Natalya Soboleva

Like most successful business owners, Natalya Soboleva started with a vision. From the moment she touched her first computer in 1990, the young physics professor dreamed of using computers in her teaching. Six years later, Soboleva directs twenty employees producing interactive educational software for students of all ages. Her firm, Physicon, works with American and European partners on software products that are distributed in Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, the United States, and Russia.

“I didn’t know anything about business when we started,” said the 41-year-old Soboleva recently. “But I got interested in how the business of producing software works.”

At first, Soboleva turned to professional programmers to develop the prototype for Physicon’s “Physics on the Computer” college course. But she quickly discovered that programmers lack the specialized knowledge of physics needed to develop software. With the support of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Soboleva began teaching her own physics students to use computers.

Soboleva describes the growth of Physicon as an ‘evolutionary process.’ A graduate of the Institute herself, Soboleva believes that its international academic reputation plays a major role in Physicon’s success. Physicon occupies four rooms in a dilapidated laboratory building on the Institute’s Dolgoprudny campus, located about an hour’s drive from the center of Moscow. Several of the Institute’s professors, like Soboleva, work part-time for Physicon. Soboleva is also training six diploma candidates at Physicon; next year, she expects to work with three graduate students.

Other factors also played a role in Physicon’s success. Soboleva says she and her colleagues were quick to adapt to Western business practices and methods. In 1994, she spent five weeks in the United States as part of the US government-funded ‘Business for Russia’ program, which targets emerging Russian entrepreneurs for US internships. During her stay in the United States, Soboleva made contact with a Boston-based software publisher who has become Physicon’s long-term business partner.

One of Physicon’s latest products is a CD-ROM version of ‘Physics by Pictures,’ a six-part course for high school and college students. In moving aggressively to CD-ROM technology, Physicon acquired some unwanted knowledge about Russia’s wild and woolly business climate. Within days after a Yekaterinburg firm produced the first 2,000 CD-ROM copies of ‘Physics by Pictures,’ 5,000 pirated copies appeared in China. Soboleva promptly joined an association of CD-ROM producers seeking to create ‘civilized conditions’ for the CD-ROM industry.

After starting literally ‘with nothing,’ Physicon is now doing well enough to pay its employees competitive salaries and to keep up with rapid changes in computer technology. Although real profits are not expected for another two years, Soboleva is extremely pleased with the company’s progress. Sounding more like an educator and less like a successful businesswomen, she talks about the importance of keeping Russia’s talented scientists at home.

“Money isn’t really the most important thing for me. The most important thing is realization of one’s potential, something that wasn’t possible for us in Russia until about five years ago. We have such bright young people; I really wanted that to be translated into success.”

Soboleva describes her husband Stanislav Kozel, a physics professor, author, and Physicon employee, in terms guaranteed to provoke envy among many Russian women.

“It’s a partnership,” she says of her home life. “I couldn’t do all the housework and run this business and teach. It just wouldn’t be possible. All my strength goes into this business; I haven’t had a vacation in five years.”

Luckily for Soboleva, her 11-year-old son likes to spend his free time at Physicon. And what does young Mikhail want to do when he grows up? “He always says he wants to ‘work with Mom,’” answers Soboleva, smiling.