One hundred thousand idea
While foreign investment angels consider it insanity to invest in our latitudes, and their domestic colleagues are more interested in "sawing" projects, marshals' wands in backpacks only get in the way of simple startup soldiers.
Getting acquainted with the expectations of startup authors, one gets the feeling that the basis of their idea of business is based on template images of the “Business” series of clipart. Those that adorn the sites of all kinds of forex lures, with indispensable images of triumphant businessmen and admiringly respectful investors.
I am extremely skeptical about evaluating the value of ideas. Nobody buys ideas.
Firstly, the number of investors is extremely limited.
Secondly, the purchased "ideological" companies are acquired, obviously, is not so simple. The hassle of dot-coms has not yet completely dissipated, but the varnish with success stories and the role of investors in it is gradually starting to disappear. They either buy patents, or a client base, or some kind of immense size and quickly monetized (or capitalized) potential.
The very idea - once pronounced aloud - ceases to belong to its author.
Even already at the stage of implementation, the idea is extremely vulnerable. There comes a certain moment when the project no longer fits on its knee, requires significant investments, and monetization is still far away. Then it’s easier for the investor to copy the idea, slightly upgrade the functionality and take into account the mistakes of the predecessor - and, voila - a million is no longer just past you, but against you. He will be invested in promoting a competing project.
Once you see the realization of your "idea per million", you can very likely assume that this is it, your idea is. The narrated idea is like a germinated seed - the process is irreversible. After all, we are from cunning investors, as you know, only 7 handshakes.
Thinking in this way, we voluntarily refused to conquer the world with our “ideas per million”, and decided to just make money without disdaining much more modest projects.
A group of like-minded five people, which included three IT specialists, a lawyer and an economist, united into a kind of investment company.
The initial capital formed as a result of the sale of real estate, cars and the printing of egg caps by partners amounted to fifteen million rubles.
The money was mine, it was the only and last. Attached to them, of enormous size, a toad. Therefore, nobody went to take experience in Silicon Valley.
We have chosen the Russian IT sector and Internet projects as the investment area.
Finally, the idea took shape after a series of successful experiments. So, in 2009, a proposal was received to assist in winning a tender for the maintenance of accounting software. As a result, the profitability of this project exceeded all expectations: net of taxes, the invested ruble brought 4 rubles of net profit. And this is apart from the fact that as a result of the project, we became the owners of tested in practice, developments in the automation of a very specific area of accounting.
We created a company, attracted specialists - permanent and freelance, established service.
The person who gave us the idea became our partner with a 30% participation. In the process of creating the company, we agreed on the procedure for the purchase of shares in the company. According to the forecast, we will leave the business in 3 years, leaving the partner the entire technical and methodological part of the project.
In terms of Internet projects, we participated in the withdrawal to local networks of several cities, where the Internet is still very expensive, local versions of sites selling attributes of youth subcultures.
We conducted local viral campaigns and organized angry speeches of the older generation on this subject. The result of educational work among young people directed against us and carried out in all schools of the city was that even first-graders flaunt now in the goods we promote. Youth is a protest electorate.
This project brought 350% profit on invested money. True, he did not deliver much joy, since suppliers began not to disdain the promotion of certain categories of goods that had become illegal since the beginning of 2010. We left the project ahead of schedule, during the period of the most active business growth - with lost profits and invaluable practical experience in viral marketing.
There were many very “short” projects built on the principle of “buy cheaper - sell more expensive”. Partners, as a rule, were the insiders of the buyer, often not making decisions, but knowing the intricacies of tenders.
These are not million dollar projects. They are sickeningly banal. But these are solid one hundred thousand projects.
Now we are focusing on business on the Internet. For example, from one of the projects we got a 1C configuration, sharpened and tested for a very specific production industry.
With completely identical production processes in it, the business processes associated with them are unique to each enterprise. Attached was complete information about the production processes of the industry and possible ways to implement them. And also - experience that allows you to speak the same language with the adherents of this industry.
We plan to close the basic functionality, put a full-fledged configuration in the public domain and try to make money on implementations and customer support.
For Internet projects, we have developed our own large SEO infrastructure.
We are actively looking for and considering all projects that can bring good profit. We minimize risks by undertaking only projects with guaranteed profit. We do not work with proposals for “kickbacks,” however, we are willing to accept offers on a partnership basis, when the partner shares with us the risks at each stage of the project.
We have become grown children who are still writing letters to the venture Santa Claus, but they no longer build illusions about the origin of gifts under the Christmas tree.
Most of the people with whom we are creating a new business do not have entrepreneurial experience and do not want to learn how to do business in harsh Russian realities.
When it’s not about a million dollars, communicating with people is very simple. The business within our projects is simple and transparent. More often than not, the participation of our partners does not end with one idea. They build a business "for themselves" - we will exit projects 3 years after their creation.
By the way - many of the partners cherish their projects, the same ones - "a million." And they are waiting for the MOST investors with big money.
Hurry to live. "Millionth" ideas are a beautiful fairy tale, protect it from the ears of others.
