Why did we decide to launch the Gazprom Neft corporate accelerator StartupDrive, and who has already passed it
I’ll tell you who needs such accelerators, what problems can arise at startup, how we approached their solution, and what came of it.
Who makes corporate accelerators
Many people know about Y Combinator. It was founded in 2005 by a group of venture investors led by Paul Graham. The accelerator has been working with startups for three months: it helps to “spin up” the product and find investors. Hundreds of startups went through it: from Dropbox to Reddit and Airbnb. They have attracted billions of dollars of investment and continue to bring millions to their founders.
In addition to Y Combinator, hundreds of other successful accelerators have been discovered. It is worth noting 500 Startups, which invested in 1200+ startups, and Techstars, whose total project capitalization exceeds $ 18 billion.
Such successes sparked a real battle for technology startups in the enterprise sector. Their acceleration projects were launched by General Electric (GE), Shell, Chevron, as well as BP. For example, the latter has The Catalyst program, where they give grants of up to $ 150 thousand to energy startups working in Abu Dhabi.
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Auto companies are not far behind raw materials and energy companies. Ford, BMW, Honda, Volkswagen and Jaguar have acceleration programs. By the way, 50 startups annually pass through the Jaguar Land Rover Innovation Labs program.
In Russia, many large corporations have accelerators - Sberbank, MTS, VTB, Qiwi. It is interesting that industrial enterprises are also involved in this area - for example, the management of the Kirov Plant, which manufactures metallurgical products, tractors and drilling equipment, plans to invest 200 million rubles in startups this year alone. Severstal, which has launched both the accelerator and the venture capital fund over the past year, is not far behind.
Large companies see acceleration programs as a tool for finding innovation. With the help of startups, you can create new products and modify business processes before competitors and gain an advantage in the market. So, a couple of years ago, General Electric invested $ 2 million in an Alchemist accelerator for the development of industrial IoT. And then they bought a native of this accelerator - Wise.io, with the help of which they increased the client base and updated the technology stack.
We are not going to buy startups yet, but we want to work on more complex and technologically advanced products that will not always be associated with the sale of fuel directly.
Skepticism . Despite the interest in acceleration programs, many are skeptical of such initiatives. Corporations do not want to work with startups, because they believe that there are more important tasks.
Bureaucracy In some cases, the internal structure of the corporation is not conducive to mentoring support. The bureaucracy slows down decision-making, and startups cannot organically "merge" into the regulated procedures of the corporation. Small companies simply do not have enough strength to process reports, documents and acts.
Responsibility Responsibilities for working with startups are rarely specialized and business carries an additional burden - it can be difficult to spend personal time on meetings and working with startup teams.
We at StartupDrive tried not to step on this rake and took into account the experience of colleagues. I’ll briefly talk about how we approached the solution of these problems.
We launched the StartupDrive accelerator on April 12, 2019. 200 startups participated in the selection. Initially, six teams became the residents, promoting technological products in the areas of cargo transportation, taxi, car sharing and automotive infrastructure. For three months they worked with our curators, tested their hypotheses and were engaged in the development of services. Five startups reached the final.
Openness . The first thing we did was to discuss the format of cooperation so that startups could get the maximum benefit for themselves in the framework of partnership with the company. We focused on the verification of hypotheses on our products on our client base and on the use of new technologies and solutions within the company. The company, in turn, was able to diversify the business through new services.
The atmosphere . To help startups get used to working with a large company, we offered them both technological and information resources. Provided expert analytics in the basic and related markets. Startups also got the opportunity to work in partnership with us and attract investments from our partners.
Attention We took an individual approach to each project - all ideas and suggestions were discussed. This is one of the reasons why only six key participants were selected. Each team has its own mentor from Gazprom Neft, who was engaged in tracking tasks - he built interaction with a startup, helped prepare a roadmap for product development, look for customers, as well as test hypotheses and start selling. Also, business curators from business units worked with startups.
Competencies . We understand that working with startups has its own characteristics. And in order for competencies to appear within the company, time is needed - just “being charged” for the result is not enough. We collaborated with foundations, but there was also the main partner of the acceleration program - Dmitry Maslennikov, founder of Disruptive.vc. The main objectives of the partner were the strategy of working with innovations, building relationships with players, other corporations, analytics, pumping curators from the company and tracking.
