OREANDA-NEWS. October 22, 2012. The Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO has become a special partner of the Plug & Play Russia educational programme in the sphere of sales design and business development. The partnership with the SKOLKOVO business school is aimed at improvement of Russian startups preparation level within the international acceleration programme Plug & Play.

The one-of-a-kind programme designed together with the American accelerator Plug & Play will enable Russian entrepreneurs to get the education needed for business development, market understanding, international expertise and acquire contacts in the investment community. The preparation programme with the participation of the major market players who are ready to share their experience with young teams and collaboration with an American accelerator provide Russian companies with a chance to bring their business on a brand new level, enhance the project value and investment opportunities for the further project development.

The first educational programme will start on October 20 and take place at the Moscow office of the Plug & Play accelerator. After that the project teams will travel to the Silicon Valley for a three month acceleration programme. The programme comprises a series of closed seminars, trainings and meetings with successful entrepreneurs and representatives of various business branches organized by Plug & Play in Moscow. They will be picked by the Plug & Play International Advisory Counsil among the most perspective managers and stratup teams operating in the IT, Internet and mobile applications spheres.

Lawrence Wright, head of the SKOLKOVO Startup Academy:

"The SKOLKOVO Startup Academy will gladly participate in such an interesting and perspective programme as Plug & Play. SKOLKOVO will bring our practical approach to building startups by focusing on the missing link in Russia: competency. That will bring good results. We are happy that we have an opportunity to share our experience with talented entrepreneurs and actively participate in their projects development".

Arkady Morejnis, head of Plug & Play Russia:

"The level of preparation of our startups in compared to world examples is not high enough, that is why we are designing a useful educational programme inviting widely acknowledged world companies which possess professional background in different spheres. The Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO has vast experience in training of projects and entrepreneurs on vital for any startup issues – sales and investment attraction. Only leaders can help projects to reach the international level, only those who have experience and are open to new business development approaches as well".