Aspiring businessmen who are inspired by the idea of ​​their business are looking for opportunities to implement it. Often, to implement an idea, initial capital is required, which is not available. And the search for investors begins, and those who are weaker in spirit completely refuse to implement the idea. Is it really possible to organize a startup without a budget? To this question, there is already an answer: “Really!”.
In order not to be unfounded, the article provides examples from world practice, when startups were created with a zero budget, growing to companies with millions of turnovers. How did they do it?

Startup without a budget: what is the most important thing?

You should not immediately say that beginners have little chance of implementing global ideas. That dreams will remain dreams without the financial support of investors and a highly paid professional team. But everything is not as banal as it seems at first glance.
After all, there are examples of entrepreneurs who, despite the lack of money, moved towards their goal and achieved it. Why do some people succeed and others don't?
Why do teams that have high hopes do not live up to expectations, and someone without connections, money can bring the idea to life? A vivid historical example!

Inventor Samuel Langley had a good team and excellent connections. He worked at Harvard, was a professor of mathematics, he had open doors to the most successful people who could support him.
He was given a $50,000 grant from the US Department to invent the world's first flying machine. His work was covered by journalists, to whom he constantly promised the first plane.
At the same time, in Ohio, the Wright brothers were also trying to build an airplane. They didn't have a grant, they didn't have any connections, they didn't have funding. They were in their garage where they sold bicycles, they got together with their friends and invented the airplane. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers took off in the first plane and they changed the world.

What is the principled approach of S. Langley and the Wright brothers. Langley wanted popularity, wanted to be the first, the brothers, in turn, wanted to improve the world. And their friends who helped them were like-minded people who also had this dream.

Moving forward towards a dream depends on motivation and belief in success!

What is the secret of a successful startup?

Simon Seneca, a speaker on the popular TED show, came up with the following conclusions.

100% of companies know what they do, what product and service they produce.
- Some companies understand how they differ from others, what is their competitive advantage.
- Few companies know why they are doing this business. This does not mean profit, as it is only a result. Why is the original reason, belief in something, a dream, the engine of the process.

What can get you out of bed in the morning? Why is your startup needed? Why should he be loved? The answer to the question "Why?" is the secret key to the client's heart!

Scientists have studied the most successful people and concluded that they think, communicate, and approach their work in a very special way. What they do is fundamentally different from what others do.

Consider an example if Apple were the same as everyone else. How would she interact with her clients?
We manufacture computers. They are easy to use and beautiful in design! Want to buy?
This approach is the main one for many manufacturing companies.

A similar example in other sectors:

We have opened! Grocery store 24 hours! Come to us!
-We are a large law firm. We serve such and such prestigious clients. Waiting for you!
This approach is not efficient.

What is the ideology of Apple, which brought them popularity?
“Everything we do, we believe it sets new standards of quality. We believe that it is possible to think otherwise. Believing in this, we make our products easy to use, modern and beautiful. It just so happens that we make good computers, iPads, iPhones.”
The very first buyers of this product are the first to believe what they believe.
Believing in the ideology of the company that it is changing the world for the better, products are bought for a lot of money, despite the cheaper analogues of competitors!

Another example. The first MP3 player was released by the Singaporean company Creative Technology with the name 5GB3MP, but it was not popular. After 21 months, Apple released the iPod with the name "100 Favorite Songs in Your Pocket", which everyone loved. Feel the difference in the supply of goods?

When we talk about what we do, what we produce, this should not force people to buy our product. How can we make customers loyal over the years? Demand for a product cannot be sustained solely by constantly giving discounts.
We need something that will enable customers to become like-minded with the manufacturer. And this can only be done if we broadcast ideas in which we ourselves believe.

What target audience to attract?

Why is it important to find like-minded buyers? Because they are the engine in the formation of new demand!
There is an established rule for the development of demand. The entry of a product to the market consists of several stages:
1. 2.5% of customers who first buy a product are innovators;
2. 13.5% early adopters;
3. 34% previously majority;
4. 34% late majority
5. 16% laggards.

When buying a new product, the very first customers rely on intuition, impressions of the product, and they will be the engine of further sales through word of mouth. You need to find clients who will believe in what you are doing.

How to create a team of professionals without money?

When choosing people for a team, you need to look for like-minded people who will also believe in your idea, ready to work for free until the result, and not for the sake of getting paid.

A striking example was the creation of Facebook, when development partners were offered a share in the company instead of a salary, because no one knew what this could lead to.

