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16 July 2014
GenerationS’ Accelerator with the Largest Number of Participants Gets Underway
The GenerationS IT Track acceleration program kicked off in Moscow on July 12. For the next three months, 80 participant projects selected from 725 valid applications will be meeting investors, working with coaches and mentors on a regular basis, as well as making presentations in front of experts. The accelerator started with a three-day high-intensity training session led by coaches affiliated with the Foundation for Development of Internet Initiatives (FDII).
Day One of high-intensity training will be completely dedicated to business models and Customer Development. The training sessions were led by Dmitry Kalaev, Director of FDII acceleration and educational programs, and Ilya Korolev, a FDII partner. After each block of theoretical instruction, participants worked with coaches in groups on solving their own case studies. According to Dmitry Kalaev, a third of participating projects have fairly large turnover, and another third are already selling their own products, and even generating some profit.
“Projects like these are always interesting to work on,” Dmitry said. “On the one hand, we can help their development perceptibly by even the smallest of improvements, and, on the other hand, project teams understand their needs quite well and draw the parallels between them and what we work on in the acceleration program.”
The quick intros format and the subsequent afterparty enabled all participants to talk to one another by the end of Day One, with some even managing to discuss possible joint projects for the future.
Day Two program included work on product metrics and project economics under the guidance of Ilya Krasinsky, founder and CEO of Magic Ink, who had led the LinguaLeo Mobile and Desktop Product Development Department before joining Magic Ink.
Ilya Nikolaev, Director of OhMyMentor online mentor search platform, told the participants how they could structure effective communication with mentors during the GenerationS program yet to come.
Day Three featured presentations and talks on a range of different topics. Vasily Sizov, Senior Project Manager of the Skolkovo Foundation, talked about opportunities to develop IT projects within his organization. Maria Lapuk, Director of FDII Media Relations, shared secrets of effective interaction with journalists. Sergey Poduzov, founder of SeeMedia webinar service and Ingria Business Incubator mentor went over different product strategies that technology companies use to take over the market.
The program ended with a presentation by Dmitry Chikhachev, Managing Partner of Runa Capital and Web Ready panel judge. He told the gathering of different ways to raise investments in different stages of a startup life, also sharing his expert opinion on how to use investment funds best on different business parts and functions.
“The acceleration program for IT, Internet and mobile technology projects is the first sector-specific programs in the GenerationS lineup to be launched this year,” Gulnara Bikkulova, Director of Russian Venture Company’s Innovation Markets Department said. “It has combined the efforts of several organizations: RVC, the Moscow Center for Innovative Development, Web Ready, FDII, Skolkovo, as well as EMC and Ingria Business Incubator. The program is designed to focus on new promising projects which currently see the strongest demand from Russian investors who had traditionally preferred to invest in IT and Internet startups. As we launch the second cycle of GenerationS — currently Russia’s largest acceleration program for technology startups, — we expect to give Russian investors another tool to get new projects for their portfolio, as we take over the resource-intensive work to find and evaluate projects, as well as organizing the communication between startups and investors.”
Going forward, the acceleration program will offer participants Weekend Activities mentor sessions, regular ongoing work with coaches and mentors as well as giving presentations in front of experts and investors on Demo Days. The best projects will be chosen for the Web Ready GenerationS Investment Forum to be held at Skolkovo Hypercube on October 8, 2014. The forum will feature the VC Corner – a site where projects and investors can meet, a Mentor Session, a project exhibition and project pitches, a round table discussion with winners in the Growth Category and the awards ceremony. About 700 guests, including more than 100 investors and business angels will participate in the Investment Forum.
Leading Russian investors, founders and executives of IT companies have been invited to judge the contest: Natalya Kaspersky (InfoWatch), Dmitry Chikhachev (Runa Capital), Lyubov Simonova (Almaz Capital), Alexander Egorov (Reksoft), Sergey Azatyan (Inventure Partners), Alexey Solovyov (Prostor Capital), Vyacheslav Nesterov (ЕМС), Pavel Cherkashin (Vestor.in), Igor Ryabenky (Altair Capital), Alexander Turkot (Maxfield Capital) and others.
“Projects like these are always interesting to work on,” Dmitry said. “On the one hand, we can help their development perceptibly by even the smallest of improvements, and, on the other hand, project teams understand their needs quite well and draw the parallels between them and what we work on in the acceleration program.”
The quick intros format and the subsequent afterparty enabled all participants to talk to one another by the end of Day One, with some even managing to discuss possible joint projects for the future.
Day Two program included work on product metrics and project economics under the guidance of Ilya Krasinsky, founder and CEO of Magic Ink, who had led the LinguaLeo Mobile and Desktop Product Development Department before joining Magic Ink.
Ilya Nikolaev, Director of OhMyMentor online mentor search platform, told the participants how they could structure effective communication with mentors during the GenerationS program yet to come.
Day Three featured presentations and talks on a range of different topics. Vasily Sizov, Senior Project Manager of the Skolkovo Foundation, talked about opportunities to develop IT projects within his organization. Maria Lapuk, Director of FDII Media Relations, shared secrets of effective interaction with journalists. Sergey Poduzov, founder of SeeMedia webinar service and Ingria Business Incubator mentor went over different product strategies that technology companies use to take over the market.
The program ended with a presentation by Dmitry Chikhachev, Managing Partner of Runa Capital and Web Ready panel judge. He told the gathering of different ways to raise investments in different stages of a startup life, also sharing his expert opinion on how to use investment funds best on different business parts and functions.
“The acceleration program for IT, Internet and mobile technology projects is the first sector-specific programs in the GenerationS lineup to be launched this year,” Gulnara Bikkulova, Director of Russian Venture Company’s Innovation Markets Department said. “It has combined the efforts of several organizations: RVC, the Moscow Center for Innovative Development, Web Ready, FDII, Skolkovo, as well as EMC and Ingria Business Incubator. The program is designed to focus on new promising projects which currently see the strongest demand from Russian investors who had traditionally preferred to invest in IT and Internet startups. As we launch the second cycle of GenerationS — currently Russia’s largest acceleration program for technology startups, — we expect to give Russian investors another tool to get new projects for their portfolio, as we take over the resource-intensive work to find and evaluate projects, as well as organizing the communication between startups and investors.”
Going forward, the acceleration program will offer participants Weekend Activities mentor sessions, regular ongoing work with coaches and mentors as well as giving presentations in front of experts and investors on Demo Days. The best projects will be chosen for the Web Ready GenerationS Investment Forum to be held at Skolkovo Hypercube on October 8, 2014. The forum will feature the VC Corner – a site where projects and investors can meet, a Mentor Session, a project exhibition and project pitches, a round table discussion with winners in the Growth Category and the awards ceremony. About 700 guests, including more than 100 investors and business angels will participate in the Investment Forum.
Leading Russian investors, founders and executives of IT companies have been invited to judge the contest: Natalya Kaspersky (InfoWatch), Dmitry Chikhachev (Runa Capital), Lyubov Simonova (Almaz Capital), Alexander Egorov (Reksoft), Sergey Azatyan (Inventure Partners), Alexey Solovyov (Prostor Capital), Vyacheslav Nesterov (ЕМС), Pavel Cherkashin (Vestor.in), Igor Ryabenky (Altair Capital), Alexander Turkot (Maxfield Capital) and others.
