Dear supporters, we thought that after a round of introduction to the MilkCoin project, we would like to share with you excerpts of an interview with our co-founder, Georgiy Gradov, focusing on the people behind MilkCoin.
Here, you can see some of our candid views and personal insight into the project and its developments.
1. Firstly, thank you for allowing this interview. Could you start with a brief introduction and what your roles are within MilkCoin?
So, I arrived at this project in 2014 when we were planning to acquire a bank loan to fund our expansion. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the loan, mainly because of the economic situation in Russia.
Since then, as co-owner, I have been investing my own money into this business, but it needs much more money than I can afford. As noted on the website, I guess you could call me the ideological inspirer of MilkCoin.
2. You are listed as the co-owner of MilkCoin. Who are the other owners?
There are two owners, myself and my father, Vladimir Gradov. He bought these land plots and buildings in 2009. Then, the Ruble was much stronger and it had a value of about $15 million!
3. What about the other 3 team members, what are their roles in MilkCoin?
Mikhail is our Project Manager. He helps me with social media and ICO promotion. He is an old friend and we have built up a couple of retail companies together.
Vladislav is our Chief Officer and is the CEO of HSK. He is responsible for all government cooperations and manages all aspects related to HR.
Sergey is our Agricultural Department Chief… but he’s really a literal agricultural «god»! He actually know everything about building an agricultural business. When it comes to harvesting and cows he is the best guy you can find, haha.
4. Tell us about the history of HSK. Do you also have a stake in the actual company? Are the management teams separate for HSK and MilkCoin?
No, I don’t have any stakes in HSK but as it my family business, I very much consider it mine. Our teams are separate for sure!
Since Sergey and Vladislav are old-school business people, they are not really into blockchain. But I think this is actually a good thing, because these people know how to run a successful real business enterprise — and MilkCoin is exactly that, not just a blockchain pipe dream.
5. Tell us about the name MilkCoin? Some people might think it’s a funny name, what was the idea behind the name and the logo?
Yes, I’ve seen that some people think it is funny but it is the best way to describe our project, since it is a diary farm project. Milk is a humble staple yet forms so much of culture and society, and is a valuable commodity in today’s Russia.
For us, MilkCoin is a simple and unpretentious representation of our project and what we hope to achieve.
6. MilkCoin owners have invested $10 million into this project already. What were the associated costs?
The biggest costs were for land plots and buildings for sure! For these, we acquired an expert rating one year ago which valued our current property at 550 million Rubles or $ 9.7 million.
Additionally, estimations and business documentations have cost us quite a lot, close to $1 million.
7. The budgets are quite impressive, with the 1st Objective already requiring more than $5 million to be raised. What happens if you don’t meet the funding objectives? Do you feel confident you can raise all the $76 million you need?
We have a soft cap set at $1 million. If we reach that, then we will be able to get our enterprise running at minimum capacity. Naturally, the more we are able to raise, the better our prospects for value and profitability.
We are not actually confident that we will raise the entire budget of $76 million, but we have high hopes to raise at least $10 million.
There is a lot of cultivation and construction involved in very specialist areas. Do you have the experience and expertise needed to oversee this?
Yes, of course! Sergey and Vladislav are professionals, they have more than 10 years of experience in construction and agriculture. Also, it is really important that we have all necessary expertise and estimate documentation ready. Furthermore, we have our «financial model» planned all the way till 2031, just like an actual business would! I haven’t seen any ICO with that level of detail in market research and business planning…
Working on such a large project will probably require a lot of employees. How big will MilkCoin be in terms of employee strength?
Currently, MilkCoin and HSK have 25 employees. It depends on what target we reach, but the minimum will be about 50 workers and a maximum of 200 people working for MilkCoin and HSK.
MilkCoin believes it can be profitable only after 1 year of operation, correct? But won’t the cultivation, construction, training and all that need time? It is a big business with vast areas of land involved.
It takes much more than that, when the project is just a startup! But we are not a startup at all, our company is ready to start construction and cultivation in January 2018, so we can guarantee projected profits as planned for our backers.
The Russian government recently announced plans to begin regulating ICOs and cryptocurrencies by September 2018. Will this affect MilkCoin? Are you doing anything with regards to that timeline?
Actually, we are a bit confused with what Russian government is going to announce regarding crypto and ICOs. But, we foresaw this and that is why we are using a European company as an initiator of the ICO. So, we can say that is wont affect MilkCoin in any way. Investment protection is our main target.
There are only 16 days left to the ICO! Is there anything you would like to say to potential investors?
I want to thank everyone who supports our project! We really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for your time Georgiy! Good luck with MilkCoin!
Learn more about MilkCoin
Having worked in the industry for years, we are very excited about the prospects of the MilkCoin ICO, which will launch on 15 November 2017. We invite you to follow us here on Medium for more daily insight into the project.
You can also read more, ask questions or join the discussions on the following channels:
1. Website: https://milkcoin.io/en/
2. Whitepaper: https://milkcoin.io/en/Whitepaper-EN.pdf
3. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MilkCoin
4. Twitter: https://twitter.com/milkcoinico?lang=en
5. Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2286652.0
6. Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/D3ajrRCxVZ5vnVw-QvzSVg
7. Bounties: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2286798
8. Medium: https://medium.com/@milkcoinico/
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