After a recent article about start-up events in Russia, we decided not to stop there and make this world even better. To do this, we decided to dig a little deeper and think about why all these events are held at all? Of course in order to raise the overall level of projects. And what is most important in the project? Well, of course the team! And how can you raise the level of the team? Naturally learn!
Therefore, in the next post, we decided to make a small guide on what and where a startup should learn. The article is divided into four parts, according to the methods of information consumption. At first, we talk a little about books and blogs, it is the most voluminous, because it talks about specific books. Then some information about educational videos and podcasts, and at the end a couple of words about trainings and educational courses. Sections are entitled:
Read, Watch, Listen and Walk.

1) Read

The first, and perhaps most important, for any person. Podcasts and videos can give a large amount of information, but for some reason still if a person wants to share something with others, he often writes a book or starts a blog.
Let's start with the trivial, which is not only read lazy. Two books that must be read by anyone who has at least something to do with Internet entrepreneurship: Rework from the founders of 37signals and Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki (“Startup” in Russian). A lot of everything has already been written about them, separate chapters, notes and mindmaps of all colors and types are walking around the network. So there’s nothing to say about them except “read.” At 37signals there is another book about how to expose the work - “Getting Real”. It is less publicized than “rework”, which does not make it less useful. The complete Russian translation of the book has long been on the web , although knowledgeable people advise reading the original.
Another good source where the general concept of creating a successful business is described is the “ Rules for profitable startups ”, the author is Vern Harnish. Also “galloping across Europe”, but such books often turn out to be the most useful, because they build fragmentary knowledge into the system.
Further on the books: “ Facts and Fallacies of Professional Programming ” - Robert Glass. Since it is impossible to make an Internet project without talking to programmers, this book is also worth reading. It lists and refutes the most common managerial misconceptions regarding programmers. Even if you yourself are a developer, you are very likely to learn a lot about yourself.
For someone who wants to learn how to write business plans, Paul Barrow’s book “A Business Plan That Works ” will be very useful. The book is written very simple and informative, many examples from real business plans with which the author had to work. Its added value is that Barrow is an investor, which means that he speaks precisely about those business plans that it will be interesting for investors to read. And after all, everyone needs money, right?
Another book that must be read is the StartupGenome study of the American business accelerator BlackBox. According to the authors themselves, they wanted to reveal the genetic code of a successful startup, no more, no less. And, it seems, they even succeeded! I warn you right away, if the previous books chew everything in detail, then reading StartupGen will have to think carefully. There are no ready-made recipes at all, only statistics and generalizations from it. So it reads hard enough. Most useful this book will be employees of various incubators, funds and other infrastructure organizations. Starters also need to be read, but you can diagonally, the main thing is to grasp key patterns.
And the last advice on the choice of books - any books from the publishing house " Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, " for those topics that you need, of course. These publishers are very meticulous about the quality of the literature produced by them, and as a result, the fact that they are still taken to publish, just deserves attention.
Now blogs. Something that was already mentioned in the article about events, we will try not to repeat.
Firstly, Freshle.com is not only a blog, but also a knowledge base in a wiki on the topic of startup. It is Internet startups, not business in general. There's almost everything there: lean startup, customer development, MVP and more. If you are not familiar with at least one of these terms, then run at Freshle - study, study and study again.
Next on the list is our favorite Habrahabr. The main plus - all the most significant and interesting things appear here, so carefully watching Habr, you will not miss anything. Minuses - there is a lot of information, it is simply physically impossible to read all the interesting things, so you should concentrate on some of the most important topic.
Geeker is a good blog writing about new projects. As you know, the best ideas come when you discuss other people's ideas. Who said "and you steal" ?! We all know that ideas are not stolen and that an idea without implementation costs nothing, right? ;)
If you still have free time, then you should pay attention to the blogs of consulting companies. For example, PwC constantly publishes detailed reports and research about various markets and industries . So, if you decided to do a project in the field of, for example, book publishing, then it is worth exploring the study of the relevant market. Another example is Congru , which has a great internet marketing newsletter. You may not become a super marketer, but avoid the most trivial mistakes. Well, you should subscribe to Twitter or Facebook accounts of various start-up contests and business incubators, often they post links to very interesting educational materials.

