“Creating Sustainable Infrastructure to Support Startups and Small Business Development in the Regions of Belarus”
Fixed Obligation Grant (FOG) Award No. AID 113-F-17-00001 Milestone 1 Report 04/18/2018
Gleb Gerasimovich, Project Manager Society for Innovative Business Support (SIBS) sibs.by, start.by +375 33 634 48 35 [email protected]
Non-government association «Society for Innovative Business Support» 187, Soltisa, str. office 127, 220070, Minsk, Republic of Belarus Tel: (375 33) 634 48 35, E-mail: [email protected] Executive summary Society for Innovative Business Support (SIBS) completed the preparatory activities to launch the second stage of the activity; prepared 12 (twelve) Startup Schools and 8 (eight) Expert Days; prepared concept of methodology for Startup School Junior in accordance with Attachments 1 and 2 of the Grant Agreement (FOG Award №AID-113-F-17-00001), to implement the “Creating sustainable infrastructure to support startups and small business development in the regions of Belarus” project.
I. Key activities (1) Report on preparatory activities to launch the second stage of the activity
In April 2018, SIBS has registered the project with the Ministry of Economy of Belarus. The registration process, including preparatory activities, took seven months. During this period, SIBS has received letters of support and signed agreements of intent with the following organizations: Belarusian Innovation Fund, Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Gomel Regional Executive Committee, Ministry of Education, Mogilev Regional Executive Committee, Minsk Regional Institute of Education Development. Please, see Attachment 1 for letters of support. On 13 April, 2018 SIBS has got official papers of approval of the project in the Ministry of Economy of Belarus.
(2) Report on preparations for the third season of the 12 (twelve) Startup Schools and 8 (eight) Expert Days Nine Startup Schools were planned in Grodno, Brest, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel, Minsk (BSTU, SBMT, Labintel) and Kopyl. Nine Expert Days were planned in Grodno, Brest, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel, Minsk (BSTU, SBMT) and Kopyl. We foresee that three Startup Schools in Molodescho, Novoe Pole and Minsk (Kino), previously supported by the project, will be unable to hold classes due to their internal reasons. Among the reasons for that - responsible personnel leaving organizations, or change in organizational plans and strategic priorities. As the Startup Schools’ organization is voluntary and needs to be driven by the local initiative, we can’t make these partners conduct the third seasons of Startup Schools. To compensate for the missing seasons of Startup Schools and achieve the activity objectives, we have planned additional seasons of Startup Schools with other existing partners – fourth seasons in Brest, Vitebsk, Mogilev, and Minsk (SBMT). Please, see Attachment 2 for the plan of events of Startup Schools. Dates and names of experts are available on the relevant web-sites of Startup Schools and subdomains (http://start.by/), all experts Non-government association «Society for Innovative Business Support» 187, Soltisa, str. office 127, 220070, Minsk, Republic of Belarus Tel: (375 33) 634 48 35, E-mail: [email protected] passed to the special section http://start.by/experts. In addition, Vk.com (https://vk.com/startby) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/up.start.by) pages play important role in Startup School events’ announcements, and contain actual schedules, registration forms for relevant Startup Schools and other important information. Preliminary lists of participants for Startup Schools and Expert Days (Attachment 3) include people who show interest in Startup Schools and Expert Days. SIBS has formed this list from the database of people who took part or registered to previous startup events conducted by SIBS and partners, as well as from the new people registered on the web-sites. We are constantly inviting the target audience to the relevant web site for on-line registration - http://start.by, thus the lists of participants are being updated on the daily basis. To minimize barriers for registration and reach as many people as possible, we were requiring the very basic information from the potential participants (name, email, phone) at this stage. During the sessions of Startup-Schools we will collect more detailed information from the participants (sphere of interests, name of the projects, etc.). Some of the Startup School partners at small towns (Kopyl) and universities (BSTU) use a different approach of participants’ attraction. The main target audience of these schools are students, and local partners make announcements directly in the educational institutions. They use personal invitations, posts in thematic communities on social networks, notice boards with the information on the date, time and place where Startup School classes will be organized. Thus, the preliminary lists of participants of such schools are often not available for SIBS. Despite a small number of on-line registrations in such Schools, partners manage to attract the target/sufficient number of participants of Startup Schools. The actual participation rates will be confirmed by the participants’ registration sheets.
(3) Report on preparations of the concept of methodology for Startup School Junior To implement the Startup School Junior, SIBS has signed an agreement on cooperation with the Minsk Regional Institute of Education Development (MRIED), which has experience at school business companies’ development. Together with MRIED, SIBS developed the concept of the methodology of the Startup School Junior (Attachments 4 and 7). MRIED will help SIBS in holding seminars for teachers interested in launching the Startup School Junior. On April 24, 2018 SIBS will organize the first seminar for five pilot schools (please, see agreements with schools in Attachment 5) in Minsk region: Ozertsy Secondary School, Dzerzhinskaya Secondary School №2, Molodechno Secondary School №1, Oktyabrsky School of Soligorsk District, Petkovichi Secondary School. The program of the seminar is in Attachment 6. Seminar will aim to create a working Non-government association «Society for Innovative Business Support» 187, Soltisa, str. office 127, 220070, Minsk, Republic of Belarus Tel: (375 33) 634 48 35, E-mail: [email protected] group, which will include teachers, SIBS and MRIED experts, and representatives of other organizations. Result of the working group activities will be incorporated into the program of the Startup School Junior. The program will target at students of the VI-XI grades, will determine the period of education, the thematic plan, the types of educational activities, the recommended formats of classes, etc. As required by the local policies, during the development process, we will use the model program for education of children and youth in the socio-economic field, recommended by the Ministry of Education (https://goo.gl/YmcGk4), as well as the SIBS and involved experts experience.
II. Major challenges and opportunities The main challenge was the long time of the project registration as the technical assistance by the Ministry of Economy, which caused the delay with the report on the first Milestone. Despite the absence of the technical assistance registration, thus inability to receive USAID funding, the SIBS team continued operations, and during this period made the necessary preparations for the third and selectively fourth seasons of Startup Schools: developed plans with the local partners, created a calendar of events, signed agreements with the new partners, held preliminary trainings with new partner’s representatives, and planned the training for them for the end of May-first decade of June. We have also started working on the Startup School Junior educational methodology. To further upgrade SME Grow-up Toolkit and make new Startup Schools’ launching process more efficient, we decided to develop special audio and video instructions for new and actual partners (for example, on email preparation, branding, common mistakes and their preventing, etc.). We’re planning to broaden this practice during the next milestones, to make Startup School preparation process more user- friendly and effective. In addition to this, we’re constantly broadening the database of experts and make experiments to find up-to-date formats of Startup School classes to improve educational materials and training programs for startups and small businesses.
III. Performance indicators summary Milestone progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 1 of M&E table, as following:
Non-government association «Society for Innovative Business Support» 187, Soltisa, str. office 127, 220070, Minsk, Republic of Belarus Tel: (375 33) 634 48 35, E-mail: [email protected] Activity 1: Improvement of an entrepreneurial support system methodology represented by the SME Grow-up Toolkit (copy of SME Grow-up Toolkit, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Improvement of educational materials and training programs for startup and small business support infrastructure organizations (trainings' curriculum and training materials for SIBS partners and startups);
Milestone progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 2 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Development of a methodology, business model and sustainability plan for Startup School Junior (copy of methodology and plan, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 3: Establish local partnerships with schools (5 schools);
IV. Branding and outreach According to the Branding Plan, all the materials created under the project, as well as all the project events are fully branded.
Sincerely, Project manager Gleb Gerasimovich
Non-government association «Society for Innovative Business Support» 187, Soltisa, str. office 127, 220070, Minsk, Republic of Belarus Tel: (375 33) 634 48 35, E-mail: [email protected]
“Creating Sustainable Infrastructure to Support Startups and Small Business Development in the Regions of Belarus”
Fixed Obligation Grant (FOG) Award No. AID-113-F-17-00001 Milestone 2 Report 20/07/2018
Gleb Gerasimovich, Project Manager +375 33 634 48 35 [email protected]
Executive summary
Society for Innovative Business Support (SIBS) conducted training of the third group of partners, held 12 (twelve) Startup Schools and 8 (eight) Expert Days; prepared concept of methodology for working with local initiatives in accordance with Attachments 1 and 2 of the Grant Agreement (FOG Award №AID-113-F-17-00001), to implement the “Creating sustainable infrastructure to support startups and small business development in the regions of Belarus” activity.
