October 18, 2011 at 01:21Overview of start-up events in Russia. Where to go to show yourself?
Programs and events to support startups have divorced a lot! What can they give? Why participate in them? Many are trying to answer these questions, and we will add our five cents to this din. I would like to note right away that the article explains quite simple things that a person who is more or less immersed in the topic may seem trivial. But we believe that there are a huge number of people for whom this information may be useful.
A startup has many opportunities to start, and each of them has its own advantages. You can just do your own ingenious project with a quiet glanders, then jump out of the box like a little devil and blow up the market.
But not everyone is capable of this, many people periodically require a little emotional doping, which can be obtained at startup parties. Some still really need money, connections, smart tips or a team. So, what activities and programs can help a young IT entrepreneur?
1) Weekend
( Startup Weekend , Harvest , HackDay )
As the name implies, they usually go on weekends. Most often, as many smart people as possible are called in one place, who are also called experts, and within two to three days they listen to the stories about your project and express their thoughts. Usually this takes place in a business incubator, in Moscow - Digital October or InCube, in Kazan, for example, an IT park or any other room suitable for 200 people. The result may be different. Some understand that they are doing everything right and, inspired, begin to work twice as efficiently. After expert advice given by some, they turn the concept upside down and it turns out that this was what had to be done from the very beginning. And some leave with the thought that the weekend was wasted, and all the experts do not understand anything. The last we sincerely wish good luck, they will need them.
Some projects are so popular with experts that they continue to communicate after a working session, and sometimes an expert generally becomes a partner (mentor) or employee of the company. In any case, such events are simply an ideal place for networking, and communication, as you know, is everything.
In addition to experts, good specialists often drop in here as well, who are ready to exchange office crypts of large corporations for the fresh startup wind. And frames decide no less than communications. In addition, an experienced team will become another trump card in obtaining investments.
Prizes such as money (10-100 thousand dollars), certificates for some b2b service like Megaplan or My Business, or for educational courses are often handed out for such events.
The disadvantages of such sessions are, firstly, that they take a lot of time, and secondly, this is an ideal option for bulshitting for a beginner project. Bullshitting is when you are doing minor things and postponing priority tasks (for example, finding the first customers or creating a prototype) because you are afraid to really start the project. A very convincing illusion of useful activity is created, but sooner or later people who go to all the events with the same project for half a year and still have not put together even a working prototype start looking askance, and after a year they openly ignore it. So do not forget about direct work either.
2) Project show
( StartupPoint , Startup Crash Test , Startup Index , Startup Sauna Warmup , Feedback )
They are also project, investment or startup sessions. In fact, the presentation of pre-selected projects, followed by discussion and criticism.
Come here for money and a headache. For money, because at these events you can often see investors, even if they are not specifically invited. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a high-quality presentation and learn how to answer tricky questions such as market size and justification of the size of investments.
As for the headache, most likely, the audience will criticize absolutely all the elements of your project from the main page of the site to the profit model. The main thing here is to firmly restrain all blows, not to argue and try to isolate the maximum amount of useful information from criticism. Not a single remark, even the most stupid one, arises from scratch.
3) Competitions of large IT companies
( Yandex.Start )
Yandex declares its desire to buy startups and even bought 3 . Applications must be submitted directly through the site or through regional partners .
4) Industry conferences
( RIF + CIB , Siberian Internet Weeks , RIW , 404fest , iCamp - will be held on November 11 , by the way)
A lot of useful information and interesting people. The IT industry is not so big, therefore, having come to a large all-Russian conference, you can see almost all more or less noticeable people. And of course, get to know them! Just conjure, it is not necessary to approach gets acquainted with a person if you have nothing to say to him. Multiple-page texts have been written about networking at conferences, so take the trouble to read them at least diagonally.
Actually, now at absolutely any conference, if it is at least somewhat sideways with the business, a startup session is taking place. But their quality can be very different, so before applying, study the list of experts and think, maybe it's worth the time to work on the project? Most startup sessions at such conferences are held by well-known market players, so the quality and focus can be assessed in advance by simply specifying the organizer.