2) Watch

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I will say right away that I don’t like video content, so my opinion may be somewhat biased. The reason for the dislike is that it is clearly inferior in the convenience of consuming audio and printed content, as it takes both eyes and ears at the same time, and it cannot be read diagonally overlooking boring places. However, what I consider to be shortcomings, most psychologists consider merit, so that you decide.
The largest collection of videos on various topics regarding the Internet and entrepreneurship in it is collected at seopult.tv . Do not ask me why Seopult company needs its own television for some reason. But, I must give them their due, they turned out quite well. The wide scope of topics, good direction of the programs and guests who are quite professional in their field make their video podcasts worthy of viewing, even repeated.
A little more boring is the educational project Univertv on which lay out lectures of university teachers on various topics. Unfortunately, the manner of presenting the material of our teachers leaves much to be desired, but there you can still find something interesting if you dig. For example, there is a video from the speeches of Artemy Lebedev .
The following is what you should pay attention to this video from conferences, start-ups and other events about Internet entrepreneurship. You can determine whether to watch a video in the same way as with a regular master class - spend two minutes and google the speaker information. If his portfolio causes respect, then look, if not - do not waste your time.
Well, at the end of the topic of the video, a couple of words are more likely about general cognitive than educational. Reports from the TED conference are an excellent substitute for television; people from all over the world talk about their ideas and projects in the field of art, basic science, new technologies or interesting trends in modern society. Who knows, maybe one of these reports will push you to a new idea of ​​a brilliant startup.

3) Listen

Still trying to introduce time management into your life? How to start? Surely with the compilation of lists and setting short-term goals. However, the easiest step you can take in the field of time management is to start listening to podcasts on the road somewhere. Either in the car, or in the player or phone. Even if you did not audit by the type of assimilation of information, then at least one tenth of the information received will be learned, and this is not bad.
The first place to go for podcasts about business is the site of the radio station Finam FM . A huge number of various programs about entrepreneurship from all possible sides: marketing, success stories, industry transfers. There is also a special program about what is happening on the Russian Internet - “ Runet Today ”, in which Maxim Spiridonov, together with several experts, discusses the latest industry news. Interesting thoughts, unconventional opinions and forecasts about where the Runet is heading - all of this is in transmission in abundance. The truth is sometimes somewhat surprising choice of news, but we leave it on the conscience of the editors Finam.
Secondly, the “Business” section of the terminal podcast Podfm.ru. Especially it is worth paying attention to the program “Runetology” - the oldest in RuNet (more than 120 issues) weekly program about the most interesting top managers of Runet. Each issue lasts about an hour, but during which the guest has time to talk about the "kitchen" of his business, about how he built his career and give some useful tips. Frankly, not every episode is interesting, but boring shows can easily be sifted out by running through the text transcript, which is done for each podcast.

4) walk

Most of the startup events we have already discussed in the last article. Therefore, in this we will pay attention to training.
First, banal themed business training. For me, at one time it was a great discovery that there are trainings not only in marketing, sales and leadership, but also in such purely practical things as accounting, logistics or law. So if you feel that you do not have enough knowledge in some field, then with a high probability you will be able to find a seminar in which you talk about it. It will come out a little more expensive than buying books, but save time. The search will help search engines and sites like http://www.msktreningi.ru , http://www.treningoff.ru/ , etc ... But you should not go to seminars for good reason, they say "someday come in handy." Knowledge tends to be forgotten, and you should pay money for highly specialized training if you immediately plan to use this knowledge in practice.
But! This does not apply to specialized educational programs for start-ups, like the Emerisers from InCube or Start in Garage from RIS Ventures.
The entrepreneisers is a three-day educational program in English according to a program developed by Cambridge-MIT. The most genuine English professors are brought who teach you how to make startups for a purely symbolic amount.
Start in Garage is an intensive, short educational program for those who have already started their business or are just about to do it. In a concise form, coaches give the minimum necessary knowledge that is necessary to prevent the most stupid mistakes. RIS Ventures also conducts Win the Market - a series of diverse educational seminars with specializations in various fields, from project management to building an online marketing system or investing in technology projects.
Here it is worth going to such programs, which were compiled by people who often deal with startups, at any stage. If you do not get some well-established practical skills, then at least you will discover new directions for development. Although it is better to come after all with a project preparing for launch in the bosom, then the effect will be threefold.
The RMA educational program has a single program of higher education and a magistracy to train top managers of Internet companies and managers of their own projects.

PS If, however, all this is not enough for you, and this knowledge is a past stage, then start learning. It is noticed that when learning other knowledge is best assimilated!

PPS The article was written by Andrei Zheglov in collaboration with me. The author will be very grateful for the invite to mail vault.mulan@gmail.com