Help on Tele2, tariffs, questions

Meanwhile Yuri Lifshits, who moved to the USA to develop his educational courses, just wrote an English text on this topic for the Earlydays course. We translated his text into Russian, slightly changing the style - that is, all the smart thoughts there are from Lifshitz, and all the stupid jokes are from us.

By the way, the fact that Yuri's text is posted on the new site Medium, in itself already shows how you can act when “everything has already been invented”: while the world is passionate about Twitterization and Instagramization, one of the creators of the same Twitter has made a convenient platform for those who still like to write and read long texts - and on people went to her.

How to find new ideas for starting a company

Coming up with business ideas is a skill. And you can develop the habit of seeing opportunities to start new projects in everything that surrounds you.

Many serial entrepreneurs have a dedicated notebook for exciting new ideas. You can get one for yourself too.

Actions:

• Choose tools to search for ideas.
• Generate some ideas with them.
• PROFIT

1. Live in the future

Be on the cutting edge of the MacBook Air. Use something that didn't exist yesterday. Read about new inventions. Think of products for the next generation.

The future belongs to wearable gadgets, self-driving cars, DNA testing and atom-thick materials. What products and services should emerge around such things?

Think about change by completing the sentence “If you are in the future…” such as “if you are in the future, all cars around are electric” or “if you are in the future, no one uses cash.” And then create a company with which it will come true.

2. Become an expert at something

There are areas where you can't get from the street. Customs, prisons, medicine, defense, nuclear power, bridge construction.

Usually, a company in such areas is created only after many years of experience in foreign companies.

Become such an insider - and open your way to a large market with a high entry threshold.

Michael Bloomberg worked in IT at Salomon Brothers investment bank. In 1981, he was fired and received $10 million in compensation.

With this money, he created Bloomberg L.P., a company that provides financial information to organizations interested in it.

Now the company is the market leader, Bloomberg is the mayor of New York, Bloomberg's fortune is on the 13th line of Forbes.

Become a master of some powerful tool. Learn how to make mobile applications, online stores or use big data. Then date a bunch different people, ask about their problems and see if you can help them.

Be very cool in two different things at once. Medicine and sales, IT and government contracts, culinary and retail. At their intersections there are a bunch of unique opportunities.

3. Solve your own problems

Find the problem that is preventing you from living. Pay attention when you cannot find a ready-made solution for something. And problems arise when something changes in your life. Become a parent - you will see so many new opportunities, it will not seem enough.

The same is true in the B2B sector. You have one company, and it cannot solve some of its problems. A second company is created to solve such problems, and then this second company suddenly becomes larger than the first.

Patrick Collison founded payment system Stripe, tired of connecting other people's inconvenient payment systems to their previous projects. Flickr came into being when developing an online game needed convenient way store user images, and the game itself is safely closed.

4. Look for pain points

See where people waste time and money, work inefficiently, suffer, lose everything and generally look like in a Munch painting.

And then go out in all white and fix it with your project. Know as much as you can about hunger, poverty, epidemics, unemployment, crime, traffic jams, pollution and corruption.

Make friends with those who have been working on these problems for years.

5. Improve the existing

Look for things that make people hate. Finding rental housing, parking, obtaining visas, moving, visiting doctors. Find a better way to solve these problems.

Use modern technology to reimagine the way we do everything. How should workers carry out their duties in the age of smartphones? How should hospitals operate in the digital age?

Monopoly leaders have almost no incentive to develop. It is very difficult to challenge such people, but sometimes it works. Virgin Atlantic started out as an attempt to provide better service than British Airways.

6. Link cheap resources to rich buyers

Buy low, sell high. This simple formula has been around for centuries, and now it's even easier to connect the product and the buyer from different parts of the world. There are a lot of cheap ones in China production capacity. Developing countries have cheap labor.

Somewhere there are abandoned factories that can be rented for a penny. And somewhere in the other hemisphere, people have a lot of money and unmet needs.

For example, freelance job boards like Odesk and 99Designs connect workers from developing countries with successful companies.

7. Copy and improve

Most ideas are derivatives. Many successful companies started out as clones. See what you can add to successful ideas. New distribution channels, better service, better quality?

In small businesses, trendy themes are constantly emerging.

Today, co-working spaces and bubble tea are popular, tomorrow everyone is talking about private kindergartens, and the day after tomorrow a wave of SMM agencies will come.

