What you need to know yesterday's student who dreams of his business

In early June, the HSE Business Incubator hosted a conference on the launch of Russian start-ups on the global markets HSE {GlobalStartup}, which brought together representatives of the business and investment community. We asked them where to start fresh graduates who want to do business, how to replenish their knowledge and what qualities are worth their weight in gold.

// Vitaly Polekhin, Head of the Investors Club of the SKOLKOVO Business School

A typical picture: you graduated from college, worked for a year in some company, and the question arose: do you have something to do with your own? But then tell yourself: after all, I was a junior assistant, and now it has already grown to a senior - how can I leave everything and go into the unknown. For many, this question becomes a mental prison. Only over time, people realize that no, it was necessary to try. Until the moment in professional development, which objectively can stop you (for example, loans that need to be paid, or the appearance of a family, which adds responsibility), comes, you can not be afraid to start with your project.
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Considering how fast the industry is developing, in what specialty you would not study, you can leave the school, and in the world everything is different. Knowledge needs to be honed constantly.
For example, the excellent English-language resource Udemy, where there are many courses in entrepreneurship, can help. If you want lectures from foreign teachers from the best schools, but with translation into Russian, that is, the resource Eduson.tv. But the main thing is to “cook” in the business environment. Even standard business education can be divided into three parts: 30% is theoretical knowledge, 30% is the experience of invited experts and speakers, and the rest is communication and networking in the business community.

The qualities that are important for entrepreneurs today are the willingness to take risks (in fact, the first risk that a start-up is taking is the choice between stable work and own business) and to be in a state of uncertainty until the startup turns into a business and starts generating income. will not be sold or will not be released on the IPO and will be managed as a large corporation.

// Dmitry Firskin, Investment Manager, AltairVC

In Russia, the internship culture is poorly developed. Students rarely understand the value of experience that can be obtained in a corporation, and they are not inclined to trust students and set interesting tasks for them. A typical university graduate often lacks sufficient industry knowledge and understanding of business processes. Certainly, there will be unique people who fill these gaps in the process of building their own business, but for the rest, it will not be superfluous to work for several years in a corporation, gain experience and make an informed choice between building a career and starting a business.

From my point of view, entrepreneurial predisposition is an acquired skill.

Communicate with the right people, learn from the stories of both success and failure, attend events for startups.

But do not forget that conference conferences are different - at large events covering a wide range of topics held with the support of eminent sponsors, as a rule, the polygraphy of handouts is better fed and better, but this does not affect the quality and relevance of reports. More chamber, industry-specific meetings are often more productive. Courses, like books, should be chosen carefully - low-quality content these days is more than enough. Consult with more experienced comrades in order not to regret later wasted time.

There is a term that most fully describes the main quality that a startup has to possess: 'Highpaintreshold'.
I first heard it from the founder and CEO of KupiVIP.ru, Oskar Hartman. The path of an entrepreneur is like an endless band of insurmountable obstacles, and only those with an iron will have the chance to reach the end, to reach the goal. And another tip - do not be afraid to make mistakes, but do not forget to learn from them.

// Anastasia Tyurina, Head of the HSE Innovation Activity Department

The sooner you start trying to force in entrepreneurship, the better - you have less social obligations and it is easier morally. It is important to understand for yourself the difference between when you get paid wages and when you earn yourself. After all, doing a startup, you are responsible not only for yourself, but also for the team - the people you hired. This is a completely different mental position in the head. I regret to see that university graduates rarely understand these subtleties. This is from the series, as I ask the child: “Where does the grapes grow?” And he answers: “In the fridge!”

Secondly, it is important to find credibility. There may be several. To do this, you need to go to entrepreneurial parties, study the style of already established entrepreneurs, copy the first pattern from them, begin to communicate — even if you start online, ask for an internship or a job. This will teach to separate the wheat from the chaff and look not only at the external facade, but also at the internal philosophy of the entrepreneur.

The third tip is to try, try and try again. At first, this can be participation in “painless” business games, for example, “Iron Entrepreneur”, where everyone can try himself as the founder of a startup, put forward his business development strategy or use innovative technology. Delving into entrepreneurial activity, you can create small projects - for example, a near-social focus. For example, start a campaign on Boomstarter and raise money for a project, try to get other people involved in what you are doing.

Who is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is a leader who changes his surroundings around himself and thereby earns money.
Finally, the last tip is to learn. Business is a game, and in order to succeed in it, you need to build a step-by-step strategy and get those competencies that you lack. For example, to watch acceleration programs - in Moscow alone there are more than 15 points where you can take training programs for entrepreneurs and in most cases for free. Communication skills are very important for a startup. Oddly enough, to develop them, often silence and the ability to listen - the main thing that is required. You can just watch people and notice: this is good for this and this for this. I conduct trainings for trainers, and in classes we sometimes analyze each other's speech: surprisingly, in the speech of two people you can find 50 references each!

