OREANDA-NEWS. August 8, 2012. The students of the very first class of the SKOLKOVO Startup Academy – smart accelerator for startups – completed their programme having successfully presented their projects to investors.

The SKOLKOVO Startup Academy is a two-month programme, participants of which walk the path from a business idea to a business start. At the beginning of studies its students have an opportunity to get acquainted with the best practices, including the Business model generation and Customer development concepts by Alexander Osterwalder and Steve Blank; they continue with the courses on Sales and Marketing, Financials of start-ups, Law and Strategy – each module is focused on a new business launch.

The programme proceeds with a two-week educational module in the USA, where the students learn how startups are built in a unique ecosystem of Silicon Valley, test their concepts and develop them further. And finally, they present their projects to investors during the Investors Day in order to get their support or receive “smart” seed financing.

Last Friday, 27th July 2012, the first Investors Day organized by the SKOLKOVO Startup Academy took place on SKOLKOVO Campus. Around 20 investors were present at the event assessing startups created in various fields: production and service, IT technologies in education, medicine, and advertising. The winner of the project contest became Ivan Pisarev with his Cardio Control initiative – an internet cloud service which monitors user’s heart well-being. Ekaterina Runova got the second prize with a project of equipment aimed at reducing costs on steel bars production due to applying hot corrosion of metallic coating. The third prize was given to Vladimir Ermolaev who is keen on the idea of mobile plants creation for recycling construction waste.

Upon finishing presentations, the SKOLKOVO Startup Academy students received their diplomas and warm wishes to succeed in realizations of their business initiatives. Lawrence Wright, SKOLKOVO Startup Academy Director, said that an individual approach to each student, professional support during the programme and upon its completion, would allow to boost students’ sturtups. He also mentioned that the SKOLKOVO business school would open its doors to the 2nd class of the Startup Academy already on 25th October 2012.