These waves move around the world with a significant delay, and you can have time to be inspired by a new one. It's more reliable than anything unknown and more fun than buying a franchise.

In the US, each college has its own merchandise - sweatshirts, t-shirts and caps. In Russia, this was not accepted. One student decided to change this, founded UniFashion, and now students in his products can be found in any hostel.

8. Travel

Understand successful business from the other side of the planet. Every industry has its own centers of innovation. Fashion business ideas come from Paris and Guangzhou, software business ideas come from the Valley, financial business ideas come from New York and London.

In the early 80s, Howard Schultz worked at Starbucks. At that time, the company only sold bean coffee, not offering any drinks in its stores. Going shopping in Milan, Schultz saw coffee shops on almost every street.

He found that they not only drank great espresso, but also met people: coffee houses were public places that played an important role in public life Italy, and in total there were 200,000 of them in the country.

When he returned, Schultz tried to convince the company's owners to do the same. When gently sent away, he left Starbucks and opened own network coffee houses.

A few years later he was so successful that he bought Starbucks himself and made it a world-class phenomenon.

9. Make decisions for newly opened markets

New products from big companies create many attractive opportunities. If you react quickly, you can become part of this market.

Venture capitalists understand this. So they create special investment funds for facebook apps, google glass apps, bitcoin services. When big changes come, entrepreneurs and investors try to ride that wave.

The same works for small local establishments. Follow large construction projects like metro stations and airports, the process of gentrification.

In 1975, MITS released the first commercially successful home computer, the Altair 8800.

One Harvard student decided that selling software could become a business for him.

He and some friends wrote a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 and started selling it in partnership with MITS. That student was Albert Einstein Bill Gates.

10. Improve a useless product

Do anything on your knee in a couple of days. Ask your friends what needs to be changed so that they start using it. Refresh. Ask again. Repeat until you have a service for millions. Everyone knows the fairy tale about porridge from an ax, right?

11. Hang out with smart people

Entrepreneurs usually value their own ideas, and consider other people's ideas as secondary. Don't let self-love stand between you and a great opportunity.

Elon Musk once pitched the idea of ​​a solar installation and maintenance company to his cousins ​​Lyndon and Peter Rive. Today, their SolarCity is valued at billions of dollars.

Bad Ideas

And here are popular ways of coming up with ideas that very often lead to failures:

• Analogy. Every second person does X for Y, like Hermitage for digital art, Instagram for video, or Excel for hipsters. Sounds impressive, but most of the time it doesn't work. Most likely, your market has its own specifics and a solution from someone else's market will not work. And if it does, then the source of your inspiration can come and trample you. Who needs multiple "Instagrams for videos" now that Instagram itself has a video?
• "Product Vision". Many entrepreneurs start by presenting their new product with all the details and nuances. But it is not difficult to invent anything, and usually what is invented has nothing to do with the real needs of the market. Most good ideas start with the client.

Every idea has its flaws.

Even your best ideas will have flaws. Find and recognize them. The idea can be implemented if you find a way to effectively deal with shortcomings.

Don't discard ideas that involve a lot of hard and unpleasant work. If you can handle it, then you will find yourself in a market with low competition and will be more reliably protected from young punks.

The presence of successful competitors is more of a plus than a minus: it demonstrates the presence of demand. If you have a visual difference from them and evidence that this difference can attract enough customers, you can even enter highly competitive markets.

Sometimes successful business starts from a very small market. This can work if a few users are just praying for you, and there is a clear strategy for how to survive from a narrow niche to entering a wide market.

Ideas are born in the process of communication. Discuss with everyone around trends, markets and your available ideas. New guesses are guaranteed.

Ideas are born through empathy. Know someone else's pain, and you can come up with new solutions.

Ideas are born out of curiosity. How should everything work? What will the future look like?

Ideas come from the subconscious. Write down the scope of your activity and the requirements for the idea. Then just do other things. A few days later, the idea will appear effortlessly.

Source: https://vc.ru/1735-startup-ideas

Top US Startups per Million

If it has gone somewhere, then it must have arrived somewhere, a popular interpretation of the law of conservation of energy.

Actually, it is hard to contradict such logic, but transferring it to money, we can say with confidence that if there is less money somewhere, then there is more money elsewhere. One may ask, what does a small business have to do with it?