There are also other non-monetary motivators, such as creating flexible working hours, a convenient place to work or the ability to work remotely from home, public praise of employees, and entertainment for them.

Where can you find employees? A good way to negotiate with higher and specialized educational institutions, where to get interns to get practice as interns. In turn, you can be useful to them as a mentor.

Instructions for the implementation of a startup!

1. Make a plan for what you would like to achieve in the market, i.e. ultimate goal. Knowing it, you need to understand what you have to do approximately for this. The usual business plan is doomed to failure here. it is static, not flexible. Do not try to adjust the development of your new idea to some old market framework. Write what you would like, without being limited to anything.
2. Analyze the current market situation in this area. Find niches that have the least competition. Choose one as the main one.
3. Make a trial batch of a product or service, offer it to customers. You have to make sure people want to buy it.
4. Make a short-term plan for the quarter. The main focus should be on achieving immediate goals.
5. Officially register with the tax authorities. Build a system of repetitive business processes.
6. The release of goods and services in proportion to sales.
   No need to make a large inventory. Minimize costs.
7. Adjust business development.
   Take into account changes in market dynamics, remove inconvenient processes. Plan short-term, while leaving the opportunity to make prompt adjustments to the current plan.

Where to make money: 5 unique business ideas that will help you get rich! How to make money quickly on the eve of the holidays? Working ways from Anatomy of Business!

The last thing you want to do after an 8 hour day is work on your startup. But if you don't do this, if you don't open your own, you'll end up in an endless loop of working for someone else. And you will be forced to adapt to corporate rules, climb the career ladder and rush to the office every morning by 9:00.

How to wake up at 5 am

I decided to get up at 5 am and work on my startup before the juice-sucking work day at the office begins. I decided to be an early riser, but found that my morning zombie brain cleverly deceives me and overcomes all obstacles, just to get some more sleep. In those happy days, when I managed to get out of bed, I just sat and stared at one point.

Performance blogs make things seem easy, they constantly bombard you with examples of the amazing feats that mythical people accomplish in the morning: 8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 AM, 7 Things Early Birds Do Differently, Why You Wake Up Early »... Reading about the achievements of these superheroes, who manage to save the world a couple of times before 8 in the morning, you feel guilty for overslept again. Are they people at all?

For example, Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and Square, gets up at 5:30, meditates, runs 9.5 km, and then works about 8 hours on Twitter and Square.

The truth is, waking up at 5am is hell. Morning you are the enemy of your undertakings. This is your second person, who sneakily turns off the alarm before important morning meetings and constantly presses the “Snooze” button on it so that you miss the train. You cannot trust the morning demon, but you can overcome it by changing the usual pattern of getting up in the morning.

Find an alarm clock that's smarter than you

I don’t know where this tradition came from - jumping up to the deafening ringing of an alarm clock, but for some reason we are quite satisfied with this daily shock therapy. Instead of being voluntarily attacked by a wildly blaring alarm clock every morning, find one that wakes you up gradually and gently. Slow awakening allows your body to accept the fact that you are waking up. And when your brain really wakes up, you will no longer have an obsessive desire to crack the hated squeaker.

You can use an alarm clock that brews coffee at the appointed time and wakes you up with aroma. Or an alarm clock that glows softly, simulating sunrise. It seems to the body that the sun is rising, and it is easier to wake up.

Or try a smart alarm clock on a fitness band. It will wake you up with a vibration on your wrist during your REM sleep cycle, but it won't disturb your partner and they won't want to kill you for getting up early. By the way, a cat, a dog or a child, who at 5 in the morning can decide to walk on your face, also helps to wake up.

Personally, I use the Warmly app along with the default alarm clock on my smartphone. Warmly slowly wakes me up with 5 minutes of bird chirping, and finally I wake up to the vibrating sound of Yo-Yo Ma's cello. Outsmart the morning demon by starting with an alarm clock.

Set up a long distance relationship with an alarm clock

Developing good habits is not rocket science, it can be learned quickly. A simple strategy for acquiring good habits and breaking bad ones is to establish affordances.

In design, we create affordances when we want the user to take some action. In this way, the desired behavior is rewarded (it becomes easier for the user) and the unwanted behavior is discouraged (these actions are difficult to perform).

