"The bubble hasn't burst yet"

This is how the list of the most interesting startups of 2015 according to Forbes begins. It includes those companies for which investors have the most hopes and write the biggest checks. Among them are such monsters as Uber and Udacity, as well as unique services for finding care for your dog and delivering food from nearby restaurants. In total, these 50 startups managed to spin up investors for $7 billion, and all together they are estimated at $120 billion.

Check out the list and maybe you decide to implement something similar in our country.

#1 Uptake Technologies. $1.1 billion valuation

A service that collects all information on the business of its client, processes it, organizes it and gives it to the client in the form of simplified analytics. Based on it, the client can better understand the results of his work and better correct it.

#2 Slack. $2.8 billion valuation

A service for organizing work processes, with which you can easily communicate with colleagues and subordinates, assign tasks, monitor their implementation, and also synchronize the application with other work services.

#3 Porch. Valuation $500 million

Service for finding employees for apartment repairs and orders for repair work. The base consists of 3.2 million specialists and 132 million works performed by them within the site. Plus, Porch insures each of its customers for $1,000 against poor-quality work.

#4 OfferUp. Valuation $814 million

Simple and convenient bulletin board. Inside the application, you can chat with buyers and sellers, pay for purchases, and quickly post or update product photos.

#5 Pics Art. Valuation $250 million

Photo editing application. One of the competitors of Instagram, the difference is that inside the application there are much more editing tools and a different approach to creating a feed and interaction between users.

#6 Casper. Valuation $555 million

Manufacturer and online retailer of innovative and comfortable mattresses, pillows and sheets. The target audience of the project is young active urban population. Revenue to date has already reached $100 million.

#7 DoorDash. Valuation $600 million

Application for ordering food from the nearest restaurant.

#8 Expensify. Valuation $147 million

Service for tracking corporate budget expenses. With it, you can easily track how and what budget funds are spent on and quickly and easily adjust spending.

#9 Postmates. Valuation $450 million

Food delivery service by organization reminiscent of Uber. Couriers earn on a percentage of delivered orders. A competent approach to customers and well-organized logistics allow Postmates to earn $ 100 million a year.

#10 Zenefits. $4.5 billion valuation

cloudy software for personnel management. Using this cloud, HR departments can conduct their work from anywhere in the world. The cloud contains all the necessary information - payroll sheets, applicant questionnaires, reports on new employees and others. What happens if the cloud is hacked is not reported.

#11 ClassPass. Valuation $293 million

The service offers, for a fixed fee, the opportunity to attend various sports groups and sections in your city, without the need to book time or arrange training.

#12 Jibo. Valuation $128 million

The company has developed a robot buddy. Its main task is to communicate and help everyone who is at home, and Jibo will have a special approach to each family member. He will be able to tell a fairy tale to children, an anecdote to parents, and in the kitchen he will tell you a recipe or read out messages for a specific addressee.

#13 Whip clip. Valuation $600 million

An application that allows you to share TV shows and music videos with your friends for free and absolutely legally.

#14 Namely.Valuation $181 million

Cloud service for personnel management. Allows you to set goals, monitor progress, reward employees, as well as pay salaries with automatic tax calculation and do it all through a web interface or mobile application.

#15 DraftKings. $1.2 billion valuation

A very popular direction of gambling in the USA, in which users can create football teams from existing players and predict how they will spend the game season. The service was growing rapidly, gaining popularity, but literally at the end of the year, DraftKings and their main competitor were overtaken by lawsuits from the state with suspicion of fraudulent transactions and insider trading.

#16 Uber. $64 billion valuation

An international company specializing in calling and paying for a taxi or a private cab using a mobile application. The service is available in 68 countries and 300 cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and 5 other major Russian cities. Some governments of European countries prevented the spread of the service, considering it "the largest illegal carrier", a similar situation was in Russia, but then an agreement was signed restricting the company's services to only legal carriers.

#17 Robinhood. Valuation $275 million

An application that allows you to trade stocks without commission. It currently only operates in the US and plans to expand to other English-speaking markets in 2016.

#18 Greenhouse Software. Valuation $245 million

A service that allows you to systematize and simplify the process of hiring employees. The creators promise to make all the most hard work for you: the service will make a plan, help place ads, schedule interviews, and even collect a list of questions to ask when talking with a candidate.

#19 Layer3 TV. Valuation $385 million

Next generation cable provider in the US. The company has brought together veterans of the cable industry, as well as a lot of staff from Google, Comcast and Apple. Layer3 TV plans to combine traditional cable TV and mobile applications. This is all that is known about the plans of the company, the rest they keep secret.

#20 Pronutria Biosciences. Valuation $321 million

The company aims to track the level of amino acids in your body, and also gives advice to even out the imbalance and thus improve your health.

#21 Tanium. $3.7 billion valuation

Tanium products help companies' IT departments connect hundreds of thousands of computers quickly and securely. Among the startup investors are TPG funds, Institutional Venture Partners and T Rowe Price.

#22 Raise Marketplace.Valuation $608 million

The service allows you to buy and sell gift cards. It will be useful for those who want to save on purchases or turn their gift cards into real money.

#23 Beepi.Valuation $564 million

Beepi is a service where you can buy a car checked by your own specialists for a fair price and get the opportunity to return it. If the seller's car is not purchased within 30 days through the site, the company buys it for the agreed price and sells it itself. The price of a car is formed due to the commission of the site, the expectations of the seller and the assessment of the company's technical specialists.

#24 Corvus Pharmaceuticals. Valuation $236 million

Pharmaceutical company engaged in the development of drugs that support the immune system and help fight cancer.

#25 LendingHome. Valuation $519 million

The company is a platform for investors and people who want to get a mortgage loan. The former can easily start investing their money, while the latter can choose a profitable and convenient mortgage option for themselves.

#26 Affirm. Valuation $576 million

A financial startup that offers users instant micro-loans at extremely favorable rates.

#27 Credit Karma. $3.5 billion valuation

Credit Karma is a platform designed to provide users with a credit rating, regardless of the location of the person. The audience of the service is 40 million people. At this stage, the company provides reports, credit scores and some other financial instruments.

#28 Menlo Security. Valuation $127 million

Menlo Security develops an anti-malware solution. The total amount of funds raised by the startup reached $35 million. The company plans to completely rid users of viruses and other malware using its Isolation Platform system.

#29 Carbon3D. $1 billion valuation

Canadian startup specializing in 3D printing. The key advantage of Carbon3D is the CLIP printing technology, which allows you to print objects 25-100 times faster than other 3D printers. Products are of higher quality due to the continuous creation of the structure, rather than layer by layer.

#30 Afferent Pharmaceuticals. Valuation $280 million

A pharmaceutical startup that develops innovative medicines.

#31 WeWork. $10.2 billion valuation

The startup operates in some major cities USA and offers freelancers, small teams and businesses a variety of different coworking spaces. The business model is extremely simple. WeWork rent several floors in office centers on favorable terms, make repairs in them, create space for work, meetings and recreation, as well as install all the necessary office equipment. And then they offer everyone who wants to buy subscriptions to work in such a coworking space.

#32 zSpace. Valuation $160 million

zSpace offer users their vision virtual reality. Their workstations are computers whose displays track the movement of special glasses and a controller in the form of a stylus and thus create a sense of three-dimensionality of the object.

#33 Premium Data. Estimated #375 million

The company helps to process a large amount of data for understanding economic effects in real time.

#34 Collective Health. Valuation $391 million

Collective Health is developing a corporate health insurance platform to help companies deliver health benefits to employees.

#35 Rover. Valuation $130 million

The startup can be called Airbnb for dogs. Even the interface is similar. Owners can choose who to leave their pet for care, and dog lovers can sit with them and even earn money.

#36 Cohesion. Valuation $336 million

The startup is working towards renting a secondary data storage. And this, according to Cohesity, is up to 80% of the total amount of data. The company will help you save up to 80% on storage costs.

#37 Udacity. $1.1 billion valuation

Udacity is not a newcomer among startups, but rather a well-known platform for self-directed remote education, which was born as an extension of Stanford University.

#38 Placester. Valuation $150 million

The company is designed to make life easier for American realtors by combining a huge number of real estate databases (more than 900 in the US) into one, with a user-friendly interface, search algorithm and support on mobile devices.

The company provides database storage services on "elastic" servers. They can expand if necessary, as well as “give away” the space that is not currently used.

#42 Cyanogen. Valuation $640 million

Almost any Android lover can talk for hours about this operating system, but if you do not belong to those, then in a nutshell Cyanogen is an OS that takes its roots in the same Android, but surpasses it in many ways.

#43 Handy. Valuation $360 million

Handy offers to take care of cleaning the premises. The company selects people who want to earn extra money on such a difficult task, surveys them, and then offers their services to customers. Such an Uber in the world of cleaning.

#44 Onshape. Valuation $800 million

Cloud platform for CAD modeling. All work is done through the browser, synchronized with common project through the cloud and has a mobile interface.

#45 Illumio. $1 billion valuation

Illumio specializes in cyber security, and if most competitors deal with threats outside the "perimeter", then Illumio deals with violators who have passed the initial protection.

#46 Vroom. Valuation $218 million

The startup sells used cars in the United States.

#47 Nurix. Valuation $227 million

The company researches and develops drugs that affect the mechanics of protein regulation in the cell. This approach will help fight many diseases, including cancer.

#48 Gusto. Valuation $560 million

The company is developing cloud-based HR management. It allows you to pay employees, make tax deductions and much more.

#49 Betterment. Valuation $431 million

The startup is intended for people who want to start investing, but do not have much experience in this area.

#50 Theranos. $9 billion valuation

A revolutionary method for fast and accurate testing using tiny doses of biomaterial. In 2015, the media questioned the accuracy of the test results and accused the developers of defrauding investors. So far, only the media have paid attention to this, so in the future, either the storm will subside and the project will continue to work, or everyone will really be disappointed in it and Theranos will have to be closed.

This is what the 50 hottest startups in the US look like. After reading a little more about them, you can understand in which direction our society is moving and what we can see in the near future in the service market.

Routine work in the office is not suitable for everyone - many are constantly looking for something new for themselves, interesting and profitable. And many of them really get what they want. In this article, we will discuss examples of startups that have enriched their founders, and look at the key points that new startups need to consider in order to succeed too.

You will learn:

  • How to find an idea for a successful startup.
  • What are the most successful startups in Russia and the world.
  • What are the most unsuccessful startups in Russia.
  • How to make a presentation for a startup.

What is a startup and how is it different from a regular business

The history of startups began back in 1939 in the USA, when Stanford students David Packard and William Hewlett came up with an interesting idea and successfully tested it. They decided to call their project simply “Startup” (English “run”). This name was again remembered already in the 1990s, when it was decided to call this term both a fast-growing business, a business with a short period of activity, and a business associated with high risks.

