Startup - what is it: the best ideas. Why your startup won't be liked by an investor Who is a startup

Do you want to open a startup? Congratulations! You are on the right track. Because, before opening a startup, you must study the topic, find new moves, tools, conduct marketing research. In general, become a real professional in the field.

And, of course, your startup will be a startup of startups. Clearly, quickly and immediately. And, you will definitely come across 7 truths. We suggest you prepare for them in advance.

1. You and your startup are... no one needs. Yes, you heard right - not needed. Since all investments, loans and state aid services provided to entrepreneurs are designed to pay for themselves. And your startup is an idea whose return on investment is questionable. Therefore, at the first stage, when there is no profit, no one needs your startup.

2. Time is against you. Even after calculating all the deadlines from textbooks - implementation, payback, entering the market. In reality, you will find that it doesn't work and the other tool doesn't work as fast as you planned. Therefore, all theoretical deadlines will fail. Real terms more times in 3-4 theories. Get used to it.

3. Personnel decide everything. Brilliant words of Stalin. Trust us, he was very good HR manager. It's all about the personnel and the team that will implement your startup. Look for smart people who work with their heads, not their tongues. Those who are not afraid to look for shortcomings in themselves that affect their work and business in general.

4. How much does it weigh in grams? More precisely, how much money does it take for your startup to enter the market? Did you count? Plus 50%. How did you calculate? Therefore, add another 50% of the cost. Since you didn’t take into account overhead costs, sick leave in your team, increase in deadlines, stretching deadlines and other things. Therefore, plus fifty percent. And that's still good. He knows one guy whose project cost was 250% more than he planned.

5. We started a startup, but didn’t do pre-project research. Why? Are you so confident in your idea that solves humanity's current problems? For a moment, pre-project research will, to one degree or another, mitigate or even eliminate all of the above points. And you scored on him. And they did the right thing. It’s better to reconnaissance in force and most importantly get involved. Meanwhile, by conducting a simple survey, making a landing page for 500 rubles and spending a little money on advertising, you will study the market and be able to adjust your idea. Cheap.

6. Dead ends. This is normal. Any business has a dead end when you don’t know where to move next and what to do. In a startup, this may come the next day. Too many problems close a person down. Don’t be alarmed, all problems can be solved, and the exit may be where the entrance is. To mitigate this problem, try switching to another project or idea that is less extensive than the main one. This switch will relieve you of stress and you will get out of the deadlock.

7. Investments. The weakest point. Any project. Even if investments are found, they will come extremely slowly. Even if you successfully get your project through, you will receive the minimum that your startup requires. This is fine. Just get ready for it. Save more money for your startup. Take out a consumer loan. This is your project, you get paid.

So, after studying the 7 points, what conclusion did you draw? Don't want a startup? You just don't want to work. Work hard. Day and night. But when you really want to work and you are not afraid of our points, then your startup will become successful, profitable and popular. Like Apple. Well, almost. 5% percent. But it will happen! Don't get lost, work!

A startup company (from the English startup, start-up) is new company with a rapidly growing business whose goal is to meet market needs by developing a viable business model based on innovative product, services or platforms.

Articles and news about the best startups, in which you will learn what successful ideas are being implemented by other entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world, as well as lists of companies in which the largest business accelerators invest.

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Before creation own project You should find out what the differences are between small businesses and startups. Startup, startup - what is it, how to start developing a project, find investors, achieve success. On current moment Nowadays, there are a huge number of small businesses that consider themselves to be startups. But not all of them can be classified into this category of projects, which have striking distinctive features that set them apart from other companies.

What is a startup

The word is a transliteration of the English startup. A startup - what is it in the classical concept, how they look for investors, sources of financing, which will contribute to the rapid launch of the project. Main feature startups, making them potentially profitable business is the use of interesting ideas, promising initiatives. In addition, gathering a good team to start is more important here than in the field of regular business.

Who is a startuper

At the initial stage to create successful business, a team of people who are considered startupers is being recruited. Only these people are responsible for the successful implementation of the plan, initial capital, and attracting audiences at presentations. Often, startupers are students who want to earn money and achieve success, but who do not want to work in companies large corporations, become entrepreneurs. They create a business plan from scratch, attract supporters and private investors in order to develop unique product, own business, capable of generating large incomes.