It's simple, since the beginning of the year in Russia there has been a massive outflow of foreign, although it must be confessed, domestic capital.

Money is slowly withdrawn, but the question remains where? And then I read an interesting article about the rapid growth of venture investments in startups in the United States, about where it is better to invest in 2016 here.

Judge for yourself in 2014, venture investments in new projects reached 33 billion dollars, is it a lot or a little!

Depending on what to compare with, for example, the cost of South Stream, according to the latest data, should have been about $30 billion.

Or Russia sells about 12-15 billion worth of weapons per year.

dollars of all, by the way, military contracts (guaranteed) in the pocket of our military-industrial complex, somewhere in the amount of 32-34 billion dollars.

In fact, investors have invested in one year as much money in small businesses, and all startups can be classified as small businesses by American standards, as Russia can get from arms sales in 2 years. I think that the example is very significant.

In fairness, it should be noted that this year was a record year for venture investments in the United States, 4 years ago the amount of such investments in small businesses was 15 billion dollars.

Today, with investments in new project on the territory of Russia, the situation is not very happy, but the issue of restoration is a matter of time.

Although today you can try to look for investors, the main thing is to have a desire and a good business idea.

It is worth remembering one thing, no matter how crazy, according to the environment, your business idea sounds, with a good approach, a business angel can believe in it and just give money. Here are 10 insanely original business ideas that American investors actually invested in.

No. 10 - startup called "Lawn Love". The principle of the service is damn simple, but everything ingenious is simple, said the founder of the project and was able to raise almost $ 2 million from business angels.

The site acts as an intermediary and guarantor in the field of gardening services. The scope of operations carried out by the service includes lawn care, tree trimming, planting flowers, and so on, in general, everything related to gardening.

The service works like this:

1. The customer enters information about the site, type of work, address;
2. The service selects a specialist in a given area;
3. The customer pays for the work through the service
4. The contractor contacts the customer and performs the work;
5. The contractor receives money for the work;

The service acts as a guarantor of the quality and timeliness of the provision of services, if the work was done poorly, the money is returned or the work is redone.

Conclusion, this business idea looks very original, but it is quite real for implementation in major cities Russia. Moreover, in our conditions, it is not necessary to attract millions of dollars for a startup, the entire organization may require ten times less.

No. 9 Online shopping it is impossible to surprise anyone, they have become commonplace, but some of them still managed to attract $ 7 million.

It's about about the store with goods for children's creativity, ready-made sets for parties. Business angels not only believed in the idea, but also financed it well.

The idea, of course, is not very original or new, but I was personally interested in a number of its moments, I think that before the end of the week I will lay out my vision, I want to try to “push” the idea.

No. 8 Another e-commerce startup poppin. Main feature this project was the use of color schemes, in fact, so-so ordinary online stationery store.

The main "trick" was the sale of stationery of different colors, roughly speaking, from a wide range of different manufacturers they sell one type, but in all colors.

Venture funds liked the idea, trading floor favorably stood out among competitors, as a result, in 2014 alone, they received 17 million dollars of investment.

Decisions to trade exactly in stationery of different colors, a rather innovative approach, and the most interesting thing is that with a probability of 70-80% one can expect that such a project may turn out to be profitable in Moscow or St. Petersburg. In other cities, it is unlikely, at least in the near future, but in large metropolitan areas, the "trick" can work.

#7 ranked another internet startup called Paintzen. Initially, the project was positioned as an intermediary service for repairs, according to the usual scheme, in which the customer and the contractor are connected.

But life made its own adjustments and business angels agreed to provide the project with 2 million dollars only for a detailed painting service. The essence remained the same, to be an intermediary, but only in a narrow niche. Painting and painting works were chosen as a niche.

What attracted investors? The presence of its own "zest", or rather an additional service that allows you to choose or select a color, type of paint, and so on. Actually using the service, the client receives everything from consultation to the painting itself.

It was this format that turned out to be successful for investments.

I will not comment, I will say one thing, there are chances to implement something similar in Russia, but again, only in the area of ​​large cities.

No. 6 place goes to a very non-standard business idea for using new methods of processing large mass data (big data).

Astute entrepreneurs have used off-the-shelf tools and database techniques to help those who want to get pregnant.

Hormonal cycles, physical activity, stress and a number of other parameters are taken as initial data and gives out periods when it is best for a woman to become more active.