After much debate, economists have found a definition for the term " startup", proposed by a successful American entrepreneur Steven Blank: this is a kind of temporary structure created to search for, implement and scale a business idea.

The concept of a startup can be expanded by highlighting its inherent characteristics:

  1. Fast growth.

This is the main quality characteristic of startups. Rapid growth is usually driven by scalability: Snapchat reached 100 million users in less than five years, for example. Growth rate is classified by Silicon Valley specialists as follows:

  • low growth rate - with rates up to 2% per week;
  • high growth rate - with indicators ranging from 5 to 7% per week;
  • exceptional growth rate - with rates from 10% per week.

11 Ways to Generate Startup Ideas

  1. Think about the future.

Living in the present, try to think about the world of the future: what will new generations of people use, what ideas are about to come true, and what examples from the present, on the contrary, will cease to be relevant.

Obviously, the future belongs to mobile devices, unmanned vehicles, and nanotechnology. What new products and inventions will be based on these conceptual ideas?

Before you propose a new startup, come up with a fundamental idea, which then takes shape in a specific goal. Thinking about an idea, one can, for example, imagine the near future. What changes must take place there?

  1. Become an expert.

Many areas of science and technology are developing thanks to experienced specialists. Skills or industry experience is essential if you want to be successful there. Develop, practice, become an expert - and the path to the highly competitive market of new technologies will be open to you.

Here is another example of a business start-up. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg worked for Salomon Brothers in information technology. He was then fired, but provided a large compensation of $10 million. The knowledge, experience and capital gained allowed Bloomberg to open his own startup engaged in financial consulting. Today Bloomberg L.P. is known all over the world, and the founder of the company himself got to the top lines of Forbes magazine. This example worthy of emulation.

Become a first-class specialist in two areas at once (for example, culinary art and retail sales). Very often, many interesting ideas are found at the junction of seemingly non-adjacent areas. It is important that the resulting product is really useful and relevant, and you must be an expert in it.

  1. Solve your problems.

The best examples of ideas come to mind when you are trying to solve your own problems. The basic inconveniences that prevent you from living will be reliable motivators for finding relief from these difficulties. Most often, the problems that arise are associated with changes in life, and their solution can lay the foundation for your future startup.

What happens at the household level is also relevant for big business. A common example is when a large company acquires an urgent problem that needs to be solved. For this, another firm is created, specializing only in performing a specific task. And, as often happens, the second company overtakes the first in scale.

A real-life example is Flickr, a service designed specifically for hosting images in an online game. As a result, the game was closed, and Flickr still exists and is popular with a variety of people.

  1. Look for problems in others.

The world is not perfect, and you need to find real-life examples where resources are wasted, money is wasted, and work gets done. After that, you prepare a way to eliminate the shortcomings and offer it where the problem is really relevant. You better not only know about everyone global problems that excite society, but also to get to know those who are already busy solving them.

  1. Improve.

There is always a service or product that can be improved. But you need to focus on what really annoys people. Let's say you notice that finding a rental property in a modern way is inconvenient. This is a good example, especially in cases where the tenant has limited time to look for housing. Accordingly, you need to find a way to simplify this process as much as possible by opening an appropriate startup.

Moreover, it is necessary to use up-to-date technologies. You have developed a service - make it available on mobile devices now.

It is not easy to compete with monopolists in your industry, but it is possible. Market leaders have practically no incentive for development. But in history there have been attempts by young companies to move the monopolists. An example is the relationship between Virgin Atlantic and the giant British Airways.

  1. Interest wealthy buyers.

The “buy low, sell high” principle has been around for centuries. In our information age, it has become much easier to find the right product or service on one side of the planet and sell it at a premium to a buyer on the other side of the world. The largest supplier of cheap goods is, of course, China. Services are provided at low cost in most developing countries. Somewhere there are empty buildings of abandoned factories that can be easily rented. And somewhere there are people with money and demand for factory space. Here are some of the many examples. Try to bring supply and demand together, for example, by organizing something like an exchange.

  1. Copy a good project and make it better.

It's no secret that young startups copy most of the great ideas from others. It is important to find an example of a well-performing project, take it as a basis and make it function better or add a unique service to it.

Also follow fashion trends. Now co-working spaces and private kindergartens are very popular. In the future, for example, SMM agencies will become popular. The peaks of the popularity of this or that phenomenon move around the world in waves. To predict and get ahead of the wave, to be the first to offer something that is already mega-popular somewhere is, in any case, better than trying to invent something unknown to anyone.

Here is another typical example from life. Every major US college has its own corporate identity. In this style, elements of educational clothing are produced and successfully sold. In Russia, such merchandise was not popular until recently. Until this idea was adopted and implemented by one student. This is how the start-up UniFashion was founded.

  1. Travel.

Study successful startups on the spot: IT technologies in Silicon Valley, fashion in Paris, ideas from the world of finance in New York or London, etc. Traveling is always learning new things, broadening your horizons, a lot of food for thought.

An interesting example is the history of Starbucks. At the dawn of its success, the company was exclusively engaged in the sale of coffee beans. When Howard Schultz, who worked there, went on a shopping tour to Milan, he found many coffee shops there, where people not only drink this drink, but also just spend time. Coffee houses in Italy were socially important places, their number by that time totaled 200 thousand. The example of Italy prompted Schultz to open this direction at Starbucks. Failing to get an understanding from management, he left the company and founded his own chain of coffee shops. After some time, his success reached such heights that he bought Starbucks himself, making it a now famous brand, famous for establishments open all over the world.

  1. Offer solutions to new players in the market.

A new product on the market means new opportunities for startups to enter this market. All you need is a quick reaction. Investment funds are created specifically for such projects: for example, to develop applications for Facebook or Google Glass. The cryptocurrency market is also a great example for the implementation of ideas. The main thing is not to miss the wave of popularity of this or that trend.

This is true for niches that are loosely connected to the Internet. Expand your horizons and discover global construction or building renovation processes, look for examples where you could offer some kind of service.

When one of the first Altair 8800 personal computers was released back in the 1970s, an enterprising student decided to start selling software for it. It was really new back then. In particular, the young man and his friends founded their own startup to develop a BASIC interpreter and sell it for Altair computers. This enterprising student was named Bill Gates, his student project is now described as an example of start-up resourcefulness.

  1. Turn something you don't need into something you want.

You can quickly create something useless and then gradually improve it. Ask your environment what needs to be changed in an unfinished product in order for it to become necessary. Ask your friends if they will use it. Gradually finish your product to the ideal state, expanding your circle of contacts from close friends to a million army of potential consumers, showing them examples of improvements.

  1. Create the right social circle.

There are many people in the world who give birth to great ideas, but do not have the resources to implement them. Look for contacts with them, get acquainted and communicate. Offer your help in the implementation: this is how you get the first customers for your startup.

There is a stereotype that only one's own ideas are valued. Don't let it get you, use every opportunity to get great idea and implement it.

Some eminent entrepreneurs themselves give ideas. An example is Elon Musk, who presented his cousins ​​Lyndon and Peter Rive with the idea of ​​​​installing solar panels. The idea was realized in a startup, and now SolarCity is successfully operating on the market.

The best examples of startups that the whole world is talking about

  • Slack

This messenger appeared in 2013 and has established itself as a tool for team communication within small companies. Focused on corporate work, it eliminates the need to make official correspondence by mail and facilitates document flow within the company. The messenger is great for employees both for simple communication and for creating professional communities. Therefore, Slack is also convenient to use for personnel services to search for personnel.

Today, the value of the popular service reaches three billion dollars, which makes the startup one of the fastest growing. It was created by Stuart Butterfield, a Cambridge graduate, who saw that instant messengers were becoming more popular and followed the example of his competitors. He was able to attract investments for the project on total amount about 350 million dollars. Slack reached its greatest popularity among users in the US and Europe, where more than 8,000 companies signed up for the service on the first day of the startup's testing phase.

  • Uber

One of the most famous startups that practically captured the market, despite the desperate attempts of competitors to catch up and overtake. This successful project is now valued by investors at $64 billion. The Uber example shows that a niche that was recently empty was already waiting for its discoverer.

The idea of ​​a startup appeared when one of the founders of the future giant was unable to call a taxi in Paris. It was then that he thought: “Why not, for example, build a taxi order into a mobile application?”. The idea turned out to be brilliant, and Travis Kalanick, along with Garrett Camp, realized it in 2009.

Uber turned out to be a super-profitable enterprise. Many large investors stood in line to invest in it. Their desire is understandable: the daily profit of the company today amounts to millions of dollars.

Uber is already present in more than 80 cities around the world. In the US alone, the number of trips in this mobile taxi has increased by 2.5 times to date. And the company is not going to stop, conquering more and more new countries.

This startup was launched in Seattle in 2013. The founders one day came up with a brilliant idea: to find specialists for housework and connect them with people who need their services. Such a kind of labor exchange for plumbers, electricians, home craftsmen was framed in an application with a user-friendly interface. The service allows anyone to quickly find the right professional and immediately place an order. The project was appreciated by users and gained popularity among them. Due to its potential, the startup was able to raise nearly $100 million over three investment rounds.

Porch- this is about three million experienced jacks of all trades and, as a result, about 140 million deals. Moreover, the company provides customers with a guarantee for the services performed. If suddenly the quality of work does not suit the client, he will be paid insurance in the amount of $ 1,000.

Inspired by the example of their own success, the owners make big plans and will further develop their project.

  • pinterest


A unique service for storing images on the so-called boards was created in 2008 by Ben Zilberman. Each user of the service has his own “board”, where he stores photos or drawings, grouping them thematically. Pinterest is a godsend for creative people, because they can find there a large number of ideas and examples for any projects on topics that interest them. The female part of the audience is also inspired by Pinterest boards: here you can find ideas for photo shoots and design examples wedding dresses, and much more. In addition, the project is not disregarded by artists of all stripes.

The startup took off very quickly: within the first year, the project attracted 10,000 users. Moreover, according to the stories of the founder, half of them were personally invited by him, which once again shows us an example of the ingenuity of young entrepreneurs. To date, the audience growth rate is much higher: approximately 150 million users per month, of which 70 million are registered from the United States. In terms of the number of subscribers, Pinterest has managed to overtake Twitter. The total investment is impressive - more than one billion dollars.

  • How to start your own business from scratch while working for another company

10 examples of successful startups in Russia

  1. LinguaLeo

The service for teaching English and improving English skills was born in the minds of Russian developers, but is also popular outside the country. For example, the number of project users worldwide has already exceeded 14 million. Each newcomer is invited to take a test on the level of language proficiency. After that, the student chooses the appropriate stage of the course and receives a set of exercises and theoretical materials. The course allows you to master not only writing but also oral. The kit includes the necessary educational audio materials.