Startup and business - distinctive features

Businessmen realize themselves in ready-made industries and enterprises, and startupers launch their business projects in conditions of uncertainty, high risk, minimum budget. Consider the key differences between startup and full-fledged business:

1. Scale. Entrepreneurs implement their ideas in already developed areas; they are limited by the clear boundaries of the industry. Startup has no such limitation. The very definition of a startup lies in innovative ideas, constantly moving him forward. Examples of successful projects: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook network.
2. Growth rate. The growth stage of a startup begins and lasts much longer than that of a typical business. Without exception, all aspects of startup are aimed at the successful implementation of a product or service in the target community in as soon as possible and most in an efficient way.
3. Profit. At the stage of financing, determining the amount of investment, startupers are looking for investors to promote their idea. From initial capital It greatly depends on how advanced technologies the team can use during the development phase and after it. All this contributes to rapid advancement and has a direct impact on profits.
4. Technology startup. The success of a startup is built not only on ideas, but also on innovative technologies. Many projects use the latest developments.
5. Life cycle. A clear definition of the time frame for the existence of a startup is impossible due to the lack of boundaries for its development. It can fail at the very start or live for several decades, continuing to improve.

Startup projects - types and areas of activity

The division of startups into types and classes occurs not only according to their knowledge intensity and purpose of creation. Projects can also be divided according to less general criteria:

• Hobby. There are the most such projects on the startup exchange. They were created by people who tried to turn their lifelong passion into a profitable, interesting business.
• Creation for the purpose of enrichment. Starting a project just for the sake of money can be a good motivation at first. Such companies are better thought out and organized than the first ones.
• Family project. This type of enterprise, common these days, mainly occupies the niche of restaurants, hotel business, production of hand-made products.
• Global company. Startups can be called successful after reaching the global level. Projects in this category are unique, attract clients all over the globe, their life cycle will last for a very long time.

By degree of science intensity

The classification of projects by knowledge intensity is unambiguous and has only two varieties:

1. Standard company. It uses conventional technologies and does not require additional developments in its field of activity. Examples could be companies in the hotel, restaurant business, and hand-made products.
2. Company using innovative technologies. The second type is more complicated and develops with the use the latest developments in the relevant industry. May require significant additional funding, search large investors for its implementation, promotion, development.

By purpose of creation

The advantage of a startup is achieved by setting goals that are decisive in its start, development, and promotion:

• Earnings. The basic, most common purpose of creating a project. Even if employees work “for the idea,” the project will not last long without profit.
• Idea. There are people who are ready to work for the development of a certain industry, sphere information technology, economics, industry. Such companies have the least chance of success, but if successful, they can bring huge profits.
• Recruitment of a professional team. A good, well-coordinated team of motivated startupers is capable of a lot, but it is very difficult to assemble it. Even if it fails, such a company can always start another project from scratch.

How to create a startup

To be sure that the project idea will become popular, you need to consider the very concept of a startup - what it is, how to properly start the development of a company, what to focus on in order to understand what they are based on:

1. Thinking through an idea. The key feature of the project should not have analogues in the country or region that will be used for promotion. You can come up with this idea yourself, buy or order it on the startup exchange, borrow from foreign analogues.
2. Search for a team. The people involved in the project do not necessarily need to know everything about the industry that the startup covers. This is encouraged, but all employees can develop regardless of knowledge.
3. Drawing up a business plan. The plan is the most main part any project, without which an accidental failure can become fatal to the entire idea. The development stage should be approached with all responsibility, which will contribute to product sales.
4. Searching for investors or start-up capital. Even the most promising ideas are worth big money at the implementation stage. Finding finance is not easy, but it is possible. Investments can be provided by banks, friends, relatives, and other people who are interested in the original idea.

Startup idea

The popularity of startups is explained by the innovativeness of the ideas on which they are based. The main idea should be unique, capture the client’s attention, and be economically beneficial to those who invest money in the idea. To achieve these conditions, you need to study in detail the question: a startup - what it is, how they are classified, what ideas have already been developed, what innovations they are based on. The following ideas are gaining popularity in the world at the moment:

1. Ecology. Waste disposal, optimization of wastewater treatment plants, development of new methods of landscaping - all this is only gaining popularity and has good chances become a platform for the development of a new project.
2. Internet projects. Ideas in the field of IT, platforms VKontakte, Facebook, the Internet in general, have enormous potential for founding your own company engaged in website promotion, assistance in recording and storing the history of the Internet, the world, etc.

