Do not forget to look at the startup from the client. Opinion by Gary Fowler

We live in the world of Moore's law - every 18 months the power of processors doubles. But more importantly, what follows from this - in the last two years more information has been created than all the time before. This means that customer data is becoming more and more. Already, a lot of information has accumulated, and there are constantly more and more opportunities to receive and process it - this opens up an ocean of opportunities for startups. You just need to learn how to work with it. One of MEGA Accelerator teachers, Gary Fowler, the world-famous marketer and speaker of TEDx, as well as a real expert on turning timid start-ups into a confident, working business is doing just that.


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Gary's professional experience mostly relates to the management of high-tech companies, services and consulting, as well as his own companies in technology, development and consulting. He was the CEO of Fowler International, an international business development consulting company that collaborated with leading companies interested in entering the Russian / CIS market. As senior vice president of marketing and corporate development at ClickSoftware (an Israeli company), he was responsible for international rebranding and maintaining an effective marketing policy right up to the IPO. In addition, Gary held senior positions at Hewlett Packard, Mirantis, Modcomp, Siemens, Planalytics and taught for two years as a professor at Skolkovo Business School. Today, Fowler is an investor himself, actively investing in Russian startups. His contribution, including in the answers to all our questions, which will definitely be useful to IT-entrepreneurs of the entire Runet.

Gary, how many startups have you had?

As I am the co-founder of GVA LaunchGurus, 185 startups went through my hands and I launched 7 more. But the main success for me was the work with the Israeli startup ClickSoftware - we successfully brought the project to IPO, despite the falling market.

What are the main reasons for failures among startups?

Most startups simply do not have enough international contacts, fanding and sales / marketing.
But the main problem in the projects themselves. Most startups simply do not pay attention to such an obvious thing as Customer Development, and this is critically important. Everyone makes the product and forget to look at it from the client. Or start to assume that they themselves know better what the end user needs.

ustomer development is often contrasted with the product-oriented approach (“make a cool product, and there is a buyer”). If a start-up is too carried away with product improvement and has forgotten about consumers, the project usually fails. In practice, a balance must be maintained between product development and customer research.

What is the difference between MEGA Accelerator and others?

We have high-precision manufacturing here. As a laser, we focus on the task of achieving serious results at the stage of the formation of a startup, giving a broad outlook on competencies. The MEGA Accelerator philosophy is to embrace the entire global innovation experience and thus stay one step ahead of the competition.

Tell us how you see the customer experience structure - which items are the most important? For example, in your experience there is a startup automating one of the most important elements in retail - display of goods in the store. Can you talk about something like that in more detail?

There is one startup that integrated the weather forecast into the merchandising planning system. If it snows, the system will check for shovels and non-freeze waiting for customers in the store. They started from scratch, and now the system is in all major retail chains Walmart, Tesco, Sears, Home Depot and many others around the world.

And the project simply used open data to better understand the desires of the consumer.

I recommend reading:
The Lean Startup:
The Startup Owner's Manual

How do you see the future of retail? What startups will soon be in demand?

MEGA Accelerator is looking for solutions for retail first. But everything that can be attributed to Big Data, payment processing and another augmented reality will do - this is very cool, we believe in it.

The future of shopping will change the ability to find out what the customer wants using Big Data. Also in the course will use tools like augmented reality - they can radically change the consumer experience. And of course, there will be plenty of opportunities to pay off before you reach the cashier.

MEGA always strives to improve the entire technological process and delves into the subtleties, so when building its shopping centers it finances the construction of metro stations and road junctions - how important is such a holistic approach?

MEGA controls all the elements of his trip to the shopping center and the whole trip complies with the high standards of the company. If it is inconvenient to go to the mall, then this radically changes the buyer’s behavioral patterns. That is why it is so important to control the whole process, and this is one of the important rules that we are trying to convey to Russian startups.

After all, if everyone will be engaged only in their own area of ​​responsibility, a single project will not work - this is obvious.

What is the essence of your educational program? How did you come to her?

We have Bootcamp, Growth Academy, Venture Academy and our own StartUp Academy to give students basic skill sets. But in general, we have developed a comprehensive training program based on our rather deep experience. I am a serial entrepreneur, investor and startup consultant, that's enough.

In the cinema there is a famous Hollywood script of the script - sit down and take pictures. Is there the same formula for a perfect startup? What laws exist in the industry?

A startup should have no more than 3 founders. It should be people with whom it is pleasant to work and yet they should have a desire that does not have an adequate counterpart in Russian. You call it “change the world”, but we are somewhat more specific - “to make a dent in the world” —this is not so much to change the world as to make a dent in it, small but noticeable. And the second golden rule is the maximum attention to the “red” sector. Remember that creating a startup is not driving in a straight line, you have to consider feedback.

Can you talk about examples of how the knowledge gained in your course helped startups to succeed?

The main thing that they have learned from us is how to pitch an investor. And they have learned it themselves, from real life experience. Do you know how we teach them that? We take them with us to Silicon Valley and bring them to meet the most famous people in the industry. When you unexpectedly find yourself in a meeting with Guy Kawasaki, Bob Dorf or Steve Blanc, you do not have time to get scared or confused. Getting acquainted with investors is taking place for granted and you can already talk on an equal footing, a person comes to his senses and understands that he is doing a world-class startup - and this is already worth a lot.


Want a photo with Guy Kawasaki?

On the course, they get their hands on a variety of business tools - building business models, project management, financial planning, analytics, sales, marketing, customer development, pitching, and a lot of little things. With these tools, we help them “turbo their startup”. And, of course, we give them mentoring and coaching at the international level.

We have more than 35% of startups have received funding. Among them were projects from medical record keeping systems to biotech and big data.

And what is the secret of the success of MEGA shopping centers in your opinion?

They believe they can succeed and just do it.