If you need to develop the habit of not turning off the alarm in the morning, create many obstacles to turning it off. Set a few alarms, download to your smartphone, which does not stop ringing until you solve the puzzle, put the phone in a jar and close it. I want to fall asleep in an embrace with a smartphone, and when I wake up, look at social networks. But if I decide to get up early, I'll have to put it away.

Force yourself to drink coffee

Those who survived the fight with the pillow, broke away from it, and even seem to wake up, another problem awaits: you want to go back to sleep. You are still so young, there is a lot of time ahead, so why not get up early tomorrow? Oh, I hear that voice every day, tempting me to go back to bed. The morning me is a terrible type. So let's kick it.

You can prepare coffee the way you normally would. Get up, throw coffee into the coffee maker or put the kettle on to brew instant coffee. But be prepared for the fact that your morning monster will not let you reach the kitchen. His goal is to get you back to bed with all his might, and he will ignore your attempts to get to the invigorating drink.

Coffee needs to be integrated into your awakening process. The goal is to make the alarm switch the habit of drinking coffee. The alarm clock is ringing - you are drinking coffee. Experiment with automating the beverage preparation process.

Initially, I tried to start brewing coffee on the alarm clock. But I didn't get to the kitchen. Then I tried to make coffee at night and put it on the desktop. But I didn't get to the table. I eventually started putting a cup of coffee on my smartphone. That is, to turn off the alarm, I had to remove the cup. And when the coffee is already in your hand, not drinking it is completely weak-willed. Make 5am the start of your working day, drink coffee and build your startup.

By the way, here's another easy way to learn how to get up earlier: Twitter will help you. With help, schedule a tweet like this in the morning: “I want to get up at 5 am. If you see this tweet and reply to it within 5 minutes, I will send you 100 rubles.” Schedule a tweet at 5:15. You will have 15 minutes to get up and cancel it, otherwise you will have to pay off the nimble lucky ones.

Procrastinate to wake up

Still not awake? A little won't hurt anyone. And ignore all the self-taught productivity tips on the internet.

I spend an absurd amount of time looking at funny cats on Reddit, Imgur and 9GAG. Again and again I refresh the pages, hoping to see something new there. Although I know that nothing new has appeared there.

Looking at funny pictures before going to bed, you earn insomnia, looking at them in the morning helps you wake up.

If the first thing in the morning you will look at the screen of your smartphone or computer, it will really help to wake up. The blue glow of LED screens affects the melanopsin photopigment, which leads to the suppression of melatonin production, and as a result, we lose the feeling of drowsiness.

If you can't jump right into your startup in the morning, spend some time playing on your smartphone or computer until your morning demons subside.

How to create your startup

Break the project into several microprojects

And so I defeated myself and stood up. And I don't want to start the day by fixing a server bug. I'm dumb in the morning. And the difficult task is an additional incentive to climb back into the crib.

Do you know why all these do not work? 88% of people do not achieve them, because it is unrealistic to raise the bar. “I want to defeat world hunger”, “I will pump up the press cubes” (although I have never been to the gym since school days). This is not the Miss Universe pageant, why splurge?

The Art of Manliness magazine explores how microhabits build into one big change. The goal is not to do a big piece of work in the morning for the benefit of a startup, but to at least start doing something. Once you start your engine, it will be easier for you to move on to more serious business.

If you want to get into the habit of flossing, start flossing just one tooth. Just one tooth is your goal for the day. Cleaned up - cross the case off the list. But here's the trick: once this micro-habit comes into play, it's going to be hard for you not to finish the job.

Break your project down into microsteps that you can take in the morning half asleep. Develop an application by adding one line of code per day. Write a blog post one paragraph at a time. Add one sketch per day to your portfolio. You're more likely to build yours by adding a little each day, rather than trying to set aside a full day for it. And as soon as you are close to opening a startup, you will not want to sleep in the morning.

Build a Lean Startup

It's hard to believe, but at first no one really understands how the project should turn out. Even the current monsters have spent a lot of time to find the ground under their feet. Airbnb survived by selling Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's cereal with political leaders painted on the packaging. Slack grew out of a failed Glitch game. Even YouTube started out as a video dating service called Tune in Hook Up.

Micro-startups go well with the Lean Startup approach (read about it in Eric Ries' book Starting a Business). A micro-startup is easier to launch and provides a short feedback loop, allowing you to stay in touch with your audience. Considering that 75% of startups fail, would you rather sit in the basement for 100 days inventing something that the audience might like, or constantly contact users to tailor the project to their needs?

