#science

25 March 2019

On March 25, the Central Asian Week “Women in Science and Technology” started at the Center for Advanced Technologies. The first day of the conference was devoted to startups in science and the commercialization of scientific developments.

Welcoming addresses were made by Director of the Center for Advanced Technologies Shahlo Turdikulova, Deputy Minister of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan Nazarov, Azimjon Soatmurod ugli and a guest from Silicon Valley Jillian Scott, Director, TechWomen at Institute of International Education.

According to statistics, only 5% of women occupy leading positions in various sectors of the economy and only TWO women of Uzbekistan occupy high posts in the government – a minister and deputy minister. The speakers expressed confidence that the upcoming “Week…” saturated with bright and interesting events, will have a huge impact on the participants and will be a great incentive for women to realize themselves in the scientific and technical fields. In a year of active investment and social development, this event is an example of productive investment in human capital. The TechWomen program, which takes place in 50+ countries of the world and starts again in our country, will undoubtedly reveal the potential and opportunities of women in Uzbekistan.

The conference was attended by 18 women IT professionals, as well as TechWomen fellows from other countries of the world. During the existence of TechWomen 100 STEM-girls from 21 countries of the world visited America and continue their development in science and technology. TechWomen is a cosmopolitan program aimed at long-term prospects and productive cooperation in the name of creating a progressive future for our countries.

The presentation “Commercializing Science and Science Startups” was made by Rekha Pai‐Kamath, Silicon Valley Social Ventures, Partner.

Rekha presented her vision of the differences between entrepreneurs and people of science involved in scientific development and told about the difference in approaches in solving the same problems. Entrepreneurs identify a problem and look for tools to solve it, and scientists act on the contrary: they create a unique technology and try to adapt it to solve an abstract problem. Due to the lack of viability and relevance, not all scientific developments launch as a successful business. It is necessary to discover the unconditional value of a product or service for consumer, to study and verify the needs of market, leaving from a laboratory to the masses, and only then prove the validity of your idea.

But the main thing is not to be afraid to make mistakes, correct them in time and move on towards overcoming and improving them.

A practical session on pitch and presenting a product for startups was conducted by Eileen Brewer, Symantec, Director of the cybersecurity product development company, Elaina Tia, UX Designer, LinkedIn user interface developer.

The speakers in their speech focused on the initial stage of pitch and the first stages of formation of a presentation for an investor. In a presentation of an idea, a deep understanding of the essence of a problem is important, and its best embodiment will be creation of a story that gives a bright emotional coloring. History should demonstrate the scale of a problem, the potential reach of audience, because for an investor, scalability means profit. The importance of an idea should be supported by consolidation of transparent data from trusted sources, confirming the reliability and reliability of a project for an investor.

On the example of a startup created to solve the problem of obesity, leading to great negative consequences for a nation as a whole, the speakers demonstrated a statistical portrait of consumers, including age, gender, region of residence, health status, hobbies; involvement in the use of the created product to a wide target audience, market viability, product availability and its presence at different points of sale, delivery scenarios on the way to client, well-developed logistics, examples of product merchandising and other aspects important in the presentation.

“The business you create should not end just because you have few customers. Create a long-living product, look for your niche, study your target audience, critically evaluate the size of your target market and refer only to trusted data sources. ”

Beth Steinberg, Zenefits, Chief People Officer held a discussion on “What investors are looking for in startups.”

The speaker told about typical problems and common mistakes during pitching, which can ruin everything. Among them: insufficiently clear and accurate pitching, not giving answers to all possible questions of the investor. “You have to sell your idea, which means that your pitch must be honest and motivate you to buy. Follow the framework rules, observe the time, designate the economic component. Make a pitch short, precise, clear.”

Miss Steinberg emphasized that she always supports the entrepreneurial technology projects that women create. People who create a startup should understand the importance of teamwork, have a passion for their idea, understand its essence and be aware of what problem will be solved with its implementation.

“I invest in projects that I understand, in tasks that solve vital problems, and I try to invest not in those who have ready-made answers to all questions, but in people with a broad outlook. They are ready to study and listen, receive new information and knowledge.”

During the conference, an interactive session of Speed ​​mentoring of startups and ideas was held, in which participants of the Scientific Accelerator and all experts who came from Silicon Valley took part: the listener teams identified the problem and looked for ways to solve it with the help of mentors. In the final of the event, three teams made their pitches and received constructive recommendations and comments from specialists.