We ended up sending the application. Then solicited the head of the Department for Working with the Disabled of Kaliningrad Region government to work for us. We spent a year writing the grant application and won 750,000 euros at once, with which we began to develop the territory for the factory.
When you are into social entrepreneurship not for the money, but to solve a social problem, the right people and money will automatically come into your life and to your project.
Did you have any inspiring examples like people or organizations that helped you believe in yourself, in the success, in the technology?
Yes, we traveled a lot around Sweden, Germany, and Poland. I have an idol in Germany, an old man who is now 78 years old. He has a 16,000-square-meter factory with 400 employees. He has a cervical spine injury, just like me. And he makes the world's greatest catheters and urine receptacles. He also has a hotel there – two luxurious buildings sharing a glass roof. There are trees growing between the two buildings, and a beautiful restaurant in the courtyard. We borrowed the idea of cottages near the Observer factory from him, just added a kitchen.
You can live in this posh hotel or cottages for three days and be able to get into any room, even the swimming pool. You just ride up, push a 30-by-10-cm button on the wall, and you get into absolutely any room. It's not until day three that you realize you're living in a disguised rehabilitation center where wheelchair users brew beer right in the kitchen, where they cook their food. It's all very impressive.
I was sitting with him, talking. He has his own vineyard somewhere in the Canary Islands, and he was treating me to a Riesling. I told him: "Look, I have this idea to build a factory, but, man, I'm 45 years old.” He said: "Roma, 45 is the very age to get into an adventure called the factory. That's how I got in this trouble.
We traveled around Sweden a lot, too. It's "the land of victorious communism.” We had a lot to learn from them. The Swedish Minister of Welfare is now a friend of mine, and I asked him a question: "Look, I get it, we're coming to you because you are living in the future, but why are you coming to us?” He said: "Roma, it is easy to build communism when you have money growing on trees. But we are running out of money too, so we're very keen to see how you do it without the money.” That's also an interesting example.