One of the world's most authoritative magazines on technology and its impact on everyday life, the British Wired, has published another TOP-100 of the most fashionable and promising startups in Europe. Which Russian projects did the experts notice?
The list consists of ten European cities, in each of which the authors of Wired found the top 10 startups. Last year, the compilers of the Russian version of the rating caused a lot of ridicule in the Russian business environment: for some reason, the Russian innovation city Skolkovo was on the list, and even in fifth place. This year it is not, and the rating itself, in general, seems to be much more adequate. Therefore, it makes no sense to bypass it. Better analyze.
But first, it is worth quoting facts about the Russian Internet technology market. According to experts, 62 million Internet users live in Russia, which automatically makes our Motherland one of the key markets of the continent: even in Europe there are fewer Internet users. Plus, the demand for Internet services in Russia is growing much faster than in Europe. Last June, the British investment bank GP Bullhound Russian market Internet advertising in 1.4 billion dollars. It was a year ago that he became more of the print media advertising market.
Mikhail Lyalin, CEO of electronic game developer ZeptoLab (No. 1 in the ranking), says that the e-commerce sector is growing rapidly in Russia, and more and more people spend thousands of dollars on Christmas eve to buy goods on the Internet.
Another important Russian trend is the growing popularity of credit cards. “Russia is slowly adapting to credit cards, their number has grown 2.5 times over the year,” says Lyalin.
And here's what the list looks like.
1. Zeptolab is one of the largest companies in Russia engaged in the production of well-known games for mobile devices on the world market. So, their hit Cut the Rope really became a global phenomenon. Possibly second after hegemony Angry Birds, created by Finnish developers from Rovio.
.jpg)
Cut the Rope has a total of 300 million downloads and at least 60 million players every month. Russian company makes money not so much by distributing the game, but by selling related accessories to puzzle fans.
Also, the company does not hesitate to use all new communication channels to spread its ideas. Recently, Zeptolab released a series of cartoons called Om Nom, which has a total of 100 million viewers. Now the company is actively developing new mobile games and is not at all going to "rest on its laurels" of previous success.
2. Zingaya is a B2B Internet calling service company that launched its service in 2010. The Russian platform differs from other IP-telephony services (the same Skype) in that it is focused on the corporate sector: customers of companies operating Zingaya have access to their own support service and can count on the fact that they will always be connected through this tool. Now the company has more than six hundred corporate clients. Among them are TriNet, Swimoutlet and BlogTalkRadio, as well as such corporate monsters of the Russian Federation as the Russian division of Volkswagen, MTS-Bank and Promsvyazbank.
.jpg)
Zingaya was already on the Wired list last year, so it's hard to call the company a newcomer to the Internet services market.
Users made 1.4 million calls using Zingaya last year. In 2012, the company's revenue tripled and amounted to $500,000. Alexei Aylarov, 27, founder of the startup, says the company is close to breaking even. In 2011, the company received funding from US investor Esther Dyson in the amount of $1.15 million.
There is also a development strategy: Zingaya is working with the global company Salesforce, the developer of one of the most popular CRM systems in the world. Most likely, in the new versions of this product there will be a module for instant VoIP communication with colleagues.
3. Narr8 is a truly innovative publisher and online distributor of books, comics and interactive digital stories. The company has developed a free app for iOS and Android that delivers interactive content created by Narr8 itself to users. From here - one step to the real publishing work. If there ever comes a new digital era that does not have a place for traditional print media, Narr8 can become one of the new market leaders, a kind of new Russian Amazon. Since the launch of the service in November last year, it has already gained 700,000 users.
.png)
4. Ostrovok.ru is a service for online hotel reservations around the world. It's like Booking.com, only with a no less decent base of hostels and in Russian. Mass tourism is a relatively young phenomenon, but every year there are more and more Russians who regularly travel abroad, and therefore the sustainability of the business model of this startup seems to be an indisputable fact.
.jpg)
The company, founded by Kirill Makharinsky and Sergey Faget, already has eminent investors (Yuri Milner, for example) and a database that includes 135,000 hotels in 200 countries.
5. Avito is the Russian version of the ad site, which has absorbed all the best from Slando, Craiglist and other Western services. Today it is the largest and most popular private classifieds site in Russia.
.jpg)
Avito brings together 40 million users per month, who add 450 thousand new ads every day. total cost of all goods placed on the service is 2% of Russia's GDP.