I. Key activities (1) Training of the third group of regional partners for Startup Schools conducted Partners’ training was held on June 23-24, 2018 in Minsk (the list of participants with contact details is provided in Attachment 1). Five new activity partners took part in this training: Nesvizh State Yakuba Kolasa College (Nesvizh, Minsk region), Baranovichi State University (BarSU, Baranovichi, Brest region), Technological Park «Gorki» (Gorki, Mogilev region), Belarusian State University (BSU, Minsk), Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (BSUIR, Minsk). Belarusian National Technological University (BNTU, Minsk) was also included in the 3rd group of partners, but its representative could not join the training for unexpected personal reasons, he will be trained separately by SIBS staff. Also, new team members of the 1st and 2nd groups of partners joined the training to strengthen their local teams of Startup School organizers. The training consisted of two parts. During the first part we were reviewing various aspects of partnership with SIBS, including Startup Schools and Expert Days’ preparation and organization process, analyzing examples and practical tools. During the second training part, each new partner prepared the preliminary plan of activities. We invited the representatives of the 1st and 2nd groups of partners trained at the previous activity stage, to the second part of the training for networking and experience exchange, to share successful role models. To use this opportunity of all the existing partners being in Minsk, and contribute to the sustainability of the previous support, we have also organized the discussion with the 1st and 2nd groups of partners of their plans, difficulties and opportunities, possible formats of Startup School events in the new seasons which they’ll lead themselves. We will aim to continue providing limited support to these partners (help with new Startup School formats, find experts, support local expert communities, etc.) to accelerate Startup Schools development in the target regions. At the same time, we'll pass all the initiative about the Startup School events organization to them in the next seasons. They will coordinate and control all the organizational steps themselves. (2) Report on the results of conducting of 12 (twelve) Startup Schools and 8 (eight) Expert Days According to the Milestone Plan, Startup Schools and Expert Days were planned for January-June, 2018. We had started activities earlier and had made part of the Startup School events during October-December, 2017. It helped to avoid long breaks in educational activities and support startups and young entrepreneurs. During October 2017 – June 2018, 13 (thirteen) Startup Schools instead of 12 initially planned, were held in Mohilev (2 seasons), Grodno (2 seasons), Brest (2 seasons), Gomel, Vitebsk (2 seasons), Minsk (Belarusian State Technological University (BSTU), School of Business and Management of Technologies (SBMT) (2 seasons), Labintel). We also managed to support some additional Startup School classes in Kopyl, which were not counted against full seasons of Startup Schools as were not fully complete. As mentioned in the report to Milestone 1, not all the initially selected partners at the previous activity stage were able to continue Startup Schools. To compensate for those and provide startup support services to Belarus entrepreneurs, we’ve added additional seasons of Startup Schools in partnership with other motivated partners. We managed to conduct 9 (nine) Expert Days instead of 8 (eight) planned. Expert Days were held in Minsk (SBMT (three) and BSTU), Grodno, Vitebsk, Mohilev, Brest, and Gomel. Please, see Attachment 2 for participants' lists. Additionally, we provided limited support for 2 (two) Invest Weekends held by Grodno partner. The format of Invest Weekends is similar to Expert Days and includes projects’ presentations, master classes, and networking. The 3rd and 4th seasons of Startup School Brest were held in October - December 2017, and March - June 2018 respectively, and consisted of meetups and intensive courses Super Start. We expect that this School will keep a fee-based business model to ensure its sustainability, and will scale it up. SIBS partner in Brest, - (Brest Local Fund for Regional Development,- successfully tried some new formats of events: practice-oriented meetup and hackathon. It showed good results, participants were interested in such activities, their number was increased. In the future, Brest partner plans for expanding these new formats and attracting local IT-specialists into entrepreneurship community, trying to link them in teams with other entrepreneurs for new business projects’ generation. Two seasons of Startup School Grodno were conducted on the free-of-charge basis, and were held in December 2017 - February 2018, and March - June 2018 respectively. They included meetups and intensive courses Super Start. The local partner, - Grodno Regional Institution of Entrepreneurs’ Financial Support, - is interested in attracting more people, strengthening the Startup School brand in the region and gaining a critical mass of loyal participants. The partner has own resources for Startup School conducting and is interested in the School as a tool to promote organization’s goals of entrepreneurship support in the region. The 3rd and 4th seasons Startup School in Vitebsk were held in October 2017 – March 2018 and April – June 2018, respectively, by Vitebsk State Technological University. Classes were conducted on both fee and free-of-charge basis. The School plans to continue using fee-based model in the next seasons, to increase its sustainability. Also we noticed that the School coordinator in Vitebsk was very successful in creating a strong business community around the School, which made it easier to attract new people to Startup School events. Our local Vitebsk partner plans to continue holding meetups and intensive courses Super Start, they also plan for adding additional events for networking to support and expand entrepreneurship community in Vitebsk. The 3rd and 4th Startup School seasons in Mohilev (partner – Technological Park «Mohilev») were held on October 2017 – February 2018 and March - – June, 2018, on the free-of-charge basis. In the next season, local partner decided to expand engagement of other entrepreneurship communities and societies in Mohilev (for example, the informal community of entrepreneurs in Mohilev). In addition to standard formats of Startup School events, partner in Mogilev plans for adding several practice-oriented meetups. The 3rd season of Startup School Gomel (partner – Gomel State University of Consumer Cooperation) were held on October 2017 – July 2018 and consisted of two free-of-charge meetups, and intensive course Super Start. Compare to other Startup Schools in regional centers (Grodnо, Vitebsk, Mohilev, Brest), Gomel partner held only one season due to changing a Startup School coordinator at this period. The 3rd and 4th seasons of Startup School at SBMT was held on October 2017 – December 2017 and February – April, 2018. Each of the seasons consisted of the evening format course Startup in 9,5 Weeks and several meetups. The classes were held on a fee basis. Also, the partner was able to provide some scholarships for students of SBMT to take part in the School. Next season, the partner will continue holding the evening format classes at Startup in 9,5 Weeks. The Startup School BSTU successfully completed the 3rd season in October 2017 – April 2018. The target audience of this Startup School is students of the university. Startup School BSTU continues to keep the free-of-charge model because it is still a big challenge for a university in Belarus to charge fees from students for extracurricular activities. However, the university has sufficient own resources to continue supporting Startup School on a free-of-charge basis. In the next season, the partner plans for trying intensive course format Super Start. Startup School Labintel has also completed the 3rd season in September – December 2017. They held several meetups, 2-day intensive course Super Start, which included expert presentations, startups pitching, and networking. Some of the events were fee-based, some - free of charge. А few events were held during the national exhibition “Science & Business 2017” (October 7, 2017), and other. Participation in such events is a good way of Startup School brand promotion, and attracting people. On average, evening format meetups bring together 15-25 participants per class, meetups 3in1 – 20-30 participants, and intensive courses Super Start – 10-15 people. SIBS local partners also managed to organize nine Expert Days instead of eight initially planned. Three of them were organized by SIBS partner SBMT on October 10, 2017, January 16, 2018, and May 16, 2018. Expert Day Mohilev was organized by the Technological park «Mohilev» on June 10, 2018. Expert Day Vitebsk was organized by the Vitebsk State Technological University June 9, 2018. Partner in Grodno, -Grodno Regional Institution of Entrepreneurs’ Financial Support, - organized the Expert Day on June 16, 2018. Expert Day Brest was organized on June 2, 2018 by the Brest Local Fund for Regional Development. Expert Day Gomel was organized on February 24, 2018. BSTU in Minsk held its Expert Day on May 3, 2018. In total, 77 startups presented their ideas during these Expert Days events. All the projects got feedback from experienced experts and a lot of networking. During October 2017 -June 2018, 209 informational materials related to Startup Schools (announcements, post-releases, articles, reviews) were published. These publications appeared in 78 media sources online, out of those 59 became SIBS informational partners. Our informational partners mailed information on Startup School activities to the total audience of about 20,000 people. Facebook page Startup School (https://www.facebook.com/up.start.by) attracted about 210 unique subscribers, total 1,003. Startup School new page on Instagram has already attracted more than 800 subscribers. Please, see Attachment 3 for details.
(3) Concept of methodology for working with local initiatives prepared. During Milestone 2, SIBS has develop a concept of methodology for working with local initiatives: target fields of potential initiatives, concept of standard requirements for projects, and framework of project application and budget. Please, see Attachment 4. Local initiatives are planned to support the following activities: educational and consulting programs for entrepreneurs, tools to improve access to education in the field of business or startups, programs for increasing entrepreneurship literacy among schoolchildren, developing regional communities of entrepreneurs, other business support tools piloted (acceleration, mentoring programs, initiatives for the exchange of experience), and other. We are planning to make an open call for applications in October - November 2018, and make final decisions on finalists of the competition in December 2018.
II. Major challenges and opportunities The third and fourth (for select partners) seasons of the Startup Schools took place during October 2017 – June 2018. A remarkable achievement of this Milestone was the fact that almost all the local partners started actively working with local regional experts, as opposed to utilizing just SIBS’ expert base. All the evening meetups were held by our partners in Grodno, Brest, Mohilev, Gomel, Vitebsk, SBMT themselves with attraction of local experts. It was sometimes difficult for them to find experts in the regions, to attract them to Startup School and to explain what type of information they should share with the participants. To help the local partners, we developed a special manual for working with experts. It was very rewarding for partners to find experienced experts in the regions who were ready to take active part in and support Startup Schools. Among the remaining challenges is attracting participants to fee-based intensive courses Super Start. It is partially caused by the low solvency of projects’ authors and beginning entrepreneurs. With several partners (Grodno, Mogilev, Brest) we tried to hold intensive courses Super Start on a free-of-charge basis, but with competitive selection of the projects. The goal of selection was choosing the most perspective projects and support them. Also, during this period, we tried the new format of intensive course announcement. The main focus wasn’t on experts’ personalities (sometimes we don’t know them well in advance, because our experts are volunteers), but on the educational program per se. It allowed us announce events earlier and get additional time for participants’ attracting. One more challenge we faced was changing of individuals responsible for Startup School, this particularly related to Startup Schools at educational institutions. It put additional challenges to the School continuation. In some cases, it happened during the season and took too much time and SIBS resources to train each new person and explain all the aspects of Startup School organization. To streamline such processes, we decided to make online educational materials in video-, audio- and check-list formats and place them on a shared drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B8NP5VMfHi4GV1RvZFVRbEpKQl U). Online system allowed to provide a new person with access to all the information fast and without breaking the season. Also, for experienced partners, revisiting these resources helps to remind on important procedures of Startup School organization. During the Milestone 2, we paid additional attention to working with entrepreneurship projects, which participated in the previous seasons of Startup Schools. We collected the following information about them: stage of the project, detailed description and presentations, their progress, etc. Thanks to this in-depth work, we were able to capture successes of several ones. We are now planning to prepare special materials for media publications on them (interviews, success stories, etc.) Keeping the database of projects up-to-date also allows better connection of those to potential investors. During the next Milestones, we’ll be training local partners on the benefits and use of this database. To increase the Startup Schools and Expert Days reach and quality, partners started to organize special networking activities and create some special events for this. We think that it can help to create community around each of Startup Schools which in turn will make process of participants attracting easier. Also, experienced partners have additional creative ideas on new formats of Startup School classes, and we support them in their initiatives.
III. Performance indicators summary Milestone progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 1 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Improvement of an entrepreneurial support system methodology represented by the SME Grow-up Toolkit (copy of SME Grow-up Toolkit, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Improvement of educational materials and training programs for Startup and small business support infrastructure organizations (trainings' curriculum and training materials for SIBS partners and Startups); Activity 3: Selection, establishment and support of local partnerships with Startup and small business support organizations (6 organizations for the Startup Schools and for the Expert Days); Activity 4: Training and coaching of the local SIBS partners (1 training sessions for local partners); Activity 5: Mentoring and assistance to local SIBS partners in the organization of Startup Schools and Expert Days. (12 of Startup Schools and 8 Expert Days) Activity 6: Helping local partners attract clients and build local partnerships (number of registered participants distributed by categories). Startup Schools: 1557 trainees, 67 experts. Expert Days: 492 participants, 77 projects, 52 experts.
IV. Description of the plans for Milestone 3 During the next reporting period, SIBS will concentrate on conducting the events by the third group of partners (4 (four) Startup Schools and 1 (one) Expert Day), and holding the Investor Day Belarus. In addition, during this period we plan to train the fourth group of partners for Startup Schools. We also plan for developing the methodology for Startup School Junior and training of the first group of instructors for Startup School Junior. We also plan for selecting the local initiatives for support, and developing of the methodology for working with them. At the end of July, we will hold a special entrepreneurship event - Summer Business Forum “Lipen.PRO”. It is a 2,5-day business camp, which will help entrepreneurs all over the Belarus to collaborate, network, and enrich their knowledge in different business aspects. We plan to continue developing video- and audio-instructions for Startup School partners, to provide them with very practical tools for the activity implementation.
V. Branding and outreach According to the Branding Plan, all the materials created under the project, as well as all the project events are fully branded. In order to ensure that all the local partners can speak about the activity and explain the USAID role in the process, SIBS put special section on that in the partners’ training program and included it into the SME Grow-up Toolkit package of communication materials (e.g., press release templates, with all the necessary marking). We developed special toolkit for partners on branding and passed it to them.
