How we got to Skolkovo - the story of the resident

On September 27, 2011, a regular solemn ceremony of presenting certificates to new project participants or Skolkovo residents took place. Among the companies, the first was Unicloud Labs LLC, part of the Unicloud cloud provider , which conducts research and development of an innovative cloud system for small and medium-sized businesses in Russia.

In this article I want to share my personal experience in obtaining the status of a Skolkovo resident: how we got this status, what it gives us and what it took for it.

First of all, it should be understood that Skolkovo is not an investment fund and not a research laboratory.
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Recently, in Russia (at least in Moscow and major cities), the topic of start-ups, venture investments and related areas has aroused genuinely growing interest. Dozens of start-ups, incubators, venture funds movements were born; Startup meetings, webinars are constantly held, ideas are discussed and teams are created. Every now and then there are press releases about how another fund or business angel invested money in a promising startup. Larger companies are buying them too - for example, Yandex, SKB Kontur, 1C and many, many others recently made several purchases. As a rule, the founders of startups sell a package of 20-45% (that is, they retain control of the company) and receive money in exchange for development, as well as, if lucky, also the mentoring support of experienced businessmen and the ability to use their connections.

So, Skolkovo is different from the above. Skolkovo does not take any shares in your company and does not transfer them to anyone. Skolkovo acts as a point of attraction for science and research and provides project participants with additional benefits and opportunities, opens doors and helps develop.

Participants of Skolkovo can be 2 levels: residents (receive tax and some other benefits) and projects that receive investments from Skolkovo in the form of gratuitous grants. To receive investment, you must first become a resident.

At the time of this writing, according to official information from Skolkovo, 174 companies have already received resident status.

The most important criterion for companies applying for residency is their research work, which results in innovation in one of its priorities (for example, information technology or biomedicine). Companies that become resident may engage exclusively in such activities and the commercialization of results.

I will not hide the fact that the first feeling that arose in our study of information about Skolkovo - that it would be very difficult to get there, would have to struggle with bureaucratic obstacles for a long time, and the benefits would not be so obvious. Or even simpler: we were afraid that they would not let them go without “cronyism”.

However, the more we delved into the details, the more we were amazed at how transparent the application process was, how everything was “chewed” and understandable. Until recently, it was not believed that the project could really, without any “connections” and support “from outside”, obtain residency status, but our fears were in vain.

It made us so indelibly pleasant feeling that I wanted to write this article and highlight one key phrase in it:

Do not hesitate, feed in Skolkovo!

To become a resident, we prepared a project summary, which includes a detailed description of what we are doing, as well as proof of the prospects and innovativeness, with financial calculations, risk analysis, etc.

Upon completion of the preparation of this document, we were convinced that Skolkovo was beginning to help us at the drafting stage - being a young and active team, in fact - a start-up project, thanks to Skolkovo we were able to attract two eminent scientists - Denis Popov (Russia) and Christoph Fetzer (Germany). On the one hand, the involvement of experts is a requirement of Skolkovo, on the other - we would never be able to attract such experts if it were not for Skolkovo.

Then we, without making extra expenses and not registering a legal entity, submitted an application from an individual - myself. This is allowed by the Skolkovo procedures - if the project is approved by its expert council, then the results of consideration of such an application will later be credited when applying for resident status from a legal entity.

Skolkovo randomly selected 10 experts from its base (almost 200 people, including representatives of real business and science in Russia and many other countries). Selected experts received a description of our project and voted "for" or "against" the project. Note that to obtain a positive conclusion, it is enough to collect 5 votes out of 10.

At the end of 2 weeks, we found out the results - the application was approved!

The rest is quite formal. They registered the company, issued several more small documents, referred to the positive conclusion of the expert committee - and we are in Skolkovo!

Thus, we made sure that Skolkovo is not “out of touch”; the procedure is simple and does not drag on for months. The main thing is that you really propose an innovative project and be able to correctly describe and present it. Let's be honest: we wrote the text-description for about a month, because we wanted to really work out the project in detail. Perhaps this was the support and allowed to gain the necessary votes of the expert council. If I am not mistaken, 17-18% of applicants give a positive expert opinion in Skolkovo, believe me, a lot.

Finally, I will provide a link to the official website of Skolkovo , where in an accessible and understandable form detailed information is given on what and how to fill out and submit.

I will be glad to answer your questions, just remember that there are official design questions, etc. it is better to ask Skolkovo representatives directly, I can rather share my feelings.

PS Link to the video from the presentation of the status of Skolkovo resident LLC "Unicloud Labs" (we go first). Our company LLC “Unicloud Labs” is the first to be awarded the status on September 27.

PPS It's funny to watch how the topic is violently minus, without commenting on why. Unsubscribe though!