“Thanks to our incubation and acceleration program, we have developed an innovative management system that leads our projects to high performance,” says one of our experts, Ravshan Kurbanov, who shares his knowledge and experience with our program participants. Ravshan is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country and holds the position of General Director in one of the leading companies of Tajikistan – “FIFTY-FIVE GROUP”.
Ravshan has an extensive experience in a business, which he shares with young entrepreneurs. On the eve of kicking off the incubation program organized by the TRIGGER II-Component IV “Startup Promotion” program for 100 Tajik startups in Dushanbe and Khujand, Ravshan answered to a number of our questions about this program.
Why does every startup need to go through an incubation program?
I would draw your attention to the three main points:
1) Theory – during the incubation program, each startuper – a young entrepreneur will receive a lot of useful information, theoretical knowledge about leading business, including what is a script, what is a business modeling, what types of budget lines exist etc. The theoretical information like this will be very useful for startupers;
2) Analysis – an incubation program allows a startuper to analyze the market, revise the business models, assess and analyze the team they have;
3) Investments – in the process of the incubation program, the startuper gets an opportunity to prepare and to package his business idea in order to reach investors, test his business idea at pitch sessions.
Who shall go through an incubation program?
The three main categories of startups shall go through the incubation program:
- Those who just found a business idea – the program will be very useful for them to refine or improve business idea;
- Those who have a semi-product (MVP), which requires to be improved, tested and evaluated by a third parties;
- Those who have already started to work and operate in a semi-organizational mode or even took their first sales – this program will help them to strengthen their team, develop models and directions for finding new channels for sales.
Could you please describe the incubation program? What will it include?
This incubation program, like many other traditional incubation programs, will include the two main elements. First of all, this is education, or rather trainings, during which an experienced, qualified specialists will transfer modern knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship to the program participants. The startupers will also learn about practical cases, an opportunity to look at other business ideas, to evaluate their pros and cons, to find out about what successful decisions they made or which of their decisions were wrong. This information and practice will help startups rethink their business ideas from a different perspective.
What will startups get after going through the incubation program?
The most important that they will receive attending this program is networking. They will meet many experts in the field of law, finance, marketing and other important areas of business. Also, they will establish networking with mentors who are active entrepreneurs who can help startups and guide them, sometime correct some of the actions, suggest ways to improve their work. They will get networking with possible potential investors who might want to invest in their business ideas. In addition to networking, another important benefit that each participant of incubation program will receive is a modern, effective method of doing business.
We thank Ravshan Kurbanov for his expert opinion and answers to our questions. We hope you will find this information useful. Good luck to all startups!