Android's SIRI: Interview with Speaktoit CEO Ilya Gelfenbein
Click to viewHere’s a trend to watch: Innovation, made in Russia
The first trip to the Silicon Valley often has a profound impact on foreign entrepreneurs. But for 13 Russian startups currently touring the region, visiting the Valley isn’t just about changing their own point of view; it’s about changing their country.
The startups, all part of the state-sponsored Skolkovo IT Cluster, are accompanied by a reality TV crew that documents their every move.
The idea is to encourage young Russians to take risks, pursue IT opportunities, and maybe adopt a little bit of Silicon Valley culture in the process. Like the idea that failing with a startup doesn’t mean you need to change careers. IT Cluster Deputy Director for Education and Research Katia Gaika told me that Silicon Valley’s embrace of failing is very foreign to people in Russia. “Failure is not acceptable,” she said.
Skolkovo IT Cluster was founded last year as part of a larger initiative to turn Moscow’s Skolkovo suburb into a kind of Russian Silicon Valley. The plan was initiated by Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, and the Skolkovo foundation has since won financial and logistical backing from pretty much every U.S. tech heavyweight. Cisco alone has committed to invest $1 billion over 10 years in the region. Part of that money is now used to jumpstart Russian startups. “In order to change things, you have to start doing things,” Gaika told me.
Three Russian startups you need to know
So what kind of things are Russian startup founders doing these days? Definitely things we should pay attention to. The 13 companies taking part in the trip are going to demo their products on Wednesday, Oct. 12 as part of a showcase, but I got to meet three of them earlier this week. I have to say I was impressed.
One of the founders I met was Ilya Gelfenbeyn, whose startup Speaktoit has launched a virtual assistant on Android that looks a bit like Apple’s just-launched Siri, albeit with a friendlier avatar.
Speaktoit is using a cloud-based service to process voice input, translate it into more formalized search queries for external web services and send the resulting data to the end user as part of a conversation with the app’s avatar.
Gelfenbeyn told me his company has seen the downloads of its Android app triple ever since Apple announced Siri, and that it hopes to have an iOS app out in two weeks. Check out the video embedded below for a demonstration of Speaktoit and more information about the company.