Time . We did not “load” the teams with some kind of training courses - workshops were conducted point-by-point, upon request and with a clear understanding of how this can help. In addition, intermediate demo days were held once a month to demonstrate the work done. With this approach, participants could completely concentrate on their projects. Next, we’ll talk about them.
Of the two hundred companies that submitted applications, only five reached the final. However, as I noted earlier, we worked individually with each. More about startups:
Cartaxi
Launch year : 2017
What they do : an aggregator application for ordering tow trucks.
What problem is being solved : The market for evacuation services in the Russian Federation is highly fragmented. It employs "individual tow trucks" or small dispatch companies. All this leads to idle runs and downtime, inefficient use of resources and, consequently, the high cost of services. The application helps to load tow trucks without downtime, and the owner of the car allows you to quickly solve the problem with the transportation of cars. Agree, when the tow truck arrives in 5-7 minutes, as an uber, this is cool enough!
What we did : Startup attracted new corporate clients from among the company's partners. The startup also integrated an online fuel payment tool, AZS.GO, into an application for tow truck drivers. Tow truck drivers can now refuel without leaving their car.
Shipit.to
Launch year : 2018
What they do : develop a logistics platform and IoT trackers for tracking goods in real time.
What problem is solved : Losses of companies due to lost and damaged cargo amount to $ 50 billion a year. A startup helps reduce them.
What we did : Gazprom Neft acted as another channel for the distribution of cargo location tracking services through the Shipit logistics platform. A new cargo insurance product was created for corporate clients, where the rate of cargo insurance on a specific route at Sberbank Insurance is calculated with a 50% discount when using trackers shipit.to.
Today Shipit.to works with 35 customers in eight countries. Among them: cargo owners, logistics companies, carriers, courier services and 3PL providers.
Neos
Launch year : 2018
What they do : they sell car insurance policies with reimbursement within five days.
What problem is solved : make it so that clients do not have to wait long for payments and communicate with the insurance company
What we did : Initially, the startup worked in the B2C segment, but later moved to B2B. It was possible to expand the customer base at the expense of partners - corporate clients with a large fleet. During the acceleration, the startup negotiated with five major customers and checked the company's digital sales channels, which allowed it to sell more than 450 policies. At the start of the acceleration, the monthly turnover of policies in the company was 150 units, and the financial turnover was more than 17 million rubles per year.
guru.taxi
Launch year : 2018
What they do : a platform on which taxi drivers can rent a car. Taxi parks - rent a car and find reliable drivers.
What problem they solve : Reduce the cost of taxi companies to find drivers.
What we did : Part of the customers of the Gazpromneft gas station network became users of the guru.taxi service. Guru.taxi users, in turn, began to refuel at Gazpromneft gas stations. Also, gas stations of the company, applications of the network of gas stations “Gazpromneft” and gas stations .GO acted as promotion channels - advertising was placed there. Now the site works with 700+ taxi fleets.
Rent-a-ride
Launch year : 2017
What they do : a platform for renting private cars for personal needs.
What problem is being solved : the platform allows drivers to choose a car for a specific task - to go fishing, carry things, ride around the city, and let car owners rent a car.
What we did: The team proposed to lease and rent cars (minivans - especially relevant in the summer!) To customers of the Gazpromneft gas station network. The pilot project was launched in Moscow and the Moscow region. Rent-a-Ride during the acceleration program were able to earn on minivans more than 4 million rubles in three months.
We believe that the experience with the first graduates of the accelerator was successful. Teams actively worked to achieve goals and even set records. For example, CarTaxi developers managed to implement new functionality with paying for fuel from the application at Gazpromneft gas stations and integrate it with our services in three weeks. In our practice, this was the first time, we can say that it is a record for time-to-market.
In the fall of 2019, we plan to open the second set in the acceleration program StartupDrive. New teams will also have three months to prove the effectiveness of the partnership and grow their business. Well, Gazprom Neft employees will continue to help startups with research, developing new business models and launching products on the market.