Interesting startups from the world and Russian practice: 4 differences between a startup and an ordinary business idea + 16 examples successful ideas for inspiration.

Before presenting interesting startups, let’s find out what they are.

Why do the concepts “startup” and “ new business"are they demarcated?

And are there really differences between them, or is it just a matter of popularizing the use of borrowed words in modern speech?

This interesting term “” first appeared in 1939.

It was used by two Stanford University students.

This is how they defined their project, which later grew into a company world-famous as Hewlett-Packard.

Startups can exist in any industry, not just in the IT field.

The distinctive features of startups are:

• are based on the use of innovations, interesting ideas that have not been implemented before;
• usually have little starting capital, because startups are often closely connected with the search for investors or crowdfunding platforms for raising funds;
• occupy an empty niche in the market, but have “shaky” positions at the start;
• As a rule, startups are the prerogative of students.

As you now understand, not every business idea can be called a startup, even if it is implemented by a novice entrepreneur.

Theory is theory, but it’s time to move on to a review of the most interesting startup ideas from all over the world.

Interesting startups from different parts of the world

The selection opens, of course, with American startups. This country is the world leader in the regeneration of new interesting ideas for business.

A huge number of people want to study, live and work in the USA, which is why this power has a huge amount experts in various industries and services.

In addition, the state strongly supports representatives of small and medium-sized businesses.

Fertile ground for the development of startups!

Let's look at the most interesting of them.

— Pocket Anatomy

This startup took the main prize at the international conference of technological innovations in 2014 (TNW Europe 2014).

According to the creators themselves, the company has developed a “Google Earth” of human insides.

This interesting program is a visual aid to human anatomy.

The interactive map is presented as an application for smartphones.

It is designed to help humanity visually understand their own body.

The startup is undoubtedly not just entertaining, but also educational!

Another participant in the mentioned conference is the Iwaku smart lamp.

Technology in a stylish case will become the best friend of people who love interesting things.

A whole set of functions is hidden in its modest-sized shell:

• knows how to perform light therapy;
• wakes up the owner with the help of a glow, taking into account biorhythms;
• is able to "find common language» with your iPhone.

This interesting lamp is quite expensive - about 10,000 rubles.

But the founders of the startup promised to release a more affordable product in the future.

Startups from Estonia

Are you unfamiliar with examples of thriving businesses that have emerged in Estonia? You are wrong!

It was here that the world-famous startup appeared - the Skype video calling program.

Based on expert opinions, Estonia is one of the leading countries creating interesting startups.

Some even call it a modern analogue of Silicon Valley.

This development received its prize in 2015 as the most interesting startup created through the joint efforts of American and Estonian developers.

For an uninitiated person, the essence of the service may not be clear.

Rainer Sternfeld and his team created a service that allowed climate data to be collected together.

It is worth understanding that the background of “Planet.OS” is not entertaining. Rather, the resource is aimed at those whose activities are related to meteorology, transport communications (including water), and the creation of various databases.

An example of how Planet OS works to analyze the position of a ship:

Startups from Italy

Italy is also developing interesting startups in various fields.

Moreover, in this country, which does not rank first in the rankings of technological and economic development, an interesting law has been adopted since 2012. It states that anyone who wants to develop their startup for the benefit of Italy will receive a visa under a simplified procedure and especially favorable conditions for business implementation.

As you can imagine, there were a lot of people interested (if you are also interested, look for information about a startup visa on the official website http://italiastartupvisa.mise.gov.it/).

What interesting startups can the country “boast” of?

This application is developed by Max Ciocciola. Its job is to broadcast text onto the phone screen while the song is playing.

Simple and tasteful!

This unique program More than 31 million people are already using it.

The database contains 8 million texts with support for 40 different languages. Thanks to this project, the founder received offers of cooperation from various venture funds.

For detailed information, you can follow the link https://www.musixmatch.com/.

If you love to travel, you are definitely familiar with a service such as Tripadvisor.

It contains information about all the main attractions of the world with detailed comments and user reviews.

In 2015, the resource developers introduced the startup “Thefork” to the world.

This development contains data about all restaurants in Italy.

If you have a question about choosing a place for an evening dinner, use the website https://www.thefork.com/.

It is enough to indicate the city, the number of people, preferences in cuisine, and all the establishments in which you will definitely like are opened for you!