Peculiarity LinguaLeo that the exercises are given in game form and developed by native speakers. The startup got its name from the name of the cartoon lion cub Leo, who became the mascot of the application. Such an example occurred to the developers when they were on the island of Koh Chang, working there on the service for six months. As a result, the founder of the startup, Ainur Abdulnasyrov, became a millionaire, and his brainchild was included in the list of the best mobile applications of 2015, according to Google.

  1. doctor at work

Medical social network gradually grew and became known not only to medical specialists, but also to medical students and pharmacists. For them, communication in this network is a good opportunity to improve their skills, and absolutely free of charge. The service has at least half registered medical professionals, and their activity brings it to the first place in the world according to the corresponding indicator. In the Russian Startup Rating, the Doctor at Work project has occupied the top lines for several years, which makes the example of using this niche worthy of attention.

  1. AmazingHiring


This web application helps HR professionals find IT workers. The service searches and analyzes information on candidates from more than 50 sources. All information is taken from open access and conveniently structured in the application, allowing recruiters to effectively select specialists for specific parameters. The ability to consolidate a lot of useful data from multiple sources into one profile makes it easier and faster to search. It is no coincidence that among the clients of the service are such companies as Kaspersky Lab, ZeptoLab, Parallels.

The start-up was laid in 2012 by two founders - Vitaly Obernikhin and Sergey Dmitrichenko. The creators of the project confidently declare that their example has no analogues in the world.

  1. Cardberry

The service, which Roman Druzhenets founded in 2013 at his own expense, offers owners discount cards collect and store their data in one place. In other words, Cardberry is a repository of all discounts and bonuses collected from all user's discount cards. The application makes life easier for regular customers, at least by eliminating the need to carry a pack of plastic with them. All discounts or bonuses, when selected, are automatically synchronized with a single card via Bluetooth. An example of a demanded additional function: discounts can be shared with friends who are registered in the service.

The Russian startup has now turned into an international project with offices in the US and Singapore. Cardberry universal cards are owned by customers in more than 20 countries. It is noteworthy that only 18 people are involved in the management and support of the project.

  1. dressformer

The startup, created in 2012 by Alina Grinblat, allows you to virtually try on any clothes. The project is implemented as a plug-in connected to an online store, in which the individual parameters of a potential buyer are set. Based on them, a three-dimensional model is built, and already this model carries out a “fitting” of the selected product.

Such an original and technological approach is mutually beneficial: it is easier for buyers to choose clothes online, and it is easier for sellers to sell goods that fit a particular person even before the sale. In addition to this, the client can get an online consultation with a stylist or work on an example of his image on his own.

  1. ImageAiry

A tandem of two girls (Ekaterina Kotenko-Lengold and Alexandra Kudryashova) created in 2013 a trading platform for selling photographs of the earth's surface. Here you can find suppliers of aerial and satellite imagery offering services for any preference for small customers. Any user registered in the system can become a customer.

ImageAiry is an example of an unprecedented project that offered ordinary people previously unavailable product. Now everyone can get an aerial or space image of any size or detail, as well as use interactive maps on their website or in their application. The objective of this project is to bring the supplier and the customer closer in the simplest and most convenient way.

In one of the startup competitions held in Helsinki, this service took an honorable second place. The ImageAiry project is currently merged with the American company AstroDigital.

  1. money man


This startup showed excellent growth, reaching the level of an international company in just one year. The creators of the project, Boris Batin and Alexander Dunaev, took as a basis the example of the British service Wonga.com, which was redesigned and adapted to our conditions.

MoneyMan is an automated microloan service that has quickly taken the edge off the competition in online microfinance. The whole process - from the approval of the application to the receipt of money on a card or an electronic wallet - takes place in a matter of minutes.

Today, MoneyMan is consistently in the top 50 Russian startups, according to the eminent Russian Startup Rating, and also has the best affiliate program in the financial market. In terms of growth rate, the project took first place in its niche.

The creators plan to further develop the platform, gradually optimizing the payment system, increasing the speed of crediting money, connecting additional services. And, of course, the project will only increase its loan portfolio.

  1. Flash safe

The dream of many is a flash drive with an infinite amount of memory. Alexey Churkin tried to realize this dream in his startup Flashsafe. The essence of the idea is to connect a special flash drive to the cloud storage. Information is transmitted through it to the cloud anonymously, without the need for registration, entering passwords or keys. All data about the stored files is located in the device itself, which is practically invulnerable to hacking, and, therefore, you can not worry about the security and privacy of information.

The project involved both the founder's own funds and grants. The startup was successfully presented in Skolkovo, which made it possible to conclude contracts for a total of 1.5 million rubles. And then investors pulled themselves up, including through crowdfunding. The start of sales of the miracle flash drive took place on August 30, 2016.

  1. Prisma

This startup shot so fast in 2016 that its founder had to artificially reduce the growth of its popularity. At the end of the year, he was recognized as the best in Russia. Prisma- is an interesting mobile application that allows you to turn any photo into a painting in the manner of famous masters of painting. The transformation of a banal picture into an example of a work of art takes place literally in a matter of seconds. Such an amazing photo editor became the most downloaded application in just a few days.

The estimated value of the startup Prisma today exceeds $10 million. The creator of the service, Alexey Moiseenkov, is famous for giving no more than one interview per day. From them it became known that the work on the application took a total of two months, while the funds were invested in the project "within the framework of salaries." This example of a startup can be considered really successful, if only because its main investor is the large holding Mail.ru.

  1. MULTICUBIK

An example of a startup focused on a children's audience. This is an interesting device for children in the form of a cube, which is a mini-projector that plays cartoons or filmstrips. Projection is carried out on any vertical and flat surface. Its creator, Mikhail Bukhovtsev, claims that it is a healthier replacement for tablets and other fancy gadgets. The projector allows you to organize high-quality leisure time with your family.

The startup won the Startup Village competition in mid-2016. In the same year, its founder successfully held a presentation in New York at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Investments in the project were attracted through the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. Besides, MULTICUBIK was presented in Skolkovo and API Moscow. Showing himself as a role model, the startup raised more than $100k for the launch.

In the future, it is planned to develop a premium version of the product, but for now, the production of a budget version of the projector is being prepared.

Examples of unsuccessful startups in Russian business

  • "Satellite"

Perhaps this is the most famous example among domestic startups that did not take off. The Sputnik search portal was conceived as a full-fledged alternative to Google under the patronage of Rostelecom. The launch was financed from the state budget, the total investment amounted to about 60 million rubles.

It was no secret to anyone that this resource, created in 2014, would be completely controlled by the state. This fact also influenced the search results: Russian sites occupied the first places in the search results. It was supposed to install "Sputnik" in the browsers of institutions as a default search engine, which was not destined to happen.

In itself, the example of a national search engine is not devoid of common sense. Only verified resources are displayed in the search, protecting the user from garbage and malware. But the other side of the coin is the fact of filtration and control by state structures, which is already becoming a censorship issue, a stumbling block for the end user. Despite the fact that the creators took on the noble mission of protecting Russian Internet users from harmful content, accusations of bias rained down on them. But even without taking into account these points, the search engine clearly could not compete with the giants Google and Yandex.

The logical result was a decrease in the attendance of the resource. So, if during the period of active advertising, the platform was visited by about five million people a month, then a year later this number dropped to several thousand. Sputnik is still functioning thanks to government support, although attempts are being made to repurpose the project.

  • "E-mobile"

The development of a domestic concept car began in 2010 by the ONEXIM group of companies headed by Mikhail Prokhorov. The start of production was planned for 2012, but then was postponed twice - to 2014 and 2015. Despite this, at the economic forum in St. Petersburg in 2013, a pre-production model was nevertheless presented. In total, about 200 million euros have been invested in the project so far.

Among the advantages of the E-mobile, the manufacturers claimed low market value, a small number of parts compared to a conventional car, and increased service intervals. But time passed, more and more money was spent on the project, and serial models could not leave the assembly line.

In addition, great doubts arose about the safety of the car. For example, a possible accident could lead to serious injuries to the driver and passengers. Few believed in the cheapness of this hybrid.

Officially, the project was closed in the spring of 2014, but four copies still managed to be released. The owner of one of them is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Mikhail Prokhorov personally presented him with a car. The car has not passed the test of time: after a while, her battery failed.

  • Travalover

The creators of this service offered users to plan their own trips. In 2013, they launched the corresponding project, spending a total of more than one million dollars on it from investors' funds. But after a few months, the startup was suspended, not gaining the required level of attendance. The developers of the project were the creators of the well-known KupiKupon service, which also did not immediately shoot. Another launch attempt was made.

It again proved to be a failure, and the project was put on hold for an indefinite period. There was no official closure, although the site of the service is no longer working. The creators of its prospects only expressed regret that the Russians for the most part are not ready to plan their trips themselves, but prefer to entrust this work to travel agencies.

Whether this is actually the case remains a mystery. But given the popularity of foreign analogues in Russia, there is a demand for such projects, and it is considerable. Perhaps the problem is that the Travalover startup did not have any zest, but was just an example of such.

  • NumberMail

Alexander Korastylev, the founder of the notorious Happy Farmer game, was also interested in the idea of ​​startups. He decided to create a service that makes it possible to exchange files through cloud storage. For the exchange, the participants needed only a phone number - no registrations and no passwords. A startup offering such a free service could very well be successful. About a thousand users from Russia and India in the first year is an example worthy of developing the project further.

However, the creator of the service was embarrassed by such a small number of consumers, and he decided to take a contradictory step - he introduced paid subscription. This did not add users, but the project became uninteresting to advertisers. In addition, the very idea of ​​transferring media files has long been implemented in much more famous and free messengers that everyone has in their smartphone. It was decided to cancel this project.

  • El Menu

Ilya Sadkov once conceived to simplify the life of restaurant owners and their visitors. In 2011, he decided to introduce electronic menus that allow customers to visually examine the dish and order it right there, and for restaurateurs to save on waiters. But at first glance, a good idea was not approved by the restaurateurs themselves because of the initial implementation costs - they would have to buy several tablets for each place, purchase the software itself (this is about 120 thousand rubles) and a powerful server to ensure stable operation of the entire system. For example, to equip a small restaurant for 20 people with all the equipment and software, a budget of 300 thousand rubles would be required.

Sadkov spent only 55 thousand rubles on the creation of his project, and it took about six months to develop it. The startup planned to quickly recoup such small costs and receive a net, rather big profit. As a result, not finding mutual understanding with businessmen, Sadkov closed the project.