Sincerely, Project manager Gleb Gerasimovich
“Creating Sustainable Infrastructure to Support Start-ups and Small Business Development in the Regions of Belarus”
Fixed Obligation Grant (FOG) Award No. AID-113-F-17-00001 Milestone 3 Report 08/02/2019
Gleb Gerasimovich, Project Manager +375 33 634 48 35 [email protected]
Executive summary
Society for Innovative Business Support (SIBS) selected local initiatives for the activity support, conducted training of the first group of instructors for Startup School Junior and training of the fourth group of partners for Startup Schools, held 4 (four) Startup Schools, 1 (one) Expert Day and Investor Day Belarus; developed methodology for Startup School Junior and methodology for working with local initiatives in accordance with Attachments 1 and 2 of the Grant Agreement (FOG Award №AID-113-F-17-00001), to implement the “Creating sustainable infrastructure to support start-ups and small business development in the regions of Belarus” project.
I. Key activities
(1) Local initiatives for the activity support competitively selected and (7) Methodology for working with local initiatives developed; During Milestone 3, SIBS has developed a methodology for working with local initiatives. We named the contest “Jump Start”. Methodology of the competition of initiatives “Jump Start” (Attachment 1) include targets of the contest and potential participant’ profile, terms and conditions of the contest, deadlines and milestones, etc. To make all information about the contest assessable to the applicants we developed a special web-page: www.start.by/JumpStart. To highlight a contest we’ve published 24 press releases on the partners mass media, made 4 newsletters and 12 social networks publications (Attachment 2). Information about the contest was spread through newsletter of the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Education. We divided application process into several parts: preliminary application on the contest page where we took only contacts and brief description of the idea (we’ve got 116 preliminary applications). Then all applicants received forms to fill, and finally we’ve got 47 fully completed applications including form with description of the idea, budget, additional documents. Call for applications was open from 5, November, 2018 till 6, December, 2018. To evaluate applications we’ve formed a commission (see Provisions on the Commission in Attachment 5, Conflict of Interests form in Attachment 4) and special templates for initiatives’ assessment for each member (Attachment 3). From 06, December, 2018 to 4, January, 2019 commission worked on initiatives’ evaluation. Finally, we selected 10 initiatives to support (Attachment 7) and 2 as a reserve. List of the contest winners was published on www.start.by/JumpStart on January 4, 2019 . During the Milestone 4 we’re planning to hold an educational seminar for winners (to discuss all issues regarding initiatives implementation), prepare and sign agreements (Attachment 6), and start initiatives’ activities.
(2) Training of the first group of instructors for Startup School Junior conducted; and (6) Methodology for Startup School Junior developed; On 8-9, December 2018 we’ve held a training for group of teachers who are ready to be in a first pilot group of Startup School Junior instructors. Minsk Regional Institute of Education Development (MRIED), Ministry of Economy and other partner organizations have announced this training to find participants who’re already involved into pupils’ business education (Attachment 11). During the training, we discussed issues regarding Startup School Junior organization as well as adaptation of the methodology and all educational materials (Attachment 12 and 13). The methodology determines the period of education, the thematic plan, the types of educational activities, the recommended formats of classes, etc. We foresee that during the Milestone 4 (four) most of instructors will hold the first season of the Startup School Junior in a form of extracurricular classes for pupils. Main target of the first season is to evaluate a methodology, highlight topics and methods that are most demanded by students, and prepare methodology for the official registration by the Ministry of Education.
(3) Report on the results of conducting of 4 (four) Startup Schools and 1 (one) Expert Day According Attachment 1 of the agreement, Startup School activities were planned from July, 2018 till December, 2018. But in fact, there was slightly delay due to differences in partners working schedule and Startup School activities were held from September, 2018 till January, 2019. Also we had started some activities earlier. It helped to avoid long breaks in education activities and support for startups and young entrepreneurs. During September 2018 – January 2019 4 (four) Startup Schools were held in BNTU, BSUIR, Gorki, Nesvizh and 1 (one) Expert Day was held in Gorki. Please, see Attachment 8 for participants' lists. Additionally, during Milestone 3 we continued support to Startup School classes in Grodno, Brest, Vitebsk, Minsk (SBMT, BSTU) and Expert Days in BNTU, BSUIR and BSTU. Also we supported such additional business-events as Lipen.PRO, hackathon “BrestHack” and “InStorm”. All these events correspond to overall entrepreneurship development goals of the project and help to attract new people to Startup School database. The 1st season in Startup School BNTU (Belarusian National Technical University) was held during October 2018 -December 2018 and consisted of 8 meetups and Expert Day. During the season, Startup School BNTU attracted 15-30 participants per class on a free-of-charge basis. The target audience of this Startup School is students of the university. Startup School BSTU keeps the free-of-charge model because it is a big challenge for a university in Belarus to charge fees from students. However, university has sufficient own resources to continue supporting Startup School on a free-of-charge basis. In the next season partner has a plan to try format of intensive course “Super Start”. Startup School at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics (BSUIR) successfully completed this season. Model of this school is similar to the previous: the free-of-charge сlasses for students of the university. Classes in BSUIR were concentrated on high-technological IT-topics and starting startups in these spheres. It showed good results, participants were interested in such activities. Startup School BSUIR held two separate meetups and then a series of five meetups. Startup School Gorki (partner – Technological park «Gorki») held its 1st season during the past Milestone. The season was opened by Meetup 3 in 1 and continued with intensive course «Startup in 9,5 weeks», one more Meetup 3 in 1, and Expert Day. Intensive course was held on a free-of-charge basis in order to support students with startup ideas. Technological Park has own resources for Startup School conducting and is interested in the School as a tool to promote entrepreneurship in the region. The target audience of this School is students of Gorki Agricultural Academy, because Gorki is a small student town. Next season the partner will continue holding the format of intensive course «Startup in 9,5 weeks». Startup School Nesvizh has also completed the 1st season. It had several meetups and 2-day intensive course “Super Start”, which included expert presentations, startups pitching and networking. Events were free of charge. The local partner, - Nesvizh State College Yakuba Kolasa, - is interested in attracting more people, strengthening the Startup School brand in the region and gaining a critical mass of loyal participants. We noticed that coordinator in Nesvizh after a half year work period created a strong business-community which make the process of attracting people to future Startup School events easier . We held 1 (one) Expert Day (as planned) organized by Technological Park «Gorki» on 21, December, 2018. Extra Expert Day BNTU was organized on 12, December, 2018. During July-December, 2018, more than 200 materials related to Startup Schools (announcements, post-releases, articles, reviews) were published. Our informational partners mailed information on Startup School activities to the total audience of about 2 000 000 people. Facebook page of Startup School (https://www.facebook.com/up.start.by) attracted about 99 unique subscribers (total number is 1102). Startup School page on VK (https://vk.com/startby) attracted about 239 unique subscribers (total number is 1240). Page on Instagram already has more than 1761 subscribers. Please, see Attachment 9.
(4) Training of the fourth group of partners for Startup Schools completed New partners’ training was held on January 11-12, 2018 in IBB Hotel (list of the participants with contact details are in Attachment 10). 7 (seven) new partners took part in this meeting: Belarusian State University of Transport (BSUT, Gomel), The center of entrepreneurship support (Baranovichi), Technological Park «Gomel» (TechPark, Gomel), Belarussian State University (BSU, Minsk), Polotsk State University (PSU, Polotsk), The center of youth in Zhodino (Zhodino), Marketing agency «Raihen Group» (Minsk). In additional we invited new team members of partners of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd groups of partners took part in training to strengthen local teams of Startup School organizers. The training consisted of three parts. During the first part we were working with partners of the 4th group and reviewing various aspects of partnership with SIBS, Startup Schools and Expert Days preparation and organization process, gave some examples and practical tools. We invited 1st, 2nd groups of partners to the second part of the training for networking and experience exchange and to show successful role models. New partners had possibility to get practical answers to their questions. The third part was focused on networking process between Schools and with experts. We’re going to continue providing limited support to partners of 1st, 2nd and 3rd groups (help with new Startup School formats, find experts, support local expert communities, etc.) to accelerate Startup Schools development in target regions. Despite this, they would coordinate and control all the organizational steps by themselves.
(5) Investor Day Belarus conducted; Investor Day was split into 2 stages and lasted from October 20 till December 5, 2018. It focused on projects from different spheres: artificial intelligence (AI), shared economy, information and communication technologies, robots, mobile applications and services, etc. We received about 70 project applications and only 24 most promising projects were selected for presentations. Investor Day consisted of two stages: expert session on December 1 which included brief "elevator pitch" format projects’ presentations (24 projects), experts’ feedback on each project and selecting 14 most promising projects for the next stage: investor session on December 5 where startups met with potential investors. The participants of the investor session were: FindMe, Kinguru, DebtPay, Pollalot, Oyper, DACO, KitchenHub, ISmartTrans, CoMission, QOLOS, Aimtalk, StickCRM, Terra Electro, Skinive AI. These were largely mobile applications, web-services, hardware projects, CRM-systems, artificial reality, and b2b services. We will keep in touch with the finalists and investors to evaluate an effectiveness of the Investor Day, and monitor startups’ progress. See Attachment 8 for signed participants' lists and Attachment 9 for pictures, mass media publications.
II. Major challenges and opportunities The first season of the Startup School conducted by the third group of partners was held during October 2018 – December 2018. Partners of 1st, 2nd groups had the fourth and fifth (in some cases) seasons. A remarkable thing of this season became the fact that many of the partners started some transformation of the classes’ formats. Besides standart meetups, some of the partners had additional formats of events such as «evening of business failures», business games and hackathon. We think that it can help to create community around each of Startup School. During the Milestone 3 we faced a problem when new partners didn’t start Startup School classes and stopped cooperation with SIBS before the first event. Two out of six partners of the 3rd group didn’t start their first seasons, although we were still able to meet the Milestone 3 requirement of four new partners. The reasons of some partners quitting connect with organizational process of these partners and misunderstanding of the project approach and goals. To continue this practice, we attracted three extra-partners to 4th group of partners. One more challenge we faced is attracting people in small towns (like Nesvizh). They don’t have any strong popular information resource which can support Startup School and provide information about our events. So it is difficult to announce events for people outside of Nesvizh College. Our partner has a plan to ask for the support of local authorities to attracted new people. Concerning the call for applications for local initiatives, based on the number of applications and applicants’ profile, we see a high activity of regional organizations as well as their geographical spread. Some application focused on specific target audience e.g.. schoolchildren, students, women, specific nationalities, etc. In most cases, applicants used similar approaches to initiatives’ design, we noticed lack of innovative methods in their applications. To address the weakness of the applications during Milestone 4 we’re planning to work closely with the winners to help them improve their projects. We’ll focus on projects’ sustainability, budgets’ validity, projects goals and other issues. On 25, January we’re planning to hold a meeting for local initiatives managers to highlight all issues regarding projects registration in the Ministry of Economy, projects implementation, and reporting. During preparation of the methodology and gathering the first group of instructors, we faced a difficulty of losing interest of some potential partners (schools) to organize classes of Startup School Junior. It is due to changing people responsible or some other reasons. We’ve switched on another model to find and attract instructors: we’ve made public announcements in social networks, by email newsletters and mass media instead of official invitation of MRIED to participate in the project. As a result, we gathered the first group of motivated teachers ready to contribute to the Startup School Junior methodology development and classes’ organization. At the moment, we’re focusing on 8-9 school grades for the first season of the Startup School Junior. We’ve re-confirmed it after consultations with teachers. 10- 11 grades are overloaded because of preparation to the entry exams to the universities. On another hand, 6-7 grades are very young and require special program to develop. In the future, we’re planning to broaden the program of the Startup School Junior to a variety of school grades.