5) Business incubators
( BI Ingria , BI HSE , BI IT Park (Kazan) , Business Incubator, Novosibirsk Academic Town , InCube )
If you are a completely beginner project and most of your team does not have impressive experience in the industry, then the incubator is the place for you. Firstly, rallies, open lectures, seminars, gatherings and coworking, which are represented by most business incubators, are a great place to get acquainted with startups like you who will be industry stars in the future, and connections, as we have said three times , decide everything. Secondly, information about any activity flocks to the BI, so you can’t be afraid in the incubator that you will miss some interesting event, they will simply not let you do it. Thirdly, incubators usually have their own full-time experts on various issues who are ready to take on part of the routine tasks facing a startup. They will help you finish the business model, fill out an application for a grant or investment, conduct market research for you. The downside is that you can get used to such a good life, and at the end of the incubation program (1-3 years), it can be difficult for you to enter the real world.
6) Business accelerators
( Farminers , InCube )
Something between a business incubator and a work session. Acceleration programs provide for the issuance of small money, usually up to $ 100 thousand, after which, with the participation of various gurus and experts, you work for 3-6 months (depending on the program) for 16 hours a day, periodically reporting on success. At the end of the acceleration program, you present your project to investors at a kind of graduation. Accelerators themselves for all these benefits usually take a small (3 ~ 5%) share in your project. If there is an opportunity to get into any well-known accelerator - do not hesitate for a minute, there are no drawbacks, except that you have to really work a lot, no.
In addition to accelerators, the opportunity to leave for a few months in your project with your head will also be given to programs like Spanish Village (www.spanish-village.com) or “Intensive Vacations” from Glavstart, or Startup Sauna Intensive (http://startupsauna.com/) . They differ from ordinary accelerators in that they take you either out of town (Intensive Vacations) or generally to another country (Spanish Village, Startup Sauna). The significance of such an experience can hardly be overestimated, especially if you intend to enter the international market.
7) Open lectures
( Theories and practices , Meropritiya BI IT Park , poSEEDelki , Events BI SU-HSE )
Almost all of the above activities are accompanied by some kind of educational process. Most often this happens as a master class of some well-known specialist. Therefore, it is worth attending various events, if only in order to learn something new and not to allow absolutely stupid mistakes when building your project.
In addition to lectures dedicated to larger events, often just gatherings on some interesting topics are also held. In Moscow, the most famous are called poSEEDelki, in Kazan this is the weekly “IT-gatherings in the Business Incubator”, which take place in the IT park.
8) Startup sites
( Kulibin , StartupAfisha , WantedVC , Gov2people )
In addition to offline, there are a huge number of Internet resources in one way or another helping startups. They pursue different goals, from simple reporting on events (http://startupafisha.ru), to assistance in finding investments (http://wanted.vc). In almost all of them, you can put your project to the court of the community, and in some places get an expert assessment. By the way, on the StartupAfishi website (http://startupafisha.ru), you can find a complete list of organizations involved in supporting startups with division by region.
9) Startup contests
( web-ready , HSE {10K} , BIT , Startup of the year )
There is another interesting opportunity to “light up” - this is a startup competition. Partners in the regions, a transparent evaluation procedure and the participation of the right sponsors. Must have for what
From time to time, attempts are made to "gather everyone" and create a hyper-event for startups, or vice versa - to declare all organizers self-PR
In addition to specialized portals, you can try to post information on other resources, the subject of which is more or less suitable for your project.
In addition to all of the above, participation in startup events and programs can provide your project with an excellent PR. When a journalist is about to write about IT startups, he will first pay attention to the winners of various competitions and residents of well-known business incubators. This is not to mention the fact that many organizations that host events have their own blogs, which are often quite a large number of readers.
And in the end, a variety of Weekends is just fun. Like a fair in the countryside: to see people and to show themselves. This is a party and communication, and communication, as you know, is everything;)
By the way, we personally checked all these events as startupers and during the test none of us was hurt;).
PS Topic written by Andrei Zheglov co-authored with me.