  • Advertising examples: from terrible failures to world masterpieces

Practitioner tells

Oleg Tinkov,

entrepreneur, Moscow

  1. Name the company or product by your name. So you emphasize your responsibility to buyers: they will know what kind of quality you personally answer. I followed this principle and named a beer, a bank, and a restaurant after my last name. But do not mindlessly copy this example. I have come across a lot of names with a double "f" at the end after my brand became famous. Eventually, it got annoying.
  2. Offer what you need. I chose a niche for myself where the services I needed were not developed. For example, in the early 90s, I had to overpay for a regular Japanese VCR. Then I decided to sell electronics in the country. When credit cards issued only in banks, I tried to simplify this process - this is how my online bank "Tinkoff - Credit Systems" appeared.
  3. Celebrate every company success. Any significant events (first profit, first client) should be recorded. In your mind, these stages will motivate you to develop your company.
  4. Don't be afraid of publicity. There are benefits to being famous. The main persons of the city and representatives of the authorities are easier to contact with a public figure, it is easier to resolve issues with them. The tax office will not find fault with you over trifles, as it will be afraid of publicity on your part. You can earn popularity just by talking to the media, but you don’t need to go too far and ask for an interview either.
  5. Run your business in such a way that it can be sold at any time. At in large numbers partners over time can not avoid disagreements and conflicts. If they control your business, it will be problematic to sell it in the future. How do you like to CEO over time, it is worth moving away from management, entrusting it to qualified performers. In this case, your project will become more attractive to investors.

How to make a killer startup presentation for investors: examples, rules and secrets

The main purpose of any presentation is to demonstrate and interest. The problem with many budding young startups is that they can't pitch their ideas, present them in a favorable light to potential investors. As a result, good ideas go unnoticed. Therefore, at this stage, the most important thing is to impress the investor. And it is best to do this in a presentation format, concise, concise, but at the same time capacious and visual.

Here are the basic rules to follow:

  • The main idea of ​​a startup should be presented in the form of brief abstracts.
  • The design must be maintained in the same style, as clearly as possible and without frills.
  • No emotional narration. Only dry facts that showcase your project.
  • Try to correctly saturate the text with numbers when presenting. It is the numbers that are most convincing.
  • The very fact that your presentation is carefully crafted and able to convince partners will show your partners your punctuality and serious attitude towards a startup.

Half of your success lies in a competent presentation. But its format will depend on who and where you will demonstrate your startup. For example, for a large audience, it is advisable to use large fonts, bright illustrations, and visual graphics.

If you, for example, had an unscheduled meeting with a potential investor (for example, as part of an event), try to take advantage of this moment and very briefly state the essence of your project. The speech should not last more than a minute, it is enough to include a concise description of the startup, seasoned with three or four important indicators in numbers.

A presentation at an individual meeting, for which sufficient time has been allocated, will have a completely different format. Here you should not be shy and most fully, with examples, describe all the features and benefits of a startup.

But in any format, you need to achieve one goal - to interest the sponsor. To begin with, imagine that you have very little time and hook it yourself important phrase, which will not leave you indifferent and will reward you with extra time. After that, say the second thesis that can interest your listener no less than the first.

When voicing information, remember the main essence to which the entire presentation should be reduced, and with a sufficient time limit, dilute the text with images, important numbers. Talk about the concept, not forgetting to describe examples of its implementation.

Before presenting your project, practice in front of your friends. Training is absolutely necessary in order to look as confident as possible in a performance. In addition, such test presentations will reveal flaws in the content of the presentation, so be prepared for criticism from your listeners. In this case, you will work out the technique of answering questions and objections.

You should take the time to look up information on your potential sponsor. It is recommended to get acquainted with his activities, areas of interest, examples of successful projects with his participation. It is important for you to find common ground, to find moments in his work that are of interest to you.

Stock up on enough promotional handouts that you will be offering. Print and copy your entire project, providing copies to each participant at the end of the meeting. Your idea should be recorded not only in electronic form, but also on paper.

As for the essence of the presentation, it should be broken down into several basic parts. The number of such items depends on the specific project, but in general, the following chapters should be highlighted.

  1. The task and purpose of creating a startup. This is a descriptive part, which explains the essence of the problem that can be solved by the proposed methods. How clearly you show the problem depends on the persuasiveness of your proposed solution. Simply put, let the audience feel the problem, arouse in them the desire to solve it.
  2. The actual presentation of your product. Here is the essence of the proposed solution to the problem. If your competitors have similar examples, pay attention to the analysis of their options. Briefly describe the advantages of your solution over the solutions of competitors, highlight the fundamental differences between them. An additional plus there will be a pre-prepared layout or illustration of the finished product. A visual representation of a project gives a better general idea of ​​it than a textual description.
  3. Market analysis and business plan. You need to analyze the entire niche of the market in which you work. It is required to assess the real demand for the services and products offered in your niche, the average solvency of consumers, and to predict the profitability of your project. This block will be replete with numbers and economic indicators that are of interest to potential investors. The presence of such a business plan in your presentation will show you as a serious businessman, demonstrate to the audience your ability to count and analyze. It is likely that this will be just an example of a business plan, which may be further amended.
  4. financial proposal. Save the best for last. Everything related to profitability, payback periods and other monetary issues that concern investors, clearly and concisely formulate in one of the last slides. At the end of your speech, be sure to thank the audience for their attention.

After the presentation is over, do not disturb the participants for a couple of days. After a while, send them an email reminding them of yourself.

Consider the main points that allow you to develop a high-quality presentation project the first time.

  • You should start with the formulation of the main topic - it should be as specific as possible. To do this, you need an understanding of your future audience, in particular, who will represent it: owners of large businesses, small entrepreneurs, representatives of venture funds. Or you are participating in a startup competition.
  • All collected material must be systematized, abstracts formed, distributed significant numbers. Avoid difficult to understand semantic constructions and long sentences. Also, few people will be interested in abstruse formulas and graphs.
  • No need to play designer. To demonstrate, use a popular office program like PowerPoint, looking for the simplest template example. Avoid also contrasting colors, try to choose more calm pastel colors, including for the background. Use a standard font for text (for example, Times New Roman or Tahoma). You can use two or three different fonts, but no more.
  • Try to separate images and text. Do not use pictures as a background for text. good rule is the distribution of thoughts and ideas on slides according to the principle “one slide - one specific thought”.
  • The structure of the narrative in the presentation should be logically correct and built according to the standard sequence: introduction, content, conclusion. Add your own points to the plan using a creative approach.
  • It is extremely important to provide slides with illustrations, photographs, graphs, diagrams and similar images that describe a specific thought or message. Moreover, the text and picture on the same slide must match each other. It is also useful to put all difficult-to-digest meanings and terms on a slide - visually they are remembered better.

Information about experts

Oleg Tinkov, Russian entrepreneur, Moscow. Oleg Tinkov is known as the founder of the Technoshock chain of household appliances stores, the Darya factories that produced frozen semi-finished products, the brewing company and the Tinkoff restaurant chain. He is the founder and chairman of the Board of Directors of Tinkoff Bank (until 2015 - Tinkoff - Credit Systems).

Contrary to popular belief, a startup is not just any project at the inception stage. This is a special type of business, the main features of which are minimal investment and a non-standard approach to solving a problem. Biznes.ru figured out what startups are relevant now and whether it is possible to learn how to generate ideas for startups from scratch.

How to find an idea to start a business

To understand the most relevant startup ideas, you need to understand what distinguishes a startup from a regular business. Here are the main criteria for a startup:

  • minimum initial investment;
  • quick start of business;
  • the prospect of rapid development;
  • innovative creative solutions;
  • lack of an adequate alternative on the market.

If we consider successful ideas for startups from scratch, we can single out one of the most important conditions - the idea must be really needed. That is, the main business idea of ​​a startup should help the interested audience clearly and quickly solve a specific problem.

Have you been nurturing a startup idea for a long time, but do not have enough time to implement it? Untie your hands by outsourcing some of the paperwork for bookkeeping to service specialists

Actual startup ideas for business

To find an idea for a startup, you do not need to reinvent the wheel. It is enough to look at what is important at the moment to potential customers and consumers. Regardless of social status and degree of wealth, for any person there are common important areas of life:

  • health;
  • quality nutrition and physical fitness;
  • comfortable living conditions;
  • the ability to quickly resolve any issues;
  • education and professional achievements;
  • beauty and appearance;
  • movement, travel;
  • comfortable permanent and temporary housing;
  • Fixed salary.

The motto of a startup idea is: you see a problem, find a simple and quick solution. Considering the basic requirements of people's lives and modern technologies, we can single out the most relevant types of fast business.

Online consultation

Services with online consultation of specialized specialists are now at the peak of popularity, the help of doctors and lawyers is especially in demand.

When creating a medical consulting service, it is better to initially set certain narrow specifics. For example, online consultation with a doctor on children's health or on issues of diseases of the cardiovascular system. Many people do not have time to visit a doctor, so when a health problem arises, most users look for information on the net.

The same can be said about legal advice. Most citizens sometimes simply do not know where and to whom to turn. Fast and high-quality consultation on the network will save them from wandering through forums and tedious attempts to google the answer.

Production and delivery of ready meals

Despite the fact that catering companies are quite common in the field of modern services, the demand for quality food never falls. An important factor in this idea for a startup from scratch is quality, assortment and organized delivery.

The advantage of this type of business is minimal investment, cooking equipment and food purchases do not require large financial costs and quickly pay off. Starting with the delivery of dinners and lunches to the nearest offices, you can increase the reach of customers and diversify the types of services - off-site banquets, corporate outdoor events, organizing and servicing weddings.

Computer repair and maintenance

Computer repair today is either large service centers with a high price list, or private masters, whose honesty is sometimes in doubt. A startup idea in this area is to create a democratic team of hardware-savvy computer scientists and programmers. You can start work with services at home, and in the future, the development prospects depend on the degree of ambition and the correct organization of work.

Help in solving household issues

"Husbands for an hour" and "wives for an hour" appeared in the life of modern citizens for a reason. We increasingly do not have enough time for the simplest household activities: clean, cook, fix a leaky faucet.

Take a look at the ad feed, study the demand. Many people constantly require services for minor household repairs, maintenance of household appliances, and cleaning of premises. Companies that provide repair services for plumbing, furniture, household appliances are never left without work and customers. The same applies to cleaning services, assistance with household. This small business startup idea never goes out of style.

Tutoring

Educational reforms bring tutoring to a very a high degree demand. Help for children and future graduates is most often required in the Russian language, mathematics and specialized subjects, knowledge of which is necessary for admission to a university. Adults need tutors in foreign languages, which is associated with the need to communicate with foreign partners.

Sports apps and online classes

Good physical form V modern world is not only a requirement for health, but also an important aspect of success. And here again the problem of time arises - not everyone has the opportunity to visit the gym, so online classes with advice from a professional trainer, personal complexes are beginning to be in increasing demand. An additional bonus when promoting this idea for a startup is the sale of related products, equipment and accessories for sports activities.

