How we went through the UMNIK program for receiving a grant from beginning to end with the CNC machine tool design project
Hello! I would like to tell about the UMNIK program aimed at receiving a grant from the Assistance Fund, about our development of a safe and simple CNC machine tool FIGIRE and about where we are going.
UMNIK is a competition aimed at receiving a grant from the Foundation for Assistance to Small Forms of an Enterprise. If your project passes, you will receive a grant of 500,000 rubles for 2 years to implement your idea. In the first year, they give 200,000 rubles, the next - 250,000 rubles, and at the end of the second year another 50,000 rubles for their own expenses. Your idea must in one way or another be scientific and innovative, and most importantly, it must be commercialized. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 inclusive can participate in the project. The competition itself is held in 2 stages. Semifinal and final. At the same time, the final is held in the regional center once a year. Semifinals are quite a lot. At the same time, they are not only full-time, but also in absentia. If your project did not pass the semi-final in one place, then you can safely go to another place to the next semi-final, and perform there. There are no restrictions in this regard.
A few weeks before the UMNICK program semi-final, I first learned about the UMNIK program. I was pleasantly surprised that this is generally practiced in our country. The idea of ​​the project at that time was floating in the air, but was not yet voiced. At that time I had several developments. After conducting a detailed analysis of each of them, I decided to try to promote the idea of ​​developing a milling
CNC machine for self-assembly "fig".
How did I come to this? Approximately half a year before, having read and seen enough videos about CNC machines, I caught fire with the creation of one of them. At the beginning, I was convinced that if there are budgetary restrictions, then such a miracle can be made from plywood on the knee. The result was so disgusting that I forgot to take a picture of it. So quickly my first CNC machine turned into a small hanging cabinet.
')
At the second CNC machine, it was decided to significantly expand the budget. Then I received a solid increased scholarship at the university, so she had to become the main sponsor of the project. Having calculated everything, it turned out that it would take me at such a pace to create the machine I had planned for about half a year. Every month the necessary components were ordered from China and bought in local stores. After 4 months, almost all the main parts of the future machine were collected in a pile on the table. Began a long and painful build process. Before that, I didn’t do anything of the kind, so the assembly process simply made a lot of mistakes, due to which the project budget was almost doubled. And yet I was pleased with the result. When you first start a project of this magnitude, you feel real pleasure from his first job. After testing all the basic functions, I put a small relief on processing. It was processed for several hours, and all this time I just sat side by side and watched the process. I could not believe that I was able to create something like that. At that moment, for me, the first manned space flight was not close to what I did.
Over time, it came to the realization that much could be done differently. The machine was made according to the standard construction from the Internet, and it was very typical. Quite a lot of questions and existing software. About all the drawbacks of modern desktop CNC machines, I will tell you some other time. There are a lot of them. Let me just say that in our project we tried to eliminate many of the shortcomings of the existing CNC machine tools.
But something took me away. Let's return to the idea of ​​the project for UMNIK. It was decided to develop a desktop budget CNC machine. At the same time, they wanted to make him in the form of a set “collect it myself,” which would make the final product cheaper. A few days before the semi-finals, held at my university, the presentation of the project was completely ready. There was then a project only at the level of the idea. Actually nothing has been done yet, and I was very worried about this. I thought that space projects with super prototypes would come to the semi-finals. The reality was a little different.
Everything was organized quite solidly. A total of 15 people participated. When the experts began to come, we were a little surprised at their number. Their total number slightly exceeded the number of participants in the semifinal. And it seemed strange to me. I do not know, maybe at the other semifinals in other places everything was different. But we all went that way. I spoke about in the middle, so I had the opportunity to listen to other speakers. As it turned out, I was in vain worried about the development of the project. Almost all the participants have developed their project to the level of the idea. There were, of course, really worthwhile developments, but they were a minority. I then performed poorly enough, but, surprisingly, this was enough to reach the final.
I forgot to talk about the procedure of performance. The presentation is given 5 minutes and 5 minutes to answer the questions. At first it seemed to me terribly small. After all, they were going to give us 500,000 rubles. Do they really not want to understand our ideas in more detail? But as the project progressed and I continued to prepare for the final, I realized that 5 minutes to speak is even a lot. You can easily keep within 4 minutes, or even less. Definitely, you need to prepare for the presentation very thoroughly, but much more thoroughly you need to prepare for answers to questions. It is on how well you answer the experts' questions that the further fate of your project will depend. Immediately it should be said that the level of the semifinal and the final of the UMNIK were simply colossal. The experts of the semifinal were mainly university professors. Everyone was good in their field. The questions they asked were mostly technical. The business model of the project, marketing and financial plans at that time did not interest anyone at all. All looked almost only at the novelty and innovativeness of the project. At the final, everything was completely different.
