Startup Weekend from the inside
According to Arkady Moreynis (and not only him), there are several reasons that motivate a person to start his own project:
- run the project and sell it profitably
- create a cool project for your own pleasure
- create your own “workplace”, that is, start a project and continue working in it
In all three cases, self-interest and the ability to create with your business everything your heart desires are the main advantages recouping the risks - “if it does not work out”. It will not work - even though the time was boring, and the experience gained, and they did not work for my uncle.
Conducting the first Startup Weekends, we proceeded from the fact that we would help all three mentioned categories of “start-ups” of our own businesses. Especially for them, we applied and improved our mentoring system.
Since August of this year, we ( Glavstart ) spent three Weekends in Moscow and one each in St. Petersburg and Kazan. At each event, 50 projects and 200 participants went through our organizational hands - a total of about 250 projects and 1,000 people.
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Startup Weekend lasts three days:
Friday - presentations of ideas and familiarity of participants.
Saturday - work with experts.
Sunday - identification of candidates for mentors and preparation of the final presentation, reflecting the result of work on the weekend.
At the second Moscow Weekend, we performed the “pipe” for the first time. The pipe is the so-called Speed ​​Networking, in which experts participate and one representative from each project. For 1 minute the participant communicates with each expert, while receiving some comments and an initial feedback. And, although one minute is not enough for full-fledged communication, this is quite enough to look into the eyes of experts and understand from whom I would like to hear more detailed criticism, and to “clear the brain” and understand my own idea. Entering the “pipe” and passing the first expert, the participant usually spends all his time on the description of his project, and now somewhere in the middle - you can tell about the project in only 10 seconds (by the way, this is one of the secrets of the Friday frequent slurred, presentations, from thoughtful and balanced Sunday), and the rest of the time is already spent on questions and answers.
After that, project teams and experts can continue the conversation for two days and talk about the project, not being limited either in time or in space.
Usually, up to Sunday presentations live exactly half the projects originally submitted.
Half from 250 are 125 projects.
125 surviving projects continued to work, about a third of them acquired mentors, some have already received investments (from their mentors - F-3 — Mikhail Trufanov, B152 (Personal Data Protection) —Oleg Mikhalsky, Quadra - Anton Terekhov, “DataLite” - Arkady Moreynis, “The System of Corporate Governance” - Ruslan Burnashev; another part of the projects received investments from private investors, who, for some reason, decided not to advertise it - by the way, they have every right to do so and we will not disclose their secrets).
And what happened to those who did not live? Where are these 125 projects, what happened to them on the night from Saturday to Sunday?
Over these 5 weekends, we identified “6 reasons not to work on Startup Weekend”:
Search investments on Startup Weekend is not necessary. Not because they are not there - they are: our experts, private investors, who make their way incognito at the presentation, listen and see if there is anything promising, our partners, strategic investors, who regularly watch everything projects going through us, choosing something interesting for themselves.
Just Startup Weekend - this event is not about money. This is about work. Therefore, we are called a work session.
The money will be later, and in another place.
And what should you look for on Startup Weekend? - That is exactly the mentoring system.
We do not in any way assert that everyone needs a mentoring system (and it’s not useful - it’s useful to everyone :), namely, it’s needed). There are projects with a simple model that are simply unprofitable to attract mentor brains - and so everything is clear, there are lone geniuses who, by their very nature, are easier to cope with the problems and tasks that arise alone.
But there are also those to whom she gave the very “magic Pendel”, helped to get the ball rolling and accelerated the project development process.
At the same time, the mentoring system is not only isolated advice, it is not only well-known uncles and aunts who can be watched live for two whole days.
The mentoring system is, first of all, a system. It is effective in the process:
Last weekend, in Moscow, we had the last Startup Weekend this year.
In the following, they are already waiting for us:
Startup Weekend Novosibirsk
Startup Weekend Ekaterinburg
Startup Weekend Moscow
Startup Weekend St. Petersburg
By the way, many people come to Startup Weekend with the only desire to ask: “So I came up with such an idea, should I work on it?”
Especially for this question, we publish the box at idea@glavstart.ru - there you can not only register your idea for participation in the Weekend, you can also, without waiting for the event itself, write us a letter and ask if you should come to the Weekend and if we can we be useful to you.
Well, and the most, perhaps, pleasant - you risk absolutely nothing. And if you risk nothing, and the benefits can be huge - so why not try?
Your,
Glavstart.
- run the project and sell it profitably
- create a cool project for your own pleasure
- create your own “workplace”, that is, start a project and continue working in it
In all three cases, self-interest and the ability to create with your business everything your heart desires are the main advantages recouping the risks - “if it does not work out”. It will not work - even though the time was boring, and the experience gained, and they did not work for my uncle.
Conducting the first Startup Weekends, we proceeded from the fact that we would help all three mentioned categories of “start-ups” of our own businesses. Especially for them, we applied and improved our mentoring system.
Since August of this year, we ( Glavstart ) spent three Weekends in Moscow and one each in St. Petersburg and Kazan. At each event, 50 projects and 200 participants went through our organizational hands - a total of about 250 projects and 1,000 people.
')
Startup Weekend lasts three days:
Friday - presentations of ideas and familiarity of participants.
Saturday - work with experts.
