On March 19, Lviv hosted the Startup Garden Conference. Igor Yakovets, Communications Director, represented Digital Future there. He spoke on the topic that is traditional for us – the smart money and its use for the IT startups. Here is the story of what happened in Lviv.
– What were the objectives of this conference, and were they accomplished?
– Lviv’ IT community is developing and is very different from the communities in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk or Odesa. It is interesting to observe this community and help the local projects that are doing something new, something oriented to the global markets.
In this regard, a goal of participating in the Startup Garden is accomplished 100%. We have found, at least, three projects that do interesting things, they have the traction, and they are in our focus. We plan to continue our discussion. It is possible that over time, this dialogue will result in a real agreement or investment.
It was interesting to see how one of the teams developed the project on the topic we do not particularly like (First, it is targeted at the local market. Secondly, it is tied to physical goods), did the pivot, ended up with a pure software solution, which has the global potential. The peculiarity is that the project’s sphere of interest lies in the veterinary medicine.
Another interesting episode was the pitch of the team that develops the framework for the IoT. We are talking about a set of technologies that enables the developers in the sphere of IoT to create the working solutions from the premade components, and not to hand-code it themselves. In this way, people can answer the question “what this product should do” and not “how this product should work.”
– How did you find these teams?
– In a standard way, as on any similar event. You do the presentation, and the people talk to you afterward about their projects. These people approached me in the same manner, asking for my opinion on their projects. It is still early to say something specific because it is hard to evaluate the startups after the 10-minute discussion. However, there are some ideas.
– What are your impressions about Lviv? Does the myth about Lviv as the city for the outsourcers and not the producers has any merits? It is often said that Lviv is the capital of Ukrainian outsource.
– I would not say that there are that many outsourcers in Lviv, in comparison to other cities. Not that it is a bad thing, anyway.
Judging by the audience of the Startup Garden, I can say that many people do not do their startups because of the lack of knowledge. However, it is a pleasing thought that they come to these kinds of activities to listen and learn. Such kind of outsourcers is the driving force for the startups when they decide to realize themselves as the developers of a solution, business or product.
In other words, it is very good that there were outsourcers on this conference because thanks to them the entire ecosystem will continue to grow.