Who makes corporate accelerators
Many people know about Y Combinator. It was founded in 2005 by a group of venture investors led by Paul Graham. The accelerator has been working with startups for three months: it helps to “spin up” the product and find investors. Hundreds of startups went through it: from Dropbox to Reddit and Airbnb. They have attracted billions of dollars of investment and continue to bring millions to their founders.In addition to Y Combinator, hundreds of other successful accelerators have been discovered. It is worth noting 500 Startups, which invested in 1200+ startups, and Techstars, whose total project capitalization exceeds $ 18 billion.
Such successes sparked a real battle for technology startups in the enterprise sector. Their acceleration projects were launched by General Electric (GE), Shell, Chevron, as well as BP. For example, the latter has The Catalyst program, where they give grants of up to $ 150 thousand to energy startups working in Abu Dhabi.
')
Auto companies are not far behind raw materials and energy companies. Ford, BMW, Honda, Volkswagen and Jaguar have acceleration programs. By the way, 50 startups annually pass through the Jaguar Land Rover Innovation Labs program.
In Russia, many large corporations have accelerators - Sberbank, MTS, VTB, Qiwi. It is interesting that industrial enterprises are also involved in this area - for example, the management of the Kirov Plant, which manufactures metallurgical products, tractors and drilling equipment, plans to invest 200 million rubles in startups this year alone. Severstal, which has launched both the accelerator and the venture capital fund over the past year, is not far behind.
Why is it for companies
Large companies see acceleration programs as a tool for finding innovation. With the help of startups, you can create new products and modify business processes before competitors and gain an advantage in the market. So, a couple of years ago, General Electric invested $ 2 million in an Alchemist accelerator for the development of industrial IoT. And then they bought a native of this accelerator - Wise.io, with the help of which they increased the client base and updated the technology stack.
We are not going to buy startups yet, but we want to work on more complex and technologically advanced products that will not always be associated with the sale of fuel directly.
What problems can an accelerator run into?
Skepticism . Despite the interest in acceleration programs, many are skeptical of such initiatives. Corporations do not want to work with startups, because they believe that there are more important tasks.
Bureaucracy In some cases, the internal structure of the corporation is not conducive to mentoring support. The bureaucracy slows down decision-making, and startups cannot organically "merge" into the regulated procedures of the corporation. Small companies simply do not have enough strength to process reports, documents and acts.
Responsibility Responsibilities for working with startups are rarely specialized and business carries an additional burden - it can be difficult to spend personal time on meetings and working with startup teams.
We at StartupDrive tried not to step on this rake and took into account the experience of colleagues. I’ll briefly talk about how we approached the solution of these problems.
How we started the accelerator
We launched the StartupDrive accelerator on April 12, 2019. 200 startups participated in the selection. Initially, six teams became the residents, promoting technological products in the areas of cargo transportation, taxi, car sharing and automotive infrastructure. For three months they worked with our curators, tested their hypotheses and were engaged in the development of services. Five startups reached the final.
Openness . The first thing we did was to discuss the format of cooperation so that startups could get the maximum benefit for themselves in the framework of partnership with the company. We focused on the verification of hypotheses on our products on our client base and on the use of new technologies and solutions within the company. The company, in turn, was able to diversify the business through new services.
The atmosphere . To help startups get used to working with a large company, we offered them both technological and information resources. Provided expert analytics in the basic and related markets. Startups also got the opportunity to work in partnership with us and attract investments from our partners.
Attention We took an individual approach to each project - all ideas and suggestions were discussed. This is one of the reasons why only six key participants were selected. Each team has its own mentor from Gazprom Neft, who was engaged in tracking tasks - he built interaction with a startup, helped prepare a roadmap for product development, look for customers, as well as test hypotheses and start selling. Also, business curators from business units worked with startups.
Competencies . We understand that working with startups has its own characteristics. And in order for competencies to appear within the company, time is needed - just “being charged” for the result is not enough. We collaborated with foundations, but there was also the main partner of the acceleration program - Dmitry Maslennikov, founder of Disruptive.vc. The main objectives of the partner were the strategy of working with innovations, building relationships with players, other corporations, analytics, pumping curators from the company and tracking.
