The living archive
A Legendary Place
“Before the revolution, the premises were rented out to the Fencing & Gymnastics Society. Among others, the brothers Anatoly and Vladimir Durov trained here. Anton Chekhov once dropped in on the classes & was pleased with these ‘people of the future’, expressing his wish that someday everyone in the country would be so strong and agile.”
«До революции помещения сдавались Гимнастическому обществу, среди прочих здесь тренировались братья Анатолий и Владимир Дуровы. На занятия гимнастов и фехтовальщиков однажды заглянул Антон Чехов, который остался доволен этими «людьми будущего» и высказал пожелания, что когда-нибудь в стране все будут такими сильными и ловкими».
1900s
Chekhov was here first.
The fencers and gymnasts of Strastnoi 12 - the first people of the future to train at this address.
●Anton Chekhov ●The Durov brothers ●The Fencing & Gymnastics Society
Before
How three men from somewhere else ended up here.
Val grew up in Silicon Valley. Aleks came from New York, Mike from Canada. Each had already founded and run companies of their own - successfully - before any of this. None of them was sent: they came because they loved Russia, thought it extraordinary, and could feel how much could be built here with founders nobody outside was paying attention to. Russia had been producing world-class innovators for a century, a scientific school orthogonal to the Valley’s, and almost nobody was building the bridge it needed. So they started flying back and forth, and kept doing it until there was a room.
“Before there was a yellow door, there was a habit of opening doors.”
- The founding brief
●Val Jerdes ●Aleks Volkov ●Mike Schwitay
2010
The Valley lands in Moscow.
Dave McClure’s Geeks on a Plane comes to Russia for the first time - sessions on 21 and 23 September, brought over with Foresight Ventures. That November the brand-new Skolkovo Foundation names its first leadership. The institutions and the individuals were forming in the same season.
“We helped bring you over to Moscow a LONG time ago … was a fun couple days!”
- Val to Dave McClure
●Dave McClure ●Vyacheslav Solonitsin
2011
The first photographs.
September: Steve Blank’s first Moscow visit. October: six surviving photographs of the Foresight Ventures team beneath the company mark - the earliest visual proof in the whole archive.
●Steve Blank ●The Foresight team
2013
A basement, as found.
Reconstruction begins on Strastnoi Boulevard. In the same year a hand-built La Marzocco Strada leaves Tuscany and starts the long way round - California, Kyiv customs, then overland to Moscow.
“A wonderful place where you are always welcome and helped with everything. Thank you so much for being our home.”
- Djanette · Sinkhronizatsiya
“One machine, four borders - its own voyage, told properly at the Cappucinarium.”
- La Strada
●James Warren ●The builders
2014
The door opens.
Two and a half years of rebuilding a basement - back to brick and vaulted arch, rewired for a 240-volt Italian machine, room by room while the project kept running. This part was not romantic. Advalange took desks anyway: the first two residents, today around two hundred people and leaders in their market.
“You walk in a stranger and leave with a family - and, somehow, a term sheet.”
- a founding resident
●The founding circle ●(tag a founder)
2015
18 December, 19:30.
The doors open to the public - Yellow Door and West 4, with the jazz trio of Alexey Ivannikov playing against raw brick. Piano, double bass, saxophone. Coffee, art, music and conversation in one room, at last.
●Alexey Ivannikov Trio ●West 4 Coffee ●Natalia Borisova
2016
Nights that became legend.
Press for champagne. The parties got harder to get into - which, naturally, only made everyone want in more.
“Holy smokes, Russia’s got game!”
- Y Combinator partners on the Moscow pitches · 3 February 2016
“The Yellow Door is a big, beating heart - you feel it the moment you walk in.”
- Anna Grom · resident
“Have you ever worked in an office cubicle? Yellow Door is the opposite. Open, fresh, free. In a word: soul. And the people who come here are just like you.”
- Dima Popov · Melon, Shazam
●Esther Dyson ●Guy Kawasaki ●Marvin Liao ●Katya Rets
2017
A soul brother in California.
The Palo Alto headquarters opens at 818 Cowper Street - so portfolio companies, friends and partners have somewhere to land. A door on each side of the portal, in the correct colours.
“Did you know the Yellow Door in Moscow has a soul brother in California? Yes - the Red Door!”
- The Yellow Door, September 2017
●818 Cowper Street
2018
The Valley flies in.
Garry, Phil and Chon - around one table, arguing about the future past 2am. No badges and no panels. 17,000+ visitors have come through. 690+ residents have called it their office. 7,000+ meetups, masterclasses and lectures.
“It's the portal from 'Guest from the Future' - you step through, and the world is suddenly bigger.”
- Arkady Meshkovsky · resident
●Garry Tan ●Phil Wickham ●Chon Tang ●Keith Teare ●Bob Dorf ●Ravi Belani ●Vivek Wadhwa ●Dixon Doll ●Victor Hwang
2019
54 hours, twice in one year.
