ABRT and Mangrove Capital Partners, two venture funds investing actively in Russia, are inviting CEOs and founders of Russian IT companies to the ABRT-MANGROVE CEO CAMP, an intensive 10-week program starting next month (deadline for applications: March 23).
The program is intended to help young IT companies increase sales significantly, find new customers and partners, expand to international markets, and attract venture capital.
Participants will be offered the opportunity:
- To collaborate with founders of global companies: Ratmir Timashev, Andrey Baronow, Steve Blank, Ben Gilbert and many others;
- To receive individual coaching, hands-on assistance, and introductions to key contacts to accelerate growth and value of their companies;
- To receive attention from the leading venture funds involved: ABRT Venture Fund, Mangrove Capital Partners and partnering funds.
CEO CAMP is
- [Advisory Board] – successful IT companies founders, CEOs and investors.
- [Global Market] – hard work in global market environment.
- [Best CEO] – ambitious, open minded, and hungry for success.
- [Places] – workspace in the center of St Petersburg and Silicon Valley.
- [Board Meetings] – Saturday meetings with board members.
- [Value-Added program] – the world’s best practices and workshops for IT business development.
- [Traction] – companies’ growth and value acceleration.
- [Startup CEO Day] – with the participation of 20+ venture capitalists
- [Quality Time] – fun for both startups and mentors as well.
CEO CAMP is not about guaranteeing funding and gaining access to European markets. It’s all about your project and what you do.
Selection Criteria
- Focus: Infrastructure Software, Cloud Computing, SaaS, Internet&Mobile. The following directions are significant in particular: Disruptive Internet models (solutions), Mobile for business, Mobile security, Automotive solutions – mobile to cars.
- Stage: working prototype or existing product/service.
- Metrics: project has customers and first sales.
- Market: global.
- Team: ambitious, open minded, and hungry for success, willing to find solutions to their problems and take advantage of the opportunity to talk to leaders in the venture market.
- Location: Russia, CIS and countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
Graduates of business incubators and accelerators, Web Ready finalists and Deep Dive participants are welcome.
Calendar
March, 3 – 23 – CEO CAMP application submission
March, 24 – 26 – projects selection. The 20 best projects will be selected for participation by the representatives of ABRT Venture Fund and Mangrove Capital Partners. CEO CAMP organizers, RIS Ventures and ITMO University will contact you to specify participation conditions.
April, 7 – 29 – CEO Camp in St Petersburg. Teams work in St Petersburg: define current project status and future strategy, attend board meetings to get feedback from funds and EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) to accelerate company’s growth and value, build up product strategy in cooperation with partners, customers and experts.
May, 5-20 – CEO camp in Silicon Valley. In Palo Alto participants continue their work in cooperation with the Advisory Board to build their global business and get key contacts during 20+ CEO Camp events, negotiate with representatives of IT companies and venture funds, including the 2 most famous funds of Silicon Valley: Accel Partners (Facebook investor) and Sequoia Capital (Google investor).
May, 21 – June, 15 – CEO Camp final round. During the final round companies will think over their CEO Camp experience and apply the best practices to their companies. Graduation day: presentations of projects and meetings with representatives of venture funds and partners. 20+ venture funds will sum up the results of the program on CEO Day.
CEO Camp events
- Value-Add Program – individual recommendations from the representatives of venture funds and task assignment to accelerate company’s growth and value.
- Advisory Board Workshops – cooperation with Advisory Board to build up sales, marketing, finance management system or other issues required by the company.
- Entrepreneurs in Residence – once or twice a week: cooperation with founders of successful IT companies, various meetings with potential partners, customers and investors.
- Board Meetings – every Saturday participants discuss and sum up the results of the week, set up dynamic working rhythm and team responsibilities.
- Startup CEO Day – the final day that includes presentations and meetings with the representatives of venture funds and partners.
Advisory board
- David Waroquier, Mangrove Capital Partners (Skype, KupiVIP, Brands4Friends). David supervises investments in consumer Internet and e-commerce. Currently he serves on the boards of KupiVIP, Oktogo and Zesty. David pioneered early-stage investment from Western VCs in Russia.
