Tolstoy Summer Camp: Yandex will teach to create projects

On July 1, the summer start-up workshop Tolstoy Summer Camp starts its work in the Moscow office of Yandex - an experiment that will last 2 months. We gather together 50-60 young, talented, ambitious, we add experts to them and wait for the result.

All classes will be held in our Moscow office, so all participants not from Moscow, we will pay for the road and accommodation in the city. We are waiting for people from all regions of Russia and any other countries.


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If you have a desire to make your project, but you do not understand how to choose a worthwhile idea and turn it into a startup, Tolstoy Summer Camp is a very good place. We basically made this project as open as possible and agreed with many experienced businessmen, managers, designers, and programmers. All of them will bring real knowledge, which will greatly increase the chances of survival. In the framework of the workshop with the projects will work:

• Sergey Belousov (Runa Capital, Acronis, Parallels),
• Esther Dyson from EDventure,
• Ilya Iseg Segalovich (Yandex),
• Jennifer Hicks (Forbes),
• Gregory bobuk Bakunov (Yandex),
• Igor Matsanyuk (Farminers, Games Insight)
• Ilya Krasinsky (LinguaLeo) and many others.

All this in order to get good projects at the output, interesting to Russian and European investors, who will come to evaluate projects on August 30 at Demo Day.

Since no project can take place without developers and designers, we are waiting for not only managers, but also people who can write good code and draw beautiful interfaces. For them, we also organize a special program, where we will try to invite only the best of the best with stories about the latest design trends, mobile, big data, open source, etc. We will tell about this program separately.

We accept applications until May 31. Details - next.

Why is it Yandex? Do you want to hunt people?

We believe that we can share not only and not so much money, but also expertise, and this is often more important than the short-term need for personnel. The goal of the project for us is to help the market. Make sure there are more good people with the right knowledge. In addition, it is important for us to understand how the entire market is ready to participate in our initiative, how respected by us people, including our competitors, are ready to support our initiative and participate in projects.

For recruitment, we have other programs (NML, for example), and people who are capable of doing business do not just fit into the charters of large companies.

How much does Yandex take?

Unlike most accelerator programs, we do not claim a share in your company. Yandex will participate in the Demo Day along with other investors. No one will object if the project wants to give a share to its mentor, if it is in the interests of both parties.

How will everything be organized?

During the two-month course, participants will learn to formulate ideas, assemble teams, make business plans and develop project prototypes. The finalists of the program will be able to present them to Russian and foreign investors and, perhaps, to receive funding.



Stage I Idea and team
The period is 10 days. Participants will need to formulate an idea, assemble a team and defend the concept of the project to other participants.

Stage II. Plan
The period is 20 days. Only those who have already formed a team or a ready-made idea will be allowed to this stage. Teams will begin to work it out, make a business plan and schedule of work. They will also have to draw interface sketches, determine the audience for the future project, and understand where it will go after launch. At the end of the stage you will need to protect your project a second time.

Stage III. Prototype
The period is 30 days. Only those who successfully pass the repeated defense of the project will enter this stage. Participants will be given a month to create a working prototype that potential investors will evaluate and test.

The finish
On August 30, investors from Russia and Europe will come to Tolstoy Summer Camp. Yandex will invite them to see what the workshop participants were able to achieve in two months.

How to spend the summer in Tolstoy Summer Camp?

We will recruit participants as follows:

• until May 31, we accept a test task from those who wish ( for the developer , for the manager , for the designer );
• June 14 to those who successfully fulfill it, we announce the date of Skype interview;
• June 24, we determine the final composition of the participants and contact all the finalists.

All participants of Tolstoy Summer Camp Yandex will pay a scholarship of 20,000 rubles. Classes will go on weekdays and assume full employment.

You can come to the workshop with your idea, but be prepared for the need to protect it. If you once sent an application to participate in Yandex.Start, you can try yourself here: now for us it is much more important how you pass the test task and interview, and not what idea you come up with. If you already have an established team, you can participate all together, but for this, each of its members must successfully go through all the stages of selection.

Learn more about Tolstoy Summer Camp here . In the same place you will find a list of all the lecturers and mentors with whom the teams are to meet.

So, do not forget to send a test task until May 31. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments.