The word "Startup" became abusive
This week, a mass of criticizing tweets , retweets , posts , likes appeared with the general idea: “I'm already sick of the word“ startup ”and“ See how stupid these startups are. ”
Let's see why this happened.
1. Startups - it's trendy, it's mainstream.
Fashion and mainstream means a lot of people. To stand out from the crowd of people, you need to say something loud and eye-catching. For example, you can shout "We are the best, we are waiting for success. You want to be successful too, let's talk to us "(as the entrepreneurs say, looking for partners, employees, investors). Or you can step aside, stand in front of the audience and shout “See how stupid these startups are, they do all sorts of garbage, and they also shout that they want to be successful” (as those who want to promote at the expense of a fashionable theme).
')
2. Sad statistics.
In Russia, there is little evidence of what startups do (to engage in innovative Internet entrepreneurship) is right.
From start-up success stories, we only have Darbury. Thanks to Lena Masolova, Alexey Chernyak and the entire team of founders of the most profitable startup in RuNet.
Projects in runet about 3000, bare ideas are not included in this number.
According to statistics, only 1 out of 10 projects will survive in a year. Only 1 out of 100 projects justifies the investments of the founders or even “shoots.”
Such statistics can not leave anyone indifferent. In general, to work in the venture business you need to have nerves of steel. Believe it is difficult morally.
Of course, if you see how 90 projects out of 100 do not represent anything interesting, you might think that ALL start-ups do not represent anything. Therefore, the overall impression of startups is negative.
3. Russian mentality - complaining and criticizing.
All over the world, Skolkovo is considered “the right thing”, the development of the Russian economy, the stimulation of innovation. And only Russians say that Skolkovo is evil.
More examples?
a) The whole country is making fun of the Russian national football team. But these are our best players. Hitting the national team is already a great achievement.
Rooting for ours is convenient when they win.
b) Yesterday we discussed reviews on the game in the AppStore. 10 thousand downloads per week. Dozens of reviews. Of them are positive (“Wonderful design”, “Interesting gameplay”) from America, France, Germany, and negative (“Distortedly drawn character”, “I found a bug !!!”) only from Russia.
c) At Habré, everyone is accustomed to the fact that if you tell in “I am PR” about your startup, and if it is not perfectly described, or there are minor bugs in it, they will shower you and eat you.
4. Inflated expectations of entrepreneurs and low-quality presentations of start-ups.
I do not criticize entrepreneurs, here, first of all, my fault and StartupPoint'a that we asked dozens and even hundreds of startups to indicate in their presentations the amount of investment they need. And since the market does not have a transparent and understandable scheme for estimating the cost of startups (not yet), then of course the numbers were random, like “looking for $ 1 million for development and marketing” or “give 10% for 500 thousand dollars, because A startup is estimated at $ 5 million. "
When you hear such requests, and especially if you know the price of money, it causes resentment.
Summary: everyone wants to kick start-up entrepreneurs for taking the first awkward steps towards their dreams.
Can I do something about this? How to fix the situation?
1. Fashion startups.
This is good, nothing can be done about it.
The more people will make startups, the higher the number of success stories.
2. Success stories.
One of the reasons for the success of Silicon Valley (ie Silicon) is that Americans celebrate entrepreneurship.
We have made a blog “Success Stories” and hang up information about investments and transactions , we have big plans for the future for the “glorification” of successful entrepreneurs.
If you are also ready to help, tell your friends about successful startups. Praise those who make them.
Another reason for the Valley’s success is to encourage mistakes.
Mistakes are experience and knowledge about how to do it. Innovation mainly consists of mistakes. After all, everyone remembers the story about five thousand errors (unsuccessful experiments) of Edison in the process of inventing a light bulb ?!
Let's praise entrepreneurs for their experiences. They are working hard to give consumers a new useful product. When you make mistakes by creating something new, this is personal stress, and if those around him heighten it, then it’s generally difficult. Entrepreneurs - heroes, showing persistence and dedication. Let's respect them for it.
If you want to help, start small - let's constructive criticism and recommendations, instead of empty destructive “this sucks”, “minus 1 in karma”, “go learn, incompetent”.
3. Love of criticism.
It takes decades or even centuries to change the mentality of a country.
Therefore, we leave the country leaders, but let's start with ourselves. All specific actions are described in the previous paragraph: praise and constructive.
4. Exaggerated expectations of entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs, let's start with the fact that we stop talking in presentations about searching for a conditional million dollars, which is not necessary for what is needed, but it is written about this in the business plan, although I cannot show the business plan, I need to sign the NDA.
And then what to talk about? The answer is further.
Maxim Spiridonov's blog had a great phrase “People are divided into those who roll the world, and those who say“ Where does this world go ”. We also want to be closer to the first and participate in solving the problem.
Therefore, we offer the market another useful scheme of interaction between entrepreneurs and investors. This time, it is the Expertise Funnel - identifying the best startups for investment, which will allow you to find and identify those 10% of “viable” startups, for which all the startup community works.
