Сколтех — новый технологический университет, созданный в 2011 году в Москве командой российских и зарубежных профессоров с мировым именем. Здесь преподают действующие ученые, студентам дана свобода в выборе дисциплин, обучение включает работу над собственным исследовательским проектом, стажировку в индустрии, предпринимательскую подготовку и постоянное нахождение в международной среде.

Архив метки: mobile app

From Labs to Riches: Student’s Financial Management Startup Wins Global Entrepreneurship Award

Alexander Ivanov, Skoltech student and Easy Wallet's co-founder: "I've never been so ready for a presentation in my life”.

Alexander Ivanov, Skoltech student and Easy Wallet’s co-founder: “I’ve never been so ready for a presentation in my life”.

“I think I’ve never been so ready for a presentation in my life”, Alexander Ivanov said after he completed a four minutes session facing a panel of judges at the Global Student Entrepreneurship Award. “I went through so many sleepless nights. I endlessly rehearsed. Turns out that was the right thing to do”. Financial management service Easy Wallet, which Ivanov co-founded with fellow Skoltech student Rustem Feyzkhanov, was awarded Best Internet Project for 2014.

It was a coming-of-age affirmation for the two young developers cum entrepreneurs. Launched in 2013, Easy Wallet set out to offer a hassle-free alternative to the complex – and at times confusing – information services offered by banks. The mobile app parses (analyzes) the text notifications sent to clients. It then gives the customer an overview of balance at various bank accounts, helps set budget goals and recommends the best credit cards to achieve these targets.

Recommendations and offers are based on each individual user’s income, lifestyle, and consumption patterns, thus making Easy Wallet part of the much-talked-about trend of customization. The young company’s leadership duo says the service has no need for and never uses personal data, PIN codes or card numbers.

EasyWallet's main features include an overview of balance at various bank accounts, help with setting budget goals and customized credit cards recommendations

Easy Wallet’s main features include an overview of balance at various bank accounts, help with setting budget goals and customized credit cards recommendations

Ivanov: “It is pretty incredible to think of the progress we made. We started to work in September 2013, received support from Skoltech mentors who helped us establish connections with banks. We also leveraged the university’s educational resources. Then we received funding from HSE’s Innovation Project program and spent four months with the QIWI Universe accelerator. Thousands of people downloaded the app and we have established a profitable online card calculator. We’re constantly growing.”

And then came the GSEA award.

Ivanov describes it in David vs Goliath terms. “You know, we competed with mature projects which have hundreds of thousands of users and millions of dollars in revenue. Then we had four minutes for our presentation and four minutes for Q&A. And we won.”

It was not the only achievement that startups launched by Skoltech students scored toward the end of 2014. ImageAiry, a satellite imagery marketplace, was selected as one of the year’s top 50 Russian startups. The university’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) estimates that 6 out of 10 Skoltech graduate students are actively involved in similar projects.

Easy Wallet's logo

Easy Wallet’s logo

Some student owned enterprises, like Easy Wallet, are beginning to reap the rewards of their hard work. Since they were nominated for the award by Google, Ivanov and Feyzkhanov will travel to Seoul, South Korea in April 2015. They are scheduled to visit the local Googleplex, where they hope to gain invaluable networking opportunities.

Easy Wallet can be downloaded as a free app for Android and is currently available for clients of more than 60 Russian banks. Additionally, its website offers a free service which locates the most beneficial bank cards and deposits programs available online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, a suburb of Moscow. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, Skoltech educates global leaders in innovation, advances scientific knowledge, and fosters new technologies to address critical issues facing Russia and the world. Applying international research and educational models, the university integrates the best Russian scientific traditions with twenty-first century entrepreneurship and innovation.

 

A Startup is Born – In 24 Hours

The LikeIT! application logo

The LikeIT! application logo

Andrii Omelianovych and his Skoltech classmate Muhammad Saad had a choice between spending their last 24 hours of summer vacation on the beach – or on the couch. Then the graduate students opted for not-so-obvious solution: they created a new mobile application. Called “LikeIt!“, this app aims to revolutionize the shopping experience by making it more social than ever before. We caught up with the 25-year-old masters student and entrepreneur for a short chat about bridging the gap between tech dreams and reality.

LikeIt! is a mobile chat application which helps shoppers with shared interests to exchange on-the-spot, genuine impressions and information about products and services. Users scan barcodes, hashtags or QR codes on packages, write comments, opinions or even warnings. The next potential customer can tap into this pool of authentic knowledge – or add to it.  The demo version brings to mind a hybrid between WhatsApp and Foursquare. The road ahead is long and complex, and the team members are well aware of the problems that plague many young companies. And still, they are undeterred.

“It occurred to us that when people consider buying a product in a shop they usually do not have access to immediate feedback and independent opinions about the services and goods that are around them,” says Omelianovych who founded the project with three fellow students willing to contribute their last 24 hours of summer break to pursue a startup dream. “We decided to connect potential customers to a pool of knowledge. That way they can make better choices. This can have immense value.”

Muhammad Saad, a second year IT master’s student at Skoltech, is one of the initial team who dreamed up and executed the plan to create Likeit! Originally from Pakistan, Saad decided the young, Moscow based tech university is a good bet. “I felt that Skoltech’s focus on developing a collaborative and innovative environment was right for me. Here we get a chance to take a huge variety of courses, from Machine Learning to Venture Financing. When Andrii approached me with the idea for this app, I didn’t hesitate for long”, says the bleary-eyed student after toiling overnight on finalizing the app’s web version.

“What I like about students here is that they don’t immediately run to register their startups and start employing people, but concentrate on their product first”, says Ilia Dubinsky, the director of Skoltech’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), which supports student’s startup projects, “projects with such a mature approach have a better chance to succeed”.

It is not the first time that MS student Omelianovych forayed into fields that could be considered far from energy technology, which he studies. He has been one of the founders of another social app, called “imeetu” which aimed to match meeting place with users’ location and personal preferences. In his role with the LikeIt! team focuses on product development and promotion.

Did you really create the whole thing in one last day of summer?

“Almost”, he smiles, “Skoltech has developed an interesting and unique culture of solving complex problems in intensive and relatively short sessions. This is in line with student culture here. Everybody is able and creative. We just need a little push.

“Since joining Skoltech I have always wanted to do a project that would push me towards cooperation with students from various disciplines. Because the university focuses on crosscutting and interdisciplinary impactful research so it jets made sense to me.”

Sounds great. But easier said than done?

“We are hoping to get some traction, test the application and then launch an official version which would include expended functionalities and gather some real customers’ data. We are aiming for product specific information which we could offer to big companies to improve their products and better serve their customers.”

 

LikeIt! founders team. From right to left Andrii Omelyaonvyich (MSc student in Energy at Skoltech), Muhammad Saad (Information Technology MS student at Skoltech), Ruslan Stetsenko and Zakhar Fadeev

LikeIt! founders team. From right to left Andrii Omelyaonvyich (MSc student in Energy at Skoltech), Muhammad Saad (Information Technology MS student at Skoltech), Ruslan Stetsenko and Zakhar Fadeev

 

* The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, a suburb of Moscow. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, Skoltech educates global leaders in innovation, advance scientific knowledge, and foster new technologies to address critical issues facing Russia and the world. Applying international research and educational models, the university integrates the best Russian scientific traditions with twenty-first century entrepreneurship and innovation.

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