The Glow service idea hit the spot and raised over $2 million. Such a strong interest of investors is quite understandable, the volume of the market for assisted conception services is growing at a tremendous pace and there is enough money for everyone.

The service is in English, but most likely they will soon launch either an analogue or just a Russian version, with a 100% guarantee, we can say that the idea will be popular in Russia as well.

No. 5 place, idea with surveillance in one form or another, has always been a success.

There are many reasons from the banal human love for spy games, to the very real concern for children or property (for example, a car).

The main problem of such services is the line between freedom and law.

Indeed, de facto, the collection of data on movement can be used not only for good, but also vice versa, no matter how it was, the Tile startup managed to raise more than $ 16 million for the implementation of a project to develop key fobs with a tracking function via bluetooth and a corresponding application for smartphones .

No. 4 place goes to ideas related to a healthy lifestyle. The popularity of a healthy lifestyle can hardly be overestimated, and the trend is not only positive, but actually growing.

When analyzing the most popular business ideas of 2014 in Europe, several directions at once fell into the category of the best. The Americans went even further and created a delivery service for ingredients for such Plated food.

The essence is simple, the customer is delivered all the components of a healthy lunch, dinner or breakfast from the existing menu.

Together with the constituent components, a step-by-step recipe for its preparation is provided, main feature there is the fact that the average cooking time for such a healthy meal does not exceed 30 minutes.

No. 3 place next internet service has managed to raise as much as 16 million venture capital money.

The founders were not cunning for a long time and created an application that allows you to trade stocks via a smartphone, the service is free, but buying the application itself will cost a symbolic $10.

It remains a mystery why business angels are interested in a startup? The answer is in the presence of its own “zest”, the fact is that the service is going to earn on two related services: On the one hand, customers can lend money for trading. Of course with a commission.

Such a financial scheme has justified itself in Forex and brings very large profits. On the other hand, for an additional fee, VIP clients will be provided Additional services. The scheme is also working and has proven itself very well in online games.

The project itself is not new, it successfully started in 2006, and in this venture funds invested another 110 million dollars in further development.

By the way, the Russian version of the service is also working today, in which you can easily find a fellow traveler or arrange a trip on the cheap.

No. 1 is perhaps the most original way to legally invest money in the drug industry was invented in the United States. The new startup Eaze is nothing more than a medical marijuana delivery service.

Investors were not embarrassed by the thin line between good / bad, according to the law in some states, marijuana is legalized as a painkiller, and they invested $ 1.5 million in the project.

Interestingly, the service guarantees delivery within 10 minutes within the city.

These are ten original business ideas implemented in the USA with the help of business angels. One can only add that at least half of them can be implemented in Russia

Source: http://pilotbiz.ru/startapy-ssha/

Budget Ideas for Startups

Hello! Igor Zuevich is in touch, and today we will talk with you about how to implement a startup. You will learn about what startup ideas can be implemented with minimal budgets.

Do you have 100 thousand rubles? Time to start your own business! People who plan to do business have one thing in common - they have ambitions, and they are ready to implement all the most daring ideas.

Unfortunately, not every one of them has a sufficient financial base. In fact, a worthwhile idea can always be realized without large investments.

It is clear that if you have a tidy sum of a million dollars, you can get your own bar or shop, which will definitely not leave you without a profit. But most often there are situations when money is running out, and working for someone else's uncle has long been tired.

In this article, you can find small tips that will help you start your own business on a minimal budget. Most importantly, these business ideas have been developed with the realities of today's marketplace in mind.

1. Anti-corrosion protection of auto parts

The first example concerns the automotive business, namely the galvanizing of car body parts. Not everyone can afford a foreign car, so many of our compatriots prefer the domestic auto industry.

It's no secret that after a few years, such a car is slowly losing ground. In other words, it starts to rust. One man shared a very interesting story. He had a "nine", for which he bought a new wing.

Six months later, it broke down. The owner did not give up and bought the next wing. But only this time he took care of corrosion protection. And everything was done with their own hands and on their own.

Having finished work with the detail, the man decided to go to the market with it. To his surprise, it turned out that you can get a good amount for it.

2. Control money for housing and communal services in real time

After the reform in the housing sector, numerous managers of apartment buildings began to appear. But the residents were not particularly imbued with confidence in large HOAs, because it is not entirely clear where the collected funds go.