Time . We did not “load” the teams with some kind of training courses - workshops were conducted point-by-point, upon request and with a clear understanding of how this can help. In addition, intermediate demo days were held once a month to demonstrate the work done. With this approach, participants could completely concentrate on their projects. Next, we’ll talk about them.
What projects have shown
Of the two hundred companies that submitted applications, only five reached the final. However, as I noted earlier, we worked individually with each. More about startups:
Cartaxi
Launch year : 2017
What they do : an aggregator application for ordering tow trucks.
What problem is being solved : The market for evacuation services in the Russian Federation is highly fragmented. It employs "individual tow trucks" or small dispatch companies. All this leads to idle runs and downtime, inefficient use of resources and, consequently, the high cost of services. The application helps to load tow trucks without downtime, and the owner of the car allows you to quickly solve the problem with the transportation of cars. Agree, when the tow truck arrives in 5-7 minutes, as an uber, this is cool enough!
What we did : Startup attracted new corporate clients from among the company's partners. The startup also integrated an online fuel payment tool, AZS.GO, into an application for tow truck drivers. Tow truck drivers can now refuel without leaving their car.
Shipit.to
Launch year : 2018
What they do : develop a logistics platform and IoT trackers for tracking goods in real time.
What problem is solved : Losses of companies due to lost and damaged cargo amount to $ 50 billion a year. A startup helps reduce them.
What we did : Gazprom Neft acted as another channel for the distribution of cargo location tracking services through the Shipit logistics platform. A new cargo insurance product was created for corporate clients, where the rate of cargo insurance on a specific route at Sberbank Insurance is calculated with a 50% discount when using trackers shipit.to.
Today Shipit.to works with 35 customers in eight countries. Among them: cargo owners, logistics companies, carriers, courier services and 3PL providers.
Neos
Launch year : 2018
What they do : they sell car insurance policies with reimbursement within five days.
What problem is solved : make it so that clients do not have to wait long for payments and communicate with the insurance company
What we did : Initially, the startup worked in the B2C segment, but later moved to B2B. It was possible to expand the customer base at the expense of partners - corporate clients with a large fleet. During the acceleration, the startup negotiated with five major customers and checked the company's digital sales channels, which allowed it to sell more than 450 policies. At the start of the acceleration, the monthly turnover of policies in the company was 150 units, and the financial turnover was more than 17 million rubles per year.
guru.taxi
Launch year : 2018
What they do : a platform on which taxi drivers can rent a car. Taxi parks - rent a car and find reliable drivers.
What problem they solve : Reduce the cost of taxi companies to find drivers.
What we did : Part of the customers of the Gazpromneft gas station network became users of the guru.taxi service. Guru.taxi users, in turn, began to refuel at Gazpromneft gas stations. Also, gas stations of the company, applications of the network of gas stations “Gazpromneft” and gas stations .GO acted as promotion channels - advertising was placed there. Now the site works with 700+ taxi fleets.
Rent-a-ride
Launch year : 2017
What they do : a platform for renting private cars for personal needs.
What problem is being solved : the platform allows drivers to choose a car for a specific task - to go fishing, carry things, ride around the city, and let car owners rent a car.
What we did: The team proposed to lease and rent cars (minivans - especially relevant in the summer!) To customers of the Gazpromneft gas station network. The pilot project was launched in Moscow and the Moscow region. Rent-a-Ride during the acceleration program were able to earn on minivans more than 4 million rubles in three months.
Plans for the fall
We believe that the experience with the first graduates of the accelerator was successful. Teams actively worked to achieve goals and even set records. For example, CarTaxi developers managed to implement new functionality with paying for fuel from the application at Gazpromneft gas stations and integrate it with our services in three weeks. In our practice, this was the first time, we can say that it is a record for time-to-market.
In the fall of 2019, we plan to open the second set in the acceleration program StartupDrive. New teams will also have three months to prove the effectiveness of the partnership and grow their business. Well, Gazprom Neft employees will continue to help startups with research, developing new business models and launching products on the market.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/461507/
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