Production, sale, delivery of building materials

Building materials are always in demand, and if there is the possibility of independent production, taking into account the wishes of the client and a oriented pricing system, demand will only grow.

Mobile Application Development

A lot of types of services - counseling, tutoring, sports, diets and nutrition systems - can be created in the form of a mobile application. Quality applications for smartphones, despite the large number of proposals, will always be of interest.

Development and launch of browser games

A browser game is not only an opportunity to escape from everyday affairs and worries, but also a way to find a social circle of interests, to get certain achievements. If it is possible to assemble a team of professional programmers, web developers and graphic designers, then the creation of computer games can become effective idea for a startup with further development.

Consulting

The international publishing project of Rossiyskaya Gazeta Russia Beyond The Headlines (RBTH) has compiled the TOP-50 of the most ambitious Russian startups in 2015. This year the ranking includes young Russian companies with development potential abroad.

RBTH has been ranking new startups since 2012. The main goal of the project is to inform foreign investors and consumers about the potential and services of Russian technology companies. Traditionally, the rating includes companies that would like to enter or are already entering foreign markets, and startups with Russian participation abroad.

Startups included in the ranking were selected according to the following criteria: the interest of foreign investors, the uniqueness of the idea, the demand of foreign consumers for the products and services offered, the potential for commercialization, and social significance, that is, the desire to improve people's lives with the help of technology. TOP-50 was made up of more than 200 Russian startups that met the requirements of the project authors.

The rating includes the Russian-Ukrainian startup 2for1, aimed at the US market. The project was founded by businessman Alexei Romanenko, who lives in San Francisco. 2for1 is a service that brings together the best deals from the 15 most visited online stores in the US and Europe.

The application is designed for fashionistas and fashionistas from the middle class, who will be able to see the goods selected by the service with discounts of more than 50%. At the same time, 2for1 does not position itself as a retailer, calling itself a "filter" for buyers.

Another participant in the rating was the technological project "3D Bioprinting Solutions", which was founded by the Chairman of the Board, Director of INVITRO Group Alexander Ostrovsky and biologist Yusef Khesuani. The project is a biotechnology research laboratory that explores the topic of 3D organ bioprinting and creates its own products.

For example, 3D Bioprinting Solutions created the first Russian 3D bioprinter FABION, a software and hardware system designed to print living functional three-dimensional tissue and organ constructs.

The project in the field of ecology invites users around the world to monitor the air quality in their region of interest. A startup called AeroState uses simple technology Web API is an application programming interface.

The rating includes the AstroDigital project, a platform for accessing satellite data that provides fast and convenient search, as well as the integration of satellite photos on the Internet and mobile applications.

Another participant in the rating is a service for yachtsmen or those who wish to join this culture. In other words, with the help of the Anchor.Travel portal, anyone can rent a boat, boat or yacht, as well as offer someone their own water transport. The service works by analogy with Airbnb and provides for direct communication between users and yacht owners.


Russian scientists have made a breakthrough in medicine by launching the AntioncoRAN-M project, a gene therapy anticancer drug designed to treat head and neck cancer. According to the results of preclinical studies, the drug increases the effectiveness of radiation therapy by 63%.


Another drug that has taken a place in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta rating is Ivix, also known as women's Viagra. CA drugs - women with sexual dysfunction. While Ivix is ​​at the testing stage, however, it has proven itself well in animals.


The TOP-50 includes the Сardberry project, which will help people save space in their wallets. Engineers are working on an electronic card that can replace a whole stack of discount cards, synchronizing with the app of the same name via Bluetooth. The project received 800 pre-orders for 2016 and is currently in the funding phase.

Contactless payment provider CardsMobile has teamed up with British startup Tedipay to develop an open platform for secure transactions. With the help of the technology, it will be possible to make any payments, including payment for transport, meals, etc. To do this, you only need a smartphone, which the authors of the idea call a “wallet”.


An online auction for selling cars called Caprice is an analogue of the foreign portals Webuyanycar, WirKaufenDeinAuto and Al wataneya. The creators of the domestic auction promise that with the help of the service you can sell a car in half an hour.


In 2015, a Siberian startup raised $1.4 million to create the first batch of 3D pens called CreoPop. The pens contain a new photopolymer ink that cures under UV light.

The rating includes the CrocoTime project, a program for HR professionals that tracks up to 10,000 users simultaneously. The service offers automated employee monitoring for fees ranging from $14 to $50.


Among the most ambitious startups is the Russian private space satellite manufacturer Dauria Aerospace. In 2015, the Chinese investment fund Cybernaut invested in the development of the project, which gave the company $70 million, with the ultimate goal of tracking the life of one of the largest cities in the world.


Institute of Catalysis G.K. Boreskov SB RAS developed the EcoCat technology. The project helps to reduce the cost of heating industrial premises by 4 times.


A project called Ecwid can change the e-commerce industry: it is an AJAX-powered online store platform that allows you to develop a site for an online store for free in a few minutes.

Another member of Elbi is an application created by supermodel Natalia Vodianova. The mobile service allows you to send £1 or $1 donations to charities around the world.

The rating also includes the Russian analogue of numerous instant messengers and social networks FireChat; in 2015, the number of registered users exceeded 5 million. A new version allows users to exchange private messages and in group chats.

The authors of the rating also attracted the attention of the Russian version of virtual reality from FIBRUM. Engineers have created a headset in which the main element is not expensive materials, but an ordinary smartphone.

The list of the best startups included the IBOX project, an innovative solution that allows customers to accept cash and non-cash payments without cash equipment and terminals.

iBuildApp

intersoft Eurasia,

iBuildApp is a platform that allows businesses to build iOS and Android mobile apps in minutes. This service already has 1.3 million users, including the US Department of State.

One of the participants in the rating was the startup Intersoft Eurasia, which develops cross-platform devices for monitoring human radiation exposure. The company offers several options for devices and their integration: a compact device-addition to a mobile device, a processor built into the mobile phone circuit, and watch-dosimeters.

Intui.Travel travel service helps travelers book a hotel and find an airport transfer. With the application, users can create a route to any place.


Cloud video surveillance service Ivideon designed to work with already installed cameras, including personal computers and laptops.


Kribrum has developed a social media monitoring system. The project is a tool for analyzing various references in the media. In 2015, the startup raised generous investments — more than $600,000. The system is aimed primarily at PR and marketing services.

Another participant in the rating is the Kuznech visual image search system, which allows you to track brands in the media stream, filter "adult" content, control offline merchandising, etc. The project supports video recognition and is adapted for smartphones.

The list of the best includes the well-known project LinguaLeo, an online service for learning languages. Now the portal has about 12 million registered users who are learning English. The service is available to Russians, Brazil and residents of Turkey.


The Forest Watch project is a security system that allows you to prevent and track forest fires. The startup covers 33 regions of Russia and Bulgaria.

The Luka app provides recommendations for over 2,000 restaurants in San Francisco. With the help of an SMS conversation, the service finds out whether you are a vegetarian or a fan of cheese, after which it issues a list of establishments that suit your tastes.


Startup Mailburn proposes to turn the standard of business correspondence with ambiguous templates. Almost 80% of the app users work outside of Russia, and the majority of the audience comes from the United States.

One of the TOP-50 participants was the MarketMixe project - a platform for trading from suppliers' warehouses with individual data processing for online stores and online trading platforms. MarketMixer automatically processes the price lists of suppliers and prepares a selection of goods for sending to the online store showcase


Startup Nanosemantics is a developer of a natural programming language that should be used on websites in chats with its representatives. The main key of the project is the laid-back human language in which bots communicate with site visitors.

Optograd Nanotech company, which is working on strengthening products. The technology of nanostructural modification of the surface of materials and alloys using a laser was recognized as one of the best startups.

The N-tech.lab project, created at the University of Washington, allows face recognition, surpassing other systems in terms of quality and speed of work.

Another payment system that will make life easier for users is PayQR. With this online banking and QR codes, you can make purchases in seconds.

A product that may replace architects and designers in the future is the Planner 5 D app. It allows you to design a house and interior even before construction begins, from walls to furniture.

Startup Prixel will give anyone the opportunity to become a collector of the most famous paintings for symbolic money. To create paintings, the company uses a 3D scanning technique that allows you to create exact copies. Prixel already has customers in the US, Mexico, Europe, Canada, South Korea and other countries.

One of the most positive startups in the rating is the Panda Money service, which is essentially online banking. However, it differs from other projects in the presence of a small character - a panda, which "feeds" at the expense of user payments.

Promobot is a robot designed for retail that has the ability to identify people's speech and recognize their appearance. Thus, the robot can help existing customers and find new ones.

Online cleaning service Qlean has raised over $327,000 in investments and plans to expand into the Asian market.


Relap is a B2B service aimed at increasing the time visitors spend on the site. The system recommends them using built-in widgets. The creators of the project promise that they will be able to increase the number of clicks up to 30-50%.

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Issues discussed in the material:

  • How to find a startup idea
  • What Russian startup ideas “fired” in 2018
  • How to test a startup idea
  • How to implement it
  • How to protect your startup idea from theft

Probably, every modern person at least once visited the thought: “What if I open my own business?”. But starting a business is not so easy, and not all undertakings are crowned with success. Why, with the same efforts, financial investments and time, some succeed, while others are haunted by failures? Very importance have ideas for a startup. As a rule, ideas surround us everywhere, but we often do not notice them.

How to find a startup idea and create your own business


It is extremely unpleasant and insulting for any businessman if he understands that his business idea turned out to be untenable, since a lot of effort and money was spent on its implementation.

Those who are far from business may naively believe that entrepreneurs are looking for new ideas for a startup with minimal investment solely to make money. But in reality, businessmen are trying to realize new idea when they realize that there is an opportunity to make the world a better place or successfully solve some problem.

People tend to draw ideas for startups in their technological preferences. But, as a rule, grandiose ideas are not born in this way, since the project is focused on solutions, and not on user problems. Any technology can be used by different markets, and therefore, in order to test each new technological idea, it is necessary to make new business acquaintances.

First of all, you should understand in which market you want to work. Next, in this area, you need to identify the problem that needs a solution.

This approach provides a number of advantages:

  • Easier and faster testing of new options. There is no need to make new acquaintances, because when you generate different ideas for the same market, you are communicating with the same people. To get answers to questions, you just need to call or send a letter, and not try to arrange a meeting for a personal acquaintance.
  • More efficient use of time. For example, when you decide to visit this or that event, you are only interested in the answer to one question: “Will there be businessmen there?”. You are not scattered and trying to become recognizable in the chosen market. Once you have defined your market, you can be sure that serving your audience will be a real pleasure.

After all, if you want to solve any problems of the market, it means that you sympathize with potential customers. Accordingly, you plan to provide services to these people for at least another 5-10 years. Business becomes much more interesting if you are really interested in solving people's problems.