And - don't miss out on modest everyday opportunities.
1. Waiting for an investor
Getting acquainted with the expectations of startup authors, one gets the feeling that the basis of their idea of business is based on template images of the “Business” series of clipart. Those that adorn the sites of all kinds of forex lures, with indispensable images of triumphant businessmen and admiringly respectful investors.
I am extremely skeptical about evaluating the value of ideas. Nobody buys ideas.
Firstly, the number of investors is extremely limited.
Secondly, the purchased "ideological" companies are acquired, obviously, is not so simple. The hassle of dot-coms has not yet completely dissipated, but the varnish with success stories and the role of investors in it is gradually starting to disappear. They either buy patents, or a client base, or some kind of immense size and quickly monetized (or capitalized) potential.
The very idea - once pronounced aloud - ceases to belong to its author.
2. Surviving
Even already at the stage of implementation, the idea is extremely vulnerable. There comes a certain moment when the project no longer fits on its knee, requires significant investments, and monetization is still far away. Then it’s easier for the investor to copy the idea, slightly upgrade the functionality and take into account the mistakes of the predecessor - and, voila - a million is no longer just past you, but against you. He will be invested in promoting a competing project.
Once you see the realization of your "idea per million", you can very likely assume that this is it, your idea is. The narrated idea is like a germinated seed - the process is irreversible. After all, we are from cunning investors, as you know, only 7 handshakes.
3. Returning to the sinful earth
Thinking in this way, we voluntarily refused to conquer the world with our “ideas per million”, and decided to just make money without disdaining much more modest projects.
A group of like-minded five people, which included three IT specialists, a lawyer and an economist, united into a kind of investment company.
The initial capital formed as a result of the sale of real estate, cars and the printing of egg caps by partners amounted to fifteen million rubles.
The money was mine, it was the only and last. Attached to them, of enormous size, a toad. Therefore, nobody went to take experience in Silicon Valley.
We have chosen the Russian IT sector and Internet projects as the investment area.
Finally, the idea took shape after a series of successful experiments. So, in 2009, a proposal was received to assist in winning a tender for the maintenance of accounting software. As a result, the profitability of this project exceeded all expectations: net of taxes, the invested ruble brought 4 rubles of net profit. And this is apart from the fact that as a result of the project, we became the owners of tested in practice, developments in the automation of a very specific area of accounting.
We created a company, attracted specialists - permanent and freelance, established service.
The person who gave us the idea became our partner with a 30% participation. In the process of creating the company, we agreed on the procedure for the purchase of shares in the company. According to the forecast, we will leave the business in 3 years, leaving the partner the entire technical and methodological part of the project.
In terms of Internet projects, we participated in the withdrawal to local networks of several cities, where the Internet is still very expensive, local versions of sites selling attributes of youth subcultures.
We conducted local viral campaigns and organized angry speeches of the older generation on this subject. The result of educational work among young people directed against us and carried out in all schools of the city was that even first-graders flaunt now in the goods we promote. Youth is a protest electorate.
This project brought 350% profit on invested money. True, he did not deliver much joy, since suppliers began not to disdain the promotion of certain categories of goods that had become illegal since the beginning of 2010. We left the project ahead of schedule, during the period of the most active business growth - with lost profits and invaluable practical experience in viral marketing.
There were many very “short” projects built on the principle of “buy cheaper - sell more expensive”. Partners, as a rule, were the insiders of the buyer, often not making decisions, but knowing the intricacies of tenders.
These are not million dollar projects. They are sickeningly banal. But these are solid one hundred thousand projects.
Now we are focusing on business on the Internet. For example, from one of the projects we got a 1C configuration, sharpened and tested for a very specific production industry.
With completely identical production processes in it, the business processes associated with them are unique to each enterprise. Attached was complete information about the production processes of the industry and possible ways to implement them. And also - experience that allows you to speak the same language with the adherents of this industry.
We plan to close the basic functionality, put a full-fledged configuration in the public domain and try to make money on implementations and customer support.
For Internet projects, we have developed our own large SEO infrastructure.
We are actively looking for and considering all projects that can bring good profit. We minimize risks by undertaking only projects with guaranteed profit. We do not work with proposals for “kickbacks,” however, we are willing to accept offers on a partnership basis, when the partner shares with us the risks at each stage of the project.
We have become grown children who are still writing letters to the venture Santa Claus, but they no longer build illusions about the origin of gifts under the Christmas tree.
4. Just partners
Most of the people with whom we are creating a new business do not have entrepreneurial experience and do not want to learn how to do business in harsh Russian realities.
When it’s not about a million dollars, communicating with people is very simple. The business within our projects is simple and transparent. More often than not, the participation of our partners does not end with one idea. They build a business "for themselves" - we will exit projects 3 years after their creation.
By the way - many of the partners cherish their projects, the same ones - "a million." And they are waiting for the MOST investors with big money.
5. Conclusion
Hurry to live. "Millionth" ideas are a beautiful fairy tale, protect it from the ears of others.
And - don't miss out on modest everyday opportunities.