III. Performance indicators summary Milestone progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 1 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Improvement of an entrepreneurial support system methodology represented by the SME Grow-up Toolkit (copy of SME Grow-up Toolkit, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Improvement of educational materials and training programs for Startup and small business support infrastructure organizations (trainings' curriculum and training materials for SIBS partners and Startups); Activity 3: Selection, establishment and support of local partnerships with Startup and small business support organizations (7 organizations for the Startup Schools and for the Expert Days); Activity 4: Training and coaching of the local SIBS partners (1 training sessions for local partners); Activity 5: Mentoring and assistance to local SIBS partners in the organization of Startup Schools and Expert Days. (4 of Startup Schools and 3 Expert Days) Activity 6: Helping local partners attract clients and build local partnerships (number of registered participants distributed by categories). Startup Schools: 838 trainees, 72 experts. Expert Days: 120 participants, 27 startups, 21 experts. Activity 7: Local initiatives support (4 initiatives of local startup and small business support infrastructure organizations and other organizations supported)
Milestone progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 2 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Development of a training methodology, organizational model and sustainability plan for Starup School Junior (copy of methodology and plan, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Establish local partnerships with schools or out-of-school institutions (5 schools or out-of-school institutions); Activity 3: Training and coaching of the school teachers (or representatives of out-of-school institutions) on Startup School Junior conduction (1 training sessions for teachers or representatives of out-of-school institutions, 13 participants). Activity 7: Local initiatives support (6 initiatives of schools supported)
IV. Description of the plans for Milestone 4 During the next reporting period, SIBS will concentrate on the conducting the events by the fourth group of partners and continue to support the third group of partners (8 (eight) Startup Schools and 2 (two) Expert Day). In addition, on this period we plan to train the fifth group of partners for Startup Schools. Also our plan includes conducting 2 (two) Startup Schools Junior and holding training of the second group of instructors for Startup School Junior. Also we plan to develop CRM-system for Startup School partners for their effective and comfortable work.
V. Branding and outreach According to the Branding Plan, all the materials created under the project, as well as all the project events are fully branded. In order to ensure that all the local partners can speak about the activity and explain the USAID role in the process, SIBS put special section on that in the partners’ training program and included it into the SME Grow-up Toolkit package of communication materials (e.g., press release templates, with all the necessary marking). We developed special toolkit for partners on branding and passed it to them.
Sincerely, Project manager Gleb Gerasimovich
“Creating Sustainable Infrastructure to Support Start-ups and Small Business Development in the Regions of Belarus”
Fixed Obligation Grant (FOG) Award No. AID-113-F-17-00001 Milestone 4 Report 08/01/2019
Gleb Gerasimovich, Project Manager +375 33 634 48 35 [email protected]
Executive summary
Society for Innovative Business Support (SIBS) is developing a network of organizers of startup support activities in the regions of Belarus, - and transfers its unique expertise of startup and small business support to the local partners located in all six regions of Belarus and Minsk city. The main aim of the activities is the promotion of entrepreneurship in society and establishment of new businesses, by helping the participants validate their business ideas and develop business projects particularly in the regions of Belarus, which lack economic vitality. Since 2019, SIBS is also piloting Startup School Junior - a program of informal entrepreneurship education for motivated high school students, with the aim of building their entrepreneurship and leadership skills, basic economic and business knowledge, and grow a new cadre of future business leaders. By the time of the report, since September, 2016, SIBS has partnered with 29 local infrastructure organizations. SIBS’ partner network is shown on the graphic. Please, see Attachment 1. During January-June, 2019 SIBS worked on the 4th milestone of the Grant Agreement (FOG Award №AID-113-F-17-00001) of the “Creating sustainable infrastructure to support start-ups and small business development in the regions of Belarus” project and conducted 2 (two) Startup Schools Junior, training of the second group of instructors for Startup School Junior, training of the fifth group of partners for Startup Schools, 8 (eight) Startup Schools and 2 (two) Expert Days.
I. Key activities (1) 2 (two) Startup Schools Junior conducted From February, 2019 till June, 2019 our partners held 2 (two) seasons of Startup School Junior classes. Program included 19 educational modules which lasted 38 hours (19 theoretical and 19 practical) in total. It corresponds to the standard half-year elective course. At that stage all classes were on free-of-charge basis, because we’re focusing on methodology piloting and adapting to school teachers’ needs. In the future, where possible, classes will be delivered for a modest fee, to provide additional motivation for schools to expand such classes. One season of Startup School Junior was held in Mogilev State Regional Lyceum №2 during four months, one lesson per week on average. Another season was organized by Grodno school №27 during the summer camp in June 2019, lessons were held daily. At Startup School Junior school children develop leadership, teamwork, public presentation and other relevant skills, economic and financial literacy, develop and/or test a business idea, learn specific aspects of creating and running a business. At the end of each Startup School Junior, children present their business projects at Demo Days. Please see photos, registration lists in Attachment 2. In addition to the above-mentioned seasons, select Startup School Junior classes were held at the Khodosovsky school (Mogilev district), but they didn’t manage to conduct a full season due to high involvement of pupils in other projects. Based on the experience and feedback gained from instructors through the first season, we realized that some parts of the methodology (exercises, games, etc.) need to be modified. In addition, we found out what needs to be added to the program. Before starting the next seasons of Startup Schools Junior is the second half of September, we will work on the methodology improvements.
(2) Training of the second group of instructors for Startup School Junior conducted SIBS has organized the training of the second group of motivated teachers, instructors of out-of-school institutions, and administrators for conducting Startup School Junior on July 9, 2019. We found them through partners’ newsletters (Minsk Regional Institute of Education Development, Community Connections program, etc.), professional networks, some approached SIBS directly with interest in Startup School Junior organization. The second group of instructors consists of representatives from the Smilovichi State Agrarian College, Borisov State Polytechnic College, private social and information institution "Center for Growth of Business and Career" (Gomel), private educational center "Open Space" (Molodechno), Uzda gymnasium, Borisov schools №10, 20, Loshnitskaya gymnasium (Borisov district), co-working space “Time club 1387” (Bobruisk), Kostyukovichy District Gymnasium (Mogilev district), Grodno school №27. Please see Attachment 3. As in the case of Startup Schools, it may happen that some partners will stop operations or won't complete a season for the reasons outside of our control. To ensure the planned number of Startup Schools Junior launched, we decided to invite more partners to the training than initially projected. At the same time, we received more applications from potential partners then expected, and as adding them would not substantially increase the cost of training, we invited 11 potential partners, instead of three originally planned. During the training, we discussed issues regarding Startup School Junior organization, equipped teachers and instructors with the methodologies and training materials ready for the implementation of Startup School Junior classes. SIBS will maintain contact with the instructors to continuously upgrade the materials based on their needs. At the training, Grodno school №27 presented their experience organizing Startup School Junior classes, as a pilot season in a form of school summer camp for pupils. They highlighted topics and methods that are most demanded by students, achievements and difficulties, and parts of the methodology that should be improved. We foresee that most of partners from this group will start Startup School Junior classes from the end of September 2019-first decade of October, 2019. But we plan to organize additional training course for instructors during Milestone 5 for those interested. In addition, we're planning to strengthen the Startup Schools Junior (SSJ) instructors' preparation by organizing additional format of training for trainers for them, to further develop their skills (such as presentation skills, tools to work with audience, etc.) to provide better trainings for pupils. SIBS Startup Junior partner network is shown on the graphic. Please, see Attachment 4. (3) Training of the fifth group of partners for Startup Schools conducted Training for partners took place on June 22-23, 2019 in the conference hall of the hotel "BonHotel" (list of the participants with contact details are in Attachment 4). By the project description we need 4 (four) new partners, we have invited 6 (six) new partners , but finally 4 (four) took part in this meeting: Educational Center «Open Space» (Molodechno), Startup School «SmartUp» (Individual Entrepreneur «Bondarez», Mogilev), Minsk Innovation University (MIU, Minsk), Bobruisk Business Incubator (BRCI BD, Bobruisk). As usual, we make efforts to invite more potential partners than planned because some of them drop out. The reasons range from staff change to misunderstanding of the project approach and goals, as well as the amount of time and effort needed. New team members of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th groups of partners also joined the training to strengthen local Startup Schools’ organizing teams. New participants received knowledge at the training, which will contribute to the development of their Startup Schools and and make it more sustainable. Please, see Attachment 5. By this time we have partners in Minsk, regional cities and some local towns. We do not observe significant differences depending on the location (for one type of partner), but in small towns it is more difficult to gather participants. In small towns, there are no activities related to entrepreneurship, and people have fears that such events will be of poor quality. It is important to form a Startup School brand in such cities, and show a high level of expertise. Then the audience’s loyalty will increase and organic growth begins, as there are strong connections between people in small towns. Startup School becomes the only point of the formation of the entrepreneurial community in a small town. Distribution by the type of the city shown on the graph:
The training took place within two days and consisted of three parts. In the first part, the following issues were considered: the activities of the SIBS and Startup School (goals and objectives, mission, etc.), basic principles of opening a local Startup School; using SME Grow-up Toolkit (a manual that includes materials and a step-by-step approach to be used by the local partners for organizing Startup Schools and Experts Days) in order to organize educational activities in a local Startup School, best practices of working with experts, etc. The first part of the training was especially important for new local partners (5th group). Members of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th groups of partners participated in the second part of the training. During this part each Startup School highlighted and summed up the experience of their past seasons. The second part of the training involves active interaction, exchange of experiences between all partners, including the new ones. The partners discussed the new formats of events that were held during the past seasons, shared the successes and difficulties they faced during organizing Startup School activities. For new partners these are good role models that show impact and positive influence of implementing Startup School for entrepreneurship communities in the regions of Belarus. The third part of the training was focused on networking. It helps create good relationships between all groups of partners for future cooperation. We will continue providing limited support (help with new Startup School formats, find experts, support local expert communities, etc.) to the older groups of partners to assist them in organizing and conducting Startup School activities. It is important for us to develop Startup School network and make it more sustainable and effective. (4) Report on the results of conducting of 8 (eight) Startup Schools and 2 (two) Expert Days During January– June 2019 8 (eight) Startup Schools were held at the Belarus National Technical University (Startup school BNTU) in Minsk, Technological park “Gorki” (Startup School Gorki), Nesvizh State College Yakuba Kolasa (Startup-school Nesvizh), The center of entrepreneurship support (Startup School Baranovichi), The center of youth in Zhodino (Startup school Zhodino), Polotsk State University (Startup school PSU, Polotsk and Novopolatsk), Gomel Belarus State University of Transport (Startup school