Thoughts in hot pursuit Minsk Startup Weekend'09
Not accepting an invitation to participate in Minsk Startup Weekend'09 as an expert was absolutely impossible: when half of the expert group are your good friends, and two of the present investors are your former general directors, refuse - it means to miss a whole day of a very pleasant, often useful , and sometimes (like today) - and at all bringing customers / communication partners. What kind of event is this Startup Weekend (in general, it seems, it was called a little differently because of the issues of coordinating the use of TM, but I definitely will not reproduce it)? In principle, most of all it looks like a business simulation game: the participants announce some projects, get feedback, then they have a whole day to finalize them and prepare the final presentation to investors. Then - debriefing and making final decisions by investors: are they ready to continue communication on any project in detail?
I boldly missed the first day and the preliminary presentations, but the second one left completely, being ready to honestly fulfill my duties as a marketing consultant. And now, when everything is just over, I want to share my observations.
a) The teams that worked on the projects, as it turned out, absolutely did not know how to organize group work. This is all the more fun because approximately 20% of the participants were graduates and students of senior courses in the specialty “management”. Nevertheless, the functions in the teams were not clearly distributed, the budget (in this case, time) was not controlled, the work constantly jumped from one task to another. Practically no one from the very beginning formulated the purpose of his work clearly and unambiguously . It seems like a game, of course ... but it’s not clear what the game is.
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b) Despite the fact that the help of experts was conditional-free (it was included in any amount in the symbolic fee for participation in the event), it was not much in a hurry to use. Financiers (“help us find the break-even point”) and lawyers were most in demand; four out of ten teams resorted to the help of marketing specialists, one-time, and two on my initiative. I was interested in their promotion (analysts of the target audience, its needs, choice of distribution model, positioning, and finally, preparation of the presentation of their work - all this was not at all interesting for them). I think no one tried to try to get feedback from investors before the final presentation.
c) All models showing the growth of the proposed business were linear in the literal sense.
Risk analysis - if not mathematical, not modeling, but at least some qualitative assessment from the purpose of showing that you are in control of the situation, has not been heard from anyone, alas. Even the only team that made a truly professional presentation of a completely viable project as a whole.
d) Sales strategies - there was no sale of the project to the investor either. At all. They didn’t even try to find out from investors what, in fact, each of them is most interested in and what the project should be to arouse their interest.
Presentations - an abundance of sadness. In fact, half of the teams have probably never seen or heard how to arrange the product of their work and how to submit it in a favorable light.
d) What they want, the teams did not know exactly. More precisely, they did not understand. Two or three participants, right in the hall, for two minutes, it was shown that they don’t, in general, need investments: they either have all the resources, or they don’t make sense to attract an investor - just take a very modest loan.
f) Well, the most gloomy: almost no one, apparently, really wanted and does not want money. Nothing else to explain self-confidence and inattention to the advice of experts and investors is impossible. The record was set by a young man with one of the Internet projects: in 15 seconds he was shown in numbers the lack of viability of his project in any long-term, after which another 30 reformulated how to change the project to bring long-term, with great potential. for further expansion, profit. It would be logical to expect thanks and a request to come up during the break to clarify a couple of points. One “but”: in the new wording, the Internet was obtained for the project with nothing. Apparently, the young man is more interested in internet than a profit, because he completely ignored the proposal of the expert.
At the same time: it was possible to ask any number of questions to experts in almost any of the main aspects of running a business. There was, of course, WiFi in the room, but there was no time to read Habr, and even more so - specialized resources.
My personal conclusions :
1. People who are not management education do not understand that in addition to the characteristics of the product and the incoming cash flow, there is a huge reservoir in business called marketing and sales. They do not have the habit of thinking about it - as well as strategy, personnel management, controlling, and many other things.
2. People who have a supposedly management education, not supported by experience, greatly overestimate their level of knowledge, which is why asking them for advice is trite, sorry, zapadlo. Not to mention the criticism of their work. Personally, I will be helping the first with much more joy than the second.
3. And, unfortunately, literally everyone — they don’t know how to “pack” their even really cool product. Just do not laugh: a couple of years ago, with examples, the same thing had to be opened and demonstrated in the company ... professional marketers and advertisers.
Learn to listen. Learn to ask questions. Learn to benefit from criticism. And do not be afraid of anything, but especially the authority of experts :). Eh, I remember how many times I was just so cool, literally in one word planted on the fifth point that one, that the second of those who were my former general directors ...