Of course, to find "your" market, it will take some time. Trial and error will be inevitable. Any creative person is usually addicted to a lot of things. Therefore, at first it will seem that there are many markets where one could successfully turn around. But, as practice shows, not all problems can really "hook".

Test several ideas for different markets. This the best option understand which one you really want to work on.

Even your best ideas will have downsides. Identify and acknowledge them. A startup idea can only be successfully implemented if you find a method to effectively eliminate flaws.



Do not discard ideas that require hard and painstaking work to implement. Don't look for easy ways. If you manage to bring a complex idea to life, you will have almost no competitors in the market and the younger generation of businessmen will not become a threat to you.

If a company has successful competitors, this is more of an advantage than a disadvantage. It indicates that the product or service is in demand. If you are clearly different from your competitors and there is evidence that this feature can attract enough buyers, you can safely enter even highly competitive markets.

It is not uncommon for entrepreneurs to succeed by starting with a narrow niche. Success will come if a small audience is very interested in you, satisfied with the quality of the product or service, and also if there is a clear and effective scheme for entering a large market.

  • Ideas are born in the course of communication. Share your thoughts, ideas, discuss markets and trends with others. So you will 100% get new ground for thought.
  • Ideas are born in empathy. Dive into other people's problems and you can come up with new solutions.
  • Ideas are born out of curiosity. What will happen in the future? How should everything work?
  • Ideas originate in the subconscious. Write on paper the scope of your activity and the requirements for the idea. And then just mind your own business. In a few days, the idea will come by itself.

11 Methods for Finding a Startup Idea



  1. Live in the future

    2. Look to the future, use what was not there yesterday, learn about inventions, think about next generation products.

    In the future, the popularity of mobile gadgets, DNA texts, ultra-thin materials will increase even more. What products and services should surround such items?

    Think about change, try to complete the sentence: "If you are in the future, then ...". You can complete it, for example, like this: "... you are surrounded by supercars" or "... no one uses cash." And then create a startup that will allow this to be realized.

  2. Become an expert in any field

    3. It is impossible to enter certain industries from the street, for example, customs, nuclear energy, and medical spheres. Companies in such areas, as a rule, are founded only after many years of work in foreign organizations. Turn into such an insider, and you will enter a promising market that not everyone can enter.

    Michael Bloomberg majored in IT at the investment bank Salomon Brothers. In 1981, he was fired with a $10 million settlement. With that money, he founded Bloomberg L.P., a firm that provides financial information to companies in need. At the moment, the company occupies a leading position in the market. Bloomberg is the mayor of New York, his fortune is on the thirteenth line of Forbes.

    Build some powerful tool. Master the development of mobile applications, online stores, start using Big Data. Then start talking to a lot of people, find out their problems, evaluate how you can help them.

    Become a cool expert in two different areas at once. Medical field and sales, IT and government contracts, culinary industry and retail. There are many unique opportunities at the intersections.

  3. Solve your own problems

    4. Find out what problem is interfering with your own life. Focus on what you can't find an existing solution for. Problems appear when something changes in life. The situation is the same in the B2B sector. You have one company, and it cannot cope with some difficulty of its own. You create a second firm to solve such problems, and then this second firm suddenly becomes larger than the first.

    Patrick Collison created the Stripe payment system when he got tired of connecting other people's inconvenient payment systems to his previous projects. Flickr was born when an online game needed a convenient way to store user images, and the game itself was successfully shut down.

  4. Look for pain points


    5. Watch how people lose time and money, work without the desired result, suffer. And then show up fully armed and offer to solve problems with the help of your project. Learn as much as you can about hunger, poverty, epidemics, unemployment, crime, traffic jams, corruption and pollution. Establish close contact with those who for long years solves these problems.

  5. Improve existing

    6. Find what people hate. And they hate parking, looking for rental housing, getting visas, moving, going to doctors. When generating interesting startup ideas, think about how you can simplify life.

    Use modern technology to reimagine the way you do everything. How should workers perform their duties in the age of smartphones? What should hospitals do in the digital age?

    Monopoly leaders have almost no desire to develop. It is not easy to fight with them, but sometimes undertakings are crowned with success. Virgin Atlantic started out trying to provide better service than British Airways.

  6. Link cheap resources to financially wealthy consumers

    7. Buy low, sell high. This elementary formula is effective at all times. And now it is even easier to connect the product and the buyer from different parts of the world. China has a lot of cheap manufacturing facilities. In developing countries - cheap labor. Somewhere abandoned factories are idle, which can be rented for a penny. And somewhere on the other side of the world, the population has a lot of money along with unsatisfied needs. For example, freelance job exchanges like oDesk and 99designs connect employees from developing countries with successful firms.

  7. Borrow and improve

    8. Most of the ideas for a startup are copied from other companies. Many successful firms once went down this path. What can be added to successful ideas? New distribution channels, better service, improved quality?

    In the small business segment, fashion trends appear all the time. Now co-working and bubble tea are at the peak of popularity, tomorrow private kindergartens will be in demand, the day after tomorrow - SMM agencies. These trends spread around the world quite slowly, and you can have time to be inspired by new trends. It is more reliable than something unknown and more interesting than buying a franchise.

    In the US, each college has its own merchandise in the form of sweatshirts, T-shirts, and caps. There were no such schemes in Russia until one student founded UniFashion. Now buyers of his products can be found in any hostel.

  8. travel


    9. Get ideas for a successful startup on the other side of the world. Each sphere has its own centers of trends. The heart of the fashion industry is in Paris and Guangzhou, the software industry is in the Valley, and the financial industry is in New York and London.

    In the early 80s, Howard Schultz worked at Starbucks. Then there were no drinks on sale - Starbucks specialized exclusively in the sale of coffee beans. One day, Schultz went shopping in Milan and saw that literally on every street there is a coffee shop where not only delicious coffee is served - in coffee shops people talked, discussed personal and business issues. In total, there were 200,000 such establishments in Italy. When Schultz returned, he tried to persuade the owners of Starbucks to pursue the same idea. But he was refused. Then Schultz left the company and founded his own chain of coffee houses. After a while, he was doing so well that he bought out Starbucks, making it a global phenomenon in the industry.

  9. Generate ideas for new markets

    10. New products from large organizations create a lot of compelling opportunities. If you react quickly, you can organically join this market.

    Venture capitalists understand this, and therefore they establish special investment funds for Facebook applications, Google-glass applications, bitcoin services. When the situation is changing globally, businessmen and investors are trying to "be in the know."

    The same scheme is effective for small local organizations. Follow the global construction projects - metro stations and airports, the process of gentrification.

    In 1975, MITS created the first home computer Altair 8800, the demand for which turned out to be very high. One student at Harvard University thought he could sell software and make money from it. Together with friends, he created an ASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 and began selling it as an MITS partner. This student's name was Bill Gates.

  10. Improve useless product

    11. Spend 2-3 days and create any product you want. Then chat with your friends and ask what needs to be changed so that they start using it. Make changes and ask the same question. Repeat until you create a product that millions can use. Is everyone familiar with the tale of ax porridge?

  11. Connect with smart people


    12. Some people come up with great startup ideas all the time. However, there are often big problems with their implementation. Ask these people to share their ideas. So you will not only catch a useful idea, but also get the first buyers.

    As a rule, for businessmen, their ideas are the most valuable. They regard strangers as secondary. Don't let selfishness get in the way of a great opportunity.

    Once, Elon Musk shared the idea of ​​creating a company for the installation and maintenance of solar panels with his cousins ​​Lyndon and Peter Rive. At the moment, their SolarCity company is a millionaire.

Where better not to get ideas for a startup

Here are some common ideas generation options that usually lead to defeat:

  • Analogy. Every second person does X for Y like “Hermitage for digital art”, “Instagram for video” or “Excel for hipsters”. It sounds solid, but as a rule, such undertakings are not crowned with success. Most likely, your market has its own specifics and a solution from someone else's will not be relevant. And if it does, then the source of your inspiration can come and destroy your idea. Who needs countless Instagrams for videos when Instagram itself now has videos?
  • "Product Vision". Many business people start by presenting a product or service in great detail. It is not difficult to fantasize different things, but as a rule, these fantasies have nothing to do with real needs market. Good ideas usually start with the customer.

Great start-up business ideas from abroad

  • Step-powered lighting


You can make great money on alternative energy sources by creating successful business in the small and medium segment in Russia. There are many profitable projects in Europe and North America which do not exist in our country. Why? The fact is that the state is not very interested in such ideas. Entrepreneurs in a crisis are forced to pay attention to modest business ideas for start-ups related to alternative energy sources. Here is an example of the implementation of such an idea: on the streets of big cities, in the corridors of offices, shopping centers and other crowded places, a special coating is laid that accumulates the kinetic energy of steps and turns it into electricity.

Energy-converting paving slabs are no longer exotic for England, Japan, the United States. It was simultaneously decided to use the energy of steps in crowded places in a number of states. The idea began to be implemented in 2012, and this work is ongoing to this day. Success was achieved by Pavegen, who installed the first samples of tiles in Westfield Stratford City shopping center and Wembley Stadium in London.

Tiles have many advantages, including simple installation and aesthetic appearance. At the same time, among its capabilities are not only transformation, but also the accumulation of energy, and therefore there is an option that by 2019 innovative footpaths will begin to be created in Russia. It remains only to guess what kind of profit such coverage can bring in megacities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Saratov, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk.

  • Production of luminous bicycles


On a bicycle - a universal vehicle - both children and adults love to ride. There are no problems with bicycles - this applies to both riding and operation, as well as environmental friendliness. But these vehicles also have their drawbacks: for example, riding them at night is unsafe due to poor visibility.

A cyclist, unlike a car driver, is not protected by a metal cabin. And from different reflectors and reflective stickers, the effect, admittedly, is not enough. As a result, there are quite a lot of accidents involving cyclists.

Enthusiasts from Pure Fix Cycles (USA) have recently begun to solve this problem. The workers came to the conclusion that for protection it is necessary that the bike is fully lit. After that, the world saw the first "radiant bike" Kilo GLOW - this is how the idea for a startup was realized.

The vehicle has a standard design. But during the manufacturing process, a special coating was applied to the frame, which accumulates rays of light during the day and reflects them at night. To accumulate a sufficient amount of energy, it is necessary that the bike stand on the street for only 1.5–2 hours. After that, you can not be afraid that in the evening you will not be noticed!

It is noteworthy that color scheme Bicycle manufacturers Kilo GLOW develop in agreement with customers. So, the owner himself determines which elements of his bicycle transport will be visible in the dark, and can choose the color of the glow.

There is no doubt that such an idea for a startup will be successfully implemented on the Russian market as well!