Always assume that you are wrong. Test all your ideas and guesses with micro-experiments.

When I founded Krown.io , I explained the functionality of the service like this: "Annotation blogging platform". And after a while I realized that most people have no idea what "annotative" means. We tried Smart Blogging, Highlight Blogging, Feedback Blogging, and Contextual Blogging Platform. And here's the surprise: people still didn't understand what we meant. Then we added under the heading the phrase "Select text and add a comment to the selected piece" ...

Test your hypotheses.

Submit your work

We all have an irrational fear that as soon as we submit our project, trolls from all over the world will unite to shower us with dislikes. The truth is, they don't care. There are so many things happening in the world every day that you have to try to be noticed. This is not an easy task, you really need to stand out with something.

If you can't even get up early and create your own, then why do you already care if the public likes it? It's like worrying that you might become a Harvard professor if you study too much. If you have been struggling with your masterpiece for a long time, then presenting it to the public will finally help you get up earlier and finish it.

Keep a daily project log on the blog

The blog will be useful in any case for the subsequent promotion of the project. If, even before launch, you start to write down what happens with your startup on a daily basis, then here is how it will help:

1. While I'm writing this post, I'm talking about the progress of my project. How to improve interaction with the audience? Should I ditch the WordPress comment system and switch to Disqus? What tasks can I automate? And have I lost my mind by starting my own business?
2. Niche blogging takes time and it takes at least 1,000 short articles to start getting organic traffic from Google. Daily entries in the project log will form the basis of the blog.

I run a TechMob blog on my Krown platform, it's located in the techmob.krown.io subdomain, so every post promotes my blogging platform.

Get ready to run a marathon

Around 7 am you will have to switch to your main job - 5 days a week for 8 hours. Of course, I would like to devote all my time to a startup, but, unfortunately, people are in a biological trap: we need to eat, drink and sleep with other people. Damn you, Darwin!

Be prudent. Don't put your whole life at stake in a poker game. Bet part of the assets in a game that may change your life, but keep working in the casino itself. It takes time to develop a startup, and you need something to eat.

Based on the barbell theory from Nassim Taleb's Antifragility, you should allocate 20% of your resources to high-risk, high-return activities (startups, bungee jumping) and 80% to low-risk activities: school , daily work, family meals. Get the best experience from both worlds. Run a startup as a side activity, make sure your hypotheses are correct, and then jump into the unknown.

Get up early and build your startup

Find an activity that matches your goals. If you're going to spend 8 hours doing a job you hate, spend at least one hour doing something you love. It is very strange to do the same thing every day and expect some new result. Don't let "reality" take you in the wrong direction. Face the odds that will change your life. Get up early and build your startup!

Serial entrepreneur Alexander Dresen on whether it is worth saying "the idea failed", on what grounds to choose investors, how to behave, what traps to be afraid of.

A startup is a hard and difficult activity, but at the same time it is the biggest drive in life after sex. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I have a history of failure and success. Over the past years, I have formulated 15 rules to get through this difficult path in an easier way (the order of the tips does not matter).

1. Check yourself and the investor for compatibility

Money is an important thing, but be careful with it and choose the right source. Since most business angels and funds will take the company's shares from you, it can be said that during the entire life of the startup you will be "married" to them. Therefore, it is better to love your angel or fund. Check in advance if you are suitable for each other. If you have any doubts about this - refuse the transaction.

2. Prototype with your own money

In no case do not start attracting investments in a startup (even in the "angelic" period) without building a prototype. Raise money for the team from your own savings or ask family and friends to invest in your project. Selling what you can show is much easier. In addition, this way you will prove that you can realize your startup idea. Tip - follow the principles of Eric Ries and his Lean Startups.

3. Prototype should be as simple and cheap as possible

Minimum means minimum. Don't try to build an industrial solution on a penny budget. The prototype must demonstrate any one or at most several functions. It should be simple - both for understanding and for application. Invest in interface design and usability.

4. Start prototype testing immediately

As soon as the prototype is ready, ask friends, colleagues, anyone in your environment to start using it. Listen to all their comments and improve the product. In general, if you ever expect to receive investment from people like Dave McClure, you will have to prove to users that, first, they need your product; second, they love him; thirdly, they are ready to tell their friends how cool you are. Don't worry if there are bugs in the product. If users care, they will tell you about them. As a startup, you will be forgiven a lot.

