Successful startup. The best US startups worth a million
If something has gone somewhere, it means it has definitely arrived somewhere, folk interpretation of the law of conservation of energy. Actually, it’s hard to contradict such logic, but transferring it to money, we can say with confidence that if somewhere there is less money, then there is more in another place. You can ask a question, what does small business have to do with it?
It’s simple: since the beginning of the year, Russia has been experiencing a massive outflow of foreign, although let’s face it, domestic capital as well. Money is slowly being withdrawn, but the question remains: where? And then I read an interesting article about the rapid growth of venture capital investments in startups in the United States, about... Judge for yourself: in 2014, venture investments in new projects reached $33 billion, whether that’s a lot or a little!
Depending on what you compare it to, for example, the cost of South Stream, according to the latest data, should have been about $30 billion. Or Russia sells about 12-15 billion dollars worth of weapons per year; in total, by the way, military contracts (guaranteed) in the pocket of our military-industrial complex are somewhere around 32-34 billion dollars.
In fact, investors have invested as much money in small businesses in one year, and all startups can be classified as small businesses by American standards, as Russia can get from arms sales in 2 years. I think this example is very illustrative.
To be fair, it is worth noting that this year has become a record year for venture capital investments in the United States; just 4 years ago, the amount of such investments in small businesses was 15 billion dollars. Today, with the attraction of investments in new project on Russian territory the situation is not very happy, but the issue of restoration is a matter of time. Although today you can try to look for investors, the main thing is to have the desire and good idea business.
It’s worth remembering one thing, no matter how crazy your business idea sounds, according to those around you, good approach, a business angel can believe in the organization and simply give money. We present 10 incredibly original business ideas in which American investors actually invested money.
No. 10 – startup called “Lawn Love”. The principle of the service is damn simple, but everything ingenious is simple, said the founder of the project and was able to attract almost $2 million from business angels. The site acts as an intermediary and guarantor in the field of gardener services. The scope of operations carried out by the service includes lawn care, tree trimming, flower planting, and so on, in general, everything related to landscaping. The service works as follows:
- The customer enters information about the site, type of work, address;
- The service selects a specialist in a given area;
- The customer pays for the work through the service
- The contractor contacts the customer and performs the work;
- The contractor receives money for the work;
The service acts as a guarantor of the quality and timeliness of the provision of services; if the work is not done well, the money is returned or the work is redone.
Conclusion, this business idea looks very original, but is quite realistic for implementation in major cities Russia. Moreover, in our conditions, there is no need to raise millions of dollars for a startup; the entire organization can require tens of times less.
No. 9 Online shopping It’s impossible to surprise anyone, they have become commonplace, but some of them still managed to attract $7 million. We are talking about a store with goods for children's creativity, ready-made sets for parties. Business angels not only believed in the idea, but also financed it well.
The idea, of course, is not very original or new, but a number of its points interested me personally, I think that by the end of the week I will lay out my vision, I want to try to “push” the idea.
No. 8 Another internet trading startup poppin. The main feature of this project was the use of color schemes, in fact, a so-so online stationery store. The main feature was the sale of stationery in different colors; roughly speaking, they sell one type from a wide range of different manufacturers, but in all color ranges. Venture funds liked the idea, the trading platform stood out among its competitors, and as a result, they received $17 million in investments in 2014 alone.
Decisions on trade in office supplies different colors, a fairly innovative approach and the most interesting thing is that with a probability of 70-80% you can expect that such a project could be profitable in Moscow or St. Petersburg. In other cities it’s unlikely, at least in the near future, but in large cities the “trick” may work.
No. 7 place is another Internet startup called Paintzen. Initially, the project was positioned as an intermediary service for repairs, according to the usual scheme, which connects the customer and the contractor. But life made its own adjustments and business angels agreed to provide the project with $2 million only for a detailed painting service. The essence remains the same, to be a mediator, but only in narrow niche. We chose painting and painting work. What attracted investors? The presence of its own “zest”, or rather an additional service that allows you to select or choose a color, type of paint, and so on. Having actually used the service, the client receives everything from consultation to painting itself. It is this format that has proven successful for investment.
I won’t comment, I’ll just say one thing: there are chances to implement something similar in Russia, but again, exclusively in the area of large cities.
No. 6 place goes to a very non-standard business idea for using new methods of processing big data. Visionary entrepreneurs have used off-the-shelf tools and database techniques to help those wishing to get pregnant. Hormonal cycles are taken as initial data, physical activity, stress and a number of other parameters and gives out periods when it is best for a woman to become more active. The idea for the Glow service hit the mark and raised more than $2 million. Such strong investor interest is understandable; the volume of the market for assistance in conception is growing at a tremendous pace and there is enough money for everyone.