After winning the semifinals, I realized that if I didn’t develop and create a prototype of the machine that was planned for a cnc machine, I wouldn’t go any further. There were about 5 months left until the finals. A lot - you will say, but in reality this is not so. Prototype creation required cash and detailed project design. As soon as the money came to promote the project, the necessary components were ordered. When I sat down for the development of the machine, I realized that the idea of ​​creating a cheap designer cnc is absolutely not relevant. Maybe I could sell a few copies of garage engineers and electronics, but no more. The quality of the products made on a machine like “collect it yourself” would have left much to be desired. There were many more disadvantages of this development. First of all, I would not be able to eliminate the shortcomings inherent in all existing desktop machines. They would certainly accompany my project.
I will not describe the procedure for developing and further creating a prototype for the CNC of the machine, since This story can be counted for advertising.
After creating the prototype, there were a few weeks left before the final. It was decided to write a business plan for the project, although under the terms of UMNIK, it is needed only after the program is completed (after two years). Before that, I had never written a business plan. A lot of documentation was studied and a whole bunch of training videos were viewed. In general, we took the business plan very seriously. He was ready in a week. In the process of writing, we figured out a lot of issues related to the further organization of production. We also saw the first real numbers, although approximate. Analyzed the market, set pricing policies, made financial and marketing plans. I'll tell you right away that the fact that we wrote the business plan of the project in advance was a HUGE plus at the UMNIK finals.
The remaining week was spent on creating and preparing for the presentation. A few days before the final, it became known that before the speeches, an exhibition of prototype projects would be held. To her, we are very thoroughly prepared. Made an information stand. Saw small gifts to listeners. Made yourself an interesting tree badges.
The beginning of the exhibition was scheduled for 12 noon. The beginning of performances at 13.30. At the site we were already at 10 o'clock. This was due not only to the fact that “the sooner the better,” but also because we had to spend a lot of time organizing the exhibition of our project. We also easily parked closer to the entrance and chose a better place for the presentation of our project. In total, there were 7 teams participating in the exhibition. We looked more solid than all, not only because we took the most places, but also because we were much more thoroughly prepared for the exhibition and for the UMNIK final as a whole.
During the exhibition, many potential investors approached us. All were described in detail the essence of the project and demonstrated the efficiency of the prototype machine. Also, thanks to the exhibition, we are interested in organizers and experts. One of the experts (who later turned out to be in our section by luck) was very interested in our development. During the conversation, he threw us some interesting ideas, for which he thanks a lot.
I was lucky again and I spoke about in the middle, so there was an opportunity to listen to the performances of other teams. Almost all the experts in my section were heads of major companies in the region. First of all, they quickly understood the innovativeness of the project. If the project represented an interesting new technology or development, then proceeded to the commercial part of the project. 80% of the questions of experts were on the organization of production and commercialization of the project. Questions about pricing policy, financial and marketing parts were asked to almost every project. Many were blown away because they were simply not ready for such a detailed analysis. In our section we are the only ones to develop a business plan for the project. Before the presentation, each member of the jury was given a copy of the business plan. In it, they immediately found the answers to most of their questions. In general, I answered the questions quite well, but I gave a little to the presentation. What is interesting, I didn’t worry at all before the presentation, but when I came out to speak, the excitement overtook me. This is certainly not good, but speaking at such events will gradually add experience in this matter. After the presentation, 3 experts became interested in the development and asked to leave them the business plan of the project.
In general, the final for our project went very well. We first of all declared ourselves to potential investors. We won the grant or not, unfortunately, will be known only in mid-December. After the finals, the experts made a list of participants recommended for the grant. At the same time, he was not even voiced by us. This list will be sent to Moscow, and there, after the meeting, the names of the winners will already be known. So look forward to!
I forgot to say that many teams did not even rework their presentations from the semi-finals to the final. Their projects were implemented only to the level of the idea. And every year many such projects receive a grant for the realization of the idea in the final product. So if you have an interesting idea, and you also work it out well, be sure to participate in this conference. Chances are high that you will receive a grant next year!
The final of UMNIK was held on November 10th. After that, over the week, we have fully prepared a draft for submission to Boomstarter. From scratch to describe the project did not have to because we had not only a business plan, but also the experience of participating in UMNIK. At the moment, the project is moderated. The official launch is scheduled for next week.
Summing up: UMNIK is the necessary beginning for every startup that you want to go, because you will not only understand your own project in detail, but if you win, you will receive initial investments for further progress.