Techstars Startup Weekend Moscow: thirty pitches down to ten teams, mentors, a jury, and Digi.gift taking it. Held in June and again in December. Part of the team travelled to Techstars Weekend in Prague in March. The densest year in the whole archive.
“The Yellow Door reminds me what great traditions of science, engineering and deep thoughtfulness we possess. And I understand how much we have to offer the world, and how much we can draw from it. I am grateful for this place.”
- Valeria Mayboroda · Grechka Media
●Kirill Lissovets ●Digi.gift ●Maria Lepskaya
2020
Labs is born.
Everything the parties had done by instinct, written into eight weeks - and a soft landing on the far side of the world.
“Labs turned our instinct into a plan we could actually run - and a soft landing an ocean away.”
- Roman Misheev · resident
●Roman Misheev ●Victor Hwang
2021
Thursday mornings, as always.
Founders Coffee keeps going - for a while even in Clubhouse. Free diving, online wellness, DNA sequencing, virtualisation of real estate: the topics change every week and the format never does. Seven years after taking their desks, Advalange is a market leader.
“The most intense, practical, no-bullshit five weeks I’ve ever spent. Worth every minute and penny.”
- Katya Rets · Teempla
●Katya Rets ●Advalange
2022
We stand in Moscow.
Founders Coffee ran through the spring as it has through every season - same morning, same chairs in a circle, same founders leaning in. The eighteenth Insiders batch started that July. We are proud to be here, and we are staying.
“February - March 2022. We stand in Moscow, and we’re sticking around. Where were you?”
- Founders Coffee · Moscow · every Thursday
“I love this place, these people, and everything they do and stand for: for this country, for the world, for their sincere optimism and kindness.”
- Andrey Lobanov · Algorythmika
●The Thursday circle
2023
Grind nights & World Cups.
The big rooms now - fireside chats, regional finals, a stage where every face in the crowd could write a cheque.
“Other places give you a programme. This place gave us a soul - and a home.”
- Dima Popov · resident
“YD is a power center of our startup community & a door to Silicon Valley and the world.”
- Elena Krauzova · Forbes Moscow
●Esther Dyson ●Cameron Teitelman ●Elena Krauzova · Forbes ●Armen Grigoryan · Yerevan
2025
SkyDeck in April. The World Cup in May.
Batch 19 Demo Day at Berkeley SkyDeck - one of our favourite accelerators around academia. Weeks later the Startup World Cup came to Russia for the first time, pitching at Tech Week with a million-dollar prize. In October the Moscow Startup Summit was full of our alumni.
“The course was created by Silicon Valley natives who are themselves investors and founders - and they show how the insiders actually operate.”
- Nikolay M. · Intensive alumnus
●Berkeley SkyDeck ●Startup World Cup ●(photos wanted)
2026
It goes, it bubbles, it grows.
A newly opened office, the Noodome partnership, Berkeley SkyDeck, Startup Grind in the Valley - the thread keeps going, and it keeps widening. The next frames are empty, and one of them has your name pencilled under it. Are you part of this yet? If not, you are missing out.
●You ●(tag yourself)
e iπ + 1 = 0
1748
1961
f s ≥ 2f max
1933
1968
1869
1957
iℏ ∂ψ/∂t = Ĥψ
1926
1949
max c Tx
1939
P(Ω) = 1
1933
1958
1949
…the door is still open. The next chapter is yours to write - add to the archive ↓
This archive is written by all of us.
We post the ones we loveEvery submission is read by a person. We confirm with you, then it shows.
§ the cabinet of curiosities
Two natures, one shelf.
Botanical plates and Soviet engineering plates, hung in the same hard grid - the living and the built, catalogued side by side. The frames stay brutal; a few potted things have grown over them.
The rest of the shelf 24 more plates · 35 in the cabinet
a.7❀
c.8§
a.8❀
c.9§
a.9❀
c.10§
b.1❀
c.11§
b.2❀
c.12§
b.3❀
c.13§
b.4❀
c.14§
b.5❀
c.15§
b.6❀
c.16§
b.7❀
c.17§
c.18§
c.19§
c.20§
c.21§
pl. a - b · botanical, royal horticultural society · pl. c · soviet engineering & physics, after period manuals
§ The legend
“They came from everywhere, and they all asked the same thing at the door - maybe we can fly to the sun?”
The sketches were never marketing. They were drawn by someone in the room, trying to capture a feeling no pitch deck could - the moment before the leap, when the door is still mostly closed.
Series - Yulia Tretyakova · The Night Climbers
● Become part of the history
There's a seat at the table for you.
Every face here began as a stranger at the door. We keep it small on purpose - and we're still letting people in. Here's where it happens next:
● The guest list
Get word of the next happening.
No spam - just the door, opening.