6. Digital October is the main Moscow platform for representatives of the fashionable and "advanced" part of the youth who are engaged in IT entrepreneurship. The organization conducts its own content for startups, organizes the TechCrunch Moscow and Demo Europe conferences, and it also has a fairly powerful business incubator. DO's partners include one of the largest online education services in the world, Coursera.
.jpg)
7. Onetwotrip is one of the most important and probably the most “fashionable” flight booking service in Russia. Founded in 2011, the company already has 600,000 regular users and sells 5,000 tickets every day. CEO Max Karausz says the company generates $50 million in revenue per month. The only significant competitor of Onetwotrip in the Russian Federation is the Aeroflot website.
.jpg)
8. Game Insight is a developer and publisher of mobile games. The company is only three years old, but it already has 150 million users of its products worldwide. CEO Alisa Chumachenko started the business without outside investment, but recently raised $25 million in growth funding from Russian investment firm imi.vc.
.jpg)
9. LinguaLeo is the most popular platform in Russia for learning foreign languages online. The service works as a game application that offers to learn a language along with a virtual lion - this, of course, is not the user's alter ego, but something akin to a pet that requires regular care. As soon as the user forgets about the regularity of classes, his digital "animal" becomes discouraged. It is believed that such “gamification” of the process seriously raises the level of motivation.
.jpg)
The approach was well received by many. Every day, 10 thousand new users register on LinguaLeo.
10. Eruditor Group is a platform that brings together teachers, doctors and other professionals who offer their services and find new clients here. Now the company, founded in 2010, has 100 thousand registered tutors and about 400 thousand buyers of their services. Customers of the service earn a total of up to $200 million a year, says Egor Rudi, founder of the company.
.jpg)
Over the years, the popularity of professional freelancers will only grow, and therefore Eruditor, no doubt, will be a great commercial success.
The list itself, of course, will be disputed by many, but it clearly demonstrates that the most proven and reliable way to succeed in Runet is to take the idea of a global or American project and localize it on the domestic market, taking into account local characteristics. As a matter of fact, all the largest Russian Internet companies did so at the time. And in the same way, domestic Internet entrepreneurs continue to move for the most part to this day. To come up with something truly new, which has no analogues in the world, is far from the most The best way earn and build a really useful service. In the end, the main thing is not the idea, but its implementation.
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 the time or money into building an entire site 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.
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 new coworking. 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.
Remember Slack, which created its own messenger within the company, because nothing that existed on the market suited them. Or about the Houzz founding family who built their network because they couldn't find necessary resources for repair. 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?
Startup- so called both the company that they plan to create, and operating enterprise under development. Usually this is a project with an original idea that has not yet been brought to life.
Business angel- a private investor, often investing personal funds in risky projects.
"Writing in the Sand"
An online service that allows you to order as a gift some kind of commemorative inscription on the sand of any of the beaches in the world.
Start-up capital: $100
The idea for the startup came to 23-year-old Anton Velikanov when he moved to Costa Rica. Financial investments were minimal. Anton completely developed the site in four days and personally wrote all the popular Russian names on his beach. After a couple of months of work on the project, users had the opportunity to order confessions and wishes. There were photographers who were ready to fulfill the individual requests of clients. During the first year of work, several joint promotions were held with coupon sites, which brought recognition to the project. Also, the startup Inscription in the Sand was one of the first to receive a StartFellows grant.
"Social Alarm"
A free service with which you can order a wake-up call or wake someone up yourself.
Start-up capital: $100 000
Hrachik Ajamyan, student and owner small company website development, hardly forced himself to get up in the morning. But when they called him from unknown numbers, he immediately got up, thinking that it was new client. So the idea was born that calls from strangers are effective alarm clocks.
At the very beginning, the startup team consisted of five people. The development of the service was carried out almost 24 hours a day, the guys were so passionate that they hardly slept. The starting capital was the team's own funds. They were spent mainly on the salaries of employees and on telecom. Not a single ruble was spent on advertising the startup. After it was decided to participate in the startup competition, the first business angel appeared. He invested $500,000 in the project.
"Each other"
This project helps to correctly realize other people's desires and find good performers of their own.