// Sergey Filatov, founder of the Owely project

I started working in various companies in parallel with studying at the university - I was engaged in design, layout, server programming. But in the end I realized that this did not give me an incentive to develop. Many people think that work in a company is much more stable - yes, but as long as you perform it well and do not think about anything else. As soon as there are thoughts of something else, the employer immediately feels it, and you become a divergent that spoils the corporate structure.

I got the spirit, quit my job and started my own projects. Today I do a startup Owely - this is an audio navigator for the visually impaired and blind people. It began with the fact that I noticed a growing trend in wearable devices and decided to make the navigator built into the watch. You speak the address, and he directs you - vibrates and indicates with an arrow where to go. But then I looked at the competitors, realized how many more companies would launch a similar product, a little upset, and then asked myself the question: “I wanted to create a navigator that I don’t need to look at. And who does not need to look? The answer was immediately there: blind and visually impaired. To participate in the development of the project managed to attract a lot of caring people - for example, volunteers measured the subway steps.

I would divide the start-up community into two types. I will give a conditional example. There are guys who sit in the garage and sawing something inspired. And others: those who are partying in coworkings inspiredly say: “We have such a project - we work hard, we saw, we saw and we cannot finish it in any way”. And then they come to the garage, and nothing happens there. They do not catch the buzz of what they are doing - it is much more important for them to walk and tell left and right that they have a startup. Therefore, you need to learn to understand the environment in which you find yourself. As for networking, it is useful when you know exactly what your problem is and what can help solve it. You need to set yourself a KPI: "I will go to this conference, because it is on my topic, and I will take 10 business cards." If the plan is not executed, then consider that you just went for a walk.

It is important to develop the skills of eloquence in order to be able to tell about yourself and your project in two minutes with any successful opportunity. No less appreciated is the ability to listen, to be at the right time and right place. Quite often it happens that you meet people who may be useful, and you miss them because you think you are too clever. Finally, a start-up can not do without perseverance: he does not give up when something goes wrong, but asks: “How can I fix this?” After all, it is not necessary to abandon the idea, product or audience - you can simply redirect the selected course. Repack it in a different package.

Incubation and acceleration programs are a good way to start, but do not expect them to make you millionaires. Need to work a lot by yourself. In incubators, on average, only three out of ten people actually do something to raise their project - the rest do not understand what they are doing. And out of these ten projects only one takes off. The rest either get lost in the audience, or face the problem of a leader when he sets the wrong course and does not listen to knowledgeable people. Many people think that they are Steve Jobs and will change the world overnight, but entrepreneurship is hard work.

// Matt Murphy, Boston Accelerator MassChallenge Expert and Mentor

At the core of entrepreneurship is the desire to solve a particular problem existing in the market. Anyone can identify it - the main thing is to figure out how to use this understanding correctly. Accelerators and incubators can shorten the way a young entrepreneur is trained and provide resources that support the weakest areas of your startup.

If you are passionate about the idea of ​​your project, not only is it much easier to motivate yourself to engage in it, but it is also easier to convince potential partners, investors and clients in its merits. Failure is something that can be benefited from. It is much more effective to understand the cause of failure (say, an incorrectly chosen target audience) than to hold on to a business that is not viable. Advice to all students and graduates: communicate with people from different groups - especially not from your industry. Having a variety of networks will be invaluable if one day you decide to go into business.

// Valentin Butyugin, investor and partner of the Singapore accelerator HaxAsia

According to business statistics, about 10% in the world. The entrepreneurial mindset is different from the mindset of an ordinary specialist in that he has a greater propensity to take risks (this does not mean that it is unjustified). Nevertheless, I do not think that an entrepreneur needs to be born - the consistent movement to the goal leads to the results. The more aggressively and actively you will conduct market research and study business models, the greater will be the chances of success.

When you launched your project, but something is not going according to plan, it is important to be adaptive - to be able to change the business model and its elements in accordance with the circumstances that arise. You chose a certain hypothesis and are going to stick to it, but over time you realize that you have relied on something wrong. It is important to diagnose it in time and be flexible in order to quickly change the model and adapt to the market. At the same time, you must be persistent and stubborn, because it is sometimes worse to not press the situation than to change it prematurely.

Finally, a few words about the business community. Networking just for networking does not work. A novice start-up doesn’t take part in trips to events alone - so don’t make money. As Richard Branson said, one must take and do.

Read also our interview with Mikhail Ivanov, co-founder of Mann, Ivanov and Ferber publishing house and creator of Smart Reading. On the publishing business, students and the future.