Startups have (proof of life)

I, Arkady Moreynis, often hear from my colleagues in the market a categorical statement that “there are no startups!”. When I hear these words, my hand reaches for the trigger of a revolver, which, unlike start-ups, I really don't have.

I believe that startups are not only from the point of view of those people who really do not want to make an effort to ensure that they are.


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In the photo from the past Startup Weekend, I am with Alexey Sulimanov (DataLite).

I agree that startups that have reached such a level that they can be taken without any additional efforts, having poured a little (or a lot of) money into them, to bring them into an extraterrestrial orbit - really not that much.

Startup ideas, prototypes and even most of the finished projects are flawed: the very idea of ​​the cheese product and in the proposed form is not always viable, most of the fundamental points of positioning are not thought out, the business model has many assumptions, the business plan does not have a working sales model or spread and therefore overly optimistic. This list can be continued indefinitely, but this is not the case now.

The first thing is that you can find flaws in anything. The art of a real Jedi expert and investor is to discern that rational grain, which is often difficult to hear due to lack of ability to articulate and convincingly convey their thoughts, which is sometimes difficult to separate because of layers of superfluous properties, which is hard to believe because of for the presence of arbitrary market assumptions.

The second thing is that the startup author should be able not only to hear, but also to listen - you should not consider yourself the most intelligent, you should be able to perceive the constructive advice and recommendations of more experienced people not with hostility, but with an attempt to understand what and why advise People who do not know how to learn (especially from the mistakes of others) and who are unable to change their opinion are most often doomed to failure.

At Startup Weekend in August, we tried to connect those startups that were ready to learn, and those experts who were willing to teach . With that, both those and others would like and would be ready to really work. The process was not easy, but we achieved certain results: Dmitry Altukhov joined the Syntacto project, Sergey Biryukov joined the Geomme (Fifteen) project, Askar Tuganbayev the Razrisuy Mir project, and Sergei Slonimukha the project Martynov, Natalia Chanysheva entered into two projects already - “Stairy” and “Combild”.

A legitimate question may arise - "And what do I stay on the sidelines?". After all, I am convincing everyone with the word that there are startups, but for the time being I remain modestly on the sidelines, leaving the proof in deed after others. Now I can say with pride that I myself am proving with the work all that I am saying - I become a participant in the DataLite project , presented at the last Weekend by Alexey Sulimanov. At the same time, I become not only a project mentor, but also provide him with start-up investments. According to the popular Russian tradition, the conditions and amounts of funding are not disclosed, but I believe that in this case these issues are of secondary importance.

And the fact that “start-ups are there!” Is of paramount importance. And I - Arkady Moreynis - has subscribed to this.

For those who have read the post to this place, and is ready to confirm with myself, with my idea, with a prototype or with a project that there are startups, I provide a list of the next opportunities where this can be done.

1. Startup Weekend

If you have an idea or a prototype of a project to work on which you want to put together a team, and, most importantly, involve an expert to participate in your project , then we invite you to work closely for three days in early October. If you are a developer and want to work on a project, the idea of ​​which you might like, then all the more you should come to the Weekend and watch the presentations of the ideas presented on it.

Register at Startup Weekend , which will be held in Moscow on October 1-3.
Business angels are invited to the final presentation of projects on Sunday, October 3rd. To register as business angels send an email to angel (dog) glavstart.ru.

2. Statup Point

If you have a project that you are already ready to show to experts and investors, then for you the direct road to the Point .

Registration for the 21st Point in Moscow on September 24.
Registration at the 1st Point in Krasnoyarsk on October 10.