February 4, 2008 at 12:36About foreign investments
Hello! Most recently, I returned from a trip to Finland, whose main goal was to promote my own software product.
Now I can share my (so far small) experience in this area and tell what should be paid attention to when entering the European market.
The story will be of interest to both business people and developers (including web developers).
As usual, welcome to comment if I cover something that is not entirely clear or not entirely detailed.
Before any action, you should decide what you want. For example, if you want investment, this is one thing. If you are looking for potential sales partners (sales representatives) - this is different. Decide in advance what you are looking for, and only after that proceed with the actions.
Remember that a lot depends on the clarity of your position.
So, if you have an interesting project and you want to enter the European market with it, then you need to start somewhere. In general, the first question will be the choice of the country. In my case, it was Finland, because my brother is studying there for exchange. The issue of accommodation and contacts (initial) was resolved.
I must say right away that the level of technology penetration in Europe is different. I chose Finland also because in terms of technical development it is a leader in Europe.
Therefore, when we decided on the country, then we determine the contacts. In general, institutes are interested in almost any development on their subject matter (I mean not research, but those where teaching is conducted). This is the launch pad.
In addition, in institutes there is always a very good and established contact with organizations (mainly state-owned) that are engaged in innovation.
To get started, you need to have a presentation with you describing the product. Your main task is for potential partners to be inspired by the idea and able to understand it. Also, forget about Russian and make a presentation in English, I think this is understandable.
The rule of good tone is handouts, that is, printed slides with space for comments (in PowerPoint, such a printout is achieved by issuing 3 pages). On this handout, people can immediately take notes and ask questions.
Projectors are almost everywhere, so you don’t have to show something from the screen;)
The next point (optional) is the presence of a site (if it is a software product, for example) so that people can learn certain things without asking you personally.
I will not talk about language problems, but remember that it is ideal to have a presentation in the language of the selected country. If you show the presentation to business people, then they mostly know English.
The penultimate and rather important point. If you are demonstrating a software product, bring along a laptop on which you can demonstrate everything without complex and lengthy installation procedures.
And finally. A pack of business cards with details in English, Skype, a local SIM-card for the duration of your stay there. This is so, standard.
The principle of evaluating your proposal is simple - you should not just talk about your product, but explain why it is needed. Very often you can see good presentations, which, however, do not explain what such a cool thing will happen as a result of using the very product.
That is, show the benefits. Show the need. No one will love your product simply because it is good. This is the main rule.
Now let's go on the little things.
How safe is your product? Does it contain vulnerabilities? And the technologies on which it is built? These questions will be the first. Remember that in Europe there are rarely "all-rounders." Therefore, security is one of the issues.
Remember that the most trust is given to those technologies that are already on the market. For example, if you say that your system uses Microsoft SQL Server permissions, this is one thing. And if you say that you wrote such a system yourself - it will undermine confidence. No one says your security system is worse, but how many problems can it have?
If we talk about web development, then it is important to use https (rather than http to work with the login), and think about the servers (that is, what to do). In Europe, they relate normally to IIS, they relate normally to Apache. I can’t say more, because I didn’t have a web project.
In addition, I'm not talking about such simple things that are described in the field of programs for Windows (for example, the correct operation is not under an administrator account, etc.) - you need to know it yourself :)
How is working with personal information? Who has access to it? What access? What can he do and what personal data may be available?
Again, when it comes to the program, it is important to correctly store the data - there should not be any bookmarks or opportunities to track the source of information in documents and other files saved by the program. If you need to store such information, you need to provide a method for its removal from the final document. In Microsoft Office 2007, this feature is implemented more than excellent.
When we talk about sites, then (if there is registration, for example) the rules are simple - look at any example of an English-speaking large resource: do not shine the e-mail address, do not send anything without the consent or will of the user, etc.
Remember that you need innovation in a foreign market. In Russia, you will have a completely different attitude. In Russia, we are too accustomed to innovation and to the fact that we are “ahead of the rest” in terms of development.
In a well-fed Europe, innovation is rare. Therefore, it is easier to find an investor.
With love,
maniaque
Update: Thank you very much for the edits :) It seems to have fixed everything.
Now I can share my (so far small) experience in this area and tell what should be paid attention to when entering the European market.
The story will be of interest to both business people and developers (including web developers).
