As the Moscow startup ecosystem has grown ever more fertile and dynamic, the Skolkovo School of Management has launched Startup Academy, a two-month part-time program combining practical entrepreneurial education with an international acceleration program.
Startup Academy is intended for entrepreneurs or corporate managers who feel they need more knowledge to launch or support their companies. The Academy employs a method called Customer Development-Business Model Generation, which “focuses on refining the business model of the startup and understanding who the customers/markets are as well as on developing and testing a set of related hypotheses about the startup in a fast and efficient process.”
More than a training program, however, Startup Academy defines itself as “an ecosystem for startup birth, growth and realization.” In addition to learning from “the best international professors and practitioners of entrepreneurship,” entrepreneurs can also receive support to launch their companies. This includes the possibility of receiving seed financing of up to $500,000.
The first Academy session, which took place from June to July, “was a huge success,” Director Lawrence Wright told East-West Digital News. “We ran 20 startups through an intense program, two weeks interacting with the movers and shakers of Silicon Valley and culminating in a large investor day event in Moscow.”
Several term sheets came out as a result, Wright said. Startup SmartStart was selected, in addition, to be presented to President Putin in late September under a program led by the ASI innovation agency.
Startup Academy’s second session will begin on October 25.
