Question 6. The problem of attracting future founders of start-ups
A large number of people, including those who have a stable job, are thinking about starting their own business and Boostr can encourage them to open their own project. How to organize work with potential founders of startups in order to ensure their participation in Boostr from the first day after the startup appearance?
That's what I thought. If we are looking for future founders of startups, then we are faced with the problem that the future founder of a start-up can be anyone. Student, manager, housewife ... And how to find him
Therefore, I poshumal: do not conduct a broad survey of various categories of people on the topic: "Do not you think about creating your business"And you can ask all - and students and housewives and managers ...
All for the answer to thank, but if a person says that he is thinking, then invite him ... That's where to invite him, I did not come up withMaybe tell me
Prospective startups can be seen in a group that is grouped around the advice of Warren Buffett - it's clear that those who are interested in investing with the business fit into this group. Of course. not all of them are startups - but most certainly. The size of this group is already very significant - there are already 5,509 members of the group, and actively growing-see. https://www.facebook.com/groups/223961444769862/members/
To ask absolutely everyone, and even with a clue already indirectly included in the text of the question, it seems to me not entirely logical.
My proposal was just to conduct researchNOTin the environment of start-ups. And among people who, maybe in a month, a year or five years, will be the founders of start-ups, and, perhaps, will not have anything to do with start-ups ever.
Why this is necessaryThere are several reasons. The first reason is to understand in what environment (students, housewives or managers) most of all the percentage of potential founders of start-ups. And then the corresponding group will become the subject of closer attention, because it is clear that students should be treated differently than to housewives.
Secondly, it's too late to apply to established start-ups. If a start-up is already established, then in the head of its founder there is already a scenario of how it will act further (including how to attract investments if they are needed). And Boostr in this scenario may not figure. Therefore, one should turn to possible future founders of start-ups, at the stage when they have not yet made a decision to create a start-up, and, moreover, have not thought out a plan for launching it.
And thirdly, such a study will provide information that people are hampered to start creating a start-up (or even what prevents them from thinking more seriously about creating their statap). Having identified these reasons, Boostr will be able to offer future founders of startups some additional preliminary services that will help to remove these obstacles.
Support+0
Special service assisting founders to recruit team members
I also like this idea. Probably, the most simple variant of realization is a partnership with HR agency. But here a question in payment of services of agency.
Another approach is to collect your own database of proven candidates that can be approached by investing directions. But it is not less resource intensive, if not more, if you do it purposefully, and not as a by-product of any activity.
I think that it should be a global Internet based platform. For instance I am the programmer from Vietnam and I want to join the team of the promising startup. In order to make the best choice I need to ream something about many startups from China, Russia, Germany, Singapore, US, etc.
Hiring a team for a startup it is not the same as hiring a team for a big company. It is important to find people how are realy interested in the concept of your future business
Author Jan Tegz is a recruiter, writer, well-known specialist in the international community of recruiters. Jan inventedSourcing Games- games to find candidates. We believe that there is no IT recruiter in Russia that does not go through intricate quests to find candidates. More Ian is the author ofFull Stack Recruiterand the creator of the recruiting communityRecruitment.Camp. And here is hiswebsite.
I think that it should be similar to Google. Potential team members need to read about 100 (or 200????) startups and then to choose the" startup of their dream". Technically it is very simple! I am sure that it is possible to create such a website in two days. The issue is how to attract the attention of hundreds of thousands of potential team members to it.
F6S is doing this for existing startups And my suggestion is to do this for FUTURE startups (i.e. for startups which are only in the brain of the future founder but don't exist in reality)
This is the huge difference
So the aim of the suggested service is to help to the future founder to undetstand is it possible to form a good team BEFORE the launch of startups.
Why we need this Not because we want Boostr to compete with somebody. And not because it might be a good idea for Boostr We don't need good ideas for Boostr, we need solutions of the problems
And we have two very serious problems. The first problem is the problem with pre-regustration. Pre-registration is very dangerous and very risky thing
We are asking founders of startups to pre-register in 2018 but the service will start in 2019, many months later. So I am afraid that founders will not pre-register in this situation at all And the founder of the client will decide to close Boostr This is a realy big problem and big danger.
