Internet startup ideas. Internet startups: overview, trends, how to start your project

Having spoken with dozens of investors, venture capital funds and business angels in different countries, Ekaterina Voronova, development director at InnMind, has prepared a background article on how investors themselves perceive the presented projects, what criteria they use when selecting potentially interesting startups, and also why many projects do not end up in the investor’s portfolio. (The article was first published on Rusbase)

Investors are different...

Speaking about investors, we must understand that this concept itself is very general - here we should distinguish between a private investor, a business angel, a venture or corporate investor, and others.

How are they all different? Yes to almost everyone. Here are some basic parameters:

  1. Interests: a private investor who is primarily looking for an opportunity to increase his income cannot be compared at all with a corporate investor. He will first pay attention to the technology, and only then will evaluate the current profitability of the project. Sometimes corporate investors don’t look at income at all, because they are interested in technology to be implemented in their product and perceive it as an “addition” to their product.
  2. Investment size: At the initial stages (pre-seed, seed), projects often turn to business angels and serial entrepreneurs. In subsequent rounds of financing, they begin to communicate with incubators, venture capital firms and so-called super-angels (business angels who are willing to invest several times more than traditional business angels).
  3. Involvement in company management: sometimes some investors are ready to simply invest their money and wait for results. But there is another approach that is radically different - this is investing with management rights, when an investor, even without a controlling stake, plays a significant role in the management of the company and has a voice in making key decisions.
  4. Attracting your circle of contacts: One of the “values” that investors can bring to the development of your project (and sometimes this can become a key value) is attracting potential partners, suppliers and clients from their social circle. Everyone understands perfectly well that getting funding is very great, but getting potential clients- much better, because it is the clients who will help your business get back on its feet.

Please note that these are just examples and common cases; there are no universal rules here. There are venture funds that invest only in projects in the early stages, or private investors who are primarily interested in the “social benefit” of the project, and therefore already look at financial indicators.

What is a startup?

The startup sees itself as a super-mega-unique project that can make this world a better place, as well as bring huge profits. Both to the founders themselves, and to all investors and other people involved in the project.

What do investors see? An investor sees a startup as a lot of risks: the risk of team collapse, the risk of lack of demand, the risk of strong competition, the risk of insufficient high quality product or service and many others... Therefore, the investor tries to provide for everything possible options events, calculate risks a hundred steps ahead.

When assessing the possibility of a project's success, an investor always tries to predict the likelihood of failure. It is the investor who always keeps in mind the number of startup failures - after all, according to different estimates, from 80% to 90% of projects “die” within 1-3 years after launch.

Therefore, most often investors prefer not to immediately invest in a project that interests them, but remain to wait and watch the development of the project for some time. This is what sometimes leads to the collapse of a project - a startup cannot “survive” without investments, because a startup needs at least some funds even at the initial stage. Unless you and your co-founders already have the capital to get started and develop an MVP, or your good friend/relative suddenly decides to support you financially.

How does an investor decide whether to invest or not?

There is a common stereotype that investors (especially venture capitalists) are soulless automatons who analyze the formal parameters and metrics of startups and, as a result, invest in the most “packaged” projects.

Actually this is not true. Most investors follow exactly the same logic when evaluating startups as any other entrepreneur when choosing potential partners. For them, the coincidence of vision and comfort are important collaboration, they want to know the founders of the project in person and understand their motivation and character and much more that goes beyond numbers and metrics.

Does the client need you?

The main question for the investor remains the needs of the market into which the startup is entering. Is there really a demand for your product - prove it! What is the size of the potential market - calculate it! What is the potential for future market growth - evaluate it!

It is important for investors to see that you are not just trying to solve some user problem, but that you are able to prove the existence of a need. And also the fact that it is you who have all the means to satisfy it. The metric that investors really pay attention to is traction - demonstrate that users need your product and want to use it.

The team matters!

Over the years of working with startups, we have communicated with a huge number of founders of very different backgrounds and backgrounds. Most of them were clearly convinced that only financial indicators and forecasts were at the forefront for investors. market valuations and other similar things. The team is perceived by the majority as something secondary and of significance only in the context of the regalia of certain team members.

