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07/21/12 | Uncategorized

Young Russian Female Entrepreneur Takes on Tech

Nearly two years ago, Elena sold her startup Darberry to Groupon after only six months of operation.

By Erin Kay Swanson (Director of Digital, The Way Women Work)

With all of her startups, she has frequently done four main things: 1) Look at current social, tech and gaming trends, 2) Observe and take note of successful business models in other parts of the world (in her mind, there was no reason why these couldn’t work in Russia too), 3) Work hard to make it happen, and 4) Adapt, adapt, adapt.

Now in her late 20?s, entrepreneur Elena Masolova has an already impressive track record of career success. In 2009, she founded Pixonic, a game developer and publisher for social networks worldwide (think Zynga, and games like Farmville). She is its CEO with 46 employees, and 40 games with more than 20 million users.

Nearly two years ago, Elena sold her startup Darberry to Groupon after only six months of operation. Darberry was her version of Groupon in Russia, and it was rumored to have been bought for $50 million.

And that’s not all. Elena has founded AddVenture, a seed investment fund, and is a partner at Ruvento, an accelerator and venture fund. She also hopes to file for IPO with one of her startups some day.

Elena said her three main business principes are to surround herself with more and more intelligent people, “moving forward fast (sometimes sacrificing the product’s quality) and not being afraid to invest into things that work.”

This post was originally posted at The Way Women Work.

About the guest blogger: Erin Kay Swanson is Director of Digital at The Way Women Work, the go-to place for women in emerging markets and developing countries to seek and share business and career advice. Previous to her role at The Way Women Work, Erin spent four years at Water.org, an global nonprofit working to help communities get safe water and sanitation. Erin is passionate about seeing women grow in confidence and courage to leap into their potential. Follow her on Twitter at @explodingsoul.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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