As usual, welcome to comment if I cover something that is not entirely clear or not entirely detailed.
0. How much to hang in grams?
Before any action, you should decide what you want. For example, if you want investment, this is one thing. If you are looking for potential sales partners (sales representatives) - this is different. Decide in advance what you are looking for, and only after that proceed with the actions.
Remember that a lot depends on the clarity of your position.
Speaking about my case, I was not looking for investors, but for sales partners, that is, people who would make offers regarding my software product, sell it and provide after-sales support.
1. Where to start?
So, if you have an interesting project and you want to enter the European market with it, then you need to start somewhere. In general, the first question will be the choice of the country. In my case, it was Finland, because my brother is studying there for exchange. The issue of accommodation and contacts (initial) was resolved.
I must say right away that the level of technology penetration in Europe is different. I chose Finland also because in terms of technical development it is a leader in Europe.
Therefore, when we decided on the country, then we determine the contacts. In general, institutes are interested in almost any development on their subject matter (I mean not research, but those where teaching is conducted). This is the launch pad.
In addition, in institutes there is always a very good and established contact with organizations (mainly state-owned) that are engaged in innovation.
In my case, I managed to communicate with a person from such an organization who arranged a sufficient number of meetings with potential partners in a short time.
2. What do you need to have with you?
To get started, you need to have a presentation with you describing the product. Your main task is for potential partners to be inspired by the idea and able to understand it. Also, forget about Russian and make a presentation in English, I think this is understandable.
The rule of good tone is handouts, that is, printed slides with space for comments (in PowerPoint, such a printout is achieved by issuing 3 pages). On this handout, people can immediately take notes and ask questions.
Projectors are almost everywhere, so you don’t have to show something from the screen;)
The next point (optional) is the presence of a site (if it is a software product, for example) so that people can learn certain things without asking you personally.
I will not talk about language problems, but remember that it is ideal to have a presentation in the language of the selected country. If you show the presentation to business people, then they mostly know English.
The penultimate and rather important point. If you are demonstrating a software product, bring along a laptop on which you can demonstrate everything without complex and lengthy installation procedures.
And finally. A pack of business cards with details in English, Skype, a local SIM-card for the duration of your stay there. This is so, standard.
3. And what will they look at?
The principle of evaluating your proposal is simple - you should not just talk about your product, but explain why it is needed. Very often you can see good presentations, which, however, do not explain what such a cool thing will happen as a result of using the very product.
That is, show the benefits. Show the need. No one will love your product simply because it is good. This is the main rule.
Now let's go on the little things.
Security
How safe is your product? Does it contain vulnerabilities? And the technologies on which it is built? These questions will be the first. Remember that in Europe there are rarely "all-rounders." Therefore, security is one of the issues.
Remember that the most trust is given to those technologies that are already on the market. For example, if you say that your system uses Microsoft SQL Server permissions, this is one thing. And if you say that you wrote such a system yourself - it will undermine confidence. No one says your security system is worse, but how many problems can it have?
If we talk about web development, then it is important to use https (rather than http to work with the login), and think about the servers (that is, what to do). In Europe, they relate normally to IIS, they relate normally to Apache. I can’t say more, because I didn’t have a web project.
In addition, I'm not talking about such simple things that are described in the field of programs for Windows (for example, the correct operation is not under an administrator account, etc.) - you need to know it yourself :)
Personal Information (Privacy)
How is working with personal information? Who has access to it? What access? What can he do and what personal data may be available?
Again, when it comes to the program, it is important to correctly store the data - there should not be any bookmarks or opportunities to track the source of information in documents and other files saved by the program. If you need to store such information, you need to provide a method for its removal from the final document. In Microsoft Office 2007, this feature is implemented more than excellent.
When we talk about sites, then (if there is registration, for example) the rules are simple - look at any example of an English-speaking large resource: do not shine the e-mail address, do not send anything without the consent or will of the user, etc.
4. Summing up
Remember that you need innovation in a foreign market. In Russia, you will have a completely different attitude. In Russia, we are too accustomed to innovation and to the fact that we are “ahead of the rest” in terms of development.
In a well-fed Europe, innovation is rare. Therefore, it is easier to find an investor.
With love,
maniaque
Update: Thank you very much for the edits :) It seems to have fixed everything.