8y ago
  So you wanted to take advantage by not informing them?
  - sheeshkebab 8y ago
    I think he is saying it’s not a no brainer or cost effective setting up remote teams in these areas as some stories make it out to be.
joemclo 8y ago
There's quite of bit of interesting startup stuff going on in Bishkek, given it's size. https://maddevs.io/en https://maddevs.io/en is quite a cool development consultancy based there, which has been involved in development of namba taxi, an uber type app. namba itself has a whole host of projects similar to the more well known startups in Europe, e.g. Namba taxi, Namba food, and a video streaming service. ololo (which was referenced in the piece) is a lovely community of different startups, and art projects fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.
lappet 8y ago
This is very cool. I wonder if Central Asia can work closely with the Indian startup scene - it is closer physically and culturally as well.
- IWeldMelons 8y ago
  I live in Central Asia. No, culturally we are not close to Indians. We are close to Turks and Russians, but not Indians. For example we have no difficulties saying that something cannot be done or we do not know how to do it.
pm90 8y ago
I really like this story. One thing I've noticed is that if you can find a great engineer from another country and they help you recruit good locals, that turns out to be the most effective kind of offshoring experience.
combinatorics 8y ago
Kainar looks like Terry Tao (mathematician).
job_steves 8y ago
What's it like to get a temporary work Visa for Kyrgyzstan for Canadians? Seems like a fun place to work/intern for a couple months.
- gotts 8y ago
  Just noticed your question. It is fun place indeed! As a Canadian you don't need Visa for <60 days stay. Feel free to ask if you have more questions

49 points by marcua 8y ago

Have spent a small amount of time there...Kyrgyzstan is truly beautiful and the people are great! No mention of the political risks though? https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/10/21/kyrgyzstan-holds-an-election-that-was-not-a-foregone-conclusion?zid=307&ah=5e80419d1bc9821ebe173f4f0f060a07 https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/10/21/kyrgyzstan-holds-a... Even factoring that risk in, getting great talent so cheap seems like a win.

fyfy18 8y ago
> No mention of the political risks though? Do they really need to be mentioned? For most people, i.e. those who aren't getting involved with the country's politics and won't be seen by the government/regime as a threat, it's not going to even remotely be an issue. It's like saying that I, as a non-American citizen, should be concerned if I ever want to start a blogging startup based in New York.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- gotts 8y ago
  >For most people, i.e. those who aren't getting involved with the country's politics The moment 1/3 of your neighborhood in "downtown" area is heavily looted and internet is turned off completely(2005) or unidentified groups of people with AK shooting near your house(2010) is when you are involved despite your desire. dforrestwilson made a great point about instability risks. PS speaking from personal experience. I no longer live there
kkamalov 8y ago
(B12 team member and head of B12 Bishkek) Hey, @dforrestwilson, thanks for the comment! I moved back to Kyrgyzstan last year to grow the Bishkek B12 Team. Our country has had some political instability in the past, but it has been stable during the last 8 years. I am grateful that Adam and Nitesh took a chance to grow our startup here. Kyrgyzstan's government also has been focusing on helping small businesses and IT sector specifically.

baybal2 8y ago

Once did project working on tourniquettes for rapid transit in Astana for Beijing Second United Construction Group. Later, we somehow stumbled upon custom made drone tender for Kazakhstan's border guard (which later was found out to be just a cover for presidential guard regiment...) My intention was to try to hire few juniors as assistants, and UI devs. Seemed trivial at first, but the moment applicants heard of us being a foreign company, they instantly switched the talk to paid relocation package, hiring immigration lawyer, and if we can bring them a Chinese passport on a golden platter... This was the case with like 4 out of 5 applicants. My advise, keep quiet about you being an overseas company till the last moment.

nurgasemetey 8y ago
So you wanted to take advantage by not informing them?
- sheeshkebab 8y ago
  I think he is saying it’s not a no brainer or cost effective setting up remote teams in these areas as some stories make it out to be.

joemclo 8y ago

There's quite of bit of interesting startup stuff going on in Bishkek, given it's size. https://maddevs.io/en https://maddevs.io/en is quite a cool development consultancy based there, which has been involved in development of namba taxi, an uber type app. namba itself has a whole host of projects similar to the more well known startups in Europe, e.g. Namba taxi, Namba food, and a video streaming service. ololo (which was referenced in the piece) is a lovely community of different startups, and art projects fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.

lappet 8y ago

This is very cool. I wonder if Central Asia can work closely with the Indian startup scene - it is closer physically and culturally as well.

IWeldMelons 8y ago
I live in Central Asia. No, culturally we are not close to Indians. We are close to Turks and Russians, but not Indians. For example we have no difficulties saying that something cannot be done or we do not know how to do it.

pm90 8y ago

I really like this story. One thing I've noticed is that if you can find a great engineer from another country and they help you recruit good locals, that turns out to be the most effective kind of offshoring experience.

combinatorics 8y ago

Kainar looks like Terry Tao (mathematician).

job_steves 8y ago

What's it like to get a temporary work Visa for Kyrgyzstan for Canadians? Seems like a fun place to work/intern for a couple months.

gotts 8y ago
Just noticed your question. It is fun place indeed! As a Canadian you don't need Visa for <60 days stay. Feel free to ask if you have more questions