BSUT), Technological Park «Gomel» (Startup school Technopark) and 2 (two) Expert Days were held in Technological park “Gorki” (Startup School Gorki) and Polotsk State University (Startup school PSU, Polotsk and Novopolatsk). Please, see Attachment 6 for participants' lists. Additionally, we supported Startup School classes of our older partners, in Grodno (local partner - Grodno Regional Institution of Entrepreneurs’ Financial Support), Brest (local partner - Brest Local Fund for Regional Development), Vitebsk (local partner - Vitebsk business incubator), Mogilev (partner – Technological Park «Mohilev») and Minsk (local partner - Belarusian State Technological University). The 2nd season in Startup School BNTU was held and consisted of 6 evening meetups and 1 meetup “3 in 1”. These seasons of Startup School BNTU attracted 25-55 participants per class on a free-of-charge basis. The target audience of BNTU Startup School is mostly students of the university. Startup School BNTU keeps on using free-of-charge model in order to support students, focus them to entrepreneurship as a career option. BNTU and Technological Park “BNTU” (organization owned by the same university) have their own resources to continue supporting of Startup School on a free-of-charge basis. The partner is inclined to proceed with the next season and keep the same structure of educational program. BNTU is interested to strengthen focus to students with startup projects, so they have an intention to organize Expert Day next season. Startup School Gorki (partner – Technological park «Gorki») held the 2nd season. The season consisted of the intensive course «Startup in 9,5 weeks», Expert Day and meetup “3 in 1”. Main target audience are students of Gorki Agricultural Academy, as Gorki is a student town. Technological park «Gorki» is owned by the Academy. Intensive course and other Startup School events were held on a free-of-charge basic. It’s a big challenge for Technological park to charge fees from students. But on the another hand, Technological Park has own budget resources for Startup School conducting. Next season the partner is considering holding several evening meetups, intensive course “Super Start”, meetup “3 in1” and Expert Day. Startup School Nesvizh (partner - Nesvizh State College Yakuba Kolasa) has also completed the 2nd season. They held five meetups and one meetup “3 in 1”. Some of the meetups were longer than usual because experts provided additional practice-oriented sections. Such format is very suitable and in demand for young students. All Startup School classes were delivered free of charge. The core target audience of Nesvizh Startup School is students of the College. At the same time Nesvizh State College Yakuba Kolasa plans to discontinue cooperation with SIBS as it doesn't have enough human resources for organization of Startup School activities which they can sponsor. The current Startup School coordinator plans to transfer Startup School Nesvizh to a new organizational structure. Preliminary, it may be the local cafe “Nesvizh”, its CEO showed interest in future developing the project in Nesvizh. Experimentally, Startup School has already tried out cafe “Nesvizh” as a new location. Startup School Novopolatsk (Polotsk State University) successfully completed their first season. The target audience of this Startup School is students of the university. The School has organized three meetups “3 in 1”, three evening meetups and one Expert Day. Events included expert presentations, startups pitching and networking. Startup School PSU kept the free-of-charge model, which is common for the activity partners represented by educational institutions. As other universities, PSU has sufficient own resources to continue support Startup School classes. Next season partner is planning to hold intensive course “Super Start” in addition to other formats. Startup School Gomel at the Belarusian State University of Transport (BSUT) has successfully completed its first season. The model of this school is close to other universities’ models: the free-of-charge classes for students interested in entrepreneurship. Based on the School audience, the local coordinator chooses themes targeted at the first steps to set up a business, marketing, PR, business-models, etc. Some classes were targeted to increase student’s motivation to launch own business by presenting role models of young entrepreneurs. The partner plans to continue Startup School in the next season by organizing evening meetups and Expert Days. Startup School Zhodino was held by Zhodino Youth Center. This season the local partner concentrated on the free-of-charge meetups to form a database of people interested in entrepreneurship in Zhodino. Specific of this school is that it is organized in a small town near Minsk. We found that people were not initially inclined to visit business events there because they have a stereotype about bad quality of events organized in small cities. In most cases, they prefer to travel to attend events in Minsk. In the next season Zhodino local partner plans to continue holding evening meetups and attract new audiences to create a positive image of the School and show its usefulness to local people. In addition to that, the partner is planning to organize Expert Day and provide consultations to local startup projects. The first season of Startup School Gomel TechPark (partner – Gomel Technological Park) consisted of 48-hours hackathon and intensive course “Super Start”. Hackathon was firstly organized in Gomel, attracted more than 70 people and 15 startup projects. The main aim of the hackathon was to attract startups to the technological park. Gomel Technological Park plans to continue holding hackathons as well as traditional Startup School formats - evening meetups, intensive courses and Expert Day. In addition, local partner has intention to organize some special events for networking to expand Gomel startup community. Startup School Baranovichi (Regional Center of Entrepreneurs’ Support) has successfully completed its first season. Season lasted from February till the middle of June 2019 (included meetups, intensive course “Super Start” and meetup “3 in 1”). The local partner is interested in attracting more people, strengthening the Startup School brand in the region and gaining a critical mass of loyal participants. The partner has own resources for Startup School conducting and is interested in the School as a tool to promote organization’s goals of entrepreneurship support in the region. In the future, partner as a private company plans to organize Startup Schools classes in a fee-based format. Startup School BSUIR (partner - Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, Minsk, the third group of partners) discontinued operations during the season due to internal reasons: changes of organization goals and priorities, lack of personnel ready to organize Startup School events. However, extra partner from the fourth group held classes, so the total number of partners is still 8 (eight).
Cross-cutting objectives SIBS has a balanced view of gender involvement. We target both male and female participants. SIBS strive for at least 30/70 percent female/male participation in all Startup School activities. On particular events, for example business forum “Lipen PRO”, we have 50/50 percentage of female/male. While, approx. 70% of Startup Schools supported by the activity are lead by women, SIBS makes additional efforts to attract women as experts so the share is 30% among all experts involved to SIBS events.
II. Major challenges and opportunities, lessons learned Based on our three years of experience, we can identify three main types of the Startup School organizers: a university, a technology park or an infrastructure organization, and a private service company: 1. The main goal of the university is to attract experienced entrepreneurs to show students the principles of creating own business and make them more competitive in the labor market. For the university itself, classes on entrepreneurship is also a competitive advantage over other universities. As mentioned above, it is still difficult for the university to organize fee-based classes for students, so at universities they are free of charge. The risk for this type of partner is that the workload is additional responsibility of the university lecturers or administrators, and the Startup School development highly depends on their own motivation and desire to promote entrepreneurship at the university. On the other hand, in some Startup Schools we observe a steady tandem of the organizers - a student and a lecturer. In this case, the load on the lecturer or administrator is reduced, he/she deals with the general issues of Startup School coordination, while the student interacts with the participants through the available channels, as well as coordinates all activities. In this case the stability of the Startup School increases. 2. The main purpose of the infrastructure organization (or technopark) is to create a community around, attracting startup projects and then providing targeted support to them. Startup School classes serve as a good tool for that. Such organizations usually sustain themselves by renting out real estate or receiving targeted government funding. Such organizations usually have all the necessary resources to organize Startup School classes - the auditorium is equipped with modern technologies, the School has sufficient staff and other resources. To attract as many people as possible, they prefer to organize Startup School classes free-of-charge. For this type of a partner, the management’s interest to organize Startup School is crucial, as well as understanding its goals and objectives by the management. Startup Schools at such institutions work particularly well when the management is interested in building an entrepreneurship community around the organization. 3. For SIBS a private service company is a relatively rare type of a partner. Such partners consider Startup School as an additional product that can be monetized and make a profit. They also see the lessons of the Startup School as a tool for attracting new audiences, which can later be offered more advanced products or services. This type of partner prefers to conduct classes for a fee, although payment is minimal for such kind of events. Monetization of the Startup Schools is the main goal for this type of partner. They expect, that after 1-2 seasons the Startup School should show its sustainability. The lack of a tangible economic effect can be a reason of stopping activities of such Schools. On the other hand, this type of partner is very important for SIBS, since fee-based model of the Startup School can be perspective contributor to SIBS sustainability in turn. To minimize the risk of Startup School closing, together with a partner we develop special events’ formats, help gather participants and support in events’ promoting. During the Milestone 4 as at the previous stages, we faced situations when some of the new partners didn’t start Startup School upon partners’ training, or didn’t complete the first season. The reasons are misunderstandings of the SIBS’ requirements and Startup School classes’ format, difficulties to institutionalize Startup School into some of the partners’ organizational structures, staff changes and changes in priorities of a potential partner. To deal with these situations, we invite additional organizations as potential partners to partners’ training, to ensure the required quantity of Startup School events in the subsequent stages. SIBS’ capacity building During the Milestone 4, SIBS team carried out several activities to strengthen the organizational capacity. In April 2019, Dmitry Shamko, an expert in the field of sales and sales departments building, conducted several training sessions for the SIBS team on building customer service. This training was especially important on the eve of the business forum “Lipen PRO”, where the incoming requests amount is more than 1000. Subsequently, Dmitry’s consultations were implemented into SIBS activities and will be used in events’ organizing with the number of participants more than 150. It will also allow SIBS provide more competitive services to events’ participants and develop “ticket- selling” business sustainability models more effectively. Based on own experience, SIBS will develop a special section in the SME Grow-up Toolkit to transfer knowledge to local partners. During the Milestone 4, at no cost to USAID-supported activity, SIBS team has prepared several project applications for various grant competitions (European Commission, grants announced by embassies, etc.). The projects were aimed at complementing the existing system of Startup Schools, supplementing it with new elements and formats of events, testing new hypotheses. This experience will allow to develop processes to interact with donors in order to diversify financial flows for SIBS’ activities implementation.
III. Performance indicators summary Milestone 4 progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 1 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Improvement of an entrepreneurial support system methodology represented by the SME Grow-up Toolkit (copy of SME Grow-up Toolkit, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Improvement of educational materials and training programs for Startup and small business support infrastructure organizations (trainings' curriculum and training materials for SIBS partners and Startups); Activity 3: Selection, establishment and support of local partnerships with Startup and small business support organizations (4 organizations for the Startup Schools and for the Expert Days); Activity 4: Training and coaching of the local SIBS partners (1 training sessions for local partners); Activity 5: Mentoring and assistance to local SIBS partners in the organization of Startup Schools and Expert Days. (8 Startup Schools and 2 Expert Days) Activity 6: Helping local partners attract clients and build local partnerships (number of registered participants distributed by categories). Startup Schools: 1519 participants, 53 experts, 60 startup teams/legal entities Expert Days: 41 participants, 12 startups, 9 experts.
