Building, quietly.
Most of what's interesting hasn't been announced. The pattern, after thirty years, is to ship before talking. Reach out if you'd like to know more.
№ 001
Egor S. Lavrov
Moscow → everywhere
Egor Lavrov.
Russian-born, long abroad. Built the first internet magazine in Russia at sixteen, sold it for two million, left in his early twenties, and spent the next three decades doing it again: in magazines, agencies, networks, blockchains, brands. This is his corner of the web. The url is the joke.
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№ 002 · receipts
Every pioneer has a paper trail.
- BBS · Sysop Two lines, 24/7 one of Russia's first always-on boards · ZyXEL, USRobotics · ASCII graphics, fresh warez
- ICQ #356643 six digits · the kind of number you had to be there for
- MSN · Russia Moderator at fourteen · got the keys before getting a driver's licence
- LiveJournal @oligarch still up · because the internet peaked in 2007 and nobody sent the memo
- GitHub @g0sha256 still shipping · the tools change, the itch doesn't
№ 003 · the mark
A short biography, told without the corporate breath.
Egor Sergeyevich Lavrov (b. 4 June 1981, Moscow) is Russian-born and long abroad, and is one of the people who built the Russian internet. He was sixteen the first time he sold a company.
Schooled in Moscow, then London, then Prague. By the time he enrolled at Plekhanov in his late teens he had already published Planeta Internet, the first Russian-language magazine about the web, and sold it to Smolensky Bank for roughly two million dollars. He used the money the way a sixteen-year-old would: to start the next thing.
He launched fuck.ru: a daily, vulgar, beautifully-written news log that made the Russian internet feel like a place rather than a product. Out of that scene came the Olbanian internet dialect, a counterculture that arguably shaped a generation's idea of what being online could sound like.
Before any of that, there was the usual pioneer stack: a six-digit ICQ number (#356643), a stint moderating MSN Network Russia at fourteen, and, still live to this day, a LiveJournal under the handle @oligarch, because some of us never conceded that Twitter was an upgrade.
He went on to build agencies (Skel, third in the country), media holdings (Pravda Group), distribution empires (Grupo Lavroff, pushing Apple, B&O, Vertu across Latin America), social networks, and one of the noisier crypto bets of 2017 (Paragon). He left Russia for good in his early twenties and has been based elsewhere ever since. These days he is rarely in one place for long: the Middle East, Asia, the Americas, Europe, on rotation. He is still building.
№ 004 · index of works
Things made, between '97 and now.
- 1997 Planeta Internet first russian magazine about the internet sold to Smolensky Bank · ~$2M · age 16
- 1998 GFX → Plaza Internet advertising · acquired by Plaza Group early Russian web shop
- 1999 fuck.ru daily news log · provocation birthplace of the Olbanian dialect
- 2000 Skel Group third web design agency in Russia built on the Planeta proceeds
- 2000 Dzhabrailov campaign presidential PR · age 19 first political work
- 2003 Pravda Group media holding production · publishing
- 2008 Grupo Lavroff Apple · Bang & Olufsen · Vertu distribution across Latin America
- 2012 Friends Around geo-aware mobile social first US-built venture · pre-Find My
- 2014 Karma World consumer venture second swing, same itch
- 2017 Paragon blockchain · ICO · 2017 era co-founded with Jessica
- 2020 Zila Networks infrastructure quiet build
- → now undisclosed building, as ever ask nicely
№ 005 · currently
What's on the desk this season.
Founders before sectors.
Early-stage cheques in places where the founder is the unfair advantage: consumer software, networks, anything that bends a habit.
Rarely, but well.
Long pieces, when there's something worth writing down. Subscribe to nothing; you'll see it when it shows up.
Always on the go. Middle East · Asia · Americas · Europe.
If our orbits cross in any of them, the bar is low: coffee, walks, a flight of mezcal. The internet still works as a place, but in-person still beats it.
№ 006 · say hi