On foreign investment
Hello! Most recently, I returned from a trip to Finland, the main purpose of which was to promote my own software product.
Now I can share my (still small) experience in this area and tell what to look for when entering the European market.
The story will be interesting to both business people and developers (including web developers).
')
As usual, welcome to the comments, if I cover something is not entirely clear or not very detailed.
Before any action, you should decide what you want. For example, if you want an investment - this is one thing. If you are looking for potential sales partners (sales representatives) - this is different. Decide in advance what you are looking for, and only then proceed to action.
Remember that a lot depends on the clarity of your position.
So, if you have an interesting project and you want to enter the European market with it, then you need to start somewhere. In general, the first question will be the choice of the country. In my case, it was Finland, because my brother is studying to exchange there. The issue of accommodation and contacts (initial) was resolved.
I must say that the level of penetration of technology in Europe is different. I also chose Finland because it is the leader in Europe in terms of technical development.
Therefore, when we have decided on the country, we are further defined with contacts. In general, in almost any development, institutions are interested in their topics (I mean, not research, but those where teaching is conducted). This is the launch pad.
In addition, the institutes always have a very good and well-established contact with organizations (mostly with government) that are engaged in innovation.
For starters, you need to have with you a presentation describing the product. Your main task is for potential partners to get an idea and be able to understand it. In addition, forget about Russian and make a presentation in English, I think this is understandable.
The rule of good tone is handouts, that is, printed slides with space for comments (in PowerPoint, such printing is achieved by issuing 3 pages each). On this handout, people can immediately make notes and ask questions.
Projectors are almost everywhere, so you don’t have to show something from the screen;)
The next item (optional) is the availability of the site (if we are talking about a software product, for example), so that people can find out certain things without asking you personally.
I will not talk about language problems, but remember that it is ideal to have a presentation in the language of the selected country. If you show a presentation to business people, they mostly know English.
The penultimate and quite important point. If you are demonstrating a software product, take a laptop with you, where you can demonstrate everything without complicated and lengthy installation procedures.
And finally. A pack of business cards with details in English, Skype, local SIM-card for the time you stay there. This is so standard.
The principle of evaluating your proposal is simple - you should not just tell about your product, but explain why it is needed. Very often you can see good presentations, which, however, do not explain what will happen to such a cool one as a result of using that very product.
That is, show the benefits. Show the need. No one will love your product just because it’s good. This is the main rule.
Now let's go on trifles.
How safe is your product? Does it contain vulnerabilities? And those technologies on which it is built? These questions will be the first. Remember that in Europe, all-rounders are rare. Therefore, safety is one of the questions.
Remember that the most trust is given to the technologies that are already on the market. For example, if you say that your system uses Microsoft SQL Server delimitation of powers - this is one. And if you say that you wrote a similar system yourself - this will undermine trust. Nobody says that your security system is worse, but how many problems with it can there be?
If we talk about web development, then it is important to use https (and not http to work with the login), and think about servers (that is, what to do). In Europe, they relate normally to IIS, normally relate to Apache. I can’t say more, because I didn’t have a web project.
In addition, I do not speak here about such simple things that are described in the field of Windows programs (for example, the correct work is not under an administrator account, etc.) - you need to know it yourself :)
How to work with personal information? Who has access to it? What is access? What can he do and what personal data may be available?
Again, when it comes to the program, it is important to correctly store the data - there should be no bookmarks or opportunities to track the source of information in the documents and other files saved by the program. If you need to store such information, you need to provide a method for removing it from the final document. In Microsoft Office 2007, this feature is more than excellent.
When talking about websites, then (if there is a registration, for example) the rules are simple - look at any example of a large English-language resource: do not shine an e-mail address, do not send anything without the user's consent or will, etc.
Remember that you need innovations in a foreign market. In Russia, you will have a completely different attitude. In Russia, we are too accustomed to innovation and to the fact that we are “ahead of the rest of the world” in terms of development.
In a well-fed Europe, innovation is rare. Therefore, the investor is easier to find.
With love,
maniaque
Update: Thank you very much for the edits :) It seems to fix everything.
Now I can share my (still small) experience in this area and tell what to look for when entering the European market.
The story will be interesting to both business people and developers (including web developers).
