Please tell us something about yourself and your program at ITMO?
My name is Arina Dorofeeva, and I am a third-year Bachelor’s student in Humanities and IT. I am pursuing a specialization in mobile application development because from a very young age, I have been really passionate about mobile software development. In the first year of my Bachelor’s studies, I got hired as an Android developer in a company called Arcadia. Since last month, I have been working as a project manager in the IT department at a German innovation company. Currently, I am also interested in entrepreneurship and I want to start my own mobile software company someday.
How did you learn about the DOERS startup school?
I am always on the lookout for such opportunities. Taking part in various competitions is my hobby. I came across an advertisement about the DOERS startup school on VK and immediately got interested in it. Upon reading the description of the school, I understood that it was just the event that I had been looking for. It also provided me with an opportunity to participate in the *ship startup festival, organized by XAMK, Finland. What attracted me more was the opportunity of getting funding for my startup by winning this competition.
What was your major takeaway from the school?
I think the comments and feedback from the mentors and the peers were very valuable. They really helped me polish my idea and improve the pitch deck. I really enjoyed Demo Day, the day when every team got the opportunity to pitch their ideas to experts and potential investors. This step is the litmus test for any startup and I really enjoy doing it over and over again until I reach perfection! I am really grateful that the judges liked my startup idea and the pitch. I am so happy to have won this event.
Participating in various events is Arina’s hobby as she believes that the experiences would help her overall development. Photo courtesy of the subject 
Can you share something about your startup idea?
Working for tech companies gave me the required experience in the field of mobile apps. My startup is called Tamagotchi Earth. It is a mobile game that demonstrates the effects of the user’s eating habits on the environment and gradually changes them to more environmentally friendly ones. The idea was born last winter when I took part in an ecological festival that focused on the effects of our eating habits on the environment. I was surprised to know that the right kind of diet and eating habits can impact our planet on such a great scale. I did some research and learned that people around the world still really like the idea of Tamagotchi – a virtual digital pet developed in Japan. I came up with this idea to develop a game where Earth would be transformed into a Tamagotchi. People care a lot about their pets and my mission is to harness this emotion for the well-being of our planet.
The prototype of the mobile game Tamagotchi Earth. Photo courtesy of the subject 
Who are your team members?
I found my teammates through a Telegram chat. They are located in different cities in Russia. My team consists of several talented people and includes backend and frontend developers, machine learning experts, and technical analysts. This spring we participated in the Russian Internet Forum together. It was here that all of us met in person for the first time. It was a great event where a lot of companies came together to talk about their products and upcoming projects. In the future, we are planning to come together to St. Petersburg and Moscow for our work. I am really proud of my team and I love working with all of them.
Arina’s teammates come from various domains of IT. Photo courtesy of the subject 
This year the *ship startup festival was held online. Was it difficult for you to coordinate your team remotely?
I really enjoyed being at the *ship festival. I really wanted to win, but I am happy that we could make it to the top ten. Definitely, we learned a lot from this experience. To be honest, I loved the fact that it was held completely online this year because it allowed more people from all across the globe to participate. Personally, I cannot travel a lot because of my job. So, it was more convenient for me to participate in this event online. It was not at all difficult to coordinate my team virtually as we get along very well.
What are your future plans for Tamagotchi Earth?
We plan to launch our minimum viable product (MVP) this autumn. We would constantly be taking feedback from our users. In the future, we would like to include some ecologists and environmentalists in our team who would help us further improve our app. I hope that by next year our app will be fully ready for use.
Interview by Subhrajit Barua