Milestone progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 2 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Development of a training methodology, organizational model and sustainability plan for Startup School Junior (copy of methodology and plan, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Establish local partnerships with schools or out-of-school institutions (10 schools or out-of-school institutions); Activity 3: Training and coaching of the school teachers (or representatives of out-of-school institutions) on Startup School Junior conduction (1 training sessions for teachers or representatives of out-of-school institutions, 15 participants). Activity 4: Mentoring and assistance to SIBS partner schools or out-of-school institutions in the organization of Startup Schools Junior (2 seasons of Startup Schools Junior); Activity 5: Helping local partner schools or out-of-school institutions attract clients (number of registered participants distributed by categories: Startup School Junior: 37 participants, 3 instructors.
IV. Description of the plans for Milestone 5 During the next reporting period, SIBS will concentrate on conducting the events by the fifth group of partners and continue to support the third and fourth groups of partners (total number of seasons of Startup School - 12 (twelve) and 2 (two) Expert Days) and organize Investor Day Belarus. We’re planning to train the sixth group of partners for Startup Schools During the Milestone 5, we will make additional efforts to integrate partners and experts. For example, we’re planning to invite experts to partners’ training with a presentation of their motivation to participate at Startup School classes. Together with partners, we will generate creative ways to attract more women to Startup school classes (e.g. meetups for women in business, section on Expert Days, etc.) and incorporate environmental topics into Startup school operations (e.g. principles of 'green meetings', ecological aspects of business, special events for ecological startups, etc.). Also our plan includes conducting minimum 5 (five) Startup Schools Junior (2 existing + minimum 3 new).During the Milestone 5, we’re planning to refine the methodology for conducting the Startup School Junior and adopt it closer to instructors’ needs, test new formats of Startup School events, support partners in the implementation of the “ticket-selling” business model of Startup Schools organization, conduct additional training for representatives of local partners representatives.
V. Branding and outreach According to the Branding Plan, all the materials created under the project, as well as all the project events are fully branded. During February– June, 2019 more than 120 materials related to Startup- Schools (announcements, post-releases, articles, reviews) were published. Our informational partners spread information about Startup School activities to the total audience of about 2 400 000 people (total number of interactions with Startup School materials). Startup school Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/up.start.by) attract about 44 unique subscribers (total number is 1146), Startup school page on VK (https://vk.com/startby) attracted about 98 unique subscribers (total number is 1305). Instagram page already has more than 3344 subscribers. Low numbers are related to the fact that we didn’t made additional promotion to attract new audience to social networks. Next season we will make additional affords in this area to accelerate the subscribers’ growth. On the other hand, some local partners create their own groups on social networks or chats to unite participants and make Startup School’s classes announcements, which are efficient communication channels, but we do not monitor partners’ statistics in this respect, it’s their own responsibility. We see social media led by the local partners as a good tool to strengthen and expand community, and recommend all partners to actively use this experience. Please, see Attachment 7 to get additional information. In order to ensure that all the local partners can speak about the activity and explain the USAID role in the process, SIBS put special section on that in the partners’ training program and included it into the SME Grow-up Toolkit package of communication materials (e.g., press release templates, with all the necessary marking). We developed special toolkit for partners on branding and passed it to them.
Sincerely, Project manager Gleb Gerasimovich
“Creating Sustainable Infrastructure to Support Startups and Small Business Development in the Regions of Belarus”
Fixed Obligation Grant (FOG) Award No. AID-113-F-17-00001 Milestone 5 Report 03/06/2020
Gleb Gerasimovich, Project Manager +375 33 634 48 35 [email protected]
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Executive summary Society for Innovative Business Support (SIBS) is developing a network of organizers of startup support activities in the regions of Belarus, and transfers its unique expertise of startup and small business support to the local partners located in all six regions of Belarus and Minsk city. The main aim of the activity is the promotion of entrepreneurship in society and establishment of new businesses, by helping the participants to validate their business ideas and develop business projects particularly in the regions of Belarus which lack economic vitality. By the time of the report, since September 2016, SIBS has worked in partnership with 37 local infrastructure organizations. SIBS’ partner network is shown on the graphic (Attachment 1). During 2019, SIBS has established 12 new partnerships with a focus on local towns to broaden Startup School coverage and provide educational services to emerging entrepreneurs more specifically. Since 2019 SIBS has also been piloting Startup School Junior - a program of informal entrepreneurship education for motivated high school students with the aim of building their entrepreneurship and leadership skills, basic economic and business knowledge, and grow a new generation of future business leaders. SIBS has partnered with 11 formal (schools) and non- formal educational institutions, has created and adjusted methodology of Startup School Junior, and helped to pilot Startup Schools Junior classes. SIBS’ Startup School Junior partner network is shown on the graphic (Attachment 2). During July - December 2019 SIBS worked on the 5th milestone of the Grant Agreement (FAA Award №AID-113-F-17-00001) of the “Creating sustainable infrastructure to support startups and small business development in the regions of Belarus” project and conducted 6 (six) Startup Schools Junior, a training of the sixth group of partners for Startup Schools, 12 (twelve) Startup Schools and 2 (two) Expert Days, Investor Day Belarus and additional events: Lipen.PRO, Instorm, regional round tables.
I. Key activities (1) 6 (six) Startup Schools Junior conducted From September 2019 till December 2019 our partners held 6 (six) seasons of Startup School Junior. The program included 13 educational modules which lasted 30-39 hours in total. After the first testing of the methodology during January-June 2019 and receiving feedback from teachers SIBS observed that some parts of the methodology are too complicated for students of 6th–11th grades (corresponds to 12-17 years of age). During the milestone, we have modified it, combined and removed some educational modules, made necessary adjustments to make them easy to comprehend. During the classes, Startup School Junior instructor could adapt the program based on the school children's age and performance of the group. We have also created a unique design and unified style of the presentations. Startup School Junior classes were held from September 2019 till January 2020, free of charge for the participants. During the next season, we are planning to help Schools to introduce a fee-based model. The first season of Startup School Junior was held in Borisov school №10, Borisov school №20, Vitebsk school №34, Smilovichi state agricultural college, branch office of BSTU Borisov State Polytechnic College. The second season was held in Grodno school №27. The season lasted for three months, one lesson per week on average. Startup School Junior has helped school children to develop leadership, teamwork, public presentation and other relevant skills, economic and financial literacy, develop and/or test their business ideas, learn specific aspects of creating and running a business. At the end of each season students presented their business projects at Demo Days. The photos and registration lists can be found in Attachment 3.
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In addition, we have started the first season in Uzda regional gymnasium, Educational Center "Open Space" (Molodechno), creative space “Time-club 1387” (Bobruisk), which are in the process of realization at the moment. Based on the experience and the feedback gained from instructors through the first season (January-June 2019), we have added more educational games and team building activities. We continue working on the methodology improvements. We are planning to develop additional educational modules about soft skills, future professions, project management and leadership. On the 21-22nd September 2019, before the season’s beginning, we held a training for the Startup School Junior instructors. We have reviewed all educational modules, discussed possible improvements and parts to be tested during the season, highlighted some problematic parts of the methodology. This training has helped the instructors to deeply understand the methodology and to be prepared to address possible questions from school children. Please, see the registration list in Attachment 4.
(2) Report on the results of conducting of 12 (twelve) Startup Schools and 2 (two) Expert Days During September – December 2019 12 (twelve) Startup Schools (seasons) were held in the following institutions: ● Technological park “Gorki” (Startup School Gorki), ● Baranovichi Center of Entrepreneurship Support (Startup School Baranovichi), ● Youth Center in Zhodino (Startup School Zhodino), ● Polotsk State University (Startup school PSU, Polotsk and Novopolotsk), ● Gomel Belarusian State University of Transport (Startup School BSUT), ● Educational Center «Open Space» (Molodechno) – two Startup School seasons held during Milestone 5, ● Startup School «SmartUp» (Individual Entrepreneur «Bondarez», Mogilev), ● Minsk Innovation University (MIU, Minsk), ● Bobruisk Business Incubator (BRCI BD, Bobruisk), ● Belarusian State University (BSU, Minsk) - two Startup School seasons held during Milestone 5. Two Expert Days were held in Belarusian State University (BSU, Minsk) and Startup School «SmartUp» (Individual Entrepreneur «Bondarez», Mogilev). Please, see Attachment 5 for participants' lists. Additionally, we have provided limited support to five Startup Schools, held by partners from the earliest stage of the activity: ● Grodno (local partner - Grodno Regional Institution of Entrepreneurs’ Financial Support), ● Brest (local partner - Brest Local Fund for Regional Development), ● Vitebsk (local partner - Vitebsk business incubator), ● Mogilev (partner – Technological Park «Mohilev») and ● Minsk (local partner - Belarusian State Technological University). Startup School Gorki (partner – Technological park «Gorki») held the 3nd season. The season consisted of the 4 (four) evening meetups and meetup “2 in 1”. Main target audience were students of Gorki Agricultural Academy, as Gorki is a student town. Startup School events were held on a free-of-charge basis in order to support students with startup ideas. Technological Park has its own budget resources for Startup School conducting and is interested in the School as a tool to promote entrepreneurship in the town. During this season, Startup School Gorki has held an initiative “Gorki Jump Start” (an intensive 3-months educational program supported by the activity small grant), and a hackathon supported by UNDP Belarus, in addition to the planned activities That is a proof of a big involvement and contribution from the local partner to the aim of developing entrepreneurship in Gorki and startups from Gorki region have got comprehensive
3 support. It is a good sign that Startup School Gorki will be sustainable for the next season after reducing support from SIBS. Startup School Baranovichi (Regional Center of Entrepreneurs’ Support) has successfully completed their second season. The season included 1 (one) evening meetup, 3 (three) meetups “2 in 1” and one meetup “3 in 1”. The local partner is interested in attracting more people, strengthening the Startup School brand in the region and gaining a critical mass of loyal participants. The target audience of the Startup School Baranovichi is people about 30 years old, employees or self-employed, and women on maternity leave who are planning to start a business. It is still a challenge for the local partner to hold fee-based classes, so they are planning to get experience from other partners and try to implement ticket-selling model next season. Startup School Gomel at the Belarusian State University of Transport (BSUT) has successfully completed its second season. The season included 6 (six) evening meetups and one meetup “2 in 1”. The target audience of this Startup School is the students of the university. Startup School BSUT continues to keep the free-of-charge model because it is still a big challenge for a university in Belarus to charge fees from students for extracurricular activities. However, the university has sufficient resources to continue supporting Startup School on a free- of-charge basis as a tool for developing entrepreneurship and soft skills of the students. Startup School Zhodino was held by Zhodino Youth Center. Second season included 3 (three) evening meetups, one meetup “2 in 1,” and one meetup “3 in 1”. Startup School Zhodino is considering discontinuing cooperation with SIBS due to lack of personnel ready to organize Startup School events. They will make a final decision in February 2019, but despite this SIBS is planning to organize Startup School activities in this region till the new partner organization is found. Startup School Novopolotsk (Polotsk State University) completed their second season. The School has organized meetup “3 in 1”, 4 (four) evening meetups and 2 (two) meetup “2 in 1”. About 70% of the target audience of this Startup School are students of the university and about 30% are entrepreneurs from Polotsk and Novopolotsk. This Startup School has tried an online format of classes this season and plans to hold some online activities next season. Startup School PSU kept the free-of-charge model, which is common for the activity partners represented by educational institutions. As other universities, PSU has sufficient resources to continue the support of Startup School classes. Educational Center «Open Space» (Molodechno) has successfully completed two seasons of Startup School during the Milestone 5. First season lasted from September till mid- December 2019. The first season included 3 (three) evening meetups, 2 (two) meetups “2 in 1” and one meetup “3 in 1”. The second season was held during the second half of December and included an intensive course “Super Start” and a Business Breakfast for female entrepreneurs (meetup “2 in 1”). Classes of this school lasted longer than usual because of additional practice- oriented sections where experts provide individual feedback to startups. The target audience of this startup school are people between 26-36 years, about 50% have their own small business or are self-employed, including women on maternity leave. About 50% of this Startup School participants are female thanks to special formats like Business Breakfasts for women. The local partner is planning to hold several evening meetups and a meetup “3 in 1,” as well as some special events for women in the next School’s season. Startup School «SmartUp» (Individual Entrepreneur «Bondarez», Mogilev) has completed the first season. The season consisted of 1 (one) evening meetup, 2 (two) meetups “3 in 1”, and 2 (two) meetups “2 in 1”. The target audience of this partner is entrepreneurs and employees who have business ideas and are willing to transform those into a business. Startup School «SmartUp» is free of charge and focused on entrepreneurs’ community development in Mogilev region. “SmartUp” is partnering with the investment club “Dectro” to help to provide financing for local startups.
