Startup Lynch on RIT

    While everyone is slowly starting to digest their impressions of visiting RIT, I will share my impressions from one of the parts of the “conference in the conference” Success Story - 2008 . The section with the intriguingly provocative name “ Startup Lynch ” was held in the middle of the second day of the forum, just in the afternoon. Since at that time she competed for the attention of the participants with only one rather narrow report (apart from the competition with the dining room), quite a lot of people gathered to watch the action in the spirit of the reality show “Chance”.

    The essence of the event was as follows: start-up owners, who had previously submitted applications for participation, had to submit their creations to a jury of 4 representatives of investment companies and 3 technical specialists in 3 minutes (all are equal, both with respect to selection, and with them Maxim Spiridonov from Royber ). For another 5 minutes, the jury could ask clarifying questions for the presentation and then assessed the possibility of continuing the conversation with the contestant by raising their hands and promisingly putting business cards on the table.

    The first person to pick up his microphone was the person who presented the RIT-TV project for RIT organizerswhose team is shooting at all ProfyClub events, broadcasting video on RuTube. Actually, a recording from the Startup Lynch may soon appear there. The project needed investments to expand the content marketing network. However, exactly how the team plans to spend money and then earn it back, remains unclear due to the excitement of the speaker. Which resulted in a unanimous lack of interest on the part of the jury and Spiridonov’s instructions to the following speakers on how to show themselves.

    Two young men, creators of the BannerMe advertising network, performed somewhat more successfully, having received 3 votes for their project. Their idea is to collect statistics about the preferences of a particular user. This can be called surveillance of the user, it can be called, in a fashionable way, behavioral targeting, but the fact remains: 1.5 million rubles of investments have already been invested in the project (including half a million as a sign of interest from the Moscow Government). The gentlemen, the investors began to shake noticeably, having heard the amounts of funds already absorbed, thereby confirming their difference from the so-called business angels - a fundamental reluctance to invest in something that exists only on paper and supported only by a twinkle in one's eyes. It is worth remembering this before entering the door under the signboard of “FINAM” or another one that looks just as serious.

    The interest of the jury continued to grow with the performance of a clearly enthusiastic person who presented his company that developed the Megaplan task management system . 4 votes in favor consisted of unequivocal approval of the speaker’s argumentation, plus $ 300 thousand of investments already made in the project. The company's product niche is at the junction of the niches of large systems for large businesses and personal organizers. There are still few competitors, but the idea is clearly already in work all over the world. The team, which has already put the development of its brainchild on a straight track, honestly admits that it needs the money ($ 1 million) to accelerate and implement ambitious plans, although they will earn their own piece of bread with caviar without outside help. All this, obviously, captivates and disposes investors.

    The next speaker, with her idea of ​​the Skhrosokod data storage, synchronization and copying service , although she did not receive a single vote from the jury, was surely sincerely supported by all of them in her soul, and, according to Pavel Rogozhin, she won the audience’s prize :)

    Well, the most successful was the presentation of the service of video tips, instructions and lessons of Qefir.ru, similar in functionality to Skillopedia. Clear directions of monetization (advertising on the topic of a specific video clip, video shooting services for those wishing to appear on the organization’s website), recognition of the important role of competitors and the risks of starting a fight in an already occupied niche, and, again, a rather high-quality presentation is the key to success. The result - 5 votes and a small crowd of people wishing to get acquainted around the speaker after closing the section.

    As a result, we can say that although there was not something extraordinary among the presented projects, the start-up lynch was spectacular and informative at a high level. Those who were there and saw, for sure, understood some rules of talking with an investor no worse than after reading a couple of weighty books. But, oddly enough, the most correct, in my opinion, will be the conclusion that there are no universal rules. Each investor wants to see interesting things from you personally. One needs a brilliant idea, the other needs a competent justification and marketing gloss. Do not worry, perhaps, only to those who have both.

    They should think only about the statement of one of the jury members, which made the audience plunge into thoughtfulness for a while, and then burst into applause: "The main thing is not to get other people's money, but to return it."

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