And people want to know. Therefore, the next step was taken - each house was given bank card. Such a simple solution allowed people to control all their expenses in real time.

At the same time, there is a person who is engaged in collecting and concluding contracts. It is clear that for his services he receives a salary, even a symbolic amount.

3. Dispatch service on call of private doctors

Children are the most important joy in the life of every person. But only this joy is sometimes overshadowed by all sorts of illnesses. And they arise at the most inopportune moment: both on holidays and on weekends.

There are several solutions: wait until the end of the weekend or go to the hospital, where you have to stand in a rather big queue. But smart people have found a way out of this situation.

The girl organized a dispatch service to call doctors. She began to cooperate with private doctors and actively advertise her services. According to this scheme, initial capital will go to the initial payment for the services of doctors, and then everything will work according to the knurled.

4. Handmade dolls

You have probably noticed for a long time that dolls not only perform the function of a toy, but are also part of the decor. Especially when it comes to an exclusive doll in an expensive outfit.

Given the fact that the market is flooded Chinese goods, because of which children develop allergies, wooden dolls will clearly be in favor. You can even focus on the fact that the Japanese make such products as a valid amulet.

You will only need to find a craftsman who will carve the dolls for a nominal fee. But the outfit should be worthwhile. After all, it is he who determines the price of the product.

5. Care of summer cottages

The rich have their quirks. Many of them are acquiring a country plot to have a place where they can relax and unwind. But after all, this area still needs care. Here's an idea for you. Create a group of people who would take care of the summer cottage.

6. Artistic design of educational institutions

Surely you have noticed how boring and dull general education and preschool institutions look. It's not that the children will not be very interested, even parents are sometimes outraged about this.

Plus, the commission can also come with a check. It is clear that the manager will have to spend a tidy sum to improve the institution. Here is the work for creative artists.

7. Drip irrigation systems in summer cottages

People who have vegetable gardens continue to use kilometer-long hoses. And this despite the fact that the 21st century is in the yard. But one man spoke about how he earned by installing a drip irrigation system. One had only to advertise in the newspaper and describe all the advantages of this system.

8. Sew handbags yourself

Oh those women! No matter how big their wardrobe is, they constantly buy something, especially when it comes to accessories. Take, for example, a women's handbag. The same bag can't fit all your looks.

So you have to buy new models. Purchase equipment for home sewing, and in a month it will fully pay for itself, and you will become a wealthy person.

9. Handicrafts for babies

Let's return to the children's theme. All the best is bought for kids. The demand for cribs and tables for children will never fall, even if they are handmade and cost a lot of money. So, an ordinary carpenter today - tomorrow can become a real master and a millionaire.

10. Car straightening and painting business

No matter how carefully you drive a car, there will always be someone who will hook your “swallow”.

And now what i can do? Do not drive in a rumpled car? Here the so-called tinkerers will come to your aid. They are also called car straightening and painting masters.

You can organize a business right in your garage: buy the necessary equipment and you're done.

If the next 5 minutes you can invest in self-education, then follow the link and read our next article: How to motivate yourself to take action? Motivation tips.

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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 everyone modern man 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? Startup ideas are very important. 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 minimum 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. No need to make new acquaintances, because when you generate different ideas for the same market, you communicate 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. it 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

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

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 development 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

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




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 have been solving these problems for many years.

5. Improve existing

Find what people hate. And they hate parking, looking for rental housing, getting visas, moving, going to doctors. generating interesting ideas startups, 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

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

Most of the ideas for a startup are copied from other companies. Many successful firms once went down this path. What can be added successful ideas? new distribution channels, the best 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




Get ideas for 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 matters. 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

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, the Altair 8800, which was in high demand. 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

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




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 in common with the real needs of the 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 a successful business in the small and medium segment in Russia. There are many profitable projects in Europe and North America, which are not 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.

The tile has 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 like to ride. There are no problems with bicycles - this applies to both riding and operation, as well as environmental friendliness. But these vehicles They 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 the Kilo GLOW manufacturers develop the color scheme of the bike in agreement with the 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 an original idea for a startup and stand out from the many 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. Draw pizza with everyone necessary tools you can 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, next to shopping malls and in other places where people laugh loudly, sometimes 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 a startup came from former employees Facebook. 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 in their free time will perform a fact check.
• 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. 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 is for the most part from 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 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




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 find some weak sides 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

When launching a new product or service, remember who your target audience is, what they want and need. 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 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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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 staffing who will have to file 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





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 filed the rights, studied the market, drew growth charts in Excel, conducted 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 is visible (income-income per client), constant growth, prospects further development. 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

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. Virtual data processing and storage center - this is how you get the power cloud service for rent 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.