Therefore, even those few founders who think about how to best represent their team often rely on recruiting employees with “titles” and statuses in their field.

In fact, titles and regalia are not that important. And (now many will not believe it) not all financial indicators are equally important. Most investors understand that a startup, by definition, is a set of unknowns (remember the definition of the author of the popular book Eric Ries about “conditions of extreme uncertainty”). And it is impossible at the initial stage to predict what market share and with what speed this or that project will occupy after launch.

Then how to assess the chances of success of a particular project? Yes, just like any other business: evaluating the founder and the team that “fit” into its implementation.

And here a whole set of objective and subjective factors come into play, which investors focus on when assessing a startup’s team.

Investors look at the ability to make decisions, think strategically, and the ability to plan short-term and long-term. In general, the personal charisma and dedication of the founders and the entire key team are taken into account. How passionate people are about the project, how much they identify with the project, and how much their sense of self depends on the success of the project. These are the projects that receive funding first.

Also, many investors are interested in the history of the founders, what projects they have implemented before and with what results. And here it is necessary to mention not only success stories, but also failures - after all, founders learn from them! Whether the team attracted investments earlier and how it ended for the previous investors themselves is also an interesting point.

Some investors on InnMind ask us to specifically inquire about the “background” of the founders and even collect feedback and ratings from previous investors and partners before deciding to invest in a project.

The ideal founder: who is he?

Among Russian startups, there is often a thesis that a project should have only one founder. Some argue that this is protection against dilution of shares and liability, others argue that investors are most comfortable entering a project where there is only one person making decisions and conducting negotiations.

At the same time, we have found that many investors are wary of solo founders. For them, this is a sign of “dangerous” character traits, such as reluctance to share power and share in a project, inadequate perception of themselves and their own role in business, inability to delegate and share responsibility, and sometimes simply a sign of narcissism. Therefore, most investors, other things being equal, prefer not to invest in projects where there is only one founder and founder.

We also asked about the qualities a founder must exhibit to increase their chances of attracting investment - and here many investors spoke about their willingness to learn quickly and a lot, their ability to listen, their “competitiveness” and tenacity.

Investors prefer so-called growth hackers, who live by the project and constantly find new ways to increase the influx of clients. Investors look at whether the founder is ready to take risks: whether he has invested effort, time and money in his own project or is trying to shift all the risks to investors.

When there are several co-founders in a team, they must show that communications between them take place quickly and smoothly, and not as in the “president’s office”, you need to schedule meetings only at certain hours.

Negative qualities include promoting oneself, not the project, and poor organizational skills. Investors do not like it when the founder combines work in the project with his main job - for them this once again proves that the founder is not ready to take on the risks associated with leaving a stable place, and to some extent this shows a certain amount of uncertainty in the project and its profitability.

What may also seem unexpected is that “serial” competition winners are not taken too seriously - does the startup have time to work on the project in the intervals between all the competitions? And, again, the main thing in the development of a startup is the emphasis on potential clients, and a competition is just a way to show yourself.

Business plan VS business planning

If earlier investors demanded a detailed business plan, now almost all investors with whom we spoke (90%) said that this is not at all necessary. In return, they request a package of documents, which includes an Executive Summary, Pitch Deck, a brief description of financial indicators (cashflow) and an indication of what the team plans to use the received investments for.

And even those 10% who do look at the business plan do so not at the first acquaintance with the project, but at subsequent stages of more “dense” communication with the startup.

Therefore, first of all, prepare a pitch and a good presentation of the project, otherwise there may not be subsequent stages...

Metrics: assessment tool or profanation?

Many experts, accelerators and mentors continue to “train” startups to present a project based on metrics, convincing them that growth rate, market value and the like are reference points for investors when evaluating projects.

This is really important. But as a result, it got to the point that, according to some investors, at the last few major startup events, literally every startup in its pitch, like a carbon copy, spoke about an incredible growth rate and presented graphs of exponential growth in the user base and market share, sometimes even forgetting to describe really, what is the essence of their project.

Of course, metrics are important - because they are the ones that will allow you to understand whether a startup is moving forward or stuck at a dead point. But you should not forget that the metrics are different and all startups cannot be measured using the same indicators.