The service is English-language, but most likely they will soon launch either an analogue or just a Russian version, with a 100% guarantee we can say that the idea will be popular in Russia.
No. 5 place, surveillance idea in one form or another, has always been successful. There are many reasons, from banal human love to spy games, to the very real concern for children or property (for example, a car). The main problem with such services is the line between freedom and law. After all, de facto collection of movement data can be used not only for good, but also vice versa, be that as it may, the Tile startup managed to attract more than 16 million dollars for the implementation of a project to develop key fobs with tracking function via Bluetooth and a corresponding application for smartphones .
No. 4 place goes to ideas related to a healthy lifestyle. Popularity healthy image life is difficult to overestimate, and the trend is not only positive but also actually intensifying. When analyzing the most popular business ideas of 2014 in Europe, several areas were included in the category of the best. The Americans went even further and created a delivery service for ingredients for such food, Plated. The idea is simple: all the components of a healthy lunch, dinner or breakfast from the existing menu are delivered to the customer. Provided with all components step by step recipe its preparations, main feature There is the fact that the average preparation time for such a healthy lunch does not exceed 30 minutes.
No. 3 place next Internet service s managed to attract as much as 16 million in venture capital money. The founders did not lie for a long time and created an application that allows you to trade shares through a smartphone, the service is free, but purchasing the application itself will cost a symbolic 10 dollars. It remains a mystery why business angels became interested in the startup? The answer is that it has its own “zest”; the fact is that the service is going to make money on two related services:
On the one hand, clients can lend money for trading. Of course with a commission. This financial scheme has proven itself in Forex and brings very large profits.
On the other hand, VIP clients will be provided with additional services for an additional fee. The scheme is also working and has proven itself very well in online games.
As we can see, two well-proven tools for making money at once forced investors to fork out a lot.
No. 2 the record holder can be considered the BlaBlaCar project, we are talking about a service for finding travel companions. The project itself is not new; it successfully started in 2006, and in this year venture funds invested another 110 million dollars in further development. By the way, today there is also a Russian version of the service, in which you can easily find a travel companion or arrange a trip on the cheap.
No. 1 is probably the most original way legally invest money The drug industry was invented in the USA. The new startup Eaze is nothing more than a medicinal marijuana delivery service. Investors were not confused by the fine line between good/bad; in some states, marijuana is legalized as a painkiller, and they invested $1.5 million in the project. Interestingly, the service guarantees delivery within 10 minutes within the city.
These are ten original ideas for businesses implemented in the USA with the help of business angels. We can only add that at least half of them can be sold in Russia
Interesting on this topic
The best startups in Russia include:
Popular educational online service, which helps everyone who wants to master English language or increase the existing level. Now more than 14 million people around the world use it. Each new “student” can take a test and choose the level they need, receive a set of exercises and educational materials for mastering it. The application allows you to train your understanding of not only written speech, but also its listening comprehension. Educational materials are provided in both audio and video formats.
This is an educational platform with game elements that provides the opportunity to learn linguistic skills from native speakers.
The animated lion mascot gave the service its name - Leo. The idea to use this particular character, lost in the jungle of knowledge, came to the developers on the exotic island of Koh Chang, where the founder and a team of programmers worked for about six months to create a new service. Five years later, the founder, Ainur Abdulnasyrov, entered the top hundred Russian millionaires.
Google included LinguaLeo in its list of the best Android apps in 2015.
LinguaLeo - learning English can be funDoctor at work
The virtual community of professional doctors is a startup by Andrey Perfilyev and Stanislav Sazhin, which appeared in 2009. They created a space that most closely resembles a closed club, within which people of the same specialty can exchange experiences, get the necessary information, ask colleagues questions, and find a job.
Gradually, with growing popularity, the network expanded significantly. Now both medical students and pharmacists can use it. They, like doctors, got the opportunity not only to communicate, but also to improve their skills for free.
Half of all medical workers in Russia, with higher education, are its registered users. In terms of participant activity, Doctor at Work ranks first in the world. For several years in a row, the project has occupied more and more honorable places in the ranking of the best startups in Russia - Russian Startup Rating.
Most doctors in Russia use their own social network"Doctor at work"
MoneyMan comes to the rescue very quickly when it comes to micro-loans
Who hasn't dreamed of a flash drive with unlimited capacity? Alexey Churkin, founder of the Flashsafe startup, was able to solve this problem. It was he who came up with the idea of a “dimensionless” drive - a flash card connected to a cloud file storage system. Through special electronic devices the information is placed in the repository and resides there absolutely anonymously, without being tied to a specific user. This makes it possible to obtain the necessary files without necessarily using passwords or keys. Such a device cannot be hacked; it guarantees complete security and confidentiality of information.
