Opus about startaparstvom and competitions in one part

Intro

I don’t want to create another plaintive post from the series “poor startups again didn’t give anything: there wasn’t enough smoothie and macbook.” As for the heroes of this opus, then, as I could observe, these are decent people and professionals in their field. If it were not for the Generation S and RVC competition, our company would not have been able to receive a grant from the “Bortnik Fund” for 2 million rubles.



In this opus, I would like to describe the case of the behavior of the sponsor of the event, which now sponsors a startup event, immediately after the completion of the “most enjoyable part”. Probably, I will not draw conclusions, but I will write how it was.

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Think again - it may be better to devote more time to the product or team than to take part in the next super-popular vanity parade.

TL; DR

The company won a prize from the sponsor of the event and for about a year trying to get it. The sponsor refers to internal changes, but does not refuse to give out the prize, but simply stops responding to the winner's letters. At the same time participates as a sponsor of other events.

Main storyline

In the markets with startups there are a large number of companies and individuals who are neither startups nor investors, but primarily engaged in service.



They bring investors together with startups, help startups create presentations, advise investors on new trends and, of course, organize various contests and awards. The work is worthy and necessary, but sometimes “service” companies have lining up. On one such case, my story.



First, a little about myself : my name is Artem Subbotin and my project is called “Simkomat” - we design, develop and produce self-service kiosks, which after some time will automate the distribution and servicing of subscribers of cellular operators.



True, now we mainly work in the market of the CIS, the Middle East and Europe, and in Russia our devices are not very high in demand.



In 2015, a change occurred in our company - due to the fall of the ruble exchange rate, the already small sales of simkomats fell. We began to think where to turn. And they decided to start developing CheckU, a system for remote identification and verification of identity documents. Since we already had some groundwork, the first version of the service appeared at the beginning of the year. Looking ahead, in 2016, we are developing two products in parallel, but, as I already mentioned, in foreign markets.



And in 2015, the prospects did not seem so rosy, and we grasped at any opportunity to find investments and somehow swim in more stable waters. A serious financial crisis was brewing inside the company, almost all valuables from the house were sold in order to keep the company afloat.



And here I received an offer to take part in the contest “Telecom idea 2015” - an event of the MTS company among telecom projects. Hoping to get another point of contact with the desired client (let me remind you - we are making a product for telecom operators), I submitted an application.



Passing the selection, hit the main stream of participants. Here another character breaks into the story: Generation S is an accelerator launched by the RVC Foundation. In 2015, MTS and RVC decided to combine their activities and conduct the “Telecom idea” inside Generation S. That’s how we got to the “Generation S 2015” competition in the telecom track. A pre-accelerator passed, a contest and got into the MTS corporate accelerator, at the same time becoming the winners of Telecom Ideas 2015.



Toward the end of 2015, Generation S summed up the event and selected the winners. We did not get to the final, but we were asked to come to the grand closing. We and five more nominees were awarded a prize package in the nomination “Finlanding - a bridge to global markets” from Finnish partners.



Closer to the new year I received a letter from snowy Suomi, with heartfelt congratulations and an agreed program of the event (link to Google Drive). The program is rich and the organizers' approach is serious, and the call to be active and complicit inspired confidence.



As requested by the founders of the award, I wrote a large letter with a list of regalia and attached a bunch of presentations to choose from. But I did not wait for confirmation that the letter reached the addressee. A couple of days later I wrote another letter asking you to confirm the receipt of the first, and a week later one more. Everything was in vain, my vis-à-vis was silent. Thinking it was a completely normal story for mid-January, I decided to stop the written bombardment.



Toward the end of January, I still waited for an answer:







Of course, I had questions and a few worries. The most important of which is the promised mentoring 6-month support, which should have already begun.







The answer was two months of silence. Towards the middle of March, I decided to write to the representative of RVC in order to clarify whether something serious happened to their sponsors.







A couple of weeks later, a response from the representative of RVC was received:







While I was waiting for answers from both RVK and the “Finns,” a phone call rang in my office. At the other end of the line, with a crackle and a sweet Finnish accent, they explained to me for a long time how important it is to open my company in Finland and how great it will affect the level of trust in us. Of course, the event is not cheap, but the case is reliable, and the government of Suomi will be absolutely free to advise us and even help. My questions about mentoring support, traveling to Finland - well, should I see where I open a company and where to pay rather big taxes - I could not answer.



A week later, an employee of RVK still managed to get an answer from spring and, probably, sunny Finland:







A terrible thing happened - I myself, personally, refused the "road show" in Finland.



My fears intensified and I began to suspect my second “I” in internal dissidence. Of course, I hurried to write that I did not refuse anything, and generally agree with everything.



Later, another representative from the Finnish side called me, although he explained that he was not on the list of founders of the competition. And in general, his main task is to help foreign companies open a business in Finland, and its services are completely free. After more than an hour of conversation, I made it clear that I did not mind opening a business in Finland, but I would like to get more information about the country, take some advice from a local accountant and generally collect more information. To which I was answered, all this without any problems, immediately after the registration of the company, since it is not interesting for anyone to consult not a local company.



After this conversation, the opponents stopped communicating until August of this year.

In August, I decided to try my luck again and write the last letter to the organizers (RVK), after which I should calm down and not reopen the wound. Along with the letter, I wrote a small post in FB - despite the relative passivity of readers and commentators, it was this post that gave astronomical acceleration to history, after a few hours “some journalist from TASS” called RVK with a question about prizes and contests.



Literally in a week, I received as many letters from the organizers as I have not received in the whole year. RVC employees suggested not to wait for answers from the Finnish side and pay all the costs of organizing a trip to Helsinki. But a little later, the "heroes of the day" joined in, promising to provide a ticket for Slush , pay for travel inside Finland and hotel accommodation, arrange several meetings with investors and "helpful people."

Instead of output

Not only Russian startups, but investors and organizers of competitions are at the beginning of their journey. Unlike the hundred-year history of Silicon Valley, the venture history of our country is only in its infancy, and we all make many mistakes.



What thought would I like to send to the reader? No one except yourself will move your business or your project until it brings enough money - only you need it. Most sponsors go to such events for the purpose of their own PR (and this is normal), they have no altruistic motives to help start-ups. In general, no one has such motives, everyone has their own clear goals. No need to live in a pink world and hope for the free help of the "kind uncle". Help people keep their promises and always make sure your promises are kept.



References:

»Award Founder

»Award established

» Organizer of the whole event