More and more investors are talking about traction. Here you can pay attention to metrics related specifically to customers, for example, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Lifetime Value (LTV) and others. Choose the metrics that are most relevant to your project, but don’t try to follow the general flow and talk about numbers that only have a small impact on the development of your project.

By the way, here is a wonderful example of how different metrics are key for different entrepreneurs.

Where do investors look for startups?

First of all, investors turn to various databases, which contain many projects at different stages of development, in different sectors. Many platforms limit the geography of their projects, which, however, satisfies the needs of some investors interested in investing in certain markets.

Investors also join clubs, organizations and associations, where membership fees gain access to selected projects, have the right to participate in special events where startups present their projects, as well as expand their network of partners and gain new skills from more experienced investors or consult with experts and analysts.

Events become a second “meeting point” for startups and investors. By the way, many startups we talked to try to go to almost ALL events taking place in their region. Of course, at some point this will bring results, but this requires a significant investment of time resources.

It will be more effective to understand exactly who you are looking for (we have already thought about this issue in the previous paragraph) and analyze at which events you can meet this or that person.

Why do investors reject startups that meet all the parameters of “success”?

Sometimes projects that seem to fully comply with the generally accepted requirements of investors (as well as those listed above) are also rejected. However, other factors come into force - they influence the final decision.

So, an investor may like your project, but not receive investment, because:

  • The project is not in the sector that the investor is primarily interested in;
  • The project is too early stage to attract investment;
  • There is no clearly defined and proven business model. The investor does not understand how to make money on this project;
  • Many investors do not like projects like “we do the same thing, but cheaper”;
  • The investor does not see the opportunity to “work well” with investors from previous rounds;
  • The investor cannot agree with the startup on investment terms.

In this review, we tried to briefly summarize the interim results of a study of investor behavior when selecting startups, sharing with you typical comments from investors themselves. I hope this will help you figure out how to choose the right type of investor, attract and retain their interest, and what you should primarily pay attention to when preparing a pitch and presenting a project to an investor.

Fair winds to you and good luck in the development of your projects!

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Interesting startups from world and Russian practice: 4 differences between a startup and an ordinary business idea + 16 examples of 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:

  • based on the use of innovations, interesting ideas, which have not been implemented before;
  • usually have little start-up capital, so 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 country has a huge number of 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 a 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 in 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 occupy first places in the rankings of technological and economic development, an interesting law was adopted in 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!

More than 31 million people are already using this unique program.

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 it open up for you!

The goal of this project is to coordinate and optimize the company's workflow.

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 a dozen 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 recent years The most interesting startups were presented; London “owns the bronze”.

There are several reasons for this: maximum simple system registration of entrepreneurs, 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 is 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 becoming 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 already existing system protection using a PIN code.

— 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 managed 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 providing 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 1 million rubles.

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

— Elpas

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

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 identify the current problems of the audience, and then follow your dream.

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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 somewhat 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 the history of the Internet as the time of the emergence of general social networks, 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 storage information. 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 is not the most original, but practical ideas continues Duolingo. The implementation of the idea of ​​teaching users foreign languages ​​in Duolingo was implemented simply brilliantly. The boring learning process was replaced by 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.

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. At the current time, 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. The main feature of startups that makes 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 become students who want to make money and achieve success, but who do not want to work in firms, large corporations, or become entrepreneurs. They create a business plan from scratch, attract supporters and private investors in order to develop a unique product, own business, capable of bringing big income.

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, and minimal 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 that constantly move it 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. The initial capital greatly determines 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 would be companies in the hotel industry, restaurant business, the field of hand-made products.
  2. Company using innovative technologies. The second type is more complex and is developed using 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. Key Feature the project should not have analogues in the country or region that will be involved in promotion. You can come up with this idea yourself, buy or order it on the startup exchange, or borrow it 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 important part of any project, without which an accidental failure can be fatal to the whole idea. The development stage should be approached with all responsibility, which will contribute to product sales.
  4. Search for investors or starting 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 must be unique, capture the client’s attention, and be economically profitable topics who invests 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, work optimization treatment facilities, developing new ways of landscaping the territory - all this is only gaining popularity and has a good chance of becoming 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.
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