Every Pensioner in The US Wants to Become A Mentor. And Such People Appear in Russia
This year federal accelerator of startups GenerationS-2015 organized by the RVC, came into a new format: the program attracted Russian corporations to work with startups, becoming a platform for the creation of corporate accelerators. Accepting of applications completed: GenerationS attracted 2566 teams from 13 countries and 139 cities. More than two thousand projects have already studied in a free program for the business development, online pre-acceleration program, and more than 300 have been selected to participate in the offline part of the program (which will be held from 25 to 29 August). In late August, the corporate partners will choose about 100 startups in corporate accelerators for individual training and study opportunities for cooperation. MTS became the partner of Telecom direction, and held a contest #Telecomidea within GenerationS. Rusbase talked with Gulnara Bikkulova, Director of the Department of innovative markets and board member of the RVC, about the competition, communicating with Russian corporations and young entrepreneurs.
How difficult it was to attract corporations to the project or were they immediately opened to the dialogue?
The concept of shifted towards the corporate accelerator because last year we received several offers from big companies to do competitions for them. We have been discussing the idea GenerationS of making a platform for corporations, and last year saw that there is a demand for it.
This year, when we formulated the concept of the project and published the announcement about searching corporate partners, we received a lot of offers, more than 20 applications from corporations willing to become the operators of the directions.
RVC has been working for a long time on the open innovation subjects in collaboration with corporations. Together with colleagues from the Innovation and R&D Directors Club (iR & Dclub), we conducted several training programs on the topic of corporate venture funds. Creating a line of corporate accelerators within GenerationS was the next step, in fact, we offered a platform, something that we have discussed over the past three years.
What are the goals of corporations participating in the program?
Ideal corporations are those who understand why do they need innovation. In this case, not only one man from the company participates, but the whole team, which is interested in the implementation of startups. They help to sel ect projects and then as mentors they communicate with startups and at their production sites help startups to develop themselves to match the stringent corporate requirements.
The second type of corporations are state-owned companies, which have a kind of KPI for cooperation with innovative projects. Through us they learn to work with startups, reach new startup ecosystems, interact with technological parks. We hope that after GenerationS this will not die, that the corporations will continue working with startups.
Why the accelerator lasts for 9 months?
Our experience and experience of such large world programs show that the deadlines cannot be shorter. At first comes the acceptance of applications, then comes the mutual pre-accelerator, an educational program that shows who is ready for deeper development and adaptation of a project and then comes the acceleration program divided into different directions.
Stage of collecting of applications lasts 4-5 months to let any project from any place in Russia get prepared to participate. We are trying to get out those projects that traditionally not participate in such programs and we need to negotiate with them. Some teams have doubts, consult with us and only then submit an application. It is important for them to understand that we are not a team of charlatans, but people who want to help. We would like to reduce the term, but the reality is that the searching for projects takes time. All of our partners hold regional roadshows, they go to specialized departments in universities, industrial laboratories, go to projects throughout Russia.
From which region has been sent the most applications this year?
This year Samara became the discovery, a lot of projects were sent from there. Each direction has its own leaders. Biotehmed’s leaders are Siberia, Moscow and St Petebrurg. Projects’ in the oil industry leaders are Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Tyumen and St. Petersburg. The share of Moscow this year has dropped substantially, but we are pleased with it.
For which processes in GenarationS responsible RVC, and which transferred to partners?
I will tell you in the course. The accelerator has three sides:
- projects (the participating teams);
- corporations which lead directions and sel ect projects;
- operators, the partners who conduct educational programs commissioned by corporations, each direction has its own operator.
GenerationS is a common platform that connects all these sides and helps them to cooperate and develop common standards for participating in the project.
What are the results of the competition you personally want to see?
It is important that projects by the end of the accelerator were able to agree on further cooperate work with corporations. Communication with large companies is a long process. It is usually hard to get into corporations because of bureaucratic problems and different mentality. None of the big companies wants to take risks of startup stage, so they do not work with innovative projects. We are making the first steps, feeling about how these activities can be developed within GenerationS.
What feedback do you get fr om participating projects?
How startups regard similar programs usually? Often they think that it is an opportunity to get something without doing anything. Participating in GenerationS entrepreneurs need to work, to learn, to change their projects because experts are watching teams. Those people who know how to listen to the advices and learn not only fr om their mistakes, they understand the worth of GenerationS. Those startups that are not ready for it usually leave negative feedback. This is about 2-3% of all projects.
Why do you call the program "accelerator"? The term implies investments into the project for a stake in the project, but you do not give investment.
We have studied this subject, done research of accelerators in the world. You speak about private accelerators, they are a new phenomenon. There are accelerators within universities that do not give investments. There is an international competition MassChallenge, which is also called an accelerator, and does not imply investments. Resources that provide accelerators are a kind of a Network: familiarity with business-mentors and access to investors.
In the United States, such programs can be run endlessly because every pensioner wants to become someone's mentor. And such people, which are ready to work with projects in different conditions, appear in Russia.
Frankly, we do not know how to find the correct replacement of the word "accelerator." The term is not always understood in the regions and sometimes we have to spend the time to explain it. If Rusbase and your readers would help us to find another word, we would be happy.