Start-up capital: $50 000
The authors of the original idea were four graduates of St. Petersburg State University. They decided that they would choose the desire of a particular person and fulfill it themselves. But then the idea was transformed: now the users themselves bring each other's dreams to life. Before participating in the Startup Weekend, not a penny was invested in the project. Then the creators sent an application to the Glavstart company and received the first investment. In addition, this idea received a $25,000 grant from StartFellows. The first version of the site was developed for three months and turned out to be not very successful. The second option was done in one and a half. Coming soon new version: a startup involves constant improvements and moderation.
"Button of Life"
Mobile system for calling for help for the elderly, as well as for anyone who needs it.
Start-up capital: $10 000
Dmitry Yurchenko and Irina Linnik decided to start a mobile assistance system, invested money, bought equipment. Then they found an investor, participated in startup competitions. Without even launching sales, they won the competitions "BIT", "Telecom Idea", and "Business Success". The company has many problems. The main one is sales, because many do not know what a medical alarm is. Despite this, the creators plan to enter the regions and develop their own unique equipment.
Here are ideas from abroad:
Super marmite, super-marmite.com, "Super bowler".
It's simple: you cook a dish at home, upload its photo to this site, set a price, indicate the address and wait for hungry customers.
HighScore House, highscorehouse.com - Model House.
A chance to turn routine household chores into a game for children. Parents themselves set what prize the child will receive for the completed task.
Never Liked It Anyway, neverlikeditanyway.com - "I didn't like him anyway."
Here you can sell some gift from the ex, and at the same time tell how bad this ex is, and get comments from sympathetic users.
What's new for
If you have a startup or an idea, you can:
Get advice or initial investment by participating in StartupWeekend, or contact the organizer, Glavstart, to get a grant.
russia.startupweekend.org, glavstart.ru;
Participate in the entrepreneurial competition "BIT", which is held almost throughout Russia.
bit-konkurs.ru
Submit a startup to the Telecom-Idea contest.
telecomideas.ru;
Get a startup grant from StartFellows.
milnerdurov.com;
Nominate a project from any field of activity for the "Best Startup" nomination in the "Business Success" competition.
support-credit.ru/conference;
Take part in the Harvest working weekend and turn your idea into a startup.
greenfield-project.ru/harvest;
Nominate your company for the Startups of the Year nomination of the Runet award.
premiaruneta.ru;
Fill out the application form for participation in the Technovation Cup project competition.
technocup.ru
Prepared by Anna Grineva
Ideas for startups: the "freshest" ideas from all over the world - 3 keys to success + TOP-5 ideas from around the world + 3 startup ideas from Russian developers.
Why startup ideas are gaining more and more popularity in the business sphere and bring the owners whole capital?
First of all, because they offer absolutely new, innovative solutions to people's pressing problems.
Therefore, it is quite logical that in search of inspiration for creating your own startup, you should not rush “deep into history”.
Follow the trends, fashion trends, what is actually in demand now.
This article will help you with this, which has brought together the main business trends and forecasts regarding future discoveries in the entrepreneurial “art” market.
What is a startup?
Before talking about startup ideas, it is worth defining what is generally meant.
Most have only general idea about startups. Therefore, someone believes that this is how they call new resources on the Internet, others - that this is a business created by young people with no experience.
There is some truth in this. However, the concept itself is broader.
Startup is a business idea that is based solely on the use of innovative technologies or the introduction of completely new products.
That is, the composition of the team and the format of the company does not matter (often startups begin to develop without being officially registered).
The main thing is for the team to help solve some problem of humanity by offering something unique.
Also hallmarks startups are:
- limited money to start;
- starting work from scratch;
- most often, partners in a startup were previously connected by some kind of relationship (worked together, studied).
And although the world learns about such companies even at its first steps, when the market position is not yet strong, only those companies that have already manufactured a product can be called startups.
An operating time or a “raw” project is only the basis for creation, but not the startup itself.
What is the key to the success of a startup idea?
If we analyze the ideas behind the startup that have been especially successful, we can identify several common features.
Conventionally, they can be called "secrets of success."
Factors that determine the success of a startup idea:
What exactly do you think about the idea that became a startup?
Do you think that it can bring a lot of money?
Or do you really “burn” and are sure that this business will be useful to people and become innovative?
Only in the second case, the startup really has a chance of success.
If you do not have a sincere interest, you can quickly "burn out."
Moreover, startups rarely bring instant profit.
A lot depends on the team.
Obviously, a team of like-minded people working on the same wavelength can do more than one person.
Don't try to put everything on your own shoulders.
