Who hunts startups?

What will the oil company do here?

Hello!

You have got to the blog of Gazprom Neft, or rather, its part, which is responsible for refueling Gazpromneft, servicing freight carriers and selling small wholesale fuel for industrial and agricultural enterprises, as well as storage and delivery of fuel for industry consumers . For some time now, the product of our company is not only fuel, we are closely working on new non-fuel (and sometimes digital) products for customers. Development, data science, backlog, product team are now quite familiar words even for our vertically integrated oil company (it sounds a little creepy, right?).

We have teams that create services, applications and platforms for customers. And we have accumulated experience in both development and in obtaining feedback and errors. What are we going to talk about? Not only company news, but also specific stories about products, product development, how the company checks quality, and even about a hockey club!

Corporations are hunting for startups. Effectively?

The company has been working with in-house product development for 2 years. We will definitely talk about what products for customers are and how they work, but about them a little later. Today is about the launch of the StartupDrive corporate accelerator.

Of course, you know about acceleration programs, and that startups that are taught there usually teach, teach a lot, then hold meetings with mentors (not always relevant), then they are taken out somewhere by the crowd, then they are taught again, then require as many pivots as possible, high-profile numbers for headlines, and often - a complete separation from your business.

Acceleration in itself gives a lot of positive side effects for the development of innovation or transformation of the company. But most often, the structure, processes, culture and people in corporations are not ready, not motivated and do not know how to work with start-ups that are undergoing an acceleration program, and it is more logical to direct the focus of attention to other forms and tools of innovation development, primarily within the company. We have started this process with internal development. Today, Gazprom Neft employs more than 20 product teams, at the same time it became clear that it is necessary to more actively go to the foreign market, where strong companies work. As a result, we developed a program.

StartupDrive was created as a tool for developing a joint business for a startup and for a company. It will help residents promote and refine their ideas for a specific segment of customers, expand the sales channel, and companies - expand the line of digital products.

The acceleration program does not mean training, general coworking or coliving, because the challenge is to earn, to occupy the maximum market share in a short period. And we leave out everything that does not develop the business of participants. The work will be built according to understandable principles: a business customer with a company curator and residents build a roadmap for developing a product or solution, determine target hypotheses and then test it on clients online and evaluate their effectiveness, including sales.

It should be understood that investors invest in startups that do not work according to the “design bureau” principle, but that have a close-knit team, clear ambitions in the market, and also show time-to-market product development and rapid growth. And now more about what the startup gets from participating in the accelerator:

• Client asset (by the way, Gazprom Neft has more than a million transactions every day only at gas stations)
  
• Ready-made products that you can integrate into
  
• Understanding the market and business processes in a corporation
  
• Help from specific curators from the company's business
  

So, the first program was launched for 3 months. The first selection was not public, but this does not mean that “native startups” became participants - they selected through various competitions of startups and demo day, connected scouts and partner accelerators and funds.

Based on the results of this selection, 26 of the 200 projects were taken, with which they conducted in-depth interviews. During the interview, in addition to questions about the product, team and users, they learned, for example, about the average customer check, revenue and profit for the relevant period, they were also interested in the size of the startup investment and the costs that the company incurred, as well as plans for the next 2-3 years. Six startups became participants - they develop technological products in the areas of cargo transportation, taxi, car sharing, as well as in the field of urban automotive infrastructure.

Who entered the first StartupDrive program

An IT platform using machine learning to find parking spaces in urban areas for car drivers - developed by ParkWise . The service is already popular in Germany and the USA.

The creators of the online platform Guru taxi , which helps drivers quickly find a car to work in the taxi industry, will promote the service for Gazprom Neft customers.

Car sharing is actively developing in megacities. And Rent a ride - a service for renting a car for personal trips and travels. The service allows you to rent your own car.

The service for quick call of a tow truck - Cartaxi - is actively used in Russia in 360 cities, plans to enter the markets of Belarus, Kazakhstan, the USA and Saudi Arabia.

The solution for motorists who are not ready to wait for a long time to receive insurance payments -   Neos .

The team that created the platform for the transportation of goods also became a participant. Shipit.to is a smart solution for tracking cargo during transportation using predictive analytics.

A couple of tips for startups who would also like to participate in accelerators or become a partner of a large company:

1. Take part in pitches
   
2. Immerse yourself in the company's business processes, understand who the customers are, what the company earns, what products are in the basket (not only look at the site, but analyze the situation in depth)
   
3. Prepare a presentation about yourself and your product
   
4. Take part in contests and events, and remember that there may be representatives of companies that do not advertise their participation
   
5. Write on social networks, post articles on available resources
   

Program participants focus on a specific result, for 3 months it is necessary to show the effectiveness of the partnership in numbers. Together with startup teams, the company will be engaged in customer research, developing new business models, flexible product development, and consider unit economics. The business metrics by which the success of the project will be determined are worked out jointly and in advance. For example, 200 new customers using the service or 100 new orders a day. Different participants have different metrics relevant to their business.

How to get into the accelerator?

A new set starts in the fall. The application can be submitted through the form on the website of the startupdrive.ru accelerator. But we must be prepared for the fact that a startup and our fuel business should have mutual value and benefit. Our goals are to develop the ecosystem of the oil sales business, turn gas stations into a service hub and develop a line of digital products or services for customers.