When David Jones worked in San Francisco, his home had a view of the bay; now his residence overlooks a car park in Moscow. It's surprising that anyone would elect to make such a startling change in lifestyle or indeed climate. What is even more puzzling is that someone with over 20 years' venture capital experience in the US would want to head a private-equity firm in Moscow, funding Russian start-ups.
For Jones, president and CEO of Delta Capital, the answer is simple: being a venture capitalist in Russia presents the most exciting opportunities, particularly to serve the vast untapped consumer market outside Moscow and St Petersburg. "In Silicon Valley, if someone said you had a guaranteed market and all you had to do was develop the product and secure distribution, that would be a dream," he says. The scope is also far larger for Russia's first generation of entrepreneurs. "A good management can build a national company," he adds.
Delta Capital was set up to manage the investments of the US/Russia investment fund launched to help the Russian Federation in its transition to a market economy.