You should not calculate how many people will have to share the profit, but take care of the perfect quality of every detail.
Youth is a plus.
Let this statement sound like a discredit.
But the fact remains that investors are more focused on investing in the young and ambitious.
Let people with experience do their job - lead large organizations and share knowledge with others.
For those who no longer consider themselves a "young man", but are on fire, let's clarify: success in business has no age restrictions.
Doubt? Look at this picture:
TOP-5: global startup ideas
As a rule, startups are concentrated in the field of IT technologies. We decided to create a selection of ideas that ordinary people created and brought to life.This step is meant to inspire you to embody own ideas, even if there is no special education or many years of work experience.
1. Green idea: special shampoo
"Nephentes" looks like an enema or something.
In fact, this startup idea can significantly affect the preservation of the environment.
Few people think, but ordinary plastic bottles from under the "" are harmful to environment product. The period of decomposition of one bottle can be hundreds of years!
And remember how much you use them during your life?
According to the idea of this startup, manufacturers make products in huge containers, pouring the right portions into buyers' Nephentes bottles.
It is curious that the design does not even involve the use of a cover! The neck is simply bent and inserted into the compartment.
Another plus: you can finally use the product at 100%, including what usually remains at the bottom.
2. Indian startup idea
If you think that in India they can only dance and make films, then you will be surprised - not so few ideas for startups have been created in this country.
Interestingly, there is even a kind of analogue of the American Silicon Valley.
In addition, in India they are really interested in the issue of a huge amount of garbage on the streets. Innovative Ideas appear regularly.
For example, an edible spoon is a great alternative to plastic utensils. After a meal, it can be eaten as a dessert or, of course, just thrown away.
Obviously, such a “material” as flour decomposes as quickly as possible and is absolutely harmless to nature.
The creators also assure that the product can be safely eaten by vegetarians. And in the future, even the development of a gluten-free version is planned.
3. An idea for junk food lovers
Which of us is not familiar with such a misfortune: you carefully take chips or something else greasy, and your fingers get dirty so that you have to go wash them.
And you need to be extremely careful not to hook or stain anything!
A startup has appeared in Italy, the idea of which is to create fingertips. They are very thin, but at the same time the latex tightly fits the fingers.
Thanks to this, consumers can safely feast on goodies, and then simply throw away the “nozzles”.
It is assumed that these devices will not be sold on their own, but complete with chips, nuts or similar food, for which they were invented.
4. Startup: "folding" napkins
But the idea of this startup is already designed for higher cuisine - that is, for restaurants. It appeared as a reaction to the fact that ordinary napkin holders are already becoming obsolete.
But napkins pressed into a small round “washer” are another matter. To use such a thing, visitors must dip the "pill" into an antiseptic solution.
And then the fabric unfolds, acquires a pleasant smell, and even becomes a “killing tool” for harmful microbes on your hands.
You should not immediately estimate the increased costs for the owners: these towels are not disposable. So the idea of a startup will not harm either the wallet or the environment.
5. Startup idea with social value
Often, startups are still designed to solve global problems, and not just improve the already comfortable life of consumers.
For example, in Denmark, a special supermarket was created - "WeFood". Its concept is that they sell goods here that cannot be put on the shelves of "decent" ones.
Mislabeling, torn packaging, an approaching expiration date or a delay in general - all these are usually reasons for writing off, returning or even recycling goods.
Meanwhile, even in Denmark there are many people who have to save on everything.
The idea of the supermarket has not only helped low-income people to eat more nutritious food. There was also a 25% reduction in wasted food across the country!
Here is such a useful and, oddly enough, profitable startup.
And what about Russia: 3 domestic ideas for startups
Although the words "conditions of economic decline" have already become classics for texts for reality Russian entrepreneurship, in the field of startups, everything is not so bad.
The “buy-sell” orientation is gradually giving way to an innovative approach.
The original solutions still do not have such a powerful state support like in other countries.
However, their number is increasing, and investors are ready to invest their money. This is especially evident in the variety of ideas for a startup in 2016.
1) A startup you've definitely heard of
Have you seen the original photo processing on Instagram, which turns an ordinary frame into an artistic canvas? Most likely, you already know what we are talking about.
For the rest, let's clarify - the Prisma application is a service that allows you to process users' photos in an original way.
For many, it will come as a surprise that it was Russian programmers who developed Prism. Moreover, its creator former employee well-known mail.ru.
