How to get money from an investor without an iron and a rubber baton?

    Jeff Bayer and John Fiber are expert advisors to AlmazCapital and Almaz Venture Capital, who receive about 3,500 applications in a year. They choose from them 5 or 10 pieces, and the rest are carefully lowered into the trash.

    Recently, they told what exactly the investor expects from the application, and where it is now most interesting to look at in terms of development.


    KDPV: in the topic help to earn such things

    Data mining is incredibly taxing


    The most interesting segment today is Big Data. The fact is that the amount of data that is generated and used by mankind is growing exponentially. These data must be able to process. Any large company in one way or another is faced with the business of processing large amounts of data, because only then they become commercial information.

    Jeffrey believes that the world is for mathematicians because they understand WHAT can be done with data. John likes to work with people from Russia and the CIS countries: the mathematical knowledge of the old education system, he believes, is ideal for modern commercial projects with complex tasks.

    Virtualization


    The next important topic is virtual networks. More and more decisions are moving to virtual machines, so now many are interested in mechanisms for fine-tuning the architecture of networks. Need the ability to quickly rebuild to increase efficiency. Mobile operators, for example, are currently sitting and waiting for companies to appear that will manage traffic management and network management in virtual mode. We are talking about effective dynamic management of the network infrastructure with the parallel personalization of individual sections of the network at the request of specific devices, specific smartphones, for example, and specific applications.

    If you search on the Internet for words like: “open stack”, “openflow” you can spend a couple of weeks of your life to figure out what is happening now in this area. It will be 2 very well spent weeks. These virtual networks support what we call scale computing. You, of course, have heard about the Netflix service, which provides, just in streaming mode, video viewing by American subscribers by subscription. You can imagine what kind of needs they have in the channel. Netflix is ​​now dying out over a quarter of US channels. They simultaneously load tens of millions of connections with video streaming. At the same time, there are no SQL databases, they all work on non-SQL. Those. Simple DB or bases like Mongo, Hazlecast and others are used. It turns out that in recent years alternative architectures have been invented, which allow us to circumvent the natural limitations of structured databases. Such solutions allow us to simultaneously support tens of millions of connections, tens of millions of users.


    Supercomputers that solved such problems only 10 years ago are already outdated. Distributed architecture is becoming more and more important for large companies. And it is not only about computing as such, but also about science, research and invention. For example, you need to establish streaming or develop a new tractor model: these are tasks that can be performed distributed.

    The definition of services is changing: it’s already difficult to tie them to platforms. IaaS and other models are already outdated, because it is impossible to predict their own load. For example, the same Netflix describes its broadcast service: technical articles clearly show signs of a new approach to architecture.

    Paranoia


    The next topic is mobile device management. For example, companies now very often allow their employees to bring their smartphones to work. Security officers are very worried that a disgruntled employee can take photos of confidential information and send it to competitors. This is a serious problem for the United States, and it worries almost everyone in the large corporate segment. There are solutions, but they are so reliable and reliable that it’s easier not to use a smartphone at all than to use one of the proposed options that suit security guards.

    And still vinaigrette


    There are a bunch of technical issues in the social environment - from geo-referencing images to analyze their plots to serious research in the field of game psychology. From the point of view of the cognitive sphere, it is important to make people smarter with the help of devices - that is, think through new interfaces for presenting information. In the energy sector, green projects are valued, but trying to take one will be very, very difficult. Here are the frames from the AlmazCapital presentation listing the most interesting areas:


    Sorry for their English

    Is it true that you need to come with a working thing?


    Not always. Sometimes, money was invested in an idea without implementation:
    Normal guys came, well, enthusiastically talked about their idea, and said that we have no answer to these 54 questions, but we will find them later. There is such an eternal problem in the venture capital business that you either rely on people or markets. You need to understand that the market will not create a great company for you. A great company can only be created by good people. Incidentally, one more tip. Do not try to powder your brains to your investors. Honestly, where you need help, support, say, are there any topics in which you do not feel confident. A common trap for young entrepreneurs is that if they acknowledge some weakness, they will never get paid. It’s more important for us to see that you have enthusiasm and that you understand the problems you are facing. We will relate to such a person with much greater trust, greater sympathy. It is very important to know what you do not know. If you answer honestly, "I do not know the answer, but I will talk to smart people and answer your question." We immediately begin to relate to such people with confidence, but if you start to bustle and tell us a tale about a white bull, we, of course, will not give you money.


    The idea is already there. What else needs to be prepared?


    The next question is market assessment and building a real marketing model. Many just forget about it. By the way, usually entrepreneurs, answering the question of what surprised them most in the first 3 years of work in the company, said that it was a necessity to spend a lot of time meeting with customers.

    Then you need to think about the ease of reproduction of technology. Many people want to bring their idea to the end and get a perfect prototype, but you need to come with a beta: investing is not the market that will wait for masterpieces. The main question is whether it starts or not. If it starts with noise, victims and through the ass, but it works, there will be money.

    Yeah, finally, the money!


    Amount is the least important parameter for evaluating a project. Of course, a business plan needs to be considered, but usually there are no money restrictions. The main thing to remember is that you don’t need to work for an investor: a startup is not charity or charity. Need to earn on end customers. It costs exactly as much money to attract as you need to succeed, and on favorable terms, otherwise you will strangle your own business.

    A good investor does not tell you that he wants to see revenue in the near future, he expects growth. The fast and efficient growth that will make your company expensive is just what a competent investor needs. Small companies are another model; they don’t really need investments.

    What's up with the team?


    John adds in the end: you should never hire people who do not suit you. This is not a topic of compromise at all. Only the best. A good team of specialists is like a company’s immune system. Personnel decisions must be made before the start of the project.

    References



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