Sunday - identification of candidates for mentors and preparation of the final presentation, reflecting the result of work on the weekend.
At the second Moscow Weekend, we performed the “pipe” for the first time. The pipe is the so-called Speed ​​Networking, in which experts participate and one representative from each project. For 1 minute the participant communicates with each expert, while receiving some comments and an initial feedback. And, although one minute is not enough for full-fledged communication, this is quite enough to look into the eyes of experts and understand from whom I would like to hear more detailed criticism, and to “clear the brain” and understand my own idea. Entering the “pipe” and passing the first expert, the participant usually spends all his time on the description of his project, and now somewhere in the middle - you can tell about the project in only 10 seconds (by the way, this is one of the secrets of the Friday frequent slurred, presentations, from thoughtful and balanced Sunday), and the rest of the time is already spent on questions and answers.
After that, project teams and experts can continue the conversation for two days and talk about the project, not being limited either in time or in space.
Usually, up to Sunday presentations live exactly half the projects originally submitted.
Half from 250 are 125 projects.
125 surviving projects continued to work, about a third of them acquired mentors, some have already received investments (from their mentors - F-3 — Mikhail Trufanov, B152 (Personal Data Protection) —Oleg Mikhalsky, Quadra - Anton Terekhov, “DataLite” - Arkady Moreynis, “The System of Corporate Governance” - Ruslan Burnashev; another part of the projects received investments from private investors, who, for some reason, decided not to advertise it - by the way, they have every right to do so and we will not disclose their secrets).
And what happened to those who did not live? Where are these 125 projects, what happened to them on the night from Saturday to Sunday?
Over these 5 weekends, we identified “6 reasons not to work on Startup Weekend”:
- Someone, having discussed his project, goes home to rethink and process his idea. By the way, one of the reasons for expressing your idea is the opportunity to look at it with other people's eyes, and, perhaps, to see those aspects of the project that initially did not even occur to its creator.
- Someone after constructive criticism, for example, Grigory Bakunov, refuses to continue working on the project at all. For example, considering the development process is too costly, or technically impossible - and even if anything else such a thing can suddenly emerge.
- Someone just too lazy to work all weekends in a row. A man is such a man. :)
- Someone came up with one idea, and during the time of communication with experts and other participants, he came up with another - cool, and decided to switch to it.
- Someone, having spoken to a couple of experts, thinks that he has already received a sufficient number of comments and useful information, so that he can safely go home and continue to work alone.
- And there is another category of gold miners. These are those who come to Startup Weekend with an idea (not even a prototype - an idea!) To find an investment. We honestly say that only for money you should not come to us, we have a working - and not an investment - session.
Search investments on Startup Weekend is not necessary. Not because they are not there - they are: our experts, private investors, who make their way incognito at the presentation, listen and see if there is anything promising, our partners, strategic investors, who regularly watch everything projects going through us, choosing something interesting for themselves.
Just Startup Weekend - this event is not about money. This is about work. Therefore, we are called a work session.
The money will be later, and in another place.
And what should you look for on Startup Weekend? - That is exactly the mentoring system.
We do not in any way assert that everyone needs a mentoring system (and it’s not useful - it’s useful to everyone :), namely, it’s needed). There are projects with a simple model that are simply unprofitable to attract mentor brains - and so everything is clear, there are lone geniuses who, by their very nature, are easier to cope with the problems and tasks that arise alone.
But there are also those to whom she gave the very “magic Pendel”, helped to get the ball rolling and accelerated the project development process.
At the same time, the mentoring system is not only isolated advice, it is not only well-known uncles and aunts who can be watched live for two whole days.
The mentoring system is, first of all, a system. It is effective in the process:
- the mentor warns you against mistakes already known to him. You save your strength - so you have more strength left to work.
- the mentor saw more, knows more, and it is easier and faster for him to calculate the options for the development of your project and choose the best one. You save your time - more time to work.
- the mentor in the market has his connections, resources and channels that he will be happy to share with you. More connections, more resources, more channels for your project!
- A mentor in a project is an additional guarantee for an investor who decides to invest money in you, especially if the investor does not have his own expertise, which hundreds, if not thousands, are now in Russia. You are more likely to quickly find the money you need.
- A mentor is an “extra brain” of your project; it can always give an interesting idea, an unexpected option or a way to do it better. More brains have not prevented any project.
- The mentor is personally interested in the development of your project. Time is money, but would a professional of his business spend his money on a deliberately unpromising project? If a mentor has come to you, it means that he knows how to make everything work, you just have to listen and put your idea into practice.
Last weekend, in Moscow, we had the last Startup Weekend this year.
In the following, they are already waiting for us:
Startup Weekend Novosibirsk
Startup Weekend Ekaterinburg
Startup Weekend Moscow
Startup Weekend St. Petersburg
By the way, many people come to Startup Weekend with the only desire to ask: “So I came up with such an idea, should I work on it?”
Especially for this question, we publish the box at idea@glavstart.ru - there you can not only register your idea for participation in the Weekend, you can also, without waiting for the event itself, write us a letter and ask if you should come to the Weekend and if we can we be useful to you.
Well, and the most, perhaps, pleasant - you risk absolutely nothing. And if you risk nothing, and the benefits can be huge - so why not try?
Your,
Glavstart.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/109666/
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