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Minsk Innovation University (MIU, Minsk) has completed the first season. The season consisted of the 4 (four) evening meetups and one meetup “3 in 1” which was extended in time to provide individual practice-oriented feedback to startups. The target audience is the students of MIU. The model of this school is the free-of-charge classes for students interested in entrepreneurship. Next season Startup School MIU is planning to conduct an intensive course. Bobruisk Business Incubator (BRCI BD, Bobruisk) has completed its first season of Startup School. It was concentrated on a free-of-charge basis. The season consisted of the 3 (three) evening meetups and 2 (two) meetups “2 in 1”. Additional 2 (two) evening meetups were organized by the local partner in cooperation with the creative space “Time-club 1387”. The local partner is interested in attracting more people, strengthening the Startup School brand in the region and gaining a database of loyal participants. In the next season these two organizations plan to hold separate seasons each, and will focus on evening meetups and an intensive course Super Start to provide individual support to people with business projects. Belarusian State University (BSU, Minsk) has held two (first and second) seasons from September till December 2019. The model of this school is similar to the previous at universities: the free-of-charge classes for the students interested in entrepreneurship. Most of the students who participated in the seasons have their own business projects. The local partner has shown a good traction of projects, some of them planned to be realized with the participation of BSU (which has about 50 thousand students who could be potential customers for some business projects). The first season included 2 (two) evening meetups, 3 (three) meetups “2 in 1”. The second season included 4 (four) evening meetups and a meetup “2 in 1”. Besides the students, the local partner plans to attract scientists to provide support in commercialization of their developments. Startup School BNTU (Belarusian National Technical University, Minsk) discontinued operations during the reporting period due to internal reasons: changes of priorities and lack of personnel ready to organize Startup School events. Only one evening meetup was held. However, a partner from the 5 (fifth) group from the same city of Minsk (Belarusian State University, Minsk) held an extra season, so the total number of Startup schools is still 12 (twelve). 2 (two) Expert Days were held in Belarusian State University (BSU, Minsk) and Startup School «SmartUp» (Individual Entrepreneur «Bondarez», Mogilev). The events included startups presentations, master classes and workshops from successful entrepreneurs, and networking.
(3) Training of the sixth group of partners for Startup Schools conducted Training for partners took place on January 11-12th 2020 in the conference hall of the hotel “IBB” (list of the participants with contact details are in Attachment 6). We have invited 9 (nine) potential Startup Schools partners instead of 4 (four) initially planned to cover for the potential risks of discontinuation of Startups Schools by select partners, and 8 (eight) joined in the training: Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU, Minsk), co- working space “Time club 1387” (Bobruisk), training center “New tomorrow” (Minsk), training center “Solmaris” (Minsk), training Center for Programming and High Technologies “IT- Academy” (Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Mogilev), Sukhoi State Technical University (GSTU, Gomel), training center “IT-kursy.by” (Minsk), Minsk State Technopark (Minsk). Belarusian State University (BSU) Startup School (Minsk) representatives also took part in the training to train additional staff members (they have also joined the previous partners’ training). As usual, we invite more potential partners than planned because some of them drop out in the process. The reasons range from staff change to misunderstanding of the project approach and goals, as well as the amount of time and effort needed. Now we are in the negotiation phase with some extra partners to make sure we achieve the largest possible number of Startup Schools planned in the Activity Description. 5
The new partners’ training consisted of two parts. During the first part we reviewed Belarussian startup support ecosystem and various aspects of a partnership with SIBS, Startup Schools and Expert Days preparation and organization process, used SME Grow-up Toolkit (a manual that includes materials and a step-by-step approach to be used by the local partners for organizing Startup Schools and Experts Days), analyzed examples and practical tools, formats of Startup School classes, and each partner prepared the preliminary plan of activities. During the second part, we united the representatives of the previous groups of partners to strengthen local Startup Schools’ organizing teams, for networking and experience exchange, to share successful role models. The Coordinator of Startup School Vitebsk Anastasiya Ruleva joined the meeting via Skype call. We are making efforts to accelerate continuous communication between Schools coordinators not only during the partner training sessions, but also during the Startup Schools seasons. As a result, the partners are planning site visits to each other in order to exchange experiences and pick up best practices and approaches. Experienced coordinators are good role models that show impact and positive influence of implementing Startup School for local entrepreneurship communities and developing business activity in the regions of Belarus. Distribution of Startup Schools’ locations by the type of the city is shown on the graph:
In our activities, we were particularly targeting the Belarus regions as Minsk-based entrepreneurs have better access to entrepreneurship assistance. However, we see a growing demand for such assistance in Minsk, and managed to increase Startup Schools’ presence there as we have already covered the main oblast (regional center) and rayon-level cities in the previous activity stages. We aim to also continue providing limited support to partners of the initial partner groups (support new Startup School formats such as hackathons, find experts, support local expert communities, etc.) to accelerate Startup Schools’ development in the target regions. By this time we have partners in Minsk, regional cities and some small local towns. It is still a challenge to gather participants for Startup Schools in small towns. There is absence of formed and easy-to access local mass media to attract target audiences. As the result, it takes more time to grow such Schools comparing to Schools in big cities.
(4) Investor Day Belarus conducted Investor Day Belarus was held from 4th to 12th December 2019. The competition consisted of 3 parts: Preparation - 4th December 2019, Semi-final - 7th December 2019, Final - 12th December 2019. We have organized an awareness raising campaign to promote the Investor Day between October 21- December 6 2019. 39 articles were published in mass media, 43 publications were made in social networks and 14 email newsletters (see Attachment 5 for signed participants lists and Attachment 7 for pictures and mass media publications).
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About 120 applications from startups were received to participate in Investor Day. 20 of them were selected for the semi-final. They represented the following spheres: accounting, pay systems and services, database analysis, nutrition, medicine, service for managing music production projects, auto services. On December 4th a training for startups was held on the topic “How to present your project to investors.” Mikhail Liakh, a soft skills trainer in IT-Academy, theVice-President of education in Toastmasters, a coach in TEDx Minsk conferences highlighted the main issues in presentation of a project: performance on the stage, skills to present the project to a large audience, technical features of the presentation. 20 selected startups, 12 experts, 3 speakers and more than 300 participants took part in a semi-final of the Investor Day Belarus on December 7. Gender distribution of the web site participants is shown on the left graphic; gender distribution of event participants’ is shown on the right graphic:
A-Event web site participants B-Actual event participants
Graphics show a tendency that women visit the Investor Day website, but do not register for the event. We will analyze the reasons for that and make necessary adjustments to attract more women to the event next time. To show successful role models and highlight startup success stories and failures, the following speakers were invited: - Tatyana Yarosh (founder of “Kinguru”, Investor Day 2018 participant), - Dmitry Kaigorodov (“Kuoll”), - Yuri Tabolin (CEO “StringersHub”, Investor Day 2017 participant. Startups made presentations in the format of “elevator pitch” (3-5 minute presentations about the startup aimed to attract investors, partners, mentors). Expert board was evaluating the projects based on the following criteria: “Team”, “Technology”, “Business model”, “Market”, “Understandability for the audience” and “Investment readiness”. Nine startups were selected to the final part of the contest. On December 12, the finalists have met with potential investors, business angels, investment funds and accelerators representatives. This year the investors board was international, including from Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia. They participated in the event online. Despite the remote connection, they have participated in the discussions and asked questions actively. We are going to expand this experience and invite more investors from CIS, Europe and USA next time. Investors noted the high level of startups’ preparation and variety of them. We are going to keep in touch with the finalists and investors to evaluate the effectiveness of the Investor Day Belarus, monitor startups’ progress. In six months (May-June 2020) we are going to contact all startups which participated in the event and track their achievements. But we should note that a minimum of two years is usually required for a startup to show significant results, for example in building strategic partnerships or receiving investments.
