Special greenhouse for start-ups: here they are killed not 99%, but 98.5%

John Harthorn is a man who knows everything about MassChallenge. This is the world's largest business incubator, where a huge competition of projects is held once a year. It goes like this: first, thousands of applications are reviewed, then 125 of the best of them are selected. Winners receive free access to computing facilities, office space, sponsors, lawyers, and other things needed for a sharp jerk.

At a lecture at Digital October, he said that the Russian team could apply, come to Boston, work there for 3 months, talk to lawyers, clients and investors, win $ 100,000 and ride their tractor back to Russia.

What are people doing there?

Leaders of each project go through hundreds of seminars, conferences, lectures and, most importantly, constantly communicate with businessmen from various fields. After 3 months of this marathon, 10-20 projects are selected for funding. There is a million dollars, which is divided between winning projects in pieces from 10 to 100 thousand. What is the most fun - MassChallenge while not claiming a share in the new company.
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How does a successful startup usually start?

One crazy guy appears with an unreal idea that has no chance of success. A start-up usually has no experience, and therefore the probability of earning is almost zero. Experience, understanding the market and understanding that technology alone is not enough - this is exactly what MassChallenge provides. But we will assume that our madman already knows everything and even managed to assemble a prototype in the garage.

The first thing that is required is to build legal protection of intellectual property. Here we need lawyers: they will help determine the shares, arrange everything as needed, organize a package of documents for a company, issue a team, and so on. The next step is money. If they were not given by friends, fools or relatives, then investments or a government grant will be required. Then PR is needed - you will need to interact with the media, social media and other similar things to unleash the project. Next - you need an office and other infrastructure.

Ecosystem

As a result, a startup for 90% consists of what is standardized and very understandable, and only 10% - of innovation and a good idea. The project leader has to understand everything and go into all the details of servicing his own infrastructure, which greatly hinders the project. The task is to bring all this to an outsourcing in a business accelerator and to enable projects to develop.

Speaking of the system as a whole, it is required to “pump” many parameters for the development of small business: starting with increasing the legal literacy of the population and ending with the availability of investments. There are dozens of such parameters in society, but the state usually focuses only on a couple, believing that then the business will grow. John says you can't make an apple pie, simply by doubling, tripling, or tenfold to pick an apple.

An ecosystem is just what MassChallenge describes well. The usual scheme - the crazy project leader is the least important: the university provides technology, the state requires taxes, lawyers want to make money on a newcomer, and so on. Plus, if the idea is good, then everyone who communicates with is trying to “pinch off” a share from the project. This is not what you need to grow a new wave of business projects.

How it all began

At first, the accelerator worked only for the nearest states. Then - began to act around the world. Specialists of the site are consulted for free, without demanding anything in return. It’s not the start-up leaders themselves who pay, but investors and other parties that will later profit from developed projects.

Indicative of the story of how the project received funding and offices. At first it was announced the first cycle with a million euros (the funds themselves were not yet there). Then there were investors who appreciated the benefits of the appearance of startups in the ecosystem and gave money. With offices it was even more interesting: John was called once to a meeting at 8 am in the south of Boston, where all the mafia apartments are located (according to the movies):

I come to a beautiful building located on the waterfront of the Boston Bay. The developer, the multimillionaire goes to Maserati, a very very successful uncle meets me on the first floor, climbs with me to the 13th floor, shows me the premises he has, asks me more about the goals of MassChallenge, how the project will be arranged. I tell him this, such and such goals. Asks - "Well, agreed"? I: “What have you agreed about? I still do not understand what I'm doing here. ” He said he wanted to give us an office. I say - "So we have no money." He says - "Come on, I'll give you for free." I say - "Great! What office space will you give us? ”

It did not occur to me at the time that it was a beautiful building right on the waterfront, where rent costs about $ 60 per square foot. I did not think that they were offering me this place, I thought it would be some sort of warehouse in the settlements. He says - “No, take this building directly, it could cost us 1.6 million a year if we rented it, but you guys will give it for free”. I said - “Sorry, but I'm not sure that I can pay at least for utilities and even for the Internet. And we have nothing to buy furniture for. ” He says - "Come on, don't worry, I'll buy you everything and pay for everything and repair it - and all for free." To be honest, at this moment I was completely scared, I decided that this was my dedication to some kind of mafia clan, and that further this person would decide how I would call my children. And I was not sure that I was ready for such a close type of relationship with other men. Then we signed a contract with him that we receive these premises for 4 years completely free of charge. And, as I later found out, his logic was that he had 13 floors in this 18-story building - empty. He wanted to pass them to investors, large companies, bankers, lawyers, and so on. But no one came. He understood that all his target clients, plus the media, would flock to young entrepreneurs who come. Thus, he realized that we can become useful for him, such a kind of symbiote.

So John opened the "threshold of greed" - the brink where the economic system begins to exploit itself, not laid for the future. In the example with the office it is logical (greedy) to take the object for money. It is illogical (below the threshold of greed) - to invest in the future, sacrificing part of the potential profit, then to get significantly more. With this idea and with the understanding of how an important ecosystem for business, he began the first project selection cycle.

Key Answers

An ordinary tourist visa is suitable for travel: the salary at the site is not paid. In the field of nuclear physics, there were already problems with obtaining visas from the Russian Federation; we had to arrange a company in the USA. In other cases, this is not required, that is, you can also apply with the Russian business.
Yes, in a couple of years a separation in Russia is planned (after a number in other European countries).
Criteria for evaluating ideas are as follows: start-up capital is less than 500 thousand dollars and annual turnover is less than 1 million dollars.
Participants in the first program (111 projects) earned a total of $ 103 million in the 12 months after the program. From only about a dozen reached the final, that is, they received grants from the accelerator.
To be afraid is normal. Most startups do not take off, but the accelerator is needed to ensure that successful ones do not die by accident. They are afraid of all, without exception, and this is a good sign: you just need to start doing.

John calls the prize in the accelerator just a marketing ploy: all participants understand that access to the platform itself is most important, as well as training and experience in the 3 months that the work and communication takes place in the United States.