Alexey raised it with his own funds and grants, successfully presented his project in Skolkovo, after which 1.5 million rubles were collected in pre-orders. Gradually, investors were found, and the project repeatedly appeared on crowdfunding platforms. On August 30, 2016, sales of the “infinite” drive started.
Flashsafe combines flash drive and infinity
The fastest startup, which became the best startup project in just a few days, is among the best startups of 2016 in Russia. The creators were forced to artificially restrain the powerful growth in the popularity of the project. is a mobile application that appeared quite recently, in the summer of 2016, and allows the user to turn any photo into an image made in the style of famous artists. It became possible to turn an ordinary frame into a work of art in just a couple of seconds and clicks. His success was simply dizzying. In 10 days, the new photo editor became the most downloaded product.
Investors valued the entire project at more than $10 million. The founder of the service, Alexey Moiseenkov, has become no less popular than his brainchild and tries “not to give more than one interview a day.” In them, he says that about two months were spent working on the mega-popular application and the investments were made “within the framework of salaries.” Now Mail.ru has already become an investor in Prisma, which allows us to evaluate the success and prospects of the project.
With Prisma, anyone can become a great artist
MULTICUBE
A Russian project that won the Startup Village competition in the summer of 2016. The startup ran a successful crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo platform and successfully presented itself at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York in 2016. Mikhail Bukhovtsev is the founder and CEO of Multikubik.
The project is an interesting technical novelty for the youngest users. We are talking about mini-projectors in the shape of a cube, with cartoons and filmstrips inside. You can project an image onto any flat surface. The creators claim that this is a “healthier” alternative to a child watching entertainment content on a tablet, best option for quality family leisure.
Participant of the Skolkovo and API Moscow platforms. More than $105 thousand was raised to launch sales. Currently, the company management plans to develop a premium version of the projector, more budget option will go into production very soon.
Multicube - a classic in new packaging
This is a list. Some of them are already known abroad, have found investors there and are planning to enter the international market. What can we say about the current situation in this area on a global scale? What are the best startups in the world?
10 best startups in the world
The best startup projects around the world include:
Slack
A popular corporate messenger that appeared in 2013. It provides very great opportunities for online teamwork; it is especially suitable for small and medium-sized companies. Slack makes official email correspondence between employees and complex internal document flow unnecessary. This service was ideal for communication between employees at work, but it also made it possible to create communities of interest, business or leisure. That is why another opportunity to use Slack is to search for the right specialists; HR workers actively use this.
The fastest growing business application in history, now valued at nearly $3 billion.
The application was created by Cambridge Philosophy graduate Stuart Butterfield. Over seven rounds of investment, his startup was able to raise about $350 million and become one of the best such projects in the world. It is especially popular in the USA and European countries Oh. On the first day of testing, more than 8 thousand organizations registered in the Slack system.
More than a million users have already appreciated the benefits of Slack
Uber
One of the most famous and scandalous startups in the world, which indignant competitors regularly try to catch up with and are desperately trying to somehow cope with its expansion. At the same time, the project is very successful; investors value it at $64 billion.
The idea of linking a taxi order to a mobile application turned out to be simply golden. It belongs to Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp. The idea was born to one of the founders in Paris, when he could not get a taxi.
Having appeared in 2009, Uber brought huge profits to its creators. The world's leading venture financiers fought for the right to invest money in the service. This is understandable, since the company’s daily revenue now amounts to several million.
Now mobile taxis under this brand operate in more than 80 cities around the world, the number of trips using Uber in America has grown by 250%. The company continues to actively explore the global market and expand.
Uber is one of the best startups in the world in recent years
Zenefits was founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Parker Conrad, who until recently served as its CEO. Over the course of a year, the project went from an unknown startup to a dynamically developing business. It took him less than two years to become a company with a capitalization of more than $1 billion. Zenefits boasts some of Silicon Valley's biggest names (like Andreessen Horowitz) and is valued at $4.5 billion.
The project offers innovative software for HR departments of enterprises, significantly facilitating personnel management and document management in companies. The service allows you to automatically calculate employee salaries, calculate benefits, bonuses, labor productivity factors, and determine vacation dates.
In February 2016, Zenefits changed its director, David Sachs, who took emergency measures to maintain the high assessment of the project by investors. Despite the fact that the company is now experiencing some difficulties, the number of its clients still numbers 20 thousand people.
Zenefits - a fundamentally new approach to work in the field of personnel management
Porch
One of the best startups in the world, which appeared in Seattle in 2013. The project was created to connect professionals who can perform home or appliance repair work with people who need their services. A convenient interface and ordering system allows you to find the right specialist very quickly, which was immediately appreciated by numerous Porch users. During its existence, the company managed to raise $99 million in 3 rounds of financing.
