Millionaires, profit and all-all-all: a review of the third Minsk Startup Weekend
And now the third Minsk Startup Weekend has taken place. With each next session, the format changes, and changes significantly, and this time I can finally fully recognize the success.
In general, with regard to the format - I think it will change more than once, and the organizers have just started to grope for what it should be. Yes, that format - let's take at least positioning: if I now offer you to take part in a certain competition of business projects, during which you will have to compete in stressful conditions with another two dozens of other, perhaps more professional, applicants for a rather illusive chance to get investments on, for sure, not the most favorable conditions - so tell me, are you ready to immediately answer, without hesitation, “Yes”? And now let's say it differently: for a symbolic installment in the amount of, say, twenty bucks, you are given the opportunity to hang out for a day and a half in the company of a dozen millionaires from several countries, about the same number of business consultants and literally bother them with any questions you are interested in, without any formality ? This is not counting networking opportunities, of course. Well, how? :) And in the event there is still a fair amount of other aspects and perspectives. So the question of format and positioning is not as simple as it may seem.
Well, okay, now - about what happened there is something. For starters, I finally saw the “perfect” startup. Literally this: a charismatic leader comes out, tells and shows his project in one minute, after which, without spending too much time even on the details of the financial model, he says something like: “I need 370 thousand, 210 I already have.” And according to the reaction hall I already see that he will find them. The next day, we learn that he found not 160, but much more, and now he is slowly choosing with whom and under what conditions to work.
In general, the level of projects was significantly higher than at previous events. Although, on the other hand, after the third session, I now understand why the practice of growing these same start-ups is so developed in the USA. Example from the event: guys come with a lively, realistic idea. Understand the market, more or less. Like, know what you need to succeed. It seems that everything is good for them ... and then they are pulled out to work in a semi-game format on their project before the public. And it is immediately revealed that the guys are smart, but infantile and inexperienced to the horror, and they’ll overwhelm their quite viable project, 9 to 1. Because they have no experience, in particular - experience in actions in conditions of conflict. Although at 20 you can still allow yourself to get such an “expensive” experience.
But there was also a counterexample: a gray-haired man at the age, I think - a lignvist or a linguistic programming specialist, represents a project that turns out to be fully developed, quite viable and, most importantly, already in the stage of entering the market, for which, in fact, he needs investments. Central Asia, market assessment, exit strategy - everything is clear, intelligible and not confused by the abundance of business vocabulary. Yes, the project has one weakness: it does not have a very long life cycle, but it turns out that the creator has a good understanding of what to do with it. And finally: the product itself seemed to me in absentia, so to speak, not very high quality ... until all of us were shown a sample of his work - and that was super!
I also had a personal reason for joy: both people whom I personally invited to this event, even if they did not receive investments (well, I’m an honest person - having read their applications, I warned them about the low chances in advance), but they did great presentations, remembered by investors and potentially interested persons, and most importantly - in their own words, got a huge number of valuable contacts. Although it is possible that one of the two projects will even be implemented, judging by the fact that on the very first day Yury Zisser hastily called up something with Andrey Grinevich ... we'll see.
And, of course, there were two bright points: first, this is the participant who showed what kind of successful project he has in the Top-10 Lithuanian Internet resources, refused to invest and announced that he is looking for a partner in Belarus franchisee And, finally, the performance of the latest participant - as an ideal example of how to sell, and sell quickly. Indeed, if you can say “Do you remember, here recently Steve Jobs presented an iPad? So it was he who showed our toy at that moment. ”- there is no need to say anything more. :)
In the meantime, the majority of the audience worked on the second day to finalize the type of projects they were selling, there were master classes in the hall. I admit, I didn’t follow very carefully: there were a lot of people at the event, whom I haven’t seen for several years, but at least if I’ve posted a video of yshilyaev project risk management in projects on the Internet, I recommend reading it.
In general, I would like to do two things in the future: on the part of the organizers, modifying the format of the event so that it is the networking opportunities that are consistently intensified, and on the part of potential investors, more activity: so far their composition is not updated too intensively.
