A Protestant from near Pinsk — Crazy Startuper: when a dream is heavier than the person who carries it

Mikhail Siaredzich. Photo from his Facebook

I first met Mikhail Siaredzich back in the 2010s, when he was an entrepreneur in Minsk. He is from near Pinsk, from a Protestant background, from a family that became believers 115 years ago.

The book, which he wrote and published in the USA, traces his path from his first business attempts in the market in the 90s, through a car accident to business in Moscow. And there: a toilet instead of a kitchen, dirty mattresses in the basement, collapse. After that, an air conditioning business in Minsk, founded in 2010.

And the realization: all this wasn't it, the heart wanted a combination of "God, Belarus, business", but it wasn't there in those first ventures.

Afterward came an MBA from the University of Warsaw, the first startup Rexpax, the 2020 protests, emigration to Warsaw and the need to rebuild life from scratch. Then — a visa to America and a new startup Givgive — a local sharing economy platform. And even unbelievable turns of life: 150 thousand dollars, accidentally transferred to his account.

There is a whole genre of books about startups. They are usually built according to one scheme: the founder tells how they came up with an idea, found investors, survived a crisis, and then — victory, millions, an IPO. Mikhail Siaredzich's book "Crazy Startuper" is not in this category. There is no happy ending yet, no unicorn. There isn't even certainty that the startup will survive. 

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The book contains heartfelt parts — those where Siaredzich stops being a "founder" and becomes simply a person. Memories of how the whole family picked cucumbers, washed radishes, before going to sell them at the market — about this sweet joy of communal work. The chapter about his father's death in Pinsk, when the son was a thousand kilometers away in a Moscow basement — this is sincere, unfiltered prose, important even without the startup context. An unsent letter to his father — one of the emotional fragments of the book. About how he now bakes pancakes on Sundays for his sons Jan and Stefan, whom their grandfather will no longer see — just as his father baked for him.

Memories of his grandfather: "Sometimes I think he runs on solar power. He's 86, and you can't stop him. He drives tractors, grows seeds, and serves as a pastor in a village church. Every time we talk, he ends with the same thing: take a couple of hectares, plant blueberries."

The chapters about the 2020 protests are interesting pages in our national chronicle. The Siaredzich family (he is not a relative of the legendary editor of "Narodnaya Volya", just a Pinsk surname) sews flags, carries a hundred-meter white-red-white banner through the capital of Polesia, and you realize: this is an act, one of those that makes you tremble inside.

The book, unlike most startup memoirs, also carries political weight.

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Mikhail Siaredzich in Pinsk, August 16, 2020. Photo from his Facebook

The emigration part is also instructive. A rented apartment in Warsaw, no money, no country underfoot either, no team — and only a logo on the screen and the question: continue or stop? This is a familiar story for tens of thousands of Belarusians in emigration, but also for anyone who has ever started from scratch in a foreign land.

Separately, one should note the chapter "What If You Lost?" ("What if you lost?"), where Siaredzich describes what Belarusians usually keep silent about: the "dealer system" of the startup industry — consultants, accelerators, and "angels" who profit from the founders' dreams, not their successes. This fragment reads like a mini-investigation and resonates with the criticism of startup culture, which has been increasingly found in Western media in recent years.

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2022 — before the need to start life anew. Photo from Mikhail Siaredzich's Facebook

Siaredzich writes in a fragmented style — short lines, many spaces, almost every sentence — a separate paragraph. Moreover, the font chosen is almost handwritten. This creates a certain rhythm, but sometimes it's tiring. Sometimes it feels like reading not memoirs, but a long motivational Instagram post. 

The author honestly admits his life and business mistakes — built a product without validation, didn't read "The Lean Startup", ignored user interviews. But the book doesn't attempt to answer: why do the same mistakes recur from Rexpax to Givgive? Is there a pattern here? Readers who enjoy a cold analysis of failures will be disappointed.

Nevertheless, on 418 pages of an unusually designed publication, beyond its artistic value, there is also practical utility. The book, using clear examples, shows how typical modern business successes began. It provides examples of what you can earn from, describes practical difficulties. And it also shows, through examples: with faith in your endeavor, much is possible. The author repeatedly returns to the basics: faith and the reminder that "you are not alone". One just needs to maintain friendships and, in critical moments, not be afraid to reach out to friends — not only for help, but also for investments.

Michael Seredich. Crazy Startuper: You Are Not Alone: A Founder in Exile — 418 pp., ISBN 978-8397902503

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