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Additional events During Milestone 5, in July-December 2019 SIBS and its partners held several additional events such as a forum of science and business “Innovation Storm”, a business camp “Lipen.PRO”, several regional round tables. All the events correspond to the overall entrepreneurship development goals of the activity and help to attract new participants to Startup Schools, contribute to sustainability of Startup Schools, help strengthen entrepreneurship community and partner’ network. Please, see Attachment 5 for signed participants lists and Attachment 7 for pictures, mass media publications about the events. Forum of science and business “Innovation Storm” is an educational platform uniting scientists, entrepreneurs, startups and corporations. It was organized with a partial financing of Minsk City Technopark. The forum was held on November 30th 2019 for the second time and brought together more than 300 participants. Scientists, experienced managers and specialists highlighted trends in science and technologies: 3D printing, big data, virtual reality technologies, artificial intelligence, nutrition of the future, information technologies, microbiology and medicine, data science. We see this forum as a place where scientific startups will be born and get support, so we are going to organize it in 2020 as well. On July 26-28th, business camp “Lipen.PRO” was held. The camp brought together more than 530 participants: young entrepreneurs, experienced businessmen and startups, freelancers, as well as young managers from all over Belarus. We have used Startup Schools network to inform the target audience about the Forum, and as a result about 30% of participants came from the regions of Belarus. Main aim of the camp is to bring together people from all regions of Belarus who are interested in startups and business development, to increase their level of expertise and provide a space for networking. Lipen.PRO creates strong connections between people that should help them to start and grow businesses. To address the Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) approach during the Milestone 5, SIBS held regional round tables for providers of startup and business support services, state representatives, local experts and entrepreneurs. They were organized by regional SIBS partners. The main objectives of the round tables were informing on the results of conducting Startup Schools, promoting entrepreneurship and public-private dialogue in this field, receiving recommendations on strengthening local startup community, small business development in the regions of Belarus, advocate for better policies for entrepreneurship, highlighting main spheres that need attention, networking of the participants, exploring main challenges and possibilities of Startup Schools’ development, exchanging knowledge and ensuring complementarity of activities. Round tables were organized in the following cities: Bobruisk, Brest, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Molodechno, Gorki, Grodno, Gomel, Polotsk, and Baranovichi. Startup Schools’ coordinators, local authorities’ representatives, local experts and entrepreneurs, local startup ecosystem players took part in the events. We have reflected on the results and made some conclusions: ● Support infrastructure for startups and newly established small businesses is still fragmented but we see a tendency of growing local entrepreneurship support communities, new players are emerging, and capacity-building instruments, such as training, mentoring, networking events expand. However, insufficient cooperation between the players is still a challenge for the local startup ecosystems development. In some cases, actors compete rather than cooperate. We are planning to expand practice of round tables organization to regularly unite key regional stakeholders, help them network and coordinate activities, support closer connections between them, as well as to think about new formats of local startup communities’ development. We will also continue encouraging Startup Schools’ coordinators to visit each other’s events with the aim of exchanging best practices. ● There is demand for expanding support for entrepreneurship, innovative thinking and creativity among schoolchildren and students. The findings confirm the activity’s focus 8
on the importance of forming an entrepreneurial mindset and presenting business as a perspective way of career development is timely and relevant. From our side, we see growing demand for educational programs for schoolchildren and we will continue to develop our Startup School Junior program as well as to attract new partners (schools and out-of-school institutions). ● To increase the effectiveness and reach of Startup Schools’ education program, it makes sense to add new formats of events, e.g., thematic hackathons, simulation and business games, round tables and other public discussions, business breakfasts. New types of events could attract additional audiences and help to involve more people into local startup communities. We are planning to help regional partners implement these recommendations in Startup Schools’ activities in the next season, as well as to motivate local partners for closer cooperation and experience exchange between them. Cross-cutting objectives SIBS has a balanced view of gender involvement. We target both male and female participants. SIBS strives for at least 30/70 percent female/male participation in all Startup Schools’ activities. As for Startup School Junior, business camp “Lipen PRO”, forum of science and business “Innovation Storm”, we have an average of 50/50 percentage of female/male participants. While approx. 70% of Startup Schools supported by the activity are led by women, SIBS makes additional efforts to attract women as experts so the share is closer to 30% among all experts involved in SIBS events. We interact with different initiatives aimed at women in business, such as Prowomen, to attract female experts to Startup Schools’ classes. During the last Startup School season, the local partner in Molodechno organized special formats of events targeted at women with participation of local female experts. We are planning to expand this practice. SIBS activities comply with the Belarusian environmental regulations. Where possible, we reduce the number of plastic used during the events, by replacing it with wood or other eco- friendly materials. We have also developed a manual with the environmental best practices and passed it to the local partners, which should help them implement those in their events. In line with the collaborating, learning and adapting principles, a key feature of our project is its flexibility. We are constantly analyzing informational campaigns, questionnaires, get feedback from the participants, monitoring similar events in Belarus and abroad to introduce adjustments of the formats of events, make changes in educational programs, target audience, other parameters of the events, introduce new approaches and methods of attracting new project beneficiaries. SIBS constantly coordinates with other donors (e.g., European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), EU Delegation, United Nations Development Programme), development partners, and providers of startup and business support services to ensure complementarity rather than duplication of activities, exchanging knowledge.
II. Major challenges and opportunities, lessons learned Lessons learned from organizing Investor Day Belarus: ● Attract former Investor Day participants as speakers works particularly well, as they advantages of participation in the Investor Day, demonstrate successful role models; ● Additional focus is needed on organizing networking to help startups meet customers, partners and investors; 9
● This year we have seen an increased number of applications from social and non- commercial projects. We need to refuse their participation in Investor Day, as such types of projects are not suitable for business angels funding and should be funded from other sources. As our focus is startups and small businesses, next time we will state more clearly what types of projects we are looking for. As for social and non-commercial projects, we’re planning to develop special guides where they could find necessary support and direct them to relevant initiatives and platforms (for example, Social Weekend, Ulej, Talaka, etc.). ● We will develop selection criteria for participating startups to make applications’ process more streamlined. All Startup Schools used a free-of-charge model past season, despite the plan. It is particularly challenging for educational institutions to charge fees. At the same time, we consider free-of-charge models still sustainable in most of the cases, as they continue operating using educational institutions’ budget resources. Local partners have their own resources to hold free- of-charge classes at the initial stage of Startup School development. However, next season SIBS together with local partners represented by private educational institutions will focus on introducing more fee-based models (ticket selling). During Milestone 5 as well as at the previous stages, we faced situations when some of the partners did not complete Startup Schools seasons or stopped cooperation. The reasons were same as before: staff changes and changes in priorities of a potential partner. To deal with these situations, we invite additional organizations as potential partners to the partners’ training, to ensure motivated partners remain and become sustainable. It is still a challenge for Startup Schools in local towns to attract participants to classes. Sometimes it becomes a reason for cancelling events and as a result they do not hold all the events planned in a season. To deal with this situation we have made extra efforts to announce such events. In the next season we are planning to test new methods to attract participants: SMS newsletters, direct calling to potential participants using open sources databases, etc. SIBS experts’ database includes approx. 100 experienced entrepreneurs, but mainly from Minsk. More experts from the regions of Belarus are needed to become the role models for aspiring entrepreneurs from those localities. We together with our regional partners are planning to engage for regional entrepreneurs as speakers in the subsequent Startup Schools’ seasons.
SIBS’ capacity building During the Milestone 5, at no cost to USAID-supported activity, SIBS team has prepared several project applications for various grant competitions (European Commission, grants announced by Embassies, etc.). The projects were aimed at complementing the existing system of Startup Schools, supplementing it with new elements and formats of events, testing new hypotheses, and supporting existing local partners. For example, in partnership with NGO “Eurasia Foundation” we have developed a project supported by the European Commission. Project will aim to organize several events for emerging entrepreneurs based on an exciting local partner network. This experience will allow us to develop processes to interact with donors in order to diversify financial flows for SIBS’ and local partners’ activities implementation. SIBS staff will take part in conferences, workshops, seminars, etc. to explore trends in business and startup developments to find solutions and best practices to be implemented in SIBS and local partners activities. We constantly review local partners' experience in startup support and share countrywide those practices that work well in particular regions.
III. Performance indicators summary
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Milestone 5 progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 1 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Improvement of an entrepreneurial support system methodology represented by the SME Grow-up Toolkit (copy of SME Grow-up Toolkit, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Improvement of educational materials and training programs for Startup and small business support infrastructure organizations (trainings curriculum and training materials for SIBS partners and Startups); Activity 3: Selection, establishment and support of local partnerships with Startup and small business support organizations (8 organizations for the Startup Schools and for the Expert Days); Activity 4: Training and coaching of the local SIBS partners (1 training session for local partners); Activity 5: Mentoring and assistance to local SIBS partners in the organization of Startup Schools and Expert Days (12 Startup Schools and 2 Expert Days). Activity 6: Helping local partners attract clients and build local partnerships (number of registered participants distributed by categories). Startup Schools: 1260 participants, 21 experts, 50 startup teams/legal entities Expert Days: 31 participants, 17 startups, 7 experts. Milestone progress is related to «Activities/Processes/Inputs», Objective 2 of M&E table, as following: Activity 1: Development of a training methodology, organizational model and sustainability plan for Startup School Junior (copy of methodology and plan, including all attachments and training materials); Activity 2: Establish local partnerships with schools or out-of-school institutions (8 schools or out-of-school institutions); Activity 3: Training and coaching of the school teachers (or representatives of out-of- school institutions) on Startup School Junior conduction (1 training sessions for teachers or representatives of out-of-school institutions, 11 participants). Activity 4: Mentoring and assistance to SIBS partner schools or out-of-school institutions in the organization of Startup Schools Junior (6 seasons of Startup Schools Junior); Activity 5: Helping local partner schools or out-of-school institutions to attract clients (number of registered participants distributed by categories: Startup School Junior: 83 participants, 5 instructors.
IV. Description of the plans for Milestone 6 During the next reporting period, SIBS will concentrate on conducting the events by the sixth group of partners and continue to support the fourth and fifth groups of partners (total number of seasons of Startup Schools - 12 (twelve) and 2 (two) Expert Days) and complete the implementation of the local initiatives, collect and summarize experience and lessons learned. Together with the local partners, we will generate new formats of Startup school events such as business breakfasts for women. We will also hold thematic events aimed at startups in different spheres - tourism, catering, education, etc. We’re planning to support local partners in hackathons organization during the spring 2020. Also our plan includes conducting minimum 5 (five) Startup Schools Junior, continuing to develop the methodology for Startup School Junior, creating new topics for the methodology, testing new formats of Startup School events, implementing the “ticket-selling” business model
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of Startup Schools Junior organization together with partners from the educational institutions and training centers.
V. Branding and outreach In accordance with the Branding Plan, all the materials created under the activity, as well as all the activity events were fully branded. During July – December 2019, more than 500 publications related to the activity (announcements, post-releases, articles, reviews, social networks posts) were made. Our informational partners spread information about the activity to the total audience of about 250 000 people (total number of interactions with SIBS materials). We constantly made publications on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/up.start.by) (total number of subscribers is 2129), page in VK (https://vk.com/startby) (total number of subscribers is 1296), and our Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/start.by/ - more than 3217 subscribers.) We do not focus on special promotion to increase the number of subscribers and rely on organic growth. Local partners develop their own groups on social networks or chats (Viber, Telegram, etc.) to unite participants and make Startup Schools’ classes announcements. We see chats led by the local partners as a good tool to strengthen and expand community, and recommend all the partners to actively use this practice. Please, see Attachment 7 to get additional information about media activities during Milestone 5. In order to ensure that all the local partners can speak about the activity and explain the USAID role in the process, SIBS put special section on that in the partners’ training program and included it into the SME Grow-up Toolkit package of communication materials (e.g., press release templates, with all the necessary marking and branding). We developed a special toolkit for partners on branding and passed it to them.
Sincerely, Project manager Gleb Gerasimovich
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