Fast Lane Ventures launches regional expansion to grow new generation of “internet-builders”
Fast Lane Ventures, a market leader in creating new internet businesses, announces the opening of its first regional office in the city of Ivanovo, named Fast Lane Academia. The new Ivanovo office employs 50 graduates and young specialists, which have all been hired for specific functions, from IT support to copywriting.
The main aim of this regional expansion is to create an internal staff training system for starting internet businesses and to provide Fast Lane Ventures’ portfolio of companies with support from high-quality, motivated specialists.
Marina Treshchova, Fast Lane Ventures CEO, sees this expansion as the next logical step in the company’s development: “The internet is one of the fastest-growing and most exciting markets in Russia. We aim to launch a new company, on average, every 1-2 months, which has meant our demands for new staff are outpacing what the Moscow labour market currently has to offer. In order to address this increased demand, we have decided to start training our own staff. We are teaching our new joiners about internet-entrepreneurship, which is currently not being taught in any higher education institutes and something we value highly.”
Ivanovo was chosen because it has a strong pool of human resources potential, in addition to its location near Moscow. The Ivanovo region boasts a large number of higher education institutions – 10 state, six private and four state affiliates – which all provide a high quality education. Another factor which is just as important is that the project received complete support and active cooperation from the regional and municipal authorities. Support for young people, in providing better conditions for the growth and development of graduates and young specialists, is one of the region’s top priorities.
Mikhail Menn, Governor of Ivanovo Region, commented: “Ivanovo has traditionally been considered a student town. Every year higher education institutions in Ivanovo graduate more than 5,000 specialists and we are very keen for these young people to have the chance to put their knowledge to work in our area. In order to achieve this, we need to make sure there are excellent opportunities available to them which is why we gladly welcome these types of initiatives. We see this as an extremely important step to support the future of our city and the region as a whole.”
Employees at the Ivanovo subsidiary will undergo intensive training with the experts at Fast Lane Ventures head office in Moscow. This will enable them to gain the knowledge and skills they need to start working on developing and promoting internet companies.
“We need specialists in a wide range of areas, such as, call-centre operators, programmers, analysts, search-engine optimisation, designers and many more,” explains Marina Treshchova.
“We understand that we cannot expect our new hires to have in-depth professional knowledge straight away. But right now what’s much more important to us is their motivation, their readiness to learn, to work quickly and to grow as a professional. And the most important thing of all is their love for the internet! Current Fast Lane Ventures employees have gained unique experience and knowledge in internet-entrepreneurship and creating new businesses, and we’re keen to pass this on to the next generation. I want to say, without exaggeration, that the graduates who made it through the selection process have a unique chance here to break into a highly exciting profession and make a career for themselves in one of Russia’s fastest-growing markets.”
The Ivanovo office is headed up by Elvira Komolova, one of the most experienced executives in the Ivanovo region. Before joining Fast Lane Ventures, Elvira was head of the regional office for MTS in Ivanovo. Under her leadership, the company’s share of the regional income among the big three carriers increased significantly, as did subscribership, and the decision was made on financing in the region for aggressive implementation of the 3G network.
By the end of 2012, Fast Lane Ventures hopes to have increased the workforce in the Ivanovo office by 100 employees.