In this report, we’ll cover two topics: what makes the country a hub of innovations, and how startups can collaborate with corporates to implement innovations together

Startup vs. Corporate: how to innovate – UIIS 2018 report. Source: PaySpace Magazine

The first tech international conference Ukrainian Israeli Innovation Summit 2018 took place today in Kyiv, Ukraine. The event gathered executives, startup founders, IT specialists, investors, and politicians from Israeli and Ukraine in the UNIT.City, one of the biggest innovation parks in Europe.

The high-tier speakers discussed the opportunities and difficulties of the collaboration between governments, businesses and startup ecosystems.

PaySpace Magazine has just attended the event, and we are ready to share some of the key insights with you.

“Tomorrow’s Investments Today” panel. Source: PaySpace Magazine

Startup ecosystems

Yossi Vardi, Internet Entrepreneur, the Chairman of DLD (IL), started from sharing his view on the relations between Ukraine and Israeli. The speaker believes that Ukrainian people are very ambitious, energetic, and educated, which gives the country all the chances to succeed in innovations and IT.

Then the speaker explained what makes the country a hub of innovations. In his view, money, education, and government policies are definitely needed, but they are not enough – the country also needs strong entrepreneurship. According to Yossi Vardi, it is formed by the culture and depends on the way we?raise?the kids: parents have to inspire their children, and there should be some role models for them.

Moreover, building innovative capacities requires?an enabling environment.

The culture of mutual support is very important. People in Israeli have that due to historical reasons and their mentality, but they also did a great job creating common spaces, conferences, hubs, incubators, to connect those who have the knowledge with those willing to learn.

Payoneer Founder, President & Board Member Yuval Tal shared some insights based on the company’s experience in working in Ukraine and with Ukrainians. According to his presentation, Ukraine is:

• the major IT industry hub;
• globally known for brilliant programming teams;
• has tens of thousands of FOP (private entrepreneurs).

It is noticeable that Payoneer both pays to Ukrainian FOPs and employs a local R&D team.

Payoneer Founder Yuval Tal. Source: PaySpace Magazine

Startups vs. Corporates

Mykola Takzey, Director of Global Innovation Center, Philip Morris International (IL), believes Ukraine has a chance to become an innovation ecosystem rather than the resource-based economy. He dedicated his speech to the collaboration between the corporates and startups. Mykola provided separate guidelines for both corporates and startups on how to understand each other better and?build a successful partnership.

Corporate:

1. Define your purpose, depending on that you will select the type of a relationship you’re building with startups.
2. Get support from the management.
3. Set-up a governance model.
4. Involve your key customers (internal & external).
5. Create x-functional teams of best talents.
6. Engage with the ecosystem – don’t treat startups as your vendors, treat them as partners.
7. Deliver quick wins and cut unfeasible projects.
8. Scale up innovations.

Startup:

1. Working with corporates will take a while.
2. Most of the issues between corporates and startups do disappear if they work longer.
3. Know when you are ready for a conservative corporate.
4. Come up with the hypothesis of the joint value creation.
5. Be patient and persistent with the corporate process.
6. Don’t put all your eggs into one corporate basket – try working with them but have a plan B.
7. Accept that this is a long-term relationship.
8. Value your time.

To build successful relations between startup and corporate with quick wins and scalable solutions, there are 3 main things to focus on: shared purpose, user-centricity, and partnership.

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