On 12 November, an entrepreneurial training was held at Voronezh State University. Students from different VSU faculties participated in the business training as part of the federal project “University technological entrepreneurship platforms”. The experts at the meeting included Alexander Saprykin, IT entrepreneur, corporate accelerators tracker (Sberbank, Beeline, X5 Retail Group, etc.), and Anna Galaeva, tracker, NTI and UrFU venture fund expert, ICU business coach.
Over 120 participants obtained knowledge in the field of tech entrepreneurship, organised the work of their teams and created a plan how to launch “smart business”, identified their competencies and abilities, studied the needs of their clients, and developed a value proposition. During the game the teams also worked on a business model of their startup and presented it to “investors” in order to attract funds.
“You don’t need field-specific education to become an entrepreneur. You can graduate from the Faculty of Economics and work as a hired accountant, or having the same education, you can start your own business because you have the ability to adequately respond to risks, distribute responsibility correctly, and quickly make important decisions. The participation in the training has a prolonged effect. The game gives students a chance to experience real entrepreneurial situations and practice using real tools. In this case, new models of behaviour are introduced unconsciously. They leave the training believing that everything is possible and that their idea can really grow into a business,” noted Anna Galaeva.
The participants of the training learnt about the basic principles and tools that are necessary to create a tech startup as well as about the methods of development of a project’s IP strategy and found out how the investment attractiveness of a project can be assessed.
“Our project was related to the online delivery of medicine. Over the course of the game we really teamed up and complemented one another. We enjoyed the process of selling robots and the final stage when we defended our projects in the presence of investors. The training provides a chance to meet new people, get new experience and knowledge, and it also broadens your mind,” said Anastasia Golovina, a student from the Faculty of Pharmaceutics and a member of the “Chamomile” team.
“The training is as close to real life as possible. We provide students with the opportunity to experience each stage of a startup's launch. It should also be noted that general education is not that important for business, what’s important is the skills that team players improve. Some of them create the idea, some of them know how to package the product while others know how to sell the final product to investors. Anyway, the main secret of business success is not to give up if you fail at first, but to continue developing your idea despite everything,” said Alexander Saprykin.
The next training will be held on 19 November at Voronezh, 10 Lenina Ploschad, building No. 2 of Voronezh State University, 2nd floor, room 100. The training starts at 10:00, the registration opens at 9:00. To take part you need to register on the website of the project “Training of entrepreneurial competencies”.
