We have an exciting new feature debuting today on AltSearchEngines - the CEO Spotlight!  Whereas all of our other weekly reports focus on the Alt Search Engines, these profiles zoom in on the CEO behind the search engine.  Our veteran reporter Natalya Murakhver will bring us a new profile every Friday, beginning with Search Engine of the Year winner Quintura’s CEO Yakov Sadchikov.



How are things in Moscow?  I’m in New York and it’s freezing!

“Well, it’s zero degrees Celsius.”

Brrr! I just came back from Toronto, where it was –15C… So- you’re our first interview for the brand new column. We have a nice line up for upcoming pieces. Still there’s a cache to being the first. Welcome!

“Thank you. Happy I could do it.” 

I know your mantra is that the next Google will come out of Eastern Europe. Why do you think this is so? Why Eastern Europe?

“Entrepreneurs here have both strong tech skills and business minds.”

Are they getting the proper training too? Or is this all self-taught?

“It’s either in your genes or it isn’t, and training helps to develop natural talent.”

Can you tell me a bit about yourself before you started Quintura?

“Since 2000, I’ve been in private equity investment and telecom & Internet business.”

In Moscow? Is that where you were born?

“I was born in the Altay region of Russia, completed school in Almaty, then technical university in St. Petersburg. In 1998-99 I studied in Strasbourg, France and then worked at Inmarsat in London. In 2000 I moved to Moscow.”

So you speak several languages- Russian, English, and French?

“Yes, I know Kazakh too.”

Is Moscow home to you?

“Sure. It is now.”

I was born in Odessa, Ukraine and have always wanted to go back to see and explore Eastern Europe.

“Moscow is a metropolitan city except almost everyone here looks Eastern European and speaks Russian :)”

My parents have told me it is a beautiful city and I speak Russian so I think I’d do okay! So back to Quintura- is your vision global or regional?

“It is global. We’ve got a multinational team and our underlying technology is language-independent .”

How are you rolling it out across the world? Do you have a marketing/advertising agency?

“Most of our users come to www.quintura.com from the U.S. so that is our primary target market, then U.K., Canada, other English speaking countries. We operate a separate web-site www.quintura.ru for the Russian-speaking market.”

How are you targeting them? 

“We do not currently use an agency. We’re assembling an army of evangelists and communicate with the market through them. In addition, we utilize a direct marketing approach.”

I know you advertise on ASE, where or how else?

“We do have a budget and have recently started investing it. Our current campaign is ‘We’re not afraid of Google’ “You can see our new ad here on AltSearchEngines and also on Mashable, Read/Write/Web, Google Blogoscoped, CenterNetworks, MarketingPilgrim, PaulStamatiou.com and The Deck network of blogs (A List Apart, Kottke.org, etc.).”

How do you decide where to advertise? Can you elaborate on your strategy please?

“Blogs from Technorati’s Top 100 list. Also, I know (virtually) quite a number of bloggers and blog editors. We are focused on growing the traffic organically.”

So, essentially, you are your own PR machine…

“Sure, our VC investors call me a PR machine.”

Quintura is famous for the tag cloud search results; can you explain the benefits of the tag cloud for a user? 

“The Quintura tag cloud allows you to control your web search and find what you want much easier. It’s a dynamic and intuitive way to find information.”Can you please give me an example of how this would be beneficial to the user vs. Google…a sample search?“For example, type “iphone” into the Quintura search box, then look at the cloud of related terms; mouse over or click any term to refine searching, or go back to start a new search. No search engine gives this power of control.”

Wow, powerful. Thanks for the illustration. Why did you decide to do a kid’s version of Quintura?

“During our first board meeting with VC investors we were trying to determine which user base would be most immediately attracted to Quintura. Kids want to find what they are really looking for as easy and quickly as possible and not to search for it. In addition, kids don’t always know how to search. It’s easier for them to access an interactive tag cloud to find information. Quintura teaches kids how to search through the cloud of words and phrases.”

That’s a fascinating approach. You create lifetime customers early on. Brilliant.

“We think and implement based on a long-term strategy.”

I’ve also heard that you might be launching a women’s search engine? Is that still in the works?

“Yes, we are creating a version of Quintura for mothers.”

How will this be different from original Quintura?

“A special cloud related to topics relevant to mothers/parents/family and design, and a set of search results related to mothers only. It’s called a “vertical” search engine but by verticals we see different user groups or communities.”

So with Quintura for mothers and for kids- do they access via a different web page than regular Quintura users?

“Yes, these are sub-brands. Quintura Kids can be accessed at http://kids.quintura.com.”

Thanks. I know you’ve been a strong supporter of AltSearchEngines - what attracts you to our mission?

“ASE discovers and presents new opportunities and our mission is to be the best of them though a superior user experience and benefit.”

Do you have any past, present or future partnerships with other Alts?

“We use a web index of Blinkx to power video search on our site. On our Russian site we use an index of Yandex. Yandex is the leading Russian search engine with a 60% market share.”

What is your business model/funding situation/exit strategy/ Five- year plan? A lot of big questions, rolled into one, I know…

“We raised funds last May and will be looking for new funding in 2008 to roll out our affiliate program for site search and web index. We plan to start selling graphical advertising in a tag cloud next year on our main site and affiliated websites that will embed a Quintura cloud for site search. We could enter into a partnership with a large web publisher, say, Conde Nast, Forbes Media, etc. In Russia, the competition is much stronger than anywhere - number of users is 10 times less then in the U.S. but there is a choice of many search engines… Yandex, Rambler, Google, Aport, Gogo, and smaller ones.”

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

“We believe that we need to focus on our users and build a stand-alone business to create a long-term value for our shareholders.”

Thanks so much, Yakov!  And please stay warm in Moscow.

Natalya Murakhver is a freelance writer/PR consultant based in New York City.

This regular Friday feature is brought to you by PeekYou, “the smartest way to find people online.”

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 7:32 pm and is filed under CEO Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Sphere: Related Content