Porch is:
- 3 million professionals with work experience and reviews
- 140 million completed transactions
- over $100 million in venture capital
The company gives all clients a guarantee of $1000 if the quality of the work performed does not satisfy the customer.
The founders of Porch claim that their business continues to grow and develop, has excellent prospects and big plans for the future.
Porch - repairs are best left to professionals
A new type of social Internet service founded by Ben Silberman in 2008. With its help, each user can create their own unique virtual “boards” on which they collect and store images grouped by various topics. Very quickly, Pinterest has become a worldwide catalog of ideas and inspiration for a very large global audience of creative people and ordinary users. The project is especially popular among women. For example, brides looking for a wedding style or young mothers organizing photo shoots for their babies. Of course, all specialists in the artistic field also appreciated it.
It took this startup less than a year to attract its first 10 thousand users. Zilberman says that he personally drafted and sent invitation letters to the first 5 thousand. This figure now represents 70 million per month in the US and 150 million worldwide. The project has now surpassed Twitter in terms of audience size. Financially, it is also very prosperous, having attracted $1.3 billion in investments since its founding.
Pinterest - beautiful photos can't be too much
An incredibly successful online service offering mattresses and other sleep accessories. A practical and serious approach to even the most ordinary household items, it turns out, can bring creators both money and fame. The manufacturer and seller of unusual sleep accessories was able to attract the attention of buyers and investors, the latter valuing the project at $550 million.
The authors of this startup approached the matter with a scientific approach and organized a real laboratory in which they experimentally established the parameters and characteristics of an ideal mattress. Now they sell only one type of it, but in different sizes.
Pleasant bonuses that successfully complement the high quality of Casper:
- fast delivery
- compact packaging
- possibility of testing and returning goods
At the same time, the cost of the mattress standard size starts at $500, but the company gives it a 10-year warranty. The project successfully withstands competition, although the price of their goods is approximately twice the average.
This startup relied on comfort
It turns out that startups also exist in the field of space technology. One of the most successful projects in this area belongs to the CEO Tesla to Elon Mask, who decided to create the first private transport company for space cargo transportation. In particular, the creator saw the immediate goal of delivering cargo to Mars during its colonization. The project turned out to be successful and now the company is a real space concern.
The first steps in implementing this grandiose plan began in 2002, and 8 years later SpaceX became the first private company, which launched the spacecraft. In 2012, one of its unmanned rockets docked with the International Space Station. After this, management signed a contract with the US Air Force and NASA.
SpaceX is considered the most progressive and promising space carrier, while offering some of the most low prices in the market for similar services.
The path from idea to successful space production
The third most valuable startup in the world is a mobile application that allows you to send messages with attached photos and videos. Created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Frank Brown.
According to statistics, 200 million users of the application send 700 million messages daily. In general, during its existence, the company has raised more than $1 billion and continues to actively develop.
The head of the company, Evan Spiegel, is trying to make Snapchat a competitor to Facebook and Twitter. Most likely, he will succeed. An ambitious entrepreneur from the “golden youth” is confidently moving forward. The application content continues to be updated and improved, gradually adding new features.
Rapid growth, thoughtful, bold marketing and an audience under 30 years old are the key to Snapchat's success, which allowed the company to become the third most capitalized startup in the world.
Evan Spiegel is the founder of Snapchat
Jibo
The creators of the first family robot, led by MIT professor Cynthia Breazeale, raised money for it using a crowdfunding platform. The project was so successful that in just a few days about 900 thousand dollars were received, although 100 thousand were required.
Now you can purchase an electronic friend for all family members and receive from him not only practical help in the form necessary information, but also a couple of funny stories or anecdotes.
Jibo recognizes people and finds its own approach to everyone. He cannot move, but he can speak and show emotions. The first samples have already gone on sale. The creators of Jibo do not stop there; the design of the robot has already been improved with the investments that the project was able to attract.
Jibo - home robot has become a reality
One of the fastest growing internet startups of 2015, born in San Francisco.
The project was created as an online service for delivering food to private customers from nearby stores. The buyer selects all the necessary goods online from the lists of local supermarkets uploaded to the site, and receives his order by courier very quickly, within an hour.
Instacart is already available in several major US cities and continues to capture the market, and the company's revenue has increased 15 times. The startup is developing rapidly, funds and private investors are confident in Instacart's success, although competition is growing noticeably every year. The project with enviable consistency attracts more and more hundreds of millions of dollars of investment (see Investments in startups: attraction, rules, important points). Total funding for the service over two years is about $150 million. Investors in the successful startup include Sequoia, Khosla Ventures, Canaan Partners, Horowitz and many others.