Results:
Practically all the teams that submitted any intelligible and viable projects received from investors and experts, in addition to recommendations, contacts of specific people who can help either with the finalization of the project or with obtaining financing for it, taking into account the industry of its application.
Personally, I made one proposal from the event to advise me free of charge on a certain narrow issue, two offers of cooperation, three business ideas, contacts of two potential clients of the “CEO / owner” level and a good mood.
I boldly missed the first day and the preliminary presentations, but the second one left completely, being ready to honestly fulfill my duties as a marketing consultant. And now, when everything is just over, I want to share my observations.
a) The teams that worked on the projects, as it turned out, absolutely did not know how to organize group work. This is all the more fun because approximately 20% of the participants were graduates and students of senior courses in the specialty “management”. Nevertheless, the functions in the teams were not clearly distributed, the budget (in this case, time) was not controlled, the work constantly jumped from one task to another. Practically no one from the very beginning formulated the purpose of his work clearly and unambiguously . It seems like a game, of course ... but it’s not clear what the game is.
')
b) Despite the fact that the help of experts was conditional-free (it was included in any amount in the symbolic fee for participation in the event), it was not much in a hurry to use. Financiers (“help us find the break-even point”) and lawyers were most in demand; four out of ten teams resorted to the help of marketing specialists, one-time, and two on my initiative. I was interested in their promotion (analysts of the target audience, its needs, choice of distribution model, positioning, and finally, preparation of the presentation of their work - all this was not at all interesting for them). I think no one tried to try to get feedback from investors before the final presentation.
c) All models showing the growth of the proposed business were linear in the literal sense.
Risk analysis - if not mathematical, not modeling, but at least some qualitative assessment from the purpose of showing that you are in control of the situation, has not been heard from anyone, alas. Even the only team that made a truly professional presentation of a completely viable project as a whole.
d) Sales strategies - there was no sale of the project to the investor either. At all. They didn’t even try to find out from investors what, in fact, each of them is most interested in and what the project should be to arouse their interest.
Presentations - an abundance of sadness. In fact, half of the teams have probably never seen or heard how to arrange the product of their work and how to submit it in a favorable light.
d) What they want, the teams did not know exactly. More precisely, they did not understand. Two or three participants, right in the hall, for two minutes, it was shown that they don’t, in general, need investments: they either have all the resources, or they don’t make sense to attract an investor - just take a very modest loan.
f) Well, the most gloomy: almost no one, apparently, really wanted and does not want money. Nothing else to explain self-confidence and inattention to the advice of experts and investors is impossible. The record was set by a young man with one of the Internet projects: in 15 seconds he was shown in numbers the lack of viability of his project in any long-term, after which another 30 reformulated how to change the project to bring long-term, with great potential. for further expansion, profit. It would be logical to expect thanks and a request to come up during the break to clarify a couple of points. One “but”: in the new wording, the Internet was obtained for the project with nothing. Apparently, the young man is more interested in internet than a profit, because he completely ignored the proposal of the expert.
At the same time: it was possible to ask any number of questions to experts in almost any of the main aspects of running a business. There was, of course, WiFi in the room, but there was no time to read Habr, and even more so - specialized resources.
My personal conclusions :
1. People who are not management education do not understand that in addition to the characteristics of the product and the incoming cash flow, there is a huge reservoir in business called marketing and sales. They do not have the habit of thinking about it - as well as strategy, personnel management, controlling, and many other things.
2. People who have a supposedly management education, not supported by experience, greatly overestimate their level of knowledge, which is why asking them for advice is trite, sorry, zapadlo. Not to mention the criticism of their work. Personally, I will be helping the first with much more joy than the second.
3. And, unfortunately, literally everyone — they don’t know how to “pack” their even really cool product. Just do not laugh: a couple of years ago, with examples, the same thing had to be opened and demonstrated in the company ... professional marketers and advertisers.
Learn to listen. Learn to ask questions. Learn to benefit from criticism. And do not be afraid of anything, but especially the authority of experts :). Eh, I remember how many times I was just so cool, literally in one word planted on the fifth point that one, that the second of those who were my former general directors ...
Results:
Practically all the teams that submitted any intelligible and viable projects received from investors and experts, in addition to recommendations, contacts of specific people who can help either with the finalization of the project or with obtaining financing for it, taking into account the industry of its application.
Personally, I made one proposal from the event to advise me free of charge on a certain narrow issue, two offers of cooperation, three business ideas, contacts of two potential clients of the “CEO / owner” level and a good mood.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/77399/
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