A little bit about the program UMNIK
UMNIK is a competition aimed at receiving a grant from the Foundation for Assistance to Small Forms of an Enterprise. If your project passes, you will receive a grant of 500,000 rubles for 2 years to implement your idea. In the first year, they give 200,000 rubles, the next - 250,000 rubles, and at the end of the second year another 50,000 rubles for their own expenses. Your idea must in one way or another be scientific and innovative, and most importantly, it must be commercialized. Anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 inclusive can participate in the project. The competition itself is held in 2 stages. Semifinal and final. At the same time, the final is held in the regional center once a year. Semifinals are quite a lot. At the same time, they are not only full-time, but also in absentia. If your project did not pass the semi-final in one place, then you can safely go to another place to the next semi-final, and perform there. There are no restrictions in this regard.
Preparing for the semi-finals. Idea development
A few weeks before the UMNICK program semi-final, I first learned about the UMNIK program. I was pleasantly surprised that this is generally practiced in our country. The idea of ​​the project at that time was floating in the air, but was not yet voiced. At that time I had several developments. After conducting a detailed analysis of each of them, I decided to try to promote the idea of ​​developing a milling
CNC machine for self-assembly "fig".
How did I come to this? Approximately half a year before, having read and seen enough videos about CNC machines, I caught fire with the creation of one of them. At the beginning, I was convinced that if there are budgetary restrictions, then such a miracle can be made from plywood on the knee. The result was so disgusting that I forgot to take a picture of it. So quickly my first CNC machine turned into a small hanging cabinet.
')
At the second CNC machine, it was decided to significantly expand the budget. Then I received a solid increased scholarship at the university, so she had to become the main sponsor of the project. Having calculated everything, it turned out that it would take me at such a pace to create the machine I had planned for about half a year. Every month the necessary components were ordered from China and bought in local stores. After 4 months, almost all the main parts of the future machine were collected in a pile on the table. Began a long and painful build process. Before that, I didn’t do anything of the kind, so the assembly process simply made a lot of mistakes, due to which the project budget was almost doubled. And yet I was pleased with the result. When you first start a project of this magnitude, you feel real pleasure from his first job. After testing all the basic functions, I put a small relief on processing. It was processed for several hours, and all this time I just sat side by side and watched the process. I could not believe that I was able to create something like that. At that moment, for me, the first manned space flight was not close to what I did.
Over time, it came to the realization that much could be done differently. The machine was made according to the standard construction from the Internet, and it was very typical. Quite a lot of questions and existing software. About all the drawbacks of modern desktop CNC machines, I will tell you some other time. There are a lot of them. Let me just say that in our project we tried to eliminate many of the shortcomings of the existing CNC machine tools.
But something took me away. Let's return to the idea of ​​the project for UMNIK. It was decided to develop a desktop budget CNC machine. At the same time, they wanted to make him in the form of a set “collect it myself,” which would make the final product cheaper. A few days before the semi-finals, held at my university, the presentation of the project was completely ready. There was then a project only at the level of the idea. Actually nothing has been done yet, and I was very worried about this. I thought that space projects with super prototypes would come to the semi-finals. The reality was a little different.
UMNIK semi-final
Everything was organized quite solidly. A total of 15 people participated. When the experts began to come, we were a little surprised at their number. Their total number slightly exceeded the number of participants in the semifinal. And it seemed strange to me. I do not know, maybe at the other semifinals in other places everything was different. But we all went that way. I spoke about in the middle, so I had the opportunity to listen to other speakers. As it turned out, I was in vain worried about the development of the project. Almost all the participants have developed their project to the level of the idea. There were, of course, really worthwhile developments, but they were a minority. I then performed poorly enough, but, surprisingly, this was enough to reach the final.
I forgot to talk about the procedure of performance. The presentation is given 5 minutes and 5 minutes to answer the questions. At first it seemed to me terribly small. After all, they were going to give us 500,000 rubles. Do they really not want to understand our ideas in more detail? But as the project progressed and I continued to prepare for the final, I realized that 5 minutes to speak is even a lot. You can easily keep within 4 minutes, or even less. Definitely, you need to prepare for the presentation very thoroughly, but much more thoroughly you need to prepare for answers to questions. It is on how well you answer the experts' questions that the further fate of your project will depend. Immediately it should be said that the level of the semifinal and the final of the UMNIK were simply colossal. The experts of the semifinal were mainly university professors. Everyone was good in their field. The questions they asked were mostly technical. The business model of the project, marketing and financial plans at that time did not interest anyone at all. All looked almost only at the novelty and innovativeness of the project. At the final, everything was completely different.