Details here and on Friday at Pointe in Moscow .
Vitaly Akimov,
Founder of StartupPoint
Let's see why this happened.
1. Startups - it's trendy, it's mainstream.
Fashion and mainstream means a lot of people. To stand out from the crowd of people, you need to say something loud and eye-catching. For example, you can shout "We are the best, we are waiting for success. You want to be successful too, let's talk to us "(as the entrepreneurs say, looking for partners, employees, investors). Or you can step aside, stand in front of the audience and shout “See how stupid these startups are, they do all sorts of garbage, and they also shout that they want to be successful” (as those who want to promote at the expense of a fashionable theme).
')
2. Sad statistics.
In Russia, there is little evidence of what startups do (to engage in innovative Internet entrepreneurship) is right.
From start-up success stories, we only have Darbury. Thanks to Lena Masolova, Alexey Chernyak and the entire team of founders of the most profitable startup in RuNet.
Projects in runet about 3000, bare ideas are not included in this number.
According to statistics, only 1 out of 10 projects will survive in a year. Only 1 out of 100 projects justifies the investments of the founders or even “shoots.”
Such statistics can not leave anyone indifferent. In general, to work in the venture business you need to have nerves of steel. Believe it is difficult morally.
Of course, if you see how 90 projects out of 100 do not represent anything interesting, you might think that ALL start-ups do not represent anything. Therefore, the overall impression of startups is negative.
3. Russian mentality - complaining and criticizing.
All over the world, Skolkovo is considered “the right thing”, the development of the Russian economy, the stimulation of innovation. And only Russians say that Skolkovo is evil.
More examples?
a) The whole country is making fun of the Russian national football team. But these are our best players. Hitting the national team is already a great achievement.
Rooting for ours is convenient when they win.
b) Yesterday we discussed reviews on the game in the AppStore. 10 thousand downloads per week. Dozens of reviews. Of them are positive (“Wonderful design”, “Interesting gameplay”) from America, France, Germany, and negative (“Distortedly drawn character”, “I found a bug !!!”) only from Russia.
c) At Habré, everyone is accustomed to the fact that if you tell in “I am PR” about your startup, and if it is not perfectly described, or there are minor bugs in it, they will shower you and eat you.
4. Inflated expectations of entrepreneurs and low-quality presentations of start-ups.
I do not criticize entrepreneurs, here, first of all, my fault and StartupPoint'a that we asked dozens and even hundreds of startups to indicate in their presentations the amount of investment they need. And since the market does not have a transparent and understandable scheme for estimating the cost of startups (not yet), then of course the numbers were random, like “looking for $ 1 million for development and marketing” or “give 10% for 500 thousand dollars, because A startup is estimated at $ 5 million. "
When you hear such requests, and especially if you know the price of money, it causes resentment.
Summary: everyone wants to kick start-up entrepreneurs for taking the first awkward steps towards their dreams.
Can I do something about this? How to fix the situation?
1. Fashion startups.
This is good, nothing can be done about it.
The more people will make startups, the higher the number of success stories.
2. Success stories.
One of the reasons for the success of Silicon Valley (ie Silicon) is that Americans celebrate entrepreneurship.
We have made a blog “Success Stories” and hang up information about investments and transactions , we have big plans for the future for the “glorification” of successful entrepreneurs.
If you are also ready to help, tell your friends about successful startups. Praise those who make them.
Another reason for the Valley’s success is to encourage mistakes.
Mistakes are experience and knowledge about how to do it. Innovation mainly consists of mistakes. After all, everyone remembers the story about five thousand errors (unsuccessful experiments) of Edison in the process of inventing a light bulb ?!
Let's praise entrepreneurs for their experiences. They are working hard to give consumers a new useful product. When you make mistakes by creating something new, this is personal stress, and if those around him heighten it, then it’s generally difficult. Entrepreneurs - heroes, showing persistence and dedication. Let's respect them for it.
If you want to help, start small - let's constructive criticism and recommendations, instead of empty destructive “this sucks”, “minus 1 in karma”, “go learn, incompetent”.
3. Love of criticism.
It takes decades or even centuries to change the mentality of a country.
Therefore, we leave the country leaders, but let's start with ourselves. All specific actions are described in the previous paragraph: praise and constructive.
4. Exaggerated expectations of entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs, let's start with the fact that we stop talking in presentations about searching for a conditional million dollars, which is not necessary for what is needed, but it is written about this in the business plan, although I cannot show the business plan, I need to sign the NDA.
And then what to talk about? The answer is further.
Maxim Spiridonov's blog had a great phrase “People are divided into those who roll the world, and those who say“ Where does this world go ”. We also want to be closer to the first and participate in solving the problem.
Therefore, we offer the market another useful scheme of interaction between entrepreneurs and investors. This time, it is the Expertise Funnel - identifying the best startups for investment, which will allow you to find and identify those 10% of “viable” startups, for which all the startup community works.
Details here and on Friday at Pointe in Moscow .
Vitaly Akimov,
Founder of StartupPoint
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/119157/
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