AT real life ideas for a startup 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 modern market does 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 a few 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;
• compose registered letter in your name and write 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, a computer program, a selection method or achievement, a production 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.

Apple, Facebook, Google, SpaceX - all these projects started as simple experiments - these ideas seemed just crazy, but they tried to bring them to life anyway. Here are 20 more successful projects in which their founders were engaged in addition to their main activities.

For many people, changing course is also a sign of weakness. This is tantamount to admitting that you don't know what you are doing. This seems especially strange to me. I believe that a person who cannot change his point of view is dangerous. Steve Jobs often changed his views depending on the situation, and I do not know anyone who considered him weak, ”writes Ed Catmull in his book Genius Inc. How to manage a team of creative people.

The founder of Apple (and 20 other people, which we will discuss below) were not afraid to go after their ideas. Even Y Combinator - the most successful business incubator in the world - asks candidates to submit their side project idea when applying (and many are chosen to implement their idea, instead of the company's idea).

Product Hunt

Do I need to have technical knowledge to open a business in this area? How about a business that is in the business of discovering new tech products? For Ryan Hoover, founder and CEO of ProductHunt, this has never been a problem. ProductHunt is a platform and community that helps people discover new technical products and interact with their team. Instead of agonizing over the technical aspects of his side project, he simply decided to do what he knew how to do:

“I wasn't an engineer so I wasn't going to invest time or money into building an entire website from scratch, but I could easily make a list of email addresses. So I did. Through the mailing list, I invited several hundred investors, founders and my friends who, in my opinion, would like my project and who had a nose for technical products.

Within a few years of launching the startup, ProductHunt had grown into a community of hundreds of thousands of users. AngelList recently acquired ProductHunt for $20 million.

groupon

How did a social network for activists evolve into a $1 billion collective discount service for 45 countries? And all this happened in just two years after the launch. Groupon's path to success is a bit strange and winding. However, it defines the spirit of this startup.

Initially, the project was called The Point. The platform was aimed at bringing people together around a certain action. One day, the founder of the platform, Eric Lefkofsky, saw how users came together in a large group to buy a product and get a discount. After that, the company began to develop as Groupon. The economic crisis of 2008 prompted Lefkofsky to launch Groupon in Chicago, and we already know the rest.

Twitter

Now almost everyone has it. Previously, Twitter was a small side project of Odeo. Initially, it was used as an SMS service for a small group of employees. The project did not seem interesting to the press and investors then, despite the support of CEO Evan Williams. Here's what TechCrunch wrote about him ten years ago:

“What is this company doing to make their offer attractive? How do their shareholders feel about side projects like Twttr when their main product is a total bore? Only the design is good."

Then they could not even imagine what the founders of Odeo built new business that has changed the way we communicate online.

Craigslist

Craigslist (American counterpart to Avito) is immortal. Although it cannot be attributed to the list of top tech companies, it is still worth saying a few words about the platform, which has been very successful in the US market for 20 years. But where and when did it all start? In the early 1990s, Craig Newmark, an IBM employee who had just moved to San Francisco, compiled an email list for local events (Craig's list, you know?). Craig thought the list would help him meet new people. The idea was picked up, the list became popular. People began to use it not only for meetings. In the future, this inspired Craig, and he left his job and took up the development of Craigslist. Today this company is worth $1 billion.

Unsplash

What do you do with the leftover photos from the landing page photo shoot? Create storage for royalty-free photos, of course. When the Canadian startup Crew hired a professional photographer to shoot, the photos turned out to be more than necessary. But instead of letting the photos get lost somewhere on the hard drive, the employees posted them on the site and gave them away for free. Then one HackerNews post went viral all over the internet and the photo was downloaded more than 50,000 times. Today, Unsplash has tens of thousands of amazing photos available for free download. Unsplash has become the place to go for free images.

