Startups Fertilization

Reflection 1. Preface

Any united community is divided into “clubs” by interests. The population of the planet is divided into countries. Countries are divided into states, regions, etc. Russian society (142 million) is divided into Internet independent and Internet users (45 million), which in turn are divided into simple users and many understanding users (9 million), 20% of many understanding are willing to come up with what something new and change the existing (1.8 million), 20% of which not only want, but also talk about it (360 thousand), of which 20% move from words to deeds (72 thousand), of which 20% bring the matter to a certain logical conclusion (14.4 thousand - I suppose that this is the approximate number of those registered at the Habré), with ERNO 20% of which - that is startups (2.88 thousand.) who call themselves that way, dream about $ billions, chat on relevant online and offline sites in search of themselves, ideas, like-minded people, investors. Phew ... In total, it turned out that in Russia there are about 2880 people who can be called start-ups.

Meditation 2. Ambition

Each startup wants to conquer the world, the country (a web project designed for only one specific city I do not consider a startup). Let's start with a minimum: the task of a startup is to conquer the audience of a country in which about 142 million people live. And in this dream every start-up continuously generates and produces ideas, most of which settle in the form of ideological plankton. And only a small part is transformed into something that brings a lot of money, and many useful projects are conserved in some closet of the mass consciousness.

Meditation 3. Fertilization

The situation with startups reminds me of fertilization. Mass consciousness is the egg that the sufferers want to fertilize with their ideas. Any detail in this process can be critical in the race for success. If now someone's idea has not taken root, she goes to the ideazoid bank and freezes for the time being, or moves sluggishly, without disturbing anyone, in a half-dead state.
')

Reflection 4. Prerequisites for final thought

The most important factor, judging by the general opinion, is the investor, who stands aside and watches the race, and then suddenly gives someone's idea a rapid acceleration, and “Hurray!”, The egg within reach. True, whether this ideazoid will take root or not will be seen later.

An investor for a startup is an injection that makes a project stronger, more popular, in general, like a “nitro” button in micromachines. The startup and its author become famous, popular, and gone-gone. All this is good, but ... It happens, the investor is wrong ... It happens “nitro” ends. It happens that the public has “not grown” to the idea. It happens that really useful projects remain unfulfilled because they have not found their investor ... Therefore, reflection has appeared 5.

Reflection 5. Thought

There are always several ways to one goal.

I suppose that the development of a startup with the participation of an investor is as follows: investment of funds → creation of infrastructure → PR → fame → return of funds, etc. round. And if you go the other way? If the initial acceleration ideazoidu anyone else? For example, a journalist! What if we bring in representatives of this ancient profession to the startup movement?

Everyone invests what he has. Startup - ideas, time, sometimes money. Investor - money, communication. A journalist is the ability to correctly present information to a large audience, ordinary people, i.e. potential users of the web project. And it seems to me that a popular journalist at the initial stage can do more for a startup than many of the investors.

I’ll clarify what I mean not journalists writing in the field of IT, but journalists of the profile where it is planned to use a startup. If the application is for business, the journalist of a popular business magazine communicates with his audience and tells about the project he likes. If the web-project is aimed at a female audience, then the journalist-investor of the women's magazine publishes information about the project in its publication. With this approach, projects receive feedback from their target audience, and at the initial stage, problems, tasks, and further development are determined!

CV with question

So, the advantages of the “journalist as an investor” concept, which uses available resources in exchange for a share in the company:

• Communication of a startup team with its target audience.
• Check the survival of ideas in real conditions.
• A journalist can get a startup much cheaper than a venture investor.

And after such a test drive, you can decide whether a startup needs an investor or whether it will be decided to maintain independence. If you still need an investor, you can go to him with a project that has already been tested by a large audience (or with a base of regular users).

And in the final question: maybe it's time to create a startup to implement this concept? What do you think about the concept of "journalist as an investor"? And what do the journalists themselves think?