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Barely two months after National Technical University of Ukraine 'Kyiv Polytechnic Institute' (NTUU 'KPI') students and young scientists have founded an IT startup named 'Polyteco' they were already working on their first order. We were contacted by Business Technology Investment Ltd, a British company which wanted Ukrainian programmers to develop an SMS voting system for a reality show Big Brother. After many seasons, this popular TV show which made millions of viewers in Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, Australia, United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, India, Thailand, Russia, and even Arab countries glued to television screens, has finally made its way to Ukraine. For about two months, two programmers were working on the order in one of the university's buildings in a well-lit, comfortable room equipped with computers. As a result, thanks to their labors in particular, on 19 September the reality show premiered on the Ukrainian TV. More orders followed soon thereafter – customers were finding Polyteco themselves. Thus, our programmers have developed a portal specifically for Electronic Reports Operator; using that portal, private companies may file e-reports to the Pension Fund and other government agencies which otherwise require personal presence of accountants to file reports. Currently, Polyteco works on setting up business contacts with NetCracker, a large American IT company which also is going to hire Ukrainian programmers to develop unique software. Meanwhile, Polyteco startup is just a part of a larger organization, a youth business incubator of the same name, Polyteco, which should become a materialization of the idea long nursed by Kyiv Polytechnics Science Park. The 'parent' organization is a kind of business angel for KPI programmers. Its goal is to create all conditions (legal, marketing, financial) for the university's students to help them implement their innovative projects and start own business in IT sphere. And also to make sure that talented graduates could stay with their alma mater, joining the academic staff while at the same time having an opportunity to make some good money on commercial projects. For that purpose the business incubator organizes a student's know-how contest. The best ideas will then be turned into startups and launched in the production. The business incubator also takes care of finding investors for IT startups. Right at this moment the organization negotiates, on behalf of KPI, a deal with IBM and has talks with Viktoria Tigipko, head of TA Venture Fund and general partner of Growth Up, a business incubator of internet startups. Search of investors is, in fact, the most difficult part for KPI students working on own commercial projects. But having found one thanks to the efforts from our business incubator, startups may begin living their own lives and work on commercial orders, just like Polyteco startup. |