AppSumo

You don't need a lot of money to create your own side project. Check out AppSumo, a site for daily deals in digital goods and services. The site was launched for a small amount - $50. Noah Kagan, the founder of AppSumo, in an interview shared a story about how he learned about the need to create a discount site for online companies. Then he was doing marketing for mint.com. He invested his own money (plus $20 in cash from his mom) to create a landing page and collect email addresses. In the first year, the company's value reached $1 million.

Oculus

There are many stories about how famous companies started their journey in garages: Apple, Google, Amazon, HP. And Oculus. After a long day at the California State University Mixed Reality (MXR) Lab, founder Palmer Lucky was heading to the garage to try and build the future of virtual reality. After one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns, Luckey quit his job, dropped out of school, and sold Oculus to Facebook for $2.4 billion, $400 million in real money, $2 billion in Facebook stock (before they even had a product).

Houzz

If you're looking for something related to home renovation or decorating, you'll most likely come across a listing on Houzz. The community serves over 40 million monthly users and employs approximately 1,000 employees worldwide. However, they started very modestly. One day, the founders of the company, the family of Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen, while doing repairs, faced a lack of resources for home improvement. This prompted them to create their own. Their first users were twenty parents from the school where the children of Adi and Alon went, several architects and designers. Today the company is worth $4 billion.

Khan Academy

While teaching his relatives, Salman Khan, the founder of the educational platform Khan Academy, received a slightly ambiguous compliment: his students suggested that he meet online rather than in person. Khan did not ignore this remark, it only stuck in his head. So he started making ten-minute Youtube videos on subjects ranging from biology to art. At the same time, he worked as a hedge fund analyst. As the Youtube activity began to take off, Khan left his job and now has over 100 employees under his leadership.

gumroad

How do you know you've got a killer side project idea? If you dropped out of college, somehow became the fourth employee at Pinterest, then quit your job to make this idea a reality, this is definitely it. The same thing happened to Sahil Lavigna. While working as a designer at Pinterest, he realized that selling digital products online was unnecessarily difficult. He tweeted his idea for approval and then created his side project Gumroad over the weekend. Now the platform for the sale of digital products (from mailing lists to generating discount coupons) in the West is used by everyone - from Eminem to Tim Ferris.

GitHub

"It all started with a domain, a cheap server from Slicehost, and some stock art." Before GitHub became a $1 billion company, founders Chris Vanstrass and PJ Hiett built websites for computer technology portal CNET. They didn't like the fact that it was so difficult to make changes to open source codes. So they created their own repository while working nights and weekends. To date, their side project has hundreds of millions in venture capital and approximately 20 million users.

We Work

One of the most important startups in the world may not have come into being at all. Before founding WeWork, Adam Newman sold children's clothing with knee patches in a small building in Brooklyn. According to Newman himself, at that time he "was mistaken and directed his energy in the wrong direction."

As an additional income, Newman and his partner rented space in the same building for little money and opened a “green” coworking space there. With the proceeds from the sale of their stake in Green Desk (the original co-working company), they founded a new co-working space. Today it is worth $20 billion and is coming to Russia this year.

Udemy

How many happy IT consultants do you know? Most likely, in your circle, they either do not exist at all, or they are all unhappy. When Gagan Biani wanted to leave the consulting company Accenture, he took up a part-time job - Udemy, where he was one of the founders. This is a platform where anyone can create and sell their online course. Today, he's probably happy, because Udemy offers 42,000 courses and is worth over $170 million.

Instagram

Remember Slack, which created its own messenger within the company, because nothing that existed on the market suited them. Or the Houzz founding family, who built their network because they couldn't find the resources to fix it. Whatever you choose, in any case, there will be a few people who will think the same way as you. Don't dismiss the idea of ​​a side project just because you feel like you're the only one who needs it.

2. Listen to the market

When Twitch first started, it never prioritized the gaming community. But when the founders saw more and more people streaming their games every day, they realized that this is what people want. At the very beginning, Groupon, then The Point, never set itself the goal of making money. He only wanted to unite for the sake of some social action. But once users banded together to get a discount on a product, the creators of Groupon saw the full potential.

3. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty

WeWork, Buffer, HubSpot, Imgur and Oculus - their founders weren't 100% sure what they were doing, but they took the risk anyway.

The truth is that you should just try - then any startup mistake can be prevented. Start small and see if your idea works. Create, for example, a landing page or a blog, send out cold letters to 100 potential buyers and see if they like your idea. Side projects are a great way to test the waters before getting serious about your next idea.

