Startup Academy

You have a business, but are failing to make it investor-attractive

When a traditional business is hitting its growth ceiling and venture investors do not see any prospects in it, the entrepreneur understands the need for change. Finding a new path that will transform an ordinary business project into an investment-attractive startup sometimes means the need for a sharp turn – a pivot.

Startup Academy equips its valued students with the right mind-set and tools for creating a startup. It also provides founders with a safe platform for experimentation to avoid making fatal mistakes even at such a critical moment for the business as a pivot.

How did SKOLKOVO Startup Academy help?

Artem Moskalev, IVITECH

A fintech service that employs unique analytics models for financing industries with high potential capital capacity.

An entrepreneur with extensive hiring experience in the financial sector came to the programme with a functioning micro-business business model in which investors did not see the possibility of scaling. The main goal was to discover ways for expanding the client base and to globalise.

Number of clients (post-programme, February 2021): A financial ecosystem for taxi-fleet created under an arrangement that secured financing for the installation of gas cylinder equipment for five hundred cars.
Team (post-programme, February 2021): 4 people in search of talented developers.
Goals for the training period: To become a global fintech company for financing the following business areas: marketplaces, SaaS solutions, agro-industry, logistics, alternative fuels, taxi companies, and others
Result: During training under the Startup Academy programme, we grew from a small traditional business on instalments for the installation of gas cylinder equipment to a global fintech company covering several industries and areas; the size of the portfolio grew from RUB 2 million to RUB 25 million, with monthly revenue topping RUB 1 million. Today, we are studying the European markets and negotiating with investors from London. 

«Startup Academy gave us the tools and skills that allowed us to build a business of a scale that we had not even imagined before. The programme helped us better understand the market and ourselves in it; it taught us to adapt quickly — to test hypotheses and create prototypes, and to communicate with investors correctly. Startup Academy is also a great opportunity to meet great market executives and successful entrepreneurs and investors».

You have an idea, but you lack enough startup experience

The average age of Startup Academy participants is thirty-five years, but each group may have participants older than fifty and younger than eighteen, because entrepreneurial interest transcends age. Among the founders are young talents who are able to create truly successful innovative products that generate revenue. These entrepreneurs usually rely on intuition to start their own business, but often resort to the help of market professionals. Startup Academy's highly-trained lecturers and mentors help them master entrepreneurship skills and emulate business start-up in a safe environment to be able to enter the real world fully equipped.

How did SKOLKOVO Startup Academy help?

Maria Frolova, OpenMind

An online platform that helps teenagers take their first step into adulthood through an educational platform for the development of digital skills and a marketplace that brings together young people and employers to solve companies' problems.

A young entrepreneur joined the programme with a subscription-based business generating a total revenue of no more than RUB 50,000.00 to be able to review the business model and launch a profitable startup over several months.

Clients (February 2021): Six large b2b corporations; 21 users of the educational platform.
Team (February 2021): 58 people, including 50 curators.
Goals for the training period: To generate a revenue of RUB 2,000,000.00 and attract investments of RUB 600,000.00 to implement set goals.
Result: During our training at Startup Academy, we created an online platform combining educational programmes and a marketplace; signed contracts with three major b2b clients, including Beeline and HeadHunter; enrolled 700 children in educational courses, and trained a team of 50 curators. Today, the marketplace has more than 300 users who solve four or five company tasks per day; 21 people bought the educational programme, seven entrepreneurs bought our creative sessions

«Startup Academy gave us the tools and skills that have enabled us to establish a technology startup that is already generating substantial revenue two months in a row just four months after the idea was first pitched. OpenMind is currently valued at RUB 250 million, and we have received twelve offers from investors».

You have the technology, but no business idea

The programme is attended by technical specialists, engineers and scientists who create innovative technological solutions. However, the technology itself is only a tool for product development. To create a commercially a successful startup, technology must be translated into business language by identifying the client's needs, creating a product unique to the market, structuring a value proposition, and much more.

Startup Academy helps you learn to see the product, the client, and the market behind the technology, to launch your project and start earning and attracting investments.

How did SKOLKOVO Startup Academy help?

Anna Zheltova, Nova Korova

Cow embryo transfer service. The technology boosts the productivity of cows in the next generation on farms and enables farmers to choose the right calves for their farms.

The bioengineer and bioinformatician joined the Startup Academy programme already with the startup idea and an understanding of technology to be able to assemble and launch a startup project.

Clients (post-programme, February 2021): Several preliminary contracts concluded, business launched in April 2021 due to seasonality.
Team (post-programme, February 2021): 5 people.
Goals for the training period: We see problems associated with shortages in high-quality milk and low numbers of high-yield livestock on Russian farms. For the coming decade, we plan to replace our current stock with dairy cattle producing high-volume high-grade milk.
Result: During our time at Startup Academy, we managed to form an expert team, studied the market, and prepared an offer that highly appealed to the client; we worked out a development strategy for the next three years; we put together a business model and a financial model.

«The knowledge and tools that we gained from Startup Academy enabled us to launch our project and quickly begin to move towards achieving our goals. We also managed to clinch our deal with the investor».

You are an experienced manager who feels it is high time you started your own business

The next step in professional development for many successful top managers is entrepreneurial activity. They would want to embody the values they formed through their invaluable management experience in their personal projects, which makes innovative business models quite appealing to them; they are certainly not interested in the traditional way of doing business. For such founders, a startup's exponential growth is not an end in itself, but rather an efficiency measure.

Startup Academy gives top managers the opportunity to try themselves in a new role without interrupting their main activities for them to decide if they are ready to venture into full-time entrepreneurship. All this is done among young, energetic, and inspiring mentors, teachers and participants.

How did SKOLKOVO Startup Academy help?



Igor Shlyonsky, MySwimEdge

Smart sensor and AI-based technology that helps improve the swimming technique and results for both amateur swimmers and professionals and their coaches.

An entrepreneur holding an MBA in General Management and Finance from Cornell University with extensive experience in working in major companies and knowledge in finance and business strategies. Enrolled in the Startup Academy programme already having a working startup business model and already in working relationships with Western partners who were helping him better understand and work out the trajectory of his project's development in the Russian and American markets.

Clients (February 2021): 3 fitness networks are piloting the technology (about 10 swimmers and coaches).
Team (February 2021): 3 people on the company's staff and several partners in different areas (algorithms, sensor production, programming).
Goals: To launch sales in 2021 in the Russian and US markets, to reach a USD 10 million+ revenue in 2023.
Result: During training, many hypotheses, different market approaches, and business models were tested. Without any pivots, the project has become more flexible, adaptive, multi-vector.
Client's comment: «Here, we need to add a couple of suggestions about the fact that experienced top managers who see entrepreneurship as the next step in their development may come to join us. They are not interested in building traditional businesses. Rather, they are interested in building businesses through which they can realise their values, and exponential growth is simply a measure of efficiency. At that, they are really fascinated by the environment of young, lively and inspiring mentors, lecturers, and fellow participants.»

«The Startup Academy team and our group displayed simply incredible energy. I got the most useful and candid tips from the programme's mentors. Candid tips are no less important than useful ones. They allow you to come up with better solutions. Continuous development and testing of hypotheses about a business model, financing strategies, and understanding a startup's success. The main changes occurred not in the project itself, but in my head. I learnt the important word «awareness» in relation to swimming during training».