Yura Lazebnikov, investor and managing partner of the international holding TECHIIA, took part in the panel discussion From corporates to startups at the invitation of USF — Ukrainian Startup Fund
A startup is a team that has a specific product, a certain number of customers, and revenue. That is how the co-founder of TECHIIA identifies it.
In his opinion, unlike venture companies, a corporation is not limited in terms of time and stages of startup development in which it is possible to invest. It is limited only in the money allocated for such projects. A promising idea can be invested at any time.
“The best collaboration may be for a corporation to use a product offered by a startup team. Thus, a clumsy bureaucratic machine gets an acceleration in the process of generating funds per unit of time, and a startup gets an eminent client in the portfolio,” says Yura Lazebnikov. “But this comes at a price — the loss of decision-making freedom. As soon as a corporation becomes a partner of a young team, its leaders must answer questions of overall performance and use of funds in particular, at all times."
In order to increase the chances of a partnership, a startup should present a product that has a certain market history — communications with colleagues, feedback from customers, the ability to comprehensively answer questions about the essence of the project, and performance indicators. The managing partner of TECHIIA notes: it is good when the founders invest their money. It is very obvious when a team wants to find money for several salaries, and the development of its own product is far from being a priority.
Watch the full recording of the meeting about the interaction between corporations and startups . In addition to Yura Lazebnikov, CEO of Naftogaz Digital Technology Oleksiy Kharkovyna, and Farmak Innovation Project Managers Yuriy Syrotyuk and Serhiy Bryzhitskyi joined the discussion.