Even going to the store can make you rich
A variety of projects are among the best startups in Russia and around the world. Some of them are created by one enthusiast, while others are developed by several thousand different specialists. Sometimes it takes a month or two from the idea to the finished product, and sometimes it takes years. Each project has its own secret of popularity and its own fascinating story of rise.
One of the world's most authoritative magazines on technology and its impact on everyday life, British Wired, published another TOP 100 of the most fashionable and promising startups in Europe. What Russian projects did experts pay attention to?
The list consists of ten European cities, in each of which Wired authors found the 10 best startups. Last year, the compilers of the Russian version of the ranking 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 much more adequate. Therefore, there is no point in avoiding it. It's better to analyze.
But first it’s worth citing facts about the Russian Internet technology market. According to experts, there are 62 million Internet users living in Russia, which automatically makes our Motherland one of the continent’s key markets: 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, British investment bank GP Bullhound estimated the Russian online advertising market at $1.4 billion. It was a year ago that it became larger than the print media advertising market.
Mikhail Lyalin, CEO of electronic games developer ZeptoLab (No. 1 in the ranking), says that the e-commerce sector is rapidly growing in Russia, and the number of people spending thousands of dollars on purchasing goods online on Christmas Eve is increasing every year.
Another important Russian trend is the growing popularity of credit cards. “Russia is slowly adapting to credit cards; their number has increased 2.5 times over the year,” says Lyalin.
And here's what the list actually looks like.
1. Zeptolab is one of the largest companies in Russia producing world-famous games for mobile devices. Thus, their hit Cut the Rope truly became a global phenomenon. Perhaps second after the hegemony of Angry Birds, created by Finnish developers from Rovio.
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The Cut the Rope puzzle has been downloaded a total of 300 million times, and at least 60 million people play it every month. Russian company makes money not so much from distributing the game as from selling related accessories to puzzle fans.
The company also does not hesitate to use all new communication channels to disseminate its ideas. Recently, Zeptolab released a series of cartoons called Om Nom, which reached a total of 100 million viewers. The company is now actively developing new mobile games and has no intention of resting on the laurels of its previous success.
2. Zingaya is a company developing a B2B service for calls over the Internet, which launched its service in 2010. The Russian platform differs from other IP telephony services (Skype for example) in that it is focused on the corporate sector: clients of companies operating Zingaya have access to their own support service and can count on the fact that they will always have communication 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.
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Zingaya was already on Wired’s list last year, so it’s difficult to call the company a newcomer to the Internet services market.
Last year, users made 1.4 million calls using Zingaya. In 2012, the company's revenue tripled and amounted to $500 thousand. The startup's 27-year-old founder, Alexei Ailarov, says the company is close to reaching the break-even point. In 2011, the company received funding from American investor Esther Dyson in the amount of $1.15 million.
There is also a development strategy: Zingaya works with the global company Salesforce, the developer of one of the most popular CRM systems in the world. Most likely, new versions of this product will have 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 become the developer of a free application for iOS and Android, which delivers interactive content to users created by Narr8 itself. From here - one step towards real publishing work. If a new digital era ever arrives, in which there is no place for traditional print publications, Narr8 could 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 thousand users.
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4. Ostrovok.ru - a service for online booking of hotels around the world. It's like Booking.com, only with an equally decent database 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 this startup’s business model seems an indisputable fact.
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The company, founded by Kirill Makharinsky and Sergei Faget, already has eminent investors (Yuri Milner, for example) and a database that includes 135 thousand hotels in 200 countries.
5. Avito is the Russian version of the classifieds site, which has absorbed all the best from Slando, Craiglist and other Western services. Today it is the largest and most popular private classifieds website in Russia.
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Avito unites 40 million users per month, who add 450 thousand new ads every day. Total cost of all goods posted 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 young people who are engaged in IT entrepreneurship. The organization produces its own content for startups, organizes the TechCrunch Moscow and Demo Europe conferences, and also has a fairly powerful business incubator. Among DO's partners is one of the largest online education services in the world, Coursera.
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7. Onetwotrip is one of the most important and probably the most “fashionable” air ticket booking service in Russia. Founded in 2011, the company already has 600 thousand regular users and sells 5 thousand air tickets every day. The company's CEO Max Karausch says the company generates $50 million in revenue per month. The only significant competitor of Onetwotrip in the Russian Federation is the Aeroflot website.
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8. Game Insight - developer and publisher mobile games. The company is only three years old, but it already has 150 million users of its products around the world. CEO Alisa Chumachenko started the business without outside investment, but recently raised $25 million for development from Russian investment company imi.vc.
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9. LinguaLeo is the most popular learning platform in Russia foreign languages online. The service operates as a gaming application that offers to learn a language together 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 regular exercise, his digital “animal” becomes despondent. It is believed that such “gamification” of the process seriously increases the level of motivation.