Preparing for the UMNIK Finals Finishing Ideas
After winning the semifinals, I realized that if I didn’t develop and create a prototype of the machine that was planned for a cnc machine, I wouldn’t go any further. There were about 5 months left until the finals. A lot - you will say, but in reality this is not so. Prototype creation required cash and detailed project design. As soon as the money came to promote the project, the necessary components were ordered. When I sat down for the development of the machine, I realized that the idea of ​​creating a cheap designer cnc is absolutely not relevant. Maybe I could sell a few copies of garage engineers and electronics, but no more. The quality of the products made on a machine like “collect it yourself” would have left much to be desired. There were many more disadvantages of this development. First of all, I would not be able to eliminate the shortcomings inherent in all existing desktop machines. They would certainly accompany my project.
I will not describe the procedure for developing and further creating a prototype for the CNC of the machine, since This story can be counted for advertising.
After creating the prototype, there were a few weeks left before the final. It was decided to write a business plan for the project, although under the terms of UMNIK, it is needed only after the program is completed (after two years). Before that, I had never written a business plan. A lot of documentation was studied and a whole bunch of training videos were viewed. In general, we took the business plan very seriously. He was ready in a week. In the process of writing, we figured out a lot of issues related to the further organization of production. We also saw the first real numbers, although approximate. Analyzed the market, set pricing policies, made financial and marketing plans. I'll tell you right away that the fact that we wrote the business plan of the project in advance was a HUGE plus at the UMNIK finals.
The remaining week was spent on creating and preparing for the presentation. A few days before the final, it became known that before the speeches, an exhibition of prototype projects would be held. To her, we are very thoroughly prepared. Made an information stand. Saw small gifts to listeners. Made yourself an interesting tree badges.
Final UMNIKA, an exhibition of prototype projects
The beginning of the exhibition was scheduled for 12 noon. The beginning of performances at 13.30. At the site we were already at 10 o'clock. This was due not only to the fact that “the sooner the better,” but also because we had to spend a lot of time organizing the exhibition of our project. We also easily parked closer to the entrance and chose a better place for the presentation of our project. In total, there were 7 teams participating in the exhibition. We looked more solid than all, not only because we took the most places, but also because we were much more thoroughly prepared for the exhibition and for the UMNIK final as a whole.
During the exhibition, many potential investors approached us. All were described in detail the essence of the project and demonstrated the efficiency of the prototype machine. Also, thanks to the exhibition, we are interested in organizers and experts. One of the experts (who later turned out to be in our section by luck) was very interested in our development. During the conversation, he threw us some interesting ideas, for which he thanks a lot.
I was lucky again and I spoke about in the middle, so there was an opportunity to listen to the performances of other teams. Almost all the experts in my section were heads of major companies in the region. First of all, they quickly understood the innovativeness of the project. If the project represented an interesting new technology or development, then proceeded to the commercial part of the project. 80% of the questions of experts were on the organization of production and commercialization of the project. Questions about pricing policy, financial and marketing parts were asked to almost every project. Many were blown away because they were simply not ready for such a detailed analysis. In our section we are the only ones to develop a business plan for the project. Before the presentation, each member of the jury was given a copy of the business plan. In it, they immediately found the answers to most of their questions. In general, I answered the questions quite well, but I gave a little to the presentation. What is interesting, I didn’t worry at all before the presentation, but when I came out to speak, the excitement overtook me. This is certainly not good, but speaking at such events will gradually add experience in this matter. After the presentation, 3 experts became interested in the development and asked to leave them the business plan of the project.
In general, the final for our project went very well. We first of all declared ourselves to potential investors. We won the grant or not, unfortunately, will be known only in mid-December. After the finals, the experts made a list of participants recommended for the grant. At the same time, he was not even voiced by us. This list will be sent to Moscow, and there, after the meeting, the names of the winners will already be known. So look forward to!
I forgot to say that many teams did not even rework their presentations from the semi-finals to the final. Their projects were implemented only to the level of the idea. And every year many such projects receive a grant for the realization of the idea in the final product. So if you have an interesting idea, and you also work it out well, be sure to participate in this conference. Chances are high that you will receive a grant next year!
What's next?
The final of UMNIK was held on November 10th. After that, over the week, we have fully prepared a draft for submission to Boomstarter. From scratch to describe the project did not have to because we had not only a business plan, but also the experience of participating in UMNIK. At the moment, the project is moderated. The official launch is scheduled for next week.
Summing up: UMNIK is the necessary beginning for every startup that you want to go, because you will not only understand your own project in detail, but if you win, you will receive initial investments for further progress.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/319274/
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