')
As usual, welcome to the comments, if I cover something is not entirely clear or not very detailed.
0. How many to hang in grams?
Before any action, you should decide what you want. For example, if you want an investment - this is one thing. If you are looking for potential sales partners (sales representatives) - this is different. Decide in advance what you are looking for, and only then proceed to action.
Remember that a lot depends on the clarity of your position.
If we talk about my case, then I was looking not for investors, but for sales partners, that is, people who would make offers regarding my software product, sell it and carry out after-sales support.
1. Where to start?
So, if you have an interesting project and you want to enter the European market with it, then you need to start somewhere. In general, the first question will be the choice of the country. In my case, it was Finland, because my brother is studying to exchange there. The issue of accommodation and contacts (initial) was resolved.
I must say that the level of penetration of technology in Europe is different. I also chose Finland because it is the leader in Europe in terms of technical development.
Therefore, when we have decided on the country, we are further defined with contacts. In general, in almost any development, institutions are interested in their topics (I mean, not research, but those where teaching is conducted). This is the launch pad.
In addition, the institutes always have a very good and well-established contact with organizations (mostly with government) that are engaged in innovation.
In my case, I managed to communicate with a person from such an organization, who in a short time arranged a sufficient number of meetings with potential partners.
2. What should I have with me?
For starters, you need to have with you a presentation describing the product. Your main task is for potential partners to get an idea and be able to understand it. In addition, forget about Russian and make a presentation in English, I think this is understandable.
The rule of good tone is handouts, that is, printed slides with space for comments (in PowerPoint, such printing is achieved by issuing 3 pages each). On this handout, people can immediately make notes and ask questions.
Projectors are almost everywhere, so you don’t have to show something from the screen;)
The next item (optional) is the availability of the site (if we are talking about a software product, for example), so that people can find out certain things without asking you personally.
I will not talk about language problems, but remember that it is ideal to have a presentation in the language of the selected country. If you show a presentation to business people, they mostly know English.
The penultimate and quite important point. If you are demonstrating a software product, take a laptop with you, where you can demonstrate everything without complicated and lengthy installation procedures.
And finally. A pack of business cards with details in English, Skype, local SIM-card for the time you stay there. This is so standard.
3. And what will they look at?
The principle of evaluating your proposal is simple - you should not just tell about your product, but explain why it is needed. Very often you can see good presentations, which, however, do not explain what will happen to such a cool one as a result of using that very product.
That is, show the benefits. Show the need. No one will love your product just because it’s good. This is the main rule.
Now let's go on trifles.
Security
How safe is your product? Does it contain vulnerabilities? And those technologies on which it is built? These questions will be the first. Remember that in Europe, all-rounders are rare. Therefore, safety is one of the questions.
Remember that the most trust is given to the technologies that are already on the market. For example, if you say that your system uses Microsoft SQL Server delimitation of powers - this is one. And if you say that you wrote a similar system yourself - this will undermine trust. Nobody says that your security system is worse, but how many problems with it can there be?
If we talk about web development, then it is important to use https (and not http to work with the login), and think about servers (that is, what to do). In Europe, they relate normally to IIS, normally relate to Apache. I can’t say more, because I didn’t have a web project.
In addition, I do not speak here about such simple things that are described in the field of Windows programs (for example, the correct work is not under an administrator account, etc.) - you need to know it yourself :)
Personal Information (Privacy)
How to work with personal information? Who has access to it? What is access? What can he do and what personal data may be available?
Again, when it comes to the program, it is important to correctly store the data - there should be no bookmarks or opportunities to track the source of information in the documents and other files saved by the program. If you need to store such information, you need to provide a method for removing it from the final document. In Microsoft Office 2007, this feature is more than excellent.
When talking about websites, then (if there is a registration, for example) the rules are simple - look at any example of a large English-language resource: do not shine an e-mail address, do not send anything without the user's consent or will, etc.
4. Summing up
Remember that you need innovations in a foreign market. In Russia, you will have a completely different attitude. In Russia, we are too accustomed to innovation and to the fact that we are “ahead of the rest of the world” in terms of development.
In a well-fed Europe, innovation is rare. Therefore, the investor is easier to find.
With love,
maniaque
Update: Thank you very much for the edits :) It seems to fix everything.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/19743/
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