  • Pizza according to customer sketches


Today, anyone with sufficient funds can open a pizzeria. But not everyone can find original idea for a startup and stand out among numerous competitors. Here is a great idea for a startup in this area - making pizza according to the sketches of consumers.

Such an idea was born not so long ago in the West by the rather famous artist Jonas Lund. He decided to realize his talent as a painter in a different direction. He turned the simple preparation of pizza into an art.

Note that the artist did not launch the project alone. He pitched his ideas to Famous Original Ray's Pizza (USA), and the owners enthusiastically accepted the offer. The meaning of the service is that the artist creates the pizza that the clients came up with.

To order pizza according to an individual sketch, the client only needs to register on their website and enter a special section. You can draw pizza with all the necessary tools right there. Visitors to the Internet resource create individual sketches on a special round blank, which appears in the section window that opens. If the future buyer has no special wishes or he has problems with imagination, he can use ready-made sketches, keeping them in a standard form or adding something of his own. When the "picture" is ready, the chef-artist begins to bring the idea to life, and very soon the client can taste his creation. The chef draws with a variety of products.

The site contains a large number of standard sketches. For example, anyone can order a pizza that depicts Mona Lisa, the President of Russia, a dollar, or some other drawing. Such a culinary creation costs around $35-70 - everything is determined by the complexity of manufacturing. The work is certainly painstaking, but the cost justifies itself. Lots of orders coming in!

  • Ultrasound against bullies


It's no secret that the transitional age in adolescents is a difficult time. From time to time, the guys gather in the yards, near shopping centers and in other places where they laugh loudly, loudly, sometimes they smoke and drink. Howard Stapleton developed an idea for a start-up, thanks to which crowded places can be reliably protected from hooligans. He became the author of a unique device that repels children with ultrasound.

The device is called Mosquito, and it is tuned to the frequency of teenage hearing. The device emits a special ultrasonic signal that “cuts the hearing” of teenagers and thus makes them leave. Interestingly, adults do not respond to these signals.

The anti-vandal device (that's what it is called today) has already shown its effectiveness. The device is in great demand among the owners of various stores, who have repeatedly encountered the boorish behavior of teenagers.

Of course, the developer of the device does not say that all teenagers without exception are hooligans. And in order to look attractive in the eyes of well-mannered and calm teenagers, Stapleton implemented the startup idea differently, creating a special phone for school students. When the phone rings, the students hear it, but the teacher does not.

  • Unique fire fighting gadget


Lil Chesley from the USA decided to develop an innovative fire-fighting device after he was faced with a common situation - a fire in his own house. Fortunately, everything ended safely, without casualties. In addition, it was the fire that pushed Chesley to realize a great startup idea and become a successful businessman.

So, after the fire in the house, Lil began to design his own fire-fighting system. As a result, he managed to create a HotShot device powered by the mains. The mini-fire extinguisher is inserted into a special socket. If the sensors provided in the design detect an increase in temperature up to 250 degrees, a special canister is triggered, which ejects foam to extinguish the fire.

Chesley advises all home owners to buy such a system if the building is over 20 years old. The price of HotShot will be several times lower than the complete replacement of electricians in the house. The cost of the device together with installation varies around $1000. While the system is not yet sold freely, but in the near future they plan to put it up for sale.

Best startup ideas for business in Russia in 2018: 10 success stories

Ridiculous startup ideas that suddenly became hits

Surely everyone at least once thought about how many ridiculous ideas for a startup were implemented, and quite successfully. We list these ideas, at first glance strange and unpromising, which, as a result, however, managed to conquer the world:

  • Quora. The idea for the startup came from former Facebook employees. They came up with a service where some users will ask about something, while others will answer. But essentially similar Internet resources already exist: Yahoo! and Google, Answers.com and Ask.com. Quora has over 200,000 monthly visitors. Startup price by preliminary assessment is $ 50 million. The advantage of the service is that it allows you to find out completely different information on any topic. The most active Quora authors have 30,000+ views per month and 350,000+ per year.
  • Wikipedia. An online encyclopedia that anyone can make adjustments to. Plus, someone free time perform fact checks.
  • Twitter. The author of the idea for a startup is Jack Dorsey. When creating the service, he wanted to form a new social network, in the vastness of which people could communicate as if they were exchanging SMS or sending each other headers, like in RSS. Dorsey aimed to create a flawless service that would connect his phone with the phones of his friends. Now many well-known media quote tweets of eyewitnesses of this or that event. Twitter also makes it easier for celebrity fans to follow their lives.
  • Instagram. A service for sharing beautiful and cute photos from everyday life between users. At first, the startup did not bring any revenue. Moreover, there was not even a model for obtaining it. But everything changed dramatically when a year later the company was bought by Facebook for a whopping $1 billion (Instagram creator Kevin Systrom had a 40% stake, which allowed him to earn $400 million). Already during the first day, the influx of users amounted to 25 million. Millions were added in the first month. At the moment, every 2 weeks a million users join the service.
  • pinterest. Service for saving your favorite pictures. The point is that everyone can have a virtual cork board where they can put whatever they want. The audience of the service consists mostly of women. According to preliminary data, the tool is valued at $2.5 billion. Pinterest now has 100 employees.
  • Foursquare. From the very beginning, "check-ins" were perceived as a strange idea. But with the advent of "likes" and the ability to write comments and hints to locations and receive badges for this, the situation has changed. It was in this case that gamification decided everything. According to experts, the company's value is now about $600 million. In April of this year, the founders attracted another $41 million in investments.
  • Zappos. It would seem that the idea for a startup was doomed to failure. The founders decided to sell shoes online. Despite the huge difficulty in guessing the exact size, the inability to try on the insoles, the huge assortment in which it is easy to get lost, and the three-day wait for the order, the startup has become incredibly successful!

5 methods to test the potential of a startup idea

  1. "Mom-test": checking by relatives and friends


    2. When a businessman starts his own business, he certainly aims for success. But if you don't prepare properly, failure is inevitable. To minimize risks at least a little, do not be lazy and test your idea - from the concept and initial resources to implementation and nuances. Check how creative and unique your idea is, what potential it has. There are different methods for this.

    At first, you can simply interview relatives, friends and acquaintances. This is the so-called "mom test". It cannot be said that it gives a 100% objective result, since friends and family often flatter us in an attempt to cheer us up. However, you should still test the idea in this way. Perhaps you will identify some weaknesses in the project and improve them.

    When talking about your startup with loved ones, formulate and ask the most simple and understandable questions in order to get truthful answers. Focus on the gaps and flaws in the business idea, and elaborate on how your family and friends suggest dealing with them. Then analyze in detail the answers received, select all the most important for the project. This way you will have a much better idea of ​​what the prospects of the idea are.

  2. Client testing

    3. When launching a new product or service, remember who your the target audience what she wants and needs. There is a lean startup methodology, which was created by the American entrepreneur and business theorist Eric Ries. It allows you to check whether consumers are really ready to buy your product.

    Lean startup is a concept of "lean" start-up and development of companies, which is based on the most careful use of resources. In this case, when introducing any new product, enterprises apply a scientific approach: they formulate a hypothesis, test it locally on a small audience or market share, and then evaluate the feedback and results. If the effect is positive, they start implementing this idea for a startup, but on a larger scale.

    With this method, businesses can design products and services that meet customer expectations and needs without significant upfront investment or costly start-ups.

    The ubiquity of Internet technologies eliminates the need to interview people on the streets or go door to door. All you need to do is create a landing page on the Internet (landing page) and use the capabilities of social networks, online groups, bulletin boards or marketplaces with your target audience.

  3. Oxygen, aspirin or jewel

    4. There is another way to test the viability of your startup idea - with the help of a rapid test developed by a successful entrepreneur and Harvard Business School lecturer Janet Kraus. All that needs to be done is to answer the main question about your project: how irreplaceable is it, does it seem to the target audience as a product or service, without which it is difficult or impossible to live. Conventionally, this method of verification can be called "oxygen, aspirin or jewelry." Here you need to clearly understand how important the future product is. If you can't replace it, it's oxygen. If it makes life easier or helps solve problems, aspirin. If it's more about pleasure or status, it's a gem. Kraus believes that a successful business idea should consist of all three of these aspects, since they are what will allow the business to grow progressively and steadily and generate income at the same time.

  4. The Disney Method

    5. To evaluate a startup idea from all angles, you can use the "Disney method", which is based on analyzing it from three positions: a dreamer, a skeptic, and a realist.

    When developing new projects, Disney teams gradually moved from one room to another, and each had its own functionality. The first room allowed to show the most daring fantasies. The second was intended to create detailed sketches of the incarnations of these fantasies. In the third, everything could be harshly criticized. To successfully complete a project, teams could return to previous rooms. The project was considered completed only when there were no more complaints about it in the room for criticism.

    How to implement the Disney method in modern conditions? Replace rooms with a piece of paper, a text editor and, of course, apply all your intellectual potential.

  5. Edison Method

    6. After testing all the above methods and knowing all the strengths and weaknesses of the startup idea, try to bring the project to perfection so that it does not have flaws. The "Edison method" is very effective here. Since every test that fails can provide useful food for thought, when you test your startup idea, you first need to refine it so that it meets the requirements for 100%.

    When Edison was once asked what the secret of his success was, he said that he was refining the product until it began to "work on its own." This is the essence of the method.

How to implement an idea for a startup: 6 steps

  1. Location selection


    2. The World Wide Web is blurring boundaries, and that's great. But only for those whose projects have already paid off. If you are just going to implement a startup, be prepared for a long road. Presentations and negotiations must be attended in person. Accordingly, it is necessary to go to designated places where there are business incubators, accelerators, technology parks, and so on.

    In the USA, these are Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Silicon Valley, where literally everyone has a startup presentation with them.

    In Canada - the small town of Waterloo, where BlackBerry is trying to survive and a lot of its young competitors are growing up, many of whom are associated with it.

    In Germany, Berlin.

    In India - Bangalore, an analogue of Silicon Valley. Investors themselves come to this place from different parts of the Earth to capitalize on high-quality Indian startups.

    In Russia, this is Moscow, in particular Skolkovo. There are also famous accelerators and venture funds in the Russian capital: IIDF, GenerationS, Farminers. You can also mention Kazan, where the Pulsar Venture accelerator operates, and St. Petersburg with iDealMachine.

  2. Choice of helpers

    3. At first glance, there are a lot of ideas for a startup, but there are not enough funds to implement them. In reality, there is nowhere to invest money. Rates in verified banks are zero. In stocks, there is a lot of risk at a not very high level of income. But a quality startup brings up to 1000% per annum. There will be no end to those who want to help.

    FFF- from family, friends, fools (family, friends, fools). They will help at the start because of family ties, shared memories or faith in success.

