23 September 2011

Do you have a startup? Where to go, where to go?

Overview of opportunities for high-tech startups in Moscow
UNOVA

There has been a lot of talk lately about modernizing and supporting innovative entrepreneurship. The team of GreenfieldProjekt, a launch pad for high–tech startups, studied what opportunities exist in Moscow for entrepreneurs who have connected their business with new technologies. The material is published by RBC daily.

If your project is at a VERY early stageCome to Harvest (greenfield-project.ru/harvest/events/harvest7 /) is a working weekend where participants work together with experts on their ideas, form working groups, which then grow into permanent teams, and in two days they do monthly amounts of work.

It is useful for beginners to remember the slogan "Learn and learn and learn again!" – it is relevant for entrepreneurs as for no one else. If you are ready to gain new knowledge, then take a closer look at three active sites that help startups gain useful knowledge:

  • HSE-Inc Business Incubator of the Higher School of Economics (hse-inc.ru ). The opening of the new season will take place soon, where they will talk about the planned educational programs and new opportunities for residents.
  • InCube Business Incubator of the Academy of National Economy (incube-ane.ru ). The whole plan of events has not yet been laid out, but traditionally the program promises to be very rich and dense. In any case, you should register on the site and follow the updates.
  • At the Digital October Center (digitaloctober.ru ) many professional conferences and educational events are held on Red October with the participation of teachers and experts from all over the world. The subject is everything related to new technologies and technological entrepreneurship.

If you have already understood what you will do, and there is a commandGo on a working weekend Startup Weekend (russia.startupweekend.org ).

This is a good opportunity to announce your idea, find mentors and investors in your project. For a snack, lectures for developers and marketers.

If you are already ready to take up the project seriously and devote all your free time to it, apply to the first classic startup accelerator InCube (incube-ane.ru/accelerator /), organized according to the Western model. 20 thousand are provided for three months, internship in Europe, permanent access to experts and investors. In three months, you need to hone the concept of your project, make a prototype and have time to get metrics. The task for the most successful is to prepare for receiving full–fledged seed investments.

If you already have something to show and you are ready to attract investmentTry your luck at the Farminers Academy (farminers.com ), which is launched by people who have eaten more than one dog in the Internet industry.

Investments of 150 thousand dollars, the opportunity to communicate with people inaccessible in ordinary life and a platform in the center of Moscow will easily replace emigration to Silicon Valley.

With a working prototype, you can contact Yandex.Factory (company.yandex.ru/public/start/factory.xml ) – the investment program of the largest Russian IT company - the Yandex search engine. Investments in the amount of up to several hundred thousand dollars are provided for up to a year.

Another option is to collect the necessary documents and apply for funding from the Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of the City of Moscow. Subsidies in the amount of 500 thousand to 5 million rubles are provided for companies engaged in innovative activities. Detailed information is available on the department's website (dmpmos.ru/default.aspx?s=0&p=577 ).

If the priorities of your project are the development of science, technology and technology of the Russian Federation, then take a closer look at the proposal of a Russian venture company (rusventure.ru/ru/investments/fpi/authors.php ). And they can offer investments of up to 25 million rubles (which should be up to 75% of the total investment in the project). At a minimum, you will receive a qualitative analysis of your business from the venture partners of the RVC Seed Investment Fund.

If you are already cramped in RussiaDo not be afraid of the name and feel free to apply to the Startup Sauna (hse-inc.ru/article/2011/08/24/_1731.htm ).

Notable European and American experts will come to Moscow to "soar" startups. The best projects will leave for a two-month internship in Finland.

Spanish Village (spanish-village.com /) – a program for fans of warm climates who have a strong project. If you pass the selection, welcome to Spain. There you will be able to work intensively on your project. However, there probably won't be time for beaches and entertainment: in three months it is necessary to prepare the project for entry into the international market.

If you are not afraid of long distances, find Chile on the map. Here startups from all over the world are selected by hundreds, receive 40 thousand dollars each and are provided with all the conditions for work. By the way, it's not far from there to Silicon Valley, experts from which are actively involved in working with projects. In the last set, very few applications were submitted from Russia (less than five), and the authors of the program want to fix this. You have a chance to help them. Applications are accepted on the website startupchile.org /.

If you need more than just investmentsConnections, networking, media coverage – it's often harder to get it than money.

But there are ways. For example:

The Premiere business project competition, organized by the E-executive management community, the Success TV channel and the GreenfieldProject company, will give potential entrepreneurs the opportunity to prove to investors the prospects of the project and receive investments for development. Do you want your project to be shown on TV? Participate! (e-xecutive.ru/community/intellectual/1520406/)

Forbes Startup Competition (forbes.ru/svoi-biznes-package/startapy/69684-forbes-ishchet-startapy-konkurs ) will allow you to demonstrate the project to such famous entrepreneurs as Ruben Vardanyan, David Yakobashvili, Elena Masolova and Pavel Teplukhin (all of them are on the jury). The main winner will receive a grant to study in Germany under the Young Leaders program at the ESMT European School of Management and Technology business School.

Participation in the WebReady competition gives a good opportunity to "shine" in the expert-venture environment (web-ready.ru /), which is conducted by the St. Petersburg business incubator "Ingria". The competition is only for Internet projects.

Don't forget about the tools that will help you improve your project. For example, the Startup Genome Compass service (beta.startupgenome.cc /) will help to test the project and track the dynamics of its growth. Most startups die due to premature scaling (premature scaling), and the free Startup Genome Compass will avoid this.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru23.09.2011

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