Startups’ success factors discussed at the Skolkovo Forum

Skolkovo Technopark will first hold the inter-cluster forum of Skolkovo innovation center resident companies Success Story Day 2012: Skolkovo - Your key to success on April 12, 2012. The project participants will present themselves, exchange their contacts and share successful and helpful experience with each other.

Success Story Day 2012 is held to create an innovative space where Skolkovo innovation ecosystem participants will be able to build relationships with leading Russian and international companies, the RF Development institutions, profile ministries and departments, the world's leading universities and partner companies.

Viktor Vekselberg, the Skolkovo Fund President will sum up the results, speak about how the innovation center leadership sees the success of the project participants, and determine the plans for future development.

The Forum will bring together the representatives of SkolTeh, OpUS, development institutions (RUSNANO, RVC, etc.), 29 accredited Innograd funds, Russian universities’ startups (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Moscow State Technical University, Physics and Technology, etc.), venture funds, international incubators, industrial, commercial and financial companies, key ministries and agencies, partners of the Skolkovo Fund including parks, resident companies.

Forum participants will exchange views within the thematic panel discussions: Technology and business model: how to make a right market product, Financing at various stages: how to attract investors, Intellectual property: how to protect and how to manage IC, The market for product innovation: marketing and communications, Human resource: The team and the success of the business.

Already renowned Innovation Centre resident companies such as ABBYY, KD Technology, Parallels Research, fm Lab, Mobiks Chip and Novas Ck. will share how to sell innovative technologies, which are innovative product’s life cycles, how to build and test the business model, to build a competitive strategy, to evaluate the innovation market and build the effective team.

The Skolkovo Fund management representatives will make presentations on essential topics: grant policy, accredited venture funds work experience with the Innovation Centre resident companies, financing startups by venture funds, partners and investors relationship legal structuring.

The center of the ecosystem is Skolkovo Technopark LLC as a unique international center for support and commercialization of new technologies. Forum participants will have the opportunity to learn in detail about the educational, expository, marketing and demo features of the Technopark for participating companies and the opportunities it provides for the promotion of their projects.

According to the Skolkovo Fund management group, such forums as Success Story Day 2012, will create a community of the innovation center participating companies - the site where it will be possible to discuss research, education, innovation and business strategies; organization of meetings with key figures of the Russian and international innovation business; participating companies meetings with key representatives of the areas Skolkovo is developing.