Purpose of this project is the coordination and optimization of the company's work process.

This interesting startup received exorbitant investments from American investors ($22 million - a record for the last 15 years).

You can learn more about this development on the website http://www.decisyon.com/

Startups from France

The French government decided to follow the same path as in Italy. This power plans to get interesting startups thanks to competitions for companies that have brilliant ideas in their arsenal.

The French Tech Ticket program is aimed not only at “locals”, but also at residents of other countries (including Russia).

Anyone who has an idea for an interesting startup can apply to participate in the competition.

More information about this can be found on the official website by following the link http://www.frenchtechticket.com/.

If selected, a person receives the following privileges:

• invitation to the country;
• participation in specialized master classes;
• assistance in solving “urgent” issues (obtaining a residence permit, obtaining insurance, finding housing);
• a place in an incubator (organizations that support young entrepreneurs);
• financial assistance – 45,000 euros for the development of a startup.

These actions by the state confirm France’s interest in development and the desire to attract highly qualified workers to its territory in order to continue creating interesting startups.

A well-known Italian company, in partnership with Uber, developed this startup to search for companions during a trip (more precisely, to “bring together” car owners and potential passengers).

Using the service is a convenient and profitable alternative to traveling by taxi, bus, or train.

In 2014, this idea already received $100 million in investment for development.

The project is represented in a number of countries and is developing rapidly.

You can also evaluate the work of “BlaBlaCar” in Russia using this link: https://www.blablacar.ru/.

This startup helped solve a not-so-serious, but nonetheless pressing problem.

It allows a circle of users to form a common cash register. Everyone contributes by using this interesting application.

What is this for?

To purchase a gift “from the whole team”!

Anyone who has at least once collected money with colleagues for a present for the boss, or “chips in” with the whole family to buy something for the hero of the day, knows: organizing such a process is quite difficult.

Probably, this problem really found a great response in the hearts of investors. After all, the startup received almost $8 million for development.

Startups originating from Germany

Berlin is one of the developing capitals that generates interesting startups for the whole world.

Thanks to this, according to experts, by 2020 more than 110 thousand new jobs and several dozen more incubators will be opened in the capital.

Among the many projects, we will highlight the most interesting startups.

—DreamCheaper

This project has become a “new breath” in the field of booking hotel rooms while traveling.

Thanks to the service, it has become possible to buy tickets at a budget price and find a hotel in a convenient location.

Here, experienced travelers may have a question: why is this service better than dozens of similar ones? What is the innovation of a startup?

The fact is that after you book a room, the process does not end.

Using internal algorithms, the service calculates the most profitable options for you right up to the day of check-in at the hotel.

The program cancels the reservation on your behalf and changes it to a more optimal one automatically!

The creators assume that their interesting startup will soon become the most hated resource for hotel owners.

This interesting startup has long been noticed by interior designers who actively use the service in their work.

This project allows you to purchase furniture or various decorative elements from all over the world.

If you think there is nothing innovative or interesting about this idea, then you have never designed a room yourself.

Among the places where the most interesting startups have been presented in recent years, London “owns bronze”.

There are several reasons for this: the simplest system for registering entrepreneurs, an abundance of incubators and coworking spaces, many talented workers, affordable taxation.

Let's consider the most interesting ideas that were “born” in such conditions.

This interesting startup aims to identify a song just from a small fragment of it.

This project was launched back in 1999.

The amount of investment that the resource has attracted is simply amazing – $125 million. And the value that Shazam was valued at in 2015 is absolutely staggering - $1 billion!

Today, the service base includes more than 12 million songs, and you can check the work at the link: https://www.shazam.com/ru.

— Judo Payments

An interesting startup that resembles a mini-bank.

He is able to resolve payment issues and make card-to-card transfers.

Such ideas help to simplify life for humanity, which is why they are developing and are popular. The amount of attracted investments is 14.3 million dollars.

More details can be found on the website https://www.judopay.com/

Interesting startups involving several countries

The Belgian-Dutch collaboration has borne fruit in the form of the development of an application that can recognize a signature on a phone screen.

This interesting idea allows you to authorize payments without any problems.

It is believed that such a startup and others like it are capable of displacing the existing PIN code protection system in the near future.

— Winner Takes All

This is the only crowd lottery on the planet.

The principle of operation is very simple: each participant buys a ticket, forming a common “bank”. The program itself determines the winner weekly using random algorithms. The entire amount from the “general cash register” is sent to him.