So to avoid this danger in my opinion we need to offer to founders something else besides pre-registration. And service of forming of the team for future startup might be this "something else".
The second problem is the problem of attracting of future founders. And the suggested service might be a part of solution of this problem as well.
So we need to focus on proplems and solutions. Problems are very complicatef so we need to think on the details of solutions very carefully.
But we need to find the solutions If we will not manage to do this the Boostr will be closed
But the first problem is pre-registration. We need to have at least 100 startups pre-registered during one month, maximum two months. And legally Boostr will be launched only after pre-registration. That's why I'm afraid that the results of pre-registration will not be relevant. So we need to think about this first of all.
The second problenm is registration. We need to have 100-150 startups registered withing first month after official launch of Boostr. But the startups will have to pay 10K USD entrance fee. So it is also quite a complicated problem.
And the third problem is the result of attraction of investors. We need to shoew better statistics of investments than staistics of accelerators within 6 months (i.e. at least 20% of startups should close the deals with their investors during first 6 months).
So it is quite a challenge to solve all these problems. But I believe that it is possible.
1. Even very efficient PR campaign will not make pre-registration relevant:
a. It is a threat that founders of startups who are realy interested to participate will not pre-register because pre-registration will not give them any added value.
b. It is also a threat that those who pre-registered will not participate in Boostr after its launch.
I think that in order to make pre-regostration more relevant we need to combine it with something with real added value for founders. For instance with a service helping to attract team members for future startups.
2. No. Of course pre-registration will be absolutely free. 10K USD will be the entrance fee to become the resident several months after pre-registration (i.e. on the stage of registration).
3. I would suggest to split the problem with investors into two dufferent problems:
a. How to attract several thousands of investors to the presentations of Boostr startups
b. How to motivate and support the attracted investors to make the deals.
I think that the competion between regional venture centers could be a part of solution of both problems.
A company that can pay $ 10,000 is not quite a startup, but a company that has quite successfully started. And it will be a big problem - such a significant contribution.
In order to implement the concept of a startup sometimes it is necessary to have large amounts of money - several millions of USD or even more.
That's why the founder can pay 10K USD if it will bring these several millions of investments with high level of probilability. And it is not a big deal for the founder (especialy if the founder is a manager of a big company) to find 10K. And also it is important that the founder will get shares of Boostr for this 10K USD.
The main problem of my opinion is the problem of trust. How to motivate founders to trust Boostr? Without trust the founders will not pay even one cent
By the way if a startup uses the service of companies arranging road shows with the meetings with potential investors it costs at least 10K USD plus travel expenses. So 10K USD is not expensive. More important is to prove the future effectiveness of Boostr for potential residents.
Let's frankly say that if the founder of a startup does not have at least 50 thousand dollars of personal investment - this is definitely not our case. In addition to the contribution to Boostr, there are other costs.
The statistics of the same accelerators show that start-ups attract investors from 500 thousand to 5 million dollars. And this is money, for which you can do something (for 50 thousand, of course, you can do little). But you can not take a loan categorically, it should be the personal accumulation of the founder or, perhaps, the help of friends or relatives.
For these 10 thousand the founder of the startup will receive shares of Boostr. In addition, he will be able to return them in three years, if investors are not found. But this is not the main thing. The main thing is the future statistic. If start-ups believe that, say, every third start-up with Boostr will receive investment, then Boostr will have a turn of thousands of start-ups (because so far no more than 20% have been provided). But here the question is: how to convince in the future statistics, when it is not yet availableThis is the most difficult and the most crucial question
It is possible that the creation of such a service could be thefirst stepin the implementation of the project. WhyBecause it would allow "catching" future founders of start-ups at the stage when they just had a plan for their business, but they have not yet started looking for a team.
And then it will be possible to "lead" these people for themselves and beyond, including the stage when they will need external investment.
But the technology of the operation of such a service has not yet been thought through. Place on the site the application of a potential founder that he is looking for a team is not difficult.