4. Colleagues and partners can validate ideas in the same way as users

Startup founders are often advised to get their ideas approved by real users. This, of course, is important. But when you're looking for ideas for side projects or just want to know if you're on the right track, it's important to listen to the inside as well. Talk to the team, employees or partners about the problems they are facing, even if those problems are not related to your company.

As a company that creates a project management tool, it is very important for Planio to be even more productive and efficient. Therefore, they made it a rule to seek confirmation within the company before developing and releasing new features.

5. Moment matters

What's great about side projects is that there's usually no outside pressure. They can be launched at any convenient time. But this does not mean that you can just sit and wait for the “right moment”.

Side projects are a chance to explore the future. This is a chance to take advantage of modern tools to create applications and products that no one may yet know is needed. Think of Instagram, which was created solely because of the hype around location-based services like Foursquare. Subsequently, Instagram became the most popular social network to share photos.

Or even Oculus. Taking advantage of advances in technology and the imagination of people, they restarted an entire industry. All this happened because the founders looked to the future. At the same time, they did not forget to follow the course of events. It was important for them to know that they were directing their energy to the right side project, that it would not be wasted.

So what does it all mean?

Side projects are an incredible source of inspiration, a way to experiment. Often the business ideas at the heart of side projects are better and more interesting than your current activity. Why not try?

A startup is necessary for economic development because it is the missing link between science and industry. The scope of the projects is not limited to the scientific and technical or technological direction and can support any trend.

How to make a startup successful

What is a startup

A newly formed company is called a startup. Usually it is at the stage of development, is formed due to innovative ideas and not necessarily officially registered. The characteristic features of such a business project are the lack of funding and the precarious position of the business entity in the market for the provision of services, production or sales of products. Risky decisions are often made to achieve the set goal.

Why a startup?

What is a startup

Large corporations successfully promote products that are already in demand and do not seek to introduce projects into their plans that need to be developed for a long time. Their income is stable, and when innovative ideas are promoted, it will be reduced due to the need to invest funds and dilute the attention of the business manager by creating an additional niche for earnings that will not be received immediately. Therefore, the founders of large business entities are rarely involved in start-ups, since it is easier for them to create a subsidiary or register an individual business to ensure mobility and efficiency in the implementation of new ideas.

Project founders are not necessarily active business representatives, they can be ordinary individuals who have set a goal for themselves, are able to convince and work for results.

Trend selection

According to the statistics compiled by the participants of the start-up party, entrepreneurs in the field of ecology, defense, science and culture have low chances for the development of projects. You can try to promote the project to successful results with a competent approach to business in a niche that supports the mass market and education. Rapid and stunning results can be achieved in medicine, tourism and communications. It should be noted that the forecasts formed on the basis of the analysis of historical data are not accurate, but allow us to assess the existing trend.

What is the key to success

The successful implementation of an entrepreneurial idea and its introduction to the market is the goal of any startup at the stage of its formation. However, not every project acquires this status. The reason for failures is the choice of an irrelevant trend or incorrect organized business. So what is the key to success when implementing a business idea for a startup?

Idea

The main component of the success of the project is an innovative idea, which should be unusual and fresh.

Its parameters in terms of prospects and demand are evaluated by investors, and their decision to cooperate depends on the impression made by the innovation and the expected results from its implementation in business. An idea displayed on paper, in the form of a business project, even without material implementation, can be expensive.

Team building

Stages of startup development

An indispensable element of success is a well-chosen team of personalities. The implementation of the conceived idea can be carried out by one person, but in such a situation it will take more time to achieve results. Difficulties may be associated with the need to conduct simultaneous activities in several areas: strategy development, management and entry into the sales market, as well as the search for investors with insufficient project funding.

The formation of the team must be done in such a way that its members complement each other with qualities and skills that companions lack. In partnership, it is important to share the responsibilities for planning, networking, product development, production and implementation. When selecting partners, one should take into account not only the knowledge and skills of applicants, but also their age, passion for the idea and willingness to work until results are obtained.

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 conducted research on 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 so happened that we do 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 selecting 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. Register officially at tax authorities. Build a system of repetitive business processes.
6. The release of goods and services in proportion to sales.
   Don't need to do big 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.

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