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Andrey Filatov, Marketer & Founder of #lunchmeout, Friedrichshain

March 13, 2019

We got to know and love Andrey during one of his fun #lunchmeout sessions. Andrey is a real Muscovite who is based in Berlin and works as a digital marketer in the gaming industry. For his project #lunchmeout, he loves to meet new people for lunch and then features them on his Instagram. So, over lunch, we talked to this fun, interesting Russian expat.

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
I was born in Moscow, Russia. I had a good childhood — I spent my time playing video games, playing football, and studying.

What is the strongest memory you have of your hometown?
I have always admired the scale and spirit of ambition and achievement in Moscow. It is a place where your hard work and talent will get you forward pretty quickly. In my opinion, Moscow is an enormous concentration of talented, smart people.

What did you do in your hometown?
I’ve studied marketing and I have always worked as a marketer. I know that’s rare, so I guess I’m lucky. For the last seven years, I’ve been a marketer in the gaming industry, which perhaps is at the very forefront of the tech space.

When did you arrive in Germany?
I moved to Berlin in early 2017.

What brought you to Berlin?
I moved to Berlin both for my job and because I had the desire to move forward and grow. Choosing Berlin was perhaps one of the most conscious decisions I have ever made. I had visited the city plenty of times before the move because I like the spirit, values, and lifestyle here.

What do you do?
Besides working full-time at a gaming company, I like to take walks with my camera and do street photography. Of course, I’m taking advantage of the vibrant music scene and nightlife and meeting up with friends too. My latest small hobby that is getting more serious is called #lunchmeout. In essence, the project involves taking portraits of the people I’m having lunch with and then giving a short recap of our conversation in an Instagram post. So far, I have featured more than 180 people – and by the way, thanks to the editor-of-chief of Berlinograd for participating as well (Andrey laughs.) You can find the feature of her on Instagram with the hashtag #lunchmeout.

When and why did you come up with the idea #lunchmeout?
Last April, I had lunch with one of my colleagues and I had just gotten a new phone. Being active on Instagram, I was itching to shoot more with the camera on my new phone because it was so much better than my previous one. We went to Muse in Prenzlauer Berg and each ordered a burger and fries. We were sitting outside at a small table and so the table was basically covered with fries. I couldn’t resist — I took a picture and posted it on Instagram. It felt too obvious to put a caption like “a table full of fries,” so I wrote something like “discussing football” as we touched on this topic.
The next day, I had lunch with another friend of mine whose first child had been born the night before. Obviously, I was sure the world should know about it.

And then I thought “well, this is a cool idea,” so I kept posting images and captions like those and then eventually I came up with the hashtag. After that, I switched from the phone camera to a real camera. I’ve featured more than 185 people, and counting.

 

Andrey Filatov, Marketer & Founder of #lunchmeout, Friedrichshain

Andrey’s first #lunchmeout date at Muse in Prenzlauer Berg.

 

Who was the most interesting person you’ve met or the most interesting #lunchmeout conversation you’ve had so far?
It’s hard to highlight just one person. Not because I want to be polite, but because nearly every person I’ve had lunch with has had something exciting and unexpected to share like a hobby, story, travel experience, thought, or observation.

The people I like to meet the most are the ones I don’t know well until we have lunch. Maybe we spoke briefly for 5 minutes or only knew each other online and had never met in real life. #lunchmeout is an excellent opportunity to get to know someone better.

Which (famous) Berliner would you like to have lunch with?
I’d love to have lunch with a musician, producer, or DJ. There are some very talented people here. Let’s say Nina Kraviz (Andrey smiles). I would be more than happy to meet her for lunch and who knows, perhaps some of your readers can get us in touch? That would be much appreciated, and I would owe them a #lunchmeout too.


Follow Andrey’s #lunchmeout series on Instgram. You can also follow Andrey Filatov’s personal profiles on Instagram and Facebook.
Oh and yes, and we wouldn’t mind interviewing Nina Kravitz for the blog as well.


*Text by Beatrice Grundheber
**Photos by Natalia Lipchanskaya

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