And how to draw the attention of potential team members. The same must be addressed to millions of different people around the world. Most likely, young and creative people will go to the startup team, who will not go to a large company. But at the same time they are not ready to open their own business. How to search for such people, and immediately around the world
Maybe, somehow take advantage of the experience of international dating sites (I'm serious)
Support+0
Sandbox. Create a pre-business community on the Boostr platform.
There are many different business communities. But well-workingpre-business-communities do not exist.
Proceeding from the fact that Boostr is a platform for start-ups, it is possible to suggest "educating" future start-ups on the basis of this platform in a special format.
SANDBOX.The solution is to create a "sandbox" - by analogy with the IT field, where you can make a program in a trial format and test your startup in light-format.
Sandbox can be combined: a number of elements in the online format, others - offline.
It can look like this:
Each aspect of the business is introduced into the model.
Legal aspect. on the basis of official checklists, to form a questionnaire in order to show what rules of law must be observed and HOW to protect their rights to some value.
PR aspect. Model different schemes for promoting products, situations with reputational consequences and the possibility of their resolution.
Financial aspect: the model can be automated and the introduction of several indicators will allow to predict the financial success of the startup.
Product. How to describe, to what stage to bring for sale and demonstration to investors, etc.
May I ask you to explain your suggestion with more details. Frankly speaking I don't understand it.
Maybe it is better to use an example? For instance I am planning to found a startup producing new type of pizza (say pizza with bananas). How could I use the sandbox?
May I ask to provide a bit more details please. I still don't understand how I can apply for the place in the sandbox, what information I have to provide and what I will get after certain period of time?
Future founders of start-ups are people with a determined character storehouse, interested in content of a certain orientation.
Such people tend to watch the topic for some time, they can decide immediately or wait a moment.
But you can attract their attention by publishing actual content on the topic of technological novelties, creating a business, especially from foreign practice.
The form:
Telegram-channel, Facebook capabilities, Vkontakte (where you can meet many young start-ups), LinkedIn.
By the way, Votsap and Viber also launch channels, you can become a pioneer in this regard.
I am afraid that it is impossible to do a lot of things simulaneously because we don't have unlimited resourses. It is always important to understand from what point we can start.
You can create a new topic in the form below.
A large number of people, including those who have a stable job, are thinking about starting their own business and Boostr can encourage them to open their own project. How to organize work with potential founders of startups in order to ensure their participation in Boostr from the first day after the startup appearance?
That's what I thought. If we are looking for future founders of startups, then we are faced with the problem that the future founder of a start-up can be anyone. Student, manager, housewife ... And how to find him
All for the answer to thank, but if a person says that he is thinking, then invite him ... That's where to invite him, I did not come up with
Maybe tell me
This suggestion was mentioned in another topic but I think that it is useful to mention iit here.
I think that a quality team could be even more important for startups than investments.
So I would suggest to prepare an action plan.
There are many different business communities. But well-workingpre-business-communities do not exist.
Proceeding from the fact that Boostr is a platform for start-ups, it is possible to suggest "educating" future start-ups on the basis of this platform in a special format.
SANDBOX.The solution is to create a "sandbox" - by analogy with the IT field, where you can make a program in a trial format and test your startup in light-format.
Sandbox can be combined: a number of elements in the online format, others - offline.
It can look like this:
Each aspect of the business is introduced into the model.
Legal aspect. on the basis of official checklists, to form a questionnaire in order to show what rules of law must be observed and HOW to protect their rights to some value.
PR aspect. Model different schemes for promoting products, situations with reputational consequences and the possibility of their resolution.
Financial aspect: the model can be automated and the introduction of several indicators will allow to predict the financial success of the startup.
Product. How to describe, to what stage to bring for sale and demonstration to investors, etc.
Other aspects.
Future founders of start-ups are people with a determined character storehouse, interested in content of a certain orientation.
Such people tend to watch the topic for some time, they can decide immediately or wait a moment.
But you can attract their attention by publishing actual content on the topic of technological novelties, creating a business, especially from foreign practice.
The form:
Telegram-channel, Facebook capabilities, Vkontakte (where you can meet many young start-ups), LinkedIn.
By the way, Votsap and Viber also launch channels, you can become a pioneer in this regard.