    Business incubator. If the startup idea seems interesting, the incubator will provide premises, office equipment and other necessary things for a small fee or a share in the project.

    Accelerator. It is a business incubator with training and supervisory functions. The accelerator strives to bring the project to perfection so that investors like it. Next, you need to sell it. A business angel will buy out a share from the accelerator if he believes that the project has prospects. An accelerator and a business angel are not much different from each other, but, as a rule, the latter are more picky.

    Venture fund. It is he who will provide the first large funds. But he may refuse. The Fund will invest millions of dollars in the implementation of your idea only if the process is already launched and is developing rapidly.

  3. Answers on questions

    4. This stage will be repeated over and over again, from investor to investor. It is easiest to make a mistake on it, and therefore, first you need to answer a number of questions for yourself personally.

    Does someone need your product? Most projects are closed due to the fact that no one needs the product.

    Is it a venture business? If we are talking about 25% per annum, an investor would rather buy a pub in Prague. A startup will interest him only if it brings a tenfold profit in a short period. This is the meaning of venture business: big earnings for big risk.

    Do you have something to show? Investors are interested in MVP (minimum viable product) - a product that can be sold immediately, even in its raw form.

    Can you scale quickly? In order to grow 10x in the shortest possible time, a business must scale quickly. It will take a year and a billion to open another hundred pubs. On the inclusion of new distribution channels for the application - a week and a million. What is more profitable?

    Is there a competitive advantage? Creating the same Instagram, but with a blue-and-blue design is a step that no one will appreciate. Follow the recommendations of investors - look for a problem with consumers, find out what they lack when solving a particular issue.

    Is it a seasonal business? An application that allows you to call Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden will be downloaded by millions of people on December 31. And then what?

  4. Decor

    5. Potential startup founders discussing their idea over a cup of coffee often lose sight of the fact that as a result it will still turn out to be a standard LLC or CJSC, where there will be a staffing table and which will have to submit tax returns. It can also be GmbH, Ltd, LLC, SRL - it all depends on the state. Therefore, it is interesting for any investor to see at least basic documentation.

    Confirmation of the existence of a legal entity. In this case, we are talking about the charter, memorandum of association, extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and registration certificate. The whole process of investing in a startup is accompanied by the transfer of shares from one person to another. The investor needs to be sure that not a single nuance in the design legal entity won't be a hindrance.

    Registration of intellectual property. Whatever you come up with, you need to get a patent for your invention, and only after that you can sell it. All ideas for a startup must be formalized.

  5. Receiving the money



    6. Pre-seed stage. There is a team, a working prototype, the first clients, but there are no funds to fully launch the project. At this stage, it is better to turn to the three Fs (we wrote about this earlier) or engage in bootstrapping - look for savings, mortgage real estate, and so on. Here, investors support only very promising projects. The size of investments, as a rule, is in the region of 1–1.5 million rubles.

    seed stage. You have filed the rights, studied the market, drawn growth graphs in Excel, carried out economic calculations. At this stage, you can involve an accelerator or a business angel in cooperation. The main mistake of the founder here is unjustified generosity out of fear of not realizing the project. If you give 1/3 of the company to a random investor, then as subsequent cash investments, other people's shares will exceed 50%. And according to venture funds, if the share of a startup is small, he loses his incentive to develop. Such startups are not eager to help financially.

    Round A. The startup is already 1-2 years old, a favorable unit-economy (income-income per client), constant growth, and prospects for further development are visible. At this stage, accelerators or business angels are ready to sell their stake to a venture fund. Accordingly, negotiations are approaching with a serious investor who will invest in the project from 50 to 100 million rubles.

    Round B Things are going well, and the investor proposes to seriously scale the project, bring it to the international market. Here, about 1 billion rubles can be given for development.

    IPO. Every startup and investor secretly dreams about this, and, in fact, everything is started for this. We are talking about the launch of the company's shares in free circulation. You won't be able to complete the process quickly. We need transparency and good reporting. But it is on the stock exchange that your share will be valued in financial terms, and it can immediately be converted into money. It is only important to give an appropriate instruction to the broker.

    RoundBBB (beach, boat, blond). Of course, you described the mission in your business plan and mentioned the benefits to society. But after all, for the sake of this stage, everything was started?

  6. Growth Technologies

    7. The project can be launched even if you have only an old laptop and mobile. But they must be equipped with something new that would help increase the chances of success. We can talk, for example, about new IT, specially created for start-ups. And even if you do not know anything about such technologies, then competitors, most likely, have already mastered them.

    VTsOD. A virtual data processing and storage center is when you rent the capacities of a cloud service with the subsequent creation of a virtual machine with up to 16 cores. This service is provided by Rostelecom. It allows you to rent the capacity of the National Cloud Platform. Expanding, for example, as site traffic grows, can be done very quickly and without technical support.

    Virtual PBX. If a startup is associated with many incoming calls, multiple lines are needed. And you won’t be able to purchase them separately - it will take the entire tranche of round B. But at the same time, a virtual PBX will give many lines and numbers of internal subscribers on one city number. Again, there is scaling.

    VPN network with protection against DDoS attacks. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network - virtual private network. In other words, you do not run cables around the office, but rent a virtual server and work through it. Rostelecom also protects tenants from DDoS attacks, during which hackers overload the server with requests, blocking everyone from entering.

    Virtual contact center. Instead of renting a semi-basement at the price of a royal suite in a luxury hotel and accommodating operators there, you can order a service that accompanies Rostelecom's virtual PBX. Within a couple of days, you will have a contact center of any scale deployed. It will be possible to manage it remotely, without buying new equipment.

    Web video conference. If at the end of any meeting with partners and investors you invariably celebrate agreements with a buffet table and drink until the morning, then you are putting your business at risk. It is better to connect the Internet in Rostelecom and unite all participants in the video conference without downloading new software. What browsers someone has does not matter here.

Startup Ideas That Failed

  • Revolv

In 2016, IT corporation Alphabet (Google) announced that it intends to close the Revolv division that created a hub for smart home items. Revolv users had the ability to control all the "smart" electronic items in the house - both light bulbs and electronic kettles. But later, the leaders of the owner enterprise decided that there was no point in developing the direction, and on May 15, 2016, all owners of the device for $ 299 were disconnected from the system. The firm promised to think about how buyers could get their money back. Alphabet and its divisions Nest have not said anything about the details of their decision.

  • YayNay

Thanks to the YayNay app, smartphone owners could compare anything with anything. A person uploaded a photo, and others rated it by pressing the "Yay" or "Nay" buttons. The service closed in 2014. The main reason was that the developers could not properly control the content posted by users.

The project developer revealed that users began to upload not only harmless photos of hairstyles, shoes, cars. So, a user was discovered who asked to evaluate candid pictures of teenagers.

There were other reasons, such as the slow increase in the number of users. As a result, the project leaders decided that there was no need to fix a problem that they had not foreseen at the start. It's best to just disable the service and remove it from the app stores.

  • Radio

In 2015, the Rdio service, one of the first music streaming services, also ceased to exist. It was developed by the former Skype team. Users love the service. In their opinion, the application had a high-quality interface and interacted well with the user.

The difficulty, according to journalists, was that the company put everything on the product and almost did not promote the service, did not pay attention to the marketing component. The service was perfected, but it was outpaced by competitors that generated more media buzz, such as Spotify and Apple Music. In addition, you had to pay to use Rdio, and the application could not gather a sufficient audience.

How to protect your startup idea and not become a victim of theft



You can often hear from some experts in this field that no one steals ideas, because it is useless. But let's think. There are a lot of examples of successfully “copied” projects now, as this is relevant and allows you to make good money. But, of course, it is not those who borrowed the idea for a startup that receive income.

In real life, startup ideas are indeed stolen because it can be profitable. As an example, you can take the same "Odnoklassniki" or "VKontakte" - analogues of Western social networks. Now these sites are successfully operating, despite the fact that the ideas for their implementation are borrowed. Many cars are copies of others (especially true for Asian transport), but this does not prevent distributors from making money on them. The advantage of machines may be in price or something else.

Are all startup ideas really stealable? Alas, most of the projects on the modern market do not carry anything special, outstanding. But when implementing an existing project, you can still bring something new to life.

Some believe that investors can steal a startup idea. But it's almost impossible. There is no benefit for the investor to pitch the idea to another team and invest at random. Of course, the choice of an investor should be approached very carefully. Find out in advance what projects he has funded, what his reputation is. If you take the matter seriously, you can not be afraid that difficulties will arise. And, of course, don't forget to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

But with competitors, the situation is different. They are to be feared. Even if you think that the future product has no analogues, do not relax. You still run the risk of crossing someone's path.

Any potential project is based on an idea. Many people have good thoughts, often at the same time, and this makes it harder to determine the true authorship. Only a competent author can turn an idea for a startup into a quality project. It is necessary that the author not only understands how best to implement the idea, but also how to protect it from competitors. There is a point of view according to which there are no moral or legal barriers to stealing an idea. But that doesn't mean you can't protect yourself.

The most effective protection option is efficiency. The point of a startup is to quickly implement an idea that will lead to a good result. This is what makes a startup different from a simple one. entrepreneurial activity. The speed of implementation of an idea is determined by the professional level of those who implement it. If you implement the project in the shortest possible time, you will significantly reduce the risk of plagiarism. Thieves or competitors simply will not have time to track all stages of the formation and development of the project. In such a situation, they will make a mistake after a mistake.

There is one more method to protect your idea from unfair encroachment. Remember the tales of Uncle Remus, where Brer Rabbit allowed Brer Fox, who caught him, to do whatever he wanted with himself, “just don’t throw it into that thorn bush!”. Brer Rabbit lived in a thorn bush. Exactly the same tactics are used by the authors of a startup, disclosing the details of the project to people who may be unreliable.

But this method of protection against theft is indirect, since the thought itself is not something material, it cannot be touched. How to protect yourself more seriously? There are several effective ways. For example, you can:

  • fix the idea of ​​a startup by describing it on paper. You can do this with a notary when you certify and document the date. If the idea is stolen, you will present this paper to the court as proof of your authorship;
  • publish it in print media or on a specialized website. If you post an idea on a blog, it will not be considered proof;
  • write a registered letter in your name and describe the idea in it. You can open such a letter only once, for example, as part of a trial in court;
  • patent or register copyright. This method is used only if the idea has any form enshrined in the current law of the Russian Federation. It can be, for example, an invention, computer program, selection method or achievement, trade secret, etc.;
  • draw up a gentlemen's agreement - it is concluded between partners and investors of a startup. The only downside is that such an agreement is concluded orally and it does not have legal force;
  • develop a confidentiality agreement. The document is drawn up in writing, stipulates in it all the details of the interaction of partners and investors of the company. Such an agreement is a weighty proof of the correctness in resolving disputes in court.