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Many people liked the approach. 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. Clients of the service earn a total of up to $200 million a year, says company founder Egor Rudi.
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Over the years, the popularity of professional freelancers will only grow, and therefore Eruditor, without a doubt, will be a great commercial success.
The list itself, of course, many will dispute, but it clearly demonstrates: the most proven and reliable way to achieve success in RuNet - take the idea of a global or American project and localize it on the domestic market, taking into account local peculiarities. As a matter of fact, all the largest Russian Internet companies did this at one time. And in the same way, domestic Internet entrepreneurs continue to move en masse to this day. Coming up with something truly new, which has no analogues in the world, is far from the most best way earn money and build a truly useful service. In the end, the main thing is not the idea, but its implementation.
Startup- this is the name given to both a company that is planned to be created and an existing enterprise in the development stage. Usually this is a project with an original idea that has not yet been brought to life.
Business angel- a private investor who often invests personal funds in risky projects.
"Writing in the Sand"
An online service that allows you to order a memorable inscription on the sand of any beach in the world as a gift.
Starting capital: $100
The idea for a startup came to 23-year-old Anton Velikanov when he moved to Costa Rica. Financial investments were minimal. Anton completely developed the website in four days and wrote all the popular Russian names on his beach with his own hand. After a couple of months of working on the project, users had the opportunity to order confessions and wishes. Photographers were found who were ready to fulfill individual client requests. During the first year of operation, several joint campaigns were carried out with coupon sites, which brought recognition to the project. Also, the startup “Inscription on the Sand” was one of the first to receive a StartFellows grant.
"Social Alarm Clock"
A free service with which you can order a wake-up call for yourself or wake someone up yourself.
Starting capital: $100 000
Hrachik Ajamyan, a student and owner of a small website development company, had a hard time forcing himself to get up in the morning. But when he received calls from unknown numbers, he immediately got up, thinking that it was a new client. This is how the idea emerged 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 enthusiastic that they hardly slept. The starting capital was the team's own funds. They were spent mainly on 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.
"To Each Other"
This project helps to correctly realize other people's desires and find good fulfillers of your own.
Starting 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 users themselves make each other’s dreams come true. 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 investments. In addition, this idea received a grant of $25,000 from StartFellows. The first version of the site took three months to develop and was not very successful. The second option was done in one and a half. Coming soon new version: a startup involves constant improvements and moderation.
"Life Button"
Mobile system for calling help for the elderly, as well as for everyone who needs it.
Starting capital: $10 000
Dmitry Yurchenko and Irina Linnik decided to do mobile system help, invested money, bought equipment. Then we found an investor and participated in startup competitions. Even without starting sales, they won the “BIT”, “Telecom Idea”, and “Business Success” competitions. The company faces many difficulties. The main one is sales, because many people 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-marmite.”
It's simple: you prepare a dish at home, post a photo of it on 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 determine what prize the child will receive for completing the task.
Never Liked It Anyway, neverlikeditanyway.com - “I didn’t like him anyway.”
Here you can sell some gift from your ex, and at the same time tell how bad this ex is, and get comments from sympathetic users.
What's new
If you have a startup or an idea, you can:
Get advice or initial investment by participating in StartupWeekend, or contact the organizer - the Glavstart company - to receive a grant.
russia.startupweekend.org, glavstart.ru;
Participate in the BIT entrepreneurial competition, which is held almost throughout Russia.
bit-konkurs.ru;
Submit your startup to the Telecom Idea competition.
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.
opora-credit.ru/conference;
Take part in the Harvest work 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 form to participate in the “Technovation Cup” project competition.
technocup.ru.
Prepared by Anna Grineva
"The bubble hasn't burst yet"
This is how the list of the most interesting startups of 2015 according to Forbes begins. It includes those companies for which investors have the most hope and write the biggest checks. Among them there are such monsters as Uber and Udacity, as well as unique services for finding care for your dog and delivering food from nearby restaurants. In total, these 50 startups managed to attract $7 billion from investors, and they are collectively valued at $120 billion.
Check out the list and maybe you will decide to implement something similar in our country.
#1 Uptake Technologies. Valuation: $1.1 billion
A service that collects all information on its client’s business, processes it, systematizes it, and provides it to the client in the form of simplified analytics. Based on it, the client can better understand the results of his work and better correct it.
#2 Slack. Valuation: $2.8 billionA service for organizing work processes, with its help you can easily communicate with colleagues and subordinates, assign tasks, monitor their implementation, and also synchronize the application with other work services.
#3 Porch. Estimate: $500 millionService for finding workers for apartment repairs and orders for repair work. The base consists of 3.2 million specialists and 132 million works performed by them on site. Plus, Porch insures each of its customers against poor quality work for $1,000.