The peculiarity of the program is that it does not just impose some filters on top of the card.
Through the use of neural network algorithms (of which you may have heard a lot too), Prism analyzes the frame and then creates it from scratch. But already in the form of a picture.
The fact that almost everyone knows about this application now is already an indicator of success. It remains to be added that the Facebook administration banned the use of the program on its network only because it considered it competitive.
2) Idea for a startup on cards
It is believed that various accumulative and discount cards are gradually becoming a thing of the past. At least because no one wants to carry around dozens of options without knowing which one they need.
The developers of the startup "Cardberry" came up with the idea to create a device that can accommodate all kinds of cards.
We will not go into technical details. The bottom line is that any user cards are, as it were, entered into the memory of this electronic device.
Every time a person needs a certain card, he enters a special application and selects it.
"Cardberry" adapts to the choice and becomes a full-fledged replacement for the desired card.
For your attention, we offer a cool video
about the 10 most successful startups in the world:
3) Startup idea for a comfortable life
Perhaps you are not familiar with the SVET company yet, but you have every chance to hear about them.
As the name implies, the team offers lighting equipment. What is the innovativeness of this idea for a startup?
The fact is that the bulbs of this company are designed to simulate ordinary natural lighting.
Moreover, the device settings can be adjusted (for example, in accordance with the time of day or night).
This startup idea is not only original and adds more comfort to everyday life. But it also has a beneficial effect on human health.
Minus the idea, perhaps, only one: on this moment one device is estimated at $70. The amount is too significant for the Russians. However, the startup is in demand abroad.
collected above startup ideas only emphasize: anyone can create a business based on an innovative idea. The field of startups is not limited to the field of IT technologies.
The main thing is that you bring something new and useful to the world.
And if the idea is worthwhile, and the implementation is diligent, it can make you rich, no matter how trite it may sound.
Useful article? Don't miss out on new ones!
Enter your e-mail and receive new articles by mail
Platform for learning programming on English language, where 16 million users are registered (!). In 2012, the creators of Codecademy announced the launch of the Russian-language version, but they never finalized it: only a few menu items and tasks were translated.
There are no video lectures on Codecademy. Each lesson consists of a short funny text and a small task. The student enters the resulting code in a special field and proceeds to the next module.
Doesn't exist in Russia educational projects, similar to Codecademy. Creating its analogue is not an easy task, but the result will be worth it: in 2016, the company attracted $42.5 million in investments.
When a developer launches an English-language application, he knows exactly where to start promotion: on the site. It's an incredibly authoritative resource for finding apps and services: 100-200 votes on Product Hunt can bring in thousands of new users. In addition, Product Hunt is an important source of information for foreign media.
When a developer launches a Russian-language application, the issue of promotion remains open. The Product Hunt community is in English and is not interested in local projects. So why not open a similar platform for Russian-language services and applications?
We all made mistakes of varying severity on the Internet: photos of 18+ from parties, obscene comments on Facebook. How to find and hide all compromising evidence?
For example, with the help of - a tool for managing personal reputation on the Internet. The service helps you keep track of mentions of your name on the Web and shows you a step-by-step strategy to improve search results.
The problem is that the service does not track content in Russian and does not take into account search results in Yandex. If these gaps are closed, BrandYourself can be used to create a new useful product for Russian-speaking users.
This is Uber for hairdressers and makeup artists. Instead of calling salons or looking for a master on the Internet, US residents can now order makeup and styling at home through the application.
Investors of the famous Y Combinator believed in StyleBee, and the company received $1.2 million from them.
Women in Russia face the same problems when looking for hairdressers and makeup artists as American women. And we need the help of Russian developers.
5. Eden
Imagine that all computer masters from the ads near the entrance are collected on one site. They will not only fix your appliances, but they will also bring friends with them to clean the floor and paint the ceiling. This is exactly what Eden offers - a service for ordering technical support, cleaning and minor repairs to offices.
Eden is focused on offices and is based in San Francisco. But nothing prevents adapting such a service for apartments, commercial premises, cottages or warehouses in any region of our country. Dare!
New business ideas are the engine of progress. But there are advantages to using the experience of other projects: someone definitely needs an existing product and you can find a monetization model for it. In addition, the team can focus on development, rather than thinking about the idea. After all, the main thing is not to brag about a new concept, but to create a product in demand and develop it in the direction that is interesting to users.