This idea attracted not only investors, but also users: with its transparency, simplicity and unpretentiousness.

You can try your luck here: http://www.crowdlottery.com/.

Having studied what interesting startups there are in the world, let’s move on to considering projects in Russia.

Russia also has a lot of interesting ideas that are already serving the benefit of society.

Implementing startups in the current realities of the Russian Federation is not an easy task. However, some interesting projects were able to stand out.

— Doctor Tariff

This interesting development for smartphones can calculate available tariff plans for phone.

Clear analysis affordable tariffs– the main pride of the startup developers. But this is not the limit of the application's capabilities.

It is capable of giving out detailed information about calls, SMS and remaining traffic for Internet use.

And for users who are not particularly versed in mathematical calculations, the program displays a color graph showing the same indicators.

The application was created by Alexander Voloshchuk, faced with a problem known to everyone: the account has zero, and it is not clear where the funds went.

Relevance made the idea, which appeared in 2012, popular and profitable.

Investors invested several million rubles in it. At the end of 2014, the service paid for itself.

Now the average monthly revenue can reach up to 1 million rubles.

You can find out more on the official website: http://drtariff.com/.

— Elpas

The creator (Maxim Serebrov) developed the system electronic passports, with the help of which all housing and communal services employees can report to the state and clarify controversial issues from the work process.

Before this project, at the end of the month, housing and communal services were simply “drowning” in mountains of paper reporting.

It took a lot of time to review it. And where there is a need, business is born!

Elpas has greatly facilitated the work of municipalities.

The work of this project can be viewed at http://elpass.ru/

10 collected in the video best startups, which were invented and implemented by students:

The interesting startups, of course, don’t end there.

But it is simply impossible to list all the ideas worthy of attention within one review!

Remember, every person has the ability to make money from their ideas.

The main thing is to analyze the market and determine current problems audience, and then follow your dreams.

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The very fact that a business startup on the Internet can develop only through the implementation of an idea no longer surprises anyone. For some, the problem is seen in a different way: there is no opportunity not even to implement, but to come up with a popular idea. In fact, the experience of both the largest and small (but profitable) projects on the network suggests that a new business can be based on a rather awkward idea. Moreover, it doesn’t even have to be new! Mark Zuckerberg was not the first to create a social network on the Internet, but his predecessors have sunk into oblivion, and Facebook is still afloat. Let's look at examples of creating Internet startups: from local to well-known ones.

The largest Internet startups: from idea to billions

It would seem that the example with Zuckerberg and Facebook is quite banal. However, it was he who revealed to the world social media. VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Qzone, MySpace, Friendster and many others followed the partly beaten path of their older brother. Therefore, considering the most wealthy companies appearing on the lists best internet startups, you should start with social media. networks.

If the 2000s went down in Internet history as the time of the emergence of social networks general direction, then in the 2010s many specialized social networks appeared. networks:

1. Spotify is a service for listening and sharing music.
2. Instagram, Pinterest - social networks for sharing and discussing photos and pictures.
3. Twitter is a service for public exchange of short messages.

By and large, these projects are increasingly a social network. At first glance, there is nothing in them that Facebook and its analogues did not already have. However, all of these services were able to attract tens of millions of users.

A certain niche has been occupied by services without which it is impossible to imagine the information world - cloud information storage. Dropbox was founded by Drew Houston in an era when servers for storing information already existed. However, it was the Dropbox cloud service that was able to outlast almost all of its competitors and attract over 200 million users. The current value of the company is estimated at $1 billion.

The list of not the most original, but practical ideas continues with Duolingo. The implementation of the idea of ​​teaching users foreign languages ​​in Duolingo was implemented simply brilliantly. The boring learning process was replaced with a game one (gamification) without reducing efficiency. The monetization of the application is also ingeniously designed: a user who has learned the language can try his hand at translating articles in a foreign language. The free article translated by the user will eventually be sold to the customer.

Internet projects: conclusions and development trends

Thus, startup ideas can be divided into two categories. In the first, an idea is developed around an industry or area of ​​life, helping to solve a problem. In the second category, the idea is more unconventional and not tied to an existing area of ​​​​life. For example, in the late 1990s, people lived outside of social networks. In fact, social networks in the early 2000s (Facebook was created in 2004) formed new area human needs.