On 28th of May jury announced Startup Village short-list:
Vasily Belov, acting Senior Vice-President of the Skolkovo Foundation, executive director of the Energy Efficiency Cluster:
Those 20 finalists, which were selected today were picked not only from residents of the Skolkovo, roughly half of them are startups we found during the Russian Startup Tour. Therefore, of the 920 Skolkovo startups just about half of the finalists, given that we have a sample here of nearly two thousand start-ups from all over the country (including those invited from the mentioned Tour across Russia). And this is the key innovation asset of our country.Today I’d like to wish these companies to keep this enthusiasm and energy they gained today, at the Startup Village, hitting the finals. I wish that they use this potential developing their core business, attracting investors into their business. And the very first thing they have to put their energy in is to communicate with customers. Traditionally, the Russian start-ups aren’t that active in their work with investors. We are great in inventing things, but it’s important to start as soon as possible to communicate with your future customers. The market always buys finished products and ready-made solutions, and our market innovation is a little different from the others, it more complicated, and this is yet another factor that confirms that you need to start communicating with your customers as soon as possible.
A complete list of startups who have fallen into the selection can be seen on the link.