Maxim Krippa and Maincast business before and during a full-scale war

The full-scale invasion affected all Ukrainian businesses without exception. But there are some industries that were more tightly connected with the Russian markets and, accordingly, the impact of the full-scale war on them turned out to be many times more sensitive. Such companies as Maincast have undergone many trials, but they turned out to be stable. What was the key to success, what role did investor Maxim Krippa play in this, and what lessons can be learned from the Maincast experience?

Betting on the right investor

For a more complete understanding of Maincast's trajectory, let's start with a small excursion into history. The ideological inspirer and creator of the company, which is engaged in broadcasting cyber sports games is commentator Vitaliy Volochay. He created the first company engaged in broadcasting and commenting on cyber sports matches back in 2013.

A year after RuHub was founded, investors were needed and the initial bet was made on Moscow. From today's point of view, it is obvious that the bet was not quite successful, but at that time CIS cybersports already existed and was developing, uniting countries where many people spoke Russian. The era of cybersport outside of politics was coming to an end, but they didn't know it at the time.

In exchange for investment injections, the owners of RuHub were demanded to open a branch office in Moscow. And after the events of 2014, ideological pressure began - investors pulled the blanket over themselves and demanded the closure of the Kiev office. In the end, Volochai sold his part of RuHub and said goodbye to the investors who had successfully realized the expansion. This could have been the end of the history of cyber sports broadcasting in Ukraine, but after a short amount of time Volochay and his partners found the right person.

The founders of the successful RuHub company decided to repeat and surpass their own experience. For this purpose, the company Maincast was created in 2018. According to Volochai, they had equipment and premises, but this was not enough for full-fledged functioning. The starting infusion was estimated at $800,000, and an investor was needed.

This time the bet was placed on a Ukrainian investor, Maxim Krippa. The only difficulty was that Maxim Krippa was not deeply immersed in the topic of cybersport and had to be persuaded to invest money. After several months of negotiations, Maxim Krippa became a shareholder of Maincast.

There were no ultimatums or demands from the co-owner, this time the investor did not pull the blanket over himself, but delved deeper into the subject and processes related to the cyber sports community. Deepened and became a pro, just four years later, in early 2022, Maxim Krippa acquired a new asset - a cyber sports organization NAVI (Natus Vincere). Maxim Krippa, who does not like to give interviews and expose himself, is obviously interested in cybersports seriously and for a long time. Especially since this direction suits him on the wyb. As you know, cybersports is mainly for introverts.

Ability to act in proposed circumstances

Companies that earn money from broadcasting cyber sports matches and tournaments generate income thanks to thousands of sponsorship contracts. But don't exaggerate the revenue part too much, because there are also costs. Mainly it is about buying the rights to broadcast. And on the one hand buying such rights is the only way to work, but on the other hand the rights impose obligations. With the beginning of the war, Maincast experienced the complexity of contractual relations.

Pandemic and quarantine restrictions have killed many businesses, but for cybersports they have worked exactly the opposite. Cybersports was able to expand its audience and many companies grew substantially. During the pandemic, Maincast bought the rights to broadcast tournaments from ESL for more than $2.5 million. And this is just one example of such agreements.

In February 2022, the top management of Maincast was trapped. It seemed unthinkable to continue broadcasting in Russian, but the rights had been paid for and something had to be done. In other times, one could have tried to cover the costs, but with the outbreak of the war, this option was out of reach as well. Ukrainian advertisers suspended their work, and Maincast's Russian owners decided to stop cooperating with them.

And what kind of cooperation could we talk about, when the same Maxim Krippa literally from the first day of full-scale began to actively engage in charity.

Having consulted with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, Maincast's top managers decided to continue broadcasting in Russian, but to integrate pro-Ukrainian messages and IPSO into them. Whether the experiment was successful is hard to say, as it is impossible to calculate what percentage of the audience changed their point of view. But after three months of such stressful broadcasting, the company gave up Russian-language broadcasting.

By this point, the owners had managed to agree with the rights holders on the alienation of only part of the rights - Ukrainian-language broadcasts remained Maincast. The bet on the Ukrainian language turned out to be more than winning, today the Ukrainian-language segment has grown in views by 1050% and amounts to more than 5 million hours of views.

To summarize:

Mistakes in business are inevitable, but it is important to be able to gain experience and take it into account in the future. Maincast was able to do this: it was able to find a first-class investor in the person of Maxim Krippa, its Ukrainian-speaking audience and the right advertisers. Today Maincast is the leader of the Ukrainian market of cyber sports broadcasts, the company owns 64 percent of it and about 95% of the rights to broadcast cyber sports tournaments in Ukrainian.