Over the past two weeks, Ukrainian startups which are part of the Ukrainian delegation, have been taking educational training sessions. There were 8 of them in total. The main initiator and organizer of the training sessions is UVCA, Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. Having expertise in promoting investment opportunities in Ukraine for foreign investment funds, conducting market research, lobbying for laws to improve the investment and business climate in Ukraine, Dmytro Kuzmenko, CEO at UVCA shared his own experience. External speakers with successful entrepreneurial backgrounds were involved in educational trainings as well.
During the courses, special attention was drawn to promotion marketing, choosing a jurisdiction, regulating relations between founders, regulating relations with investors, managing a startup, exiting, crash test for startups, the construction of innovative production, and preparation for production activities.
Among the speakers were:
- Igor Verkhogliad, Managing Partner at Soul Partners. 15+ years of experience in IB and M&A advisory
- Yehor Osadchuk, Scientist, an Experienced Serial Entrepreneur in innovative management and consulting, production and marketing, as well as heavy engineering, wood processing, agri, e-commerce.
- Vadym Gorenko, founder of the StartUpStart incubation program. Business coach of the Google Elevator program, business consultant and mentor of many entrepreneurial programs.
- Veronika Myltseva, Senior Associate of Technology and Investment Practice at Juscutum
- Dmytro Paliushchenko, Head of Business Support Practice,
What to be prepared for during the exhibition?
Dmytro Kuzmenko divided the direct interests of startups at the exhibition into several categories. The first is finding a potential client to make a pilot with. The second is finding an investor who will invest in the startup. The third category is finding a partner to sell the solution abroad. Summarizing, he emphasized that personal goals of startups should be clearly stated.
Catch a communicationl tip from Dmytro, director of UVCA, organization, which has been involved in Ukrainian trade missions trips since 2017:
If you have already arrived and have something to show, it is unique and works great, then it is already an interesting conversation with the investor. In general, at the exhibition, you [startup] will have several classifications of contacts – the first touch is 10-15 seconds, the second touch is up to 1 minute to convey your opinion about what kind of product you have made. And later, if there was an exchange of contacts, there is a possibility of a success story.
The training courses were the last stage of the Ukrainian national delegation’s preparation for CES 2024. The startup innovators received all the necessary knowledge and approached the task with responsibility and curiosity.
As always, we believe in startups’ ability to achieve great success, new customers and strengthening Ukraine’s reputation as a tech nation at the Consumer Electronic Show 2024. Keep pushing forward!
The trade mission is organized by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine together with the Ukrainian Startup Fund and Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA). The Ukrainian delegation will participate in the event with the support of the USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine (USAID CEP). The mission information support is provided by TechUkraine.