#4 OfferUp. Estimate: $814 millionA simple and convenient bulletin board. Inside the application, you can communicate with buyers and sellers in chats, pay for purchases, and quickly post or update product photos.
#5 PicsArt. Estimate: $250 millionPhoto editing application. One of Instagram's competitors, the difference is that inside the application there is much more tools editing and a different approach to creating a feed and interaction between users.
#6 Casper. Estimate: $555 millionManufacturer and online retailer of innovative and comfortable mattresses, pillows and sheets. Target Audience project - young active urban population. Revenue to date has already reached $100 million.
#7 DoorDash. Estimate: $600 millionApplication for ordering food from the nearest restaurant.
#8 Expensify. Estimate: $147 millionService for tracking corporate budget expenses. With its help, you can easily track how and what budget funds are spent on and quickly and easily adjust expenses.
#9 Postmates. Estimate: $450 millionA food delivery service organized similar to Uber. Couriers earn a percentage of delivered orders. A competent approach to customers and well-functioning logistics allows Postmates to earn $100 million a year.
#10 Zenefits. Valuation: $4.5 billionCloud-based software for HR management. With the help of this cloud, HR departments can conduct their work from anywhere in the world. The cloud contains all the necessary information - salary slips, applicant profiles, reports on new employees and others. It is not known what will happen if the cloud is hacked.
#11 ClassPass. Estimate: $293 millionThe service offers, for a fixed fee, the opportunity to visit various sports groups and sections in your city, without the need to book time or arrange training sessions.
#12 Jibo. Estimate: $128 millionThe company has developed a robot buddy. Its main task is to communicate and help everyone who is at home, and Jibo will have a special approach to each family member. He will be able to tell children a fairy tale, parents an anecdote, and in the kitchen he will tell you a recipe or read out messages for a specific recipient.
#13 Whipclip. Estimate: $600 millionAn application that allows you to share TV shows and music videos with your friends for free and completely legally.
#14 Namely.Estimate: $181 millionCloud service for personnel management. Allows you to set goals, monitor implementation, reward employees, as well as pay salaries with automatic tax calculations and do all this through a web interface or a mobile application.
#15 DraftKings. Valuation: $1.2 billionA very popular trend in the United States is gambling, in which users can create football teams from existing players and predict how they will spend the playing season. The service grew rapidly and gained popularity, but literally at the end of the year, DraftKings and their main competitor were overtaken by lawsuits from the state with suspicion of fraudulent transactions and insider trading.
#16 Uber. Estimate: $64 billionAn international company specializing in calling and paying for a taxi or private driver using a mobile application. The service is available in 68 countries and 300 cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and 5 other large Russian cities. Some governments of European countries prevented the spread of the service, considering it “the largest illegal carrier”; a similar situation was in Russia, but an agreement was signed limiting the company’s services only to legal carriers.
#17 Robinhood. Estimate: $275 millionAn application that allows you to trade stocks without commission. On at the moment operates only in the USA and plans to enter the markets of other English-speaking countries in 2016.
#18 Greenhouse Software. Estimate: $245 millionA service that allows you to systematize and simplify the process of hiring employees. The creators promise to do all the hard work for you: the service will draw up a plan, help you place ads, schedule interviews, and even compile a list of questions to ask when talking with a candidate.
#19 Layer3 TV. Estimate: $385 millionNew generation cable provider in the USA. The company has brought together cable industry veterans, as well as many personnel from Google, Comcast and Apple. Layer3 TV plans to combine the usual cable television and mobile applications. This is all that is known about the company’s plans for now; they are keeping the rest secret.
#20 Pronutria Biosciences. Estimate: $321 millionThe company aims to track the level of amino acids in your body, and also gives advice to level out the imbalance and thus improve your health.
#21 Tanium. Valuation: $3.7 billionTanium products help IT departments of companies establish fast and secure communications between hundreds of thousands of computers. The startup's investors include TPG, Institutional Venture Partners and T Rowe Price funds.
#22 Raise Marketplace.Estimate: $608 millionThe service allows you to buy and sell gift cards. It will be useful for those who want to save on purchases or turn their gift cards into real money.
#23 Beepi.Estimate: $564 millionBeepi is a service where you can buy a car checked by your own specialists for a fair price and have the option of returning it. If the seller’s car is not purchased through the site within 30 days, the company buys it for the agreed price and sells it itself. The price of a car is determined by the site commission, the seller’s expectations and the assessment of the company’s technical specialists.
#24 Corvus Pharmaceuticals. Estimate: $236 millionA pharmaceutical company developing drugs that support the immune system and help fight cancer.
