Ilya Korchagin is founder of Alma Matter, a web platform where aspiring models learn about modelling business and can be scouted by professionals or get a single job.

Why did he become entrepreneur, how did he find the solution that became his company and his suggestions to an early stage entrepreneur are all available for you.

Why did you decide to become a founder?

When I’m facing with some struggles my brain generates ideas for solving.

How did you find the problem and the solution?

Last year I was invited to the shooting for advertisement. (I am not a model) but as far as I had learnt there was a problem with searching for matching model. And I had thought, is there still no online service for searching for models like Uber? After customer discoveries, I’ve found a real problem – professional model scouting takes a lot of time, money and depends on luck. Also aspiring models don’t think serious about their profession and have a lot of struggles with employment. So I’ve found a fitting solution – to create an online searching service with educational features that will help aspiring models learn profession in details and to find a serious job. Also platform will help model scouts to search for new faces all over the world and to cast them from office or home in minutes.

What surprised you the most about being a startup founder?

A lot of useful literature about startup business model. And the ecosystem. There are a lot of interesting people and organisations all over the globe that can help you to start business or grow up.

What advice would you give to an early stage entrepreneur? A thing you wanted to know when you started off?

Learn English. Anything you need know to start is written in English.