During the event, the video was recorded, so that in the near future the most interesting moments should appear on the portal TUT.by. Also today or tomorrow, detailed information on the outcome of the event will be posted on the website of the organizers .
In general, with regard to the format - I think it will change more than once, and the organizers have just started to grope for what it should be. Yes, that format - let's take at least positioning: if I now offer you to take part in a certain competition of business projects, during which you will have to compete in stressful conditions with another two dozens of other, perhaps more professional, applicants for a rather illusive chance to get investments on, for sure, not the most favorable conditions - so tell me, are you ready to immediately answer, without hesitation, “Yes”? And now let's say it differently: for a symbolic installment in the amount of, say, twenty bucks, you are given the opportunity to hang out for a day and a half in the company of a dozen millionaires from several countries, about the same number of business consultants and literally bother them with any questions you are interested in, without any formality ? This is not counting networking opportunities, of course. Well, how? :) And in the event there is still a fair amount of other aspects and perspectives. So the question of format and positioning is not as simple as it may seem.
Well, okay, now - about what happened there is something. For starters, I finally saw the “perfect” startup. Literally this: a charismatic leader comes out, tells and shows his project in one minute, after which, without spending too much time even on the details of the financial model, he says something like: “I need 370 thousand, 210 I already have.” And according to the reaction hall I already see that he will find them. The next day, we learn that he found not 160, but much more, and now he is slowly choosing with whom and under what conditions to work.
In general, the level of projects was significantly higher than at previous events. Although, on the other hand, after the third session, I now understand why the practice of growing these same start-ups is so developed in the USA. Example from the event: guys come with a lively, realistic idea. Understand the market, more or less. Like, know what you need to succeed. It seems that everything is good for them ... and then they are pulled out to work in a semi-game format on their project before the public. And it is immediately revealed that the guys are smart, but infantile and inexperienced to the horror, and they’ll overwhelm their quite viable project, 9 to 1. Because they have no experience, in particular - experience in actions in conditions of conflict. Although at 20 you can still allow yourself to get such an “expensive” experience.
But there was also a counterexample: a gray-haired man at the age, I think - a lignvist or a linguistic programming specialist, represents a project that turns out to be fully developed, quite viable and, most importantly, already in the stage of entering the market, for which, in fact, he needs investments. Central Asia, market assessment, exit strategy - everything is clear, intelligible and not confused by the abundance of business vocabulary. Yes, the project has one weakness: it does not have a very long life cycle, but it turns out that the creator has a good understanding of what to do with it. And finally: the product itself seemed to me in absentia, so to speak, not very high quality ... until all of us were shown a sample of his work - and that was super!
I also had a personal reason for joy: both people whom I personally invited to this event, even if they did not receive investments (well, I’m an honest person - having read their applications, I warned them about the low chances in advance), but they did great presentations, remembered by investors and potentially interested persons, and most importantly - in their own words, got a huge number of valuable contacts. Although it is possible that one of the two projects will even be implemented, judging by the fact that on the very first day Yury Zisser hastily called up something with Andrey Grinevich ... we'll see.
And, of course, there were two bright points: first, this is the participant who showed what kind of successful project he has in the Top-10 Lithuanian Internet resources, refused to invest and announced that he is looking for a partner in Belarus franchisee And, finally, the performance of the latest participant - as an ideal example of how to sell, and sell quickly. Indeed, if you can say “Do you remember, here recently Steve Jobs presented an iPad? So it was he who showed our toy at that moment. ”- there is no need to say anything more. :)
In the meantime, the majority of the audience worked on the second day to finalize the type of projects they were selling, there were master classes in the hall. I admit, I didn’t follow very carefully: there were a lot of people at the event, whom I haven’t seen for several years, but at least if I’ve posted a video of yshilyaev project risk management in projects on the Internet, I recommend reading it.
In general, I would like to do two things in the future: on the part of the organizers, modifying the format of the event so that it is the networking opportunities that are consistently intensified, and on the part of potential investors, more activity: so far their composition is not updated too intensively.
During the event, the video was recorded, so that in the near future the most interesting moments should appear on the portal TUT.by. Also today or tomorrow, detailed information on the outcome of the event will be posted on the website of the organizers .
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/91516/
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