- Ratmir Timashev, President and CEO at Veeam Software; Partner at ABRT Venture Fund. Ratmir Timashev possesses a rare combination of proven business savvy, forward-looking technical knowledge and market vision. He has significant entrepreneurial experience in building, advising and investing in successful technology companies.
- Natalya Kaspersky, CEO at InfoWatch Group of Companies, Kaspersky Lab cofounder. During her 10-year tenure at Kaspersky Lab Natalya turned a small group of enthusiasts into a world-class international IT company with annual revenues of hundreds of millions USD. Natalya invests actively into high-tech companies.
- Arseny Tarasov, EPG Director at Microsoft; Board member at FIDESYS; Board member at First virtual. Arseny has extensive experience in building and developing IT businesses, staff management and business performance optimization.
- Ben Gilbert, The Garage Program Manager at Microsoft. Ben has been developing the Office user interface for Mac and OneNote user interface for iPhone and iPad. He founded several companies that published Zero and SeizeTheDay applications to the AppStore.
- Anton Antich – VP, Corporate & Sales Operations at Veeam Software. Anton has over 15 years of sales management and business development experience with an analytical skill set and a metrics-driven approach to business operations.
- Mikhail Penkovsky, Senior Director of Inside Sales at Veeam Software. Michael has over 10 years of experience in software marketing and sales, and he regularly writes articles for business press. He set up a commercial department at Argnitum, brought it to the international market product line under the brand Outpost and developed strategic alliances with other vendors.
- Alexander Shirmanov, Director of R&D and Worldwide Support at Veeam Software. Alexander has more than 10 years of experience in B2B software development and analytics. He was engaged in the development and implementation of product strategies, corporate spin-off management and creation of new products in the field of information security.
- Maxim Ivanov, Director of Global Internet Marketing at Veeam Software. Maxim has 10 years of marketing experience. He was responsible for the initial formation and development of internet marketing, support, sales, operations, university and technical writing departments at Veeam Software. Maxim was a marketing director at Infolider.
Experienced speakers and experts
Serial entrepreneurs who distilled many years of experience in launching projects employing a set of best practices.
Organizers
- ABRT Venture Fund – one of the leading Russian venture funds which was established by Andrey Baronov and Ratmir Timashev. Fund invests in IT and software companies based in Russia and CIS, helping entrepreneurs to realize their vision and build successful international businesses.
- Mangrove Capital Partners – Mangrove is a leading international early stage Venture Capital firm based in Luxembourg. The firm invested into more than 70 companies , such as Brands4friends (sold to eBay), Spreets (sold to Yahoo), Wix (Nasdaq), FreedomPop, Outfittery and Nimbuzz. In Russia, Mangrove is the early stage investor of KupiVIP and Oktogo. Mangrove also was the first investor in Skype, which was acquired by eBay for over €2.5 billion in 2005.
- RIS Ventures is a partnership of investors, CEOs and founders of technology companies. The company provides tools and instruments for the development of technology businesses. The clients of RIS Ventures are Kaspersky Lab, Abbyy, Quest Software, Softline and other IT companies. RIS Ventures developed and held startup acceleration and development programs for IT-park, Ingria Business Incubator, IIDF and ITMO University.
- ITMO University is the leader in preparation of highly qualified specialists and a scientific research institution in the field of informational and optical technologies.
Sponsors
- Veeam Software is an international software development company, the world leader of innovative products for virtual infrastructure management and data protection. Simple, effective and affordable, Veeam solutions are designed specifically for virtual environments and cloud.
- US-Russian “EURECA” Program – “Enhancing the research and entrepreneurial capacity of Russian universities by introducing new models of collaboration between _US and Russian universities”. Program is initiated by the US-Russian Foundation on Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law (USRF).
Partners
- Web Ready is the largest public project contest in the field of Internet and mobile technologies in Russia. More than 2,700 projects from 150 cities and 30 countries participated at Web Ready, more than 30 of them attracted investments of more than 750 million RUB in total. Annual contest final in the form of Investment Forum brings together more than 700 leaders of the IT industry.
To apply, click here. For more information, please contact Mr. Eldar Faizullin ([email protected], Skype: fazfromufa) or Mrs Anastasia Lee ([email protected], Skype: i-leeana).