#25 LendingHome. Estimate: $519 millionThe company is a platform for investors and people who want to get a mortgage loan. The former can easily start investing their money, and the latter can choose a profitable and convenient option mortgages.
#26 Affirm. Estimate: $576 millionA financial startup that offers users instant micro-loans at extremely competitive rates.
#27 Credit Karma. Valuation: $3.5 billionCredit Karma is a platform designed for users to obtain a credit rating, regardless of the person’s location. The service's audience is 40 million people. At this stage, the company provides reports, credit scores and some other financial tools.
#28 Menlo Security. Estimate: $127 millionMenlo Security develops an anti-malware solution. The total amount of funds raised by the startup has reached $35 million. The company plans to completely rid users of viruses and other malware using its Isolation Platform system.
#29 Carbon3D. Valuation $1 billionCanadian startup specializing in 3D printing. A key advantage of Carbon3D is its CLIP printing technology, which allows you to print objects 25-100 times faster than other 3D printers. Products are obtained more high quality due to the continuous creation of structure, rather than layer by layer.
#30 Afferent Pharmaceuticals. Estimate: $280 millionA pharmaceutical startup that develops innovative medicines.
#31 WeWork. Valuation: $10.2 billionThe startup operates in some major US cities and offers freelancers, small teams and businesses a variety of different coworking spaces. The business model is extremely simple. WeWork on favorable conditions they rent several floors in office centers, renovate them, create space for work, meetings and relaxation, and also install all the necessary office equipment. And then they offer everyone who wants to buy subscriptions to work in such a coworking space.
#32 zSpace. Estimate: $160 millionzSpace offer users their own vision of virtual reality. Their workstations are computers whose displays track the movement of special glasses and a stylus-style controller, thus creating a sense of three-dimensionality of the object.
#33 Premise Data. Estimate #375 millionThe company helps process large amounts of data to understand economic effects in real time.
#34 Collective Health. Estimate: $391 millionCollective Health is developing a corporate health insurance, and this helps companies provide medical benefits employees.
#35 Rover. Estimate: $130 millionThe startup can be called Airbnb for dogs. Even the interface is similar. Owners can choose who will take care of their pet, and dog lovers will be able to sit with them and even earn money.
#36 Cohesity. Estimate: $336 millionThe startup is working towards renting secondary data storage. And this, according to Cohesity estimates, is up to 80% of the total data volume. The company will help you save up to 80% on storage costs.
#37 Udacity. Valuation: $1.1 billionUdacity is not a newcomer among startups, but a fairly well-known platform for self-paced remote education, which was born as an extension of Stanford University.
#38 Placester. Estimate: $150 millionThe company is designed to make life easier for American realtors by combining a huge number of real estate databases (more than 900 in the US) into one, with a convenient interface, search algorithm and support on mobile devices.
The company provides services for storing databases on “elastic” servers. They can expand if necessary, as well as “give away” space that is not currently being used.
#42 Cyanogen. Estimate: $640 millionAlmost any Android enthusiast can talk about this for hours operating system, but if you don’t belong to those, then in a nutshell Cyanogen is an OS that takes its roots from the same Android, but in many ways surpasses it.
#43 Handy. Estimate: $360 millionHandy offers to take on the troubles of cleaning the premises. The company selects people who want to earn extra money from such a difficult business, surveys them, and then offers their services to clients. Sort of like the Uber of the cleaning world.
#44 Onshape. Estimate: $800 millionCloud platform for CAD modeling. All work is done through a browser, synchronized with the overall project via the cloud and has a mobile interface.
#45 Illumio. Valuation $1 billionIllumio specializes in cyber security, and while most competitors deal with threats outside the “perimeter,” Illumio deals with intruders who have passed the initial protection.
#46 Vroom. Estimate: $218 millionThe startup sells used cars in the United States.
#47 Nurix. Estimate: $227 millionThe company researches and develops drugs that affect the mechanics of protein regulation in cells. This approach will help fight many diseases, including oncology.
#48 Gusto. Estimate: $560 millionThe company is developing cloud-based personnel management. Allows you to pay employees, make tax deductions and much more.
#49 Betterment. Estimate: $431 millionThe startup is intended for people who want to start investing, but do not have much experience in this field.
#50 Theranos. Valuation: $9 billionA revolutionary method for quickly and accurately conducting tests using tiny doses of biomaterial. In 2015, the media questioned the accuracy of the test results and accused the developers of deceiving investors. So far, only the media have paid attention to this, so in the future, either the storm will subside and the project will continue to work, or everyone will really be disappointed in it and Theranos will have to close down.
This is what the 50 hottest US startups look like. After reading about them in a little more detail, you can understand the direction in which our society is moving and what we will be able to see in the near future in the services market.