5. Never act alone

Most individual startups fail (I know from experience). You need to have a strong team of co-founders. Do not start a project if you do not have a design and interface specialist, marketer, techies and developers. Don't think of people in a startup as employees. They are co-founders and partners in your common cause, and you should treat them that way.

6. Top managers from large companies are not necessarily good startups.

It cannot be assumed that the top managers of large companies are by default great entrepreneurs or mentors. A big business and a startup are completely different things. Also, you should not be sure that an adviser from Mail.ru or Yandex will help you easily reach investors or partners.

7. Perform in public as much as possible.

Your responsibility as the founder of the project is to make sure that people are excited about your product. You need to be passionate, active and incendiary. The more you perform in public, the better and more natural your presentation will look, and it will be easier for you to convince everyone that you are cool. Always check the result, look at the reaction, listen, get feedback, learn from mistakes, improve the product. You must inspire people to work with or for you, to use the product, and to invest in the project.

8. Look for investments, distribute the rest of the tasks among employees

Divide up your entire workload while you're busy raising funds so you don't start churning. Ideally, you should have a product manager on your team. Surround yourself with talented people. As a CEO, you need to focus on finding investments - this will take 90% of the time.

9. Don't Waste Time Attending Startup Events

For the most part, they are more likely to attract the public, and not to raise money. But your time is as valuable as money. And, as with cash, the investment must pay off in full.

10. Work for a big market and solve big problems

Check if your product has a large enough market. To be truly interesting to an investor, you must either seriously push the existing players in the multi-billion dollar market, or solve a real problem. Small problems attract only small investors with modest investments. Big problems are of interest to wealthy top-level investors.

11. Be closer to buyers, but even closer to investors

If you are raising money for a project from a foundation in Boston, you need to move to Boston. A foundation or an angel is not just a source of funding. Most investors have strong connections and good relationships with other investors, funds, partners, mentors, and so on. They have already been on the market, have achieved certain results, and more than once. You must find a way to make money from it.

12. Don't expect too much from your angel's connections and acquaintances.

Don't get carried away with the previous advice. When choosing which business angel to approach for investment, do not overestimate their mentoring opportunities and connections in the market. Even if your angel knows, for example, Igor Matsanyuk (Farminers, GameInsight) or Dave McClure (500 Startups). In most cases, he will help the startup to a minimum.

13. Become a member of a business incubator

If you are in Europe, you should definitely enter the Seedcamp incubator. Or at Startupsauna (they will help you for free, without requiring them to give them shares or a share in the company). In addition, you should pay attention to Farminers, Techstars, Y-Combinator, Launchpad, etc.

14. Make a product quickly or close shop.

Ideas are worthless until they are implemented.

15. Feel free to say that the idea failed.

Set clear goals for yourself right from the start. Take multiple approaches, listen to user feedback, release a new version, test it out in public, and keep going until you get the right user base, engagement, and so on. But if after 6 months you have not achieved any results, stop. Failure is also the norm for a startup. Don't be afraid and don't be ashamed of it. To achieve great results, be prepared to fail every time you take a risk. And don't be shy.

From a beautiful idea and blueprint to the sale of a startup, Zuckerberg needs to go through several important steps and not stumble. So what are you waiting for? Forward!

Ignat Sakharov

Location selection

The world is one, the Internet erases borders - and that's great. But only for those who have already received investments. And if you have just drawn the first prototype of your drone-vacuum cleaner for catching flies, a long road awaits you. Because talking with a business angel over a freezing Skype from Kostomuksha is to wake up the business devil in him. For presentations and negotiations, you need a personal presence, which means you need to go where there are accelerators, business incubators, technology parks and other nests of investors.

In America - Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and, of course, Silicon Valley, where any beggar has a startup presentation with him.

In Canada, there is the small town of Waterloo, where Blackberry is fighting for life and a young growth of startups is growing, many of which are associated with a half-dead giant.

In Germany, Berlin.

In India - Bangalore, a local analogue of Silicon Valley, where investors from all over the world come to get hold of shares of very high-quality Indian startups.

In Russia - Moscow, where there is Skolkovo, and besides it - well-known accelerators and venture funds: IIDF, GenerationS, Farminers. Also Kazan, where the Pulsar Venture accelerator works, and St. Petersburg with iDealMachine.

Choice of helpers

It just seems that there are a lot of ideas around, but little money. There really isn't much to invest in. In reliable banks, rates are zero. In stocks, the risk is high, but the return is not very. But a successful startup gives up to 1000 percent per annum - there will definitely be those who want to help.

