Strategic initiatives for startup development in Russian information technologies

Abstract

The purpose of the article is developing strategic initiatives on supporting technological startups in Russia. Startups are innovative businesses aimed at such tasks as promotion of new products and services, capitalization growth and earning income for investors; they also contribute to diversification of Russian economy, growth of employment within post-industrial net economy, IT sector and creation of a new country's image worldwide. When developing strategic initiatives the authors relied heavily on the methodology of strategizing suggested by Vladimir Kvint, Foreign member of RAS. The existing trends in changing investment models when more and more corporations are moving from selling products to selling solutions allow optimizing investment by transferring internal processes to outsourcing. It creates additional opportunities for startups as small innovative businesses. Significant opportunities for development appear due to a vast domestic market and fast growth of information technology, and companies and universities' readiness to provide startups with organizational support. It is especially important as unlike sustainable businesses startups have not reached stable sales, do not generate sufficient cash flow and operate on the funds of investors and founders. The authors explain that technological startups can rely on Business Model Canvas that allows flexible transformation of business process in the search for the optimal offer for the consumers as well as provides for development of corporate strategy. Sustainable financing model for small innovative companies is significantly different from standard financial models. The authors conclude that it is essential to create business-accelerators to support startups. They can be founded either by big companies, universities, development institutes or by private foundations. Startup funding sources are not limited to venture investment. They can involve new tools like mutual funds for qualified investors. In addition, the authors present strategic initiatives which can be used by Kaspersky iHub to support startups in information technology and to optimize the performance of a business-incubator.