9 Lessons I Learned from Pavel Durov about Freedom, Tech, and Resilience

In the summer of 2014, a quiet exodus began. Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte, Russia's version of Facebook, left his homeland under circumstances that read more like a parable than a news report.

He had refused to hand over user data to the government. He had refused to silence dissent. And then, almost overnight, he was gone. No farewell press conference, no long goodbye.

Just a man walking away from everything he had built, with little more than a suitcase, a passport, and the unsha...