FFF - from family, friends, fools (family, friends, fools). They will finance you a little at the start, because they managed to have common genes, study together or be optimists.

Business incubator. If the project is impressive, the incubator will provide space, office equipment, and a coffee maker for a small fee or share in the project. Unfortunately, they don't give a secretary.

Accelerator is a business incubator with training and supervision options. The purpose of the accelerator is to polish the project so that when reading the presentation, investors do not have suicidal thoughts. And then sell. Business angel - will buy out a share from the accelerator if he believes in the growth of the project. There is no clear boundary between an accelerator and a business angel, they can replace each other. But business angels are usually pickier.

Venture fund - from here you will receive the first big money. Or you won't. The Foundation can spend hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars on your project, but only if everything is already working and growing at the pace of a broiler chicken.

Answers on questions

This step will be repeated every time, from investor to investor. And it's the easiest thing to stumble on. So first, answer the questions for yourself.

Does anyone need your product? Most startups close because the product is not needed. Yes, the public simply has not yet grown up to an application that identifies a German philosopher by the first volume of the text. But it's better to understand it right away.

Is it a venture business? If we are talking about 25 percent per annum, it is easier for an investor to buy a pub in Munich. A startup can only attract it with a tenfold profit in a short time. This is the essence of venture business: big reward for big risk.

Do you have something to show? Investors want to see an MVP (minimum viable product) - a product that can be sold immediately, even if it is raw. That is, the drone prototype should at least bounce. Can you scale quickly? To grow 10x quickly, a business must scale quickly. To make 100 more pubs is a year and a billion. Enabling new distribution channels for an app is a week and a million. And what is more attractive?

Is there a competitive advantage? Riveting the same Facebook but with purple buttons is a feat that will not be appreciated. Investors are advised to "seek pain" - to find out from buyers what they are missing in the existing solution to a certain problem.

Is it a seasonal business? The application for an urgent call to Santa Claus will set a record of downloads on New Year's Eve, but the rest of the year will only be of interest to bored penguins. And it's a pretty narrow market.

Decor

Startup co-founders who discuss pre-seed in a coworking space over a glass of smoothie often forget that the output will still be a banal LLC or CJSC with tax reporting and staffing. Or GmbH, Ltd, LLC, SRL - depending on the country. Therefore, any investor will want to see at least basic documents.

Confirmation of the existence of a legal entity. Charter, memorandum of association, extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, certificate of registration. The whole procedure of pumping money into a startup is accompanied by transfers of shares from one hand to another. The investor must be sure that not a single detail in the design of the legal entity will interfere with this.

Registration of intellectual property. If you came up with a rubber suitcase that can hold everything, and immediately shared the idea with the whole world, as we do now, the investor, at best, will pour you strong sweet tea to relieve stress. Because someone else has already patented the product and is preparing it for sale. All your ideas must be formalized, there must be contracts for others.

Receiving the money

Pre-seed stage. There is a team, there is a working prototype, there are first buyers, there is no money for a full-fledged launch. At this stage, it is better to go to three Fs, or engage in bootstrapping - this is how they delicately call shaking out a piggy bank, laying an apartment in a jar, selling your favorite collection of Bryansk porcelain. Accelerators at this stage give money only to very tasty projects. The amount of investment is usually 1–1.5 million rubles.

seed stage. The rights are issued, the market is studied, growth graphs are drawn in Excel, the economy is calculated. Here you can connect an accelerator or a business angel. The main mistake of a startup at this stage is generosity out of desperation. If you give the first investor a third in the enterprise, then in the course of the next financial injections, other people's shares will exceed 50 percent. And venture funds believe that a startup with a small share of its own loses motivation - they don’t give big money to them.

Round A. The project worked for a year or two, the unit-economy (income-income per client) is positive, the growth is continuous and there is still room for growth. This is the stage at which an accelerator or business angel is ready to sell his stake to a venture capital fund. This means that you are waiting for communication with a large investor who will pour 50-100 million rubles into your business.

Round B. Everything is going well, and the investor proposes to start scaling in a serious way, at the international level. Here, up to a billion rubles can be poured into the promotion.

IPO. The secret dream of any start-up and investor, for the sake of which everything is started, is the launch of the company's shares into free circulation. The procedure is not fast, it requires transparency and good accountability. But it is on the stock exchange that your share will be valued in money and can immediately turn into money, you just have to give an order to the broker.

Round BBB (beach, boat, blond). Yes, we read in your business plan about the mission and benefit to society. But after all, everything was started for the sake of this round, right?

Growth Technologies

A startup can be launched with only an old laptop and a mobile phone. But there must be something new in them so that the chance of success is higher. For example, new information technologies specially designed for start-ups. If you don’t know about these, then your competitors probably already know.

VTsOD. A virtual data processing and storage center is when you are rented out the power of a cloud service and you create a virtual machine there with up to sixteen cores. Rostelecom has such a service: it rents out the capacity of the National Cloud Platform. Scaling - for example, with an increase in site traffic - can be done quickly and without contacting technical support.

Virtual PBX. If your startup is tied to a lot of incoming calls, you need several lines. And to buy them separately - the entire tranche of round B will just go away. But a virtual PBX gives a bunch of lines and numbers of internal subscribers on one city number. Again, scalable.

VPN network with protection against DDoS attacks. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network - virtual private network. That is, you do not pull cables around the office, but rent a virtual server and work through it. Rostelecom also protects tenants from DDoS attacks - this is when villains overload the server with requests so that no one can enter.

Virtual contact center. Instead of renting a semi-basement at the price of a suite at the Ritz and settling operators there, you can order a service that comes with Rostelecom's virtual PBX. In a couple of days, a contact center of any scale will be set up for you - it can be controlled remotely without buying new equipment.

Web video conference. If any meeting with partners and investors ends with beer and dancing until the morning, you should not risk your business. By connecting the Internet in Rostelecom, all participants in the negotiations can be united in one video conference without downloading new software and regardless of what browsers they have.

As practice shows, one of the difficult stages in the “Venture Accelerator” is the step with creating an idea for a startup. Indeed, what else to think of when it seems that everything has already been invented before you? However, the process of coming up with new business ideas is a skill that needs to be trained. In the new video of our “Knowledge Base”, we tell you how to learn to see and generate cool ideas for your startups.

First, let's figure out why you need a startup idea?

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Start a Startup and Become an Entrepreneur

This requires a startup idea that will grow into a business in the future that will benefit your customers and profit you as the founder.

What is a “startup idea”?

A startup idea is an idea that can be used to build a new company or a new line of business within an existing company.

Who comes up with the idea?

The idea is usually thought up by the founder or founders, you cannot trust this important work to people who will no longer be involved in the project. Based on your talents and interests. Stick to what you enjoy doing.

When do you need to come up with an idea and start your own business?

The ideal time comes exactly when you have the desire to do business and, at the same time, there are resources in the form of time, energy and knowledge. If you are watching this video, then it's time to come up with an idea and start bringing it to life. Creating a startup is a series of successful and unsuccessful attempts at implementation. So the sooner you start your business, the more likely you are to succeed.

For example:

There are many such stories. The next story could be yours.

How to come up with an idea?

1. Imperfections around.

when you live your normal life, you face certain problems. For example, they came to the grocery store, and there is a huge line. You face similar problems every day. Try to notice them and try to find a solution. For example, a solution to a queue problem could be a home delivery service.

One more example. Once upon a time, high-mounted outlets and a short smartphone charging cord led to the emergence of a simple, yet convenient device for charging mobile phones.

Communicate more with different people. Pay attention when you cannot find a ready-made solution for something.

2. Talent or hobby.

if you have some talent or hobby, it can be turned into a business. Think about what you are good at. What can you teach others? Or how can you improve the process of doing what you love?

For example, Ainur Abdulnasyrov was fond of learning English from childhood and used various methodologies in teaching. When he entered the university, he began to teach English. Then he hired teachers and opened a language school called the Native Speakers Club. He sold it and founded LinguaLeo.com, which now has more than 19 million users. Those. A man turned his hobby into a business. This is the best way to generate an idea, as you will be doing what you love, doing it for free, but making good money at the same time.

3. Something fundamentally new.

How many ideas do you need to come up with?

In order to start, one idea is enough, to the implementation of which you should direct your efforts. If it is not possible to implement it in the allotted time, then you can return to the search for new ideas.

It must be remembered that there are no bad ideas. Success depends on the desire and diligence of the one who invented it. Also, don't think that your idea is not unique. There are few unique ideas, many ideas were tried to be implemented many years ago, and only today they are becoming mass, like, for example, electric scooters.

There are various implementation options. Any startup idea you have can turn into a successful company.