The most popular startups. The best startups of recent years that have conquered not only Russia, but the whole world

One of the world's most authoritative magazines about technology and its impact on everyday life, British Wired, has published another TOP 100 of the most fashionable and promising startups in Europe. What Russian projects did experts pay attention to?

The list consists of ten European cities, in each of which Wired authors found the 10 best startups. Last year, the compilers of the Russian version of the ranking caused a lot of ridicule in the Russian business environment: for some reason, the Russian innovation city Skolkovo was on the list, and even in fifth place. This year it is not, and the rating itself, in general, seems much more adequate. Therefore, there is no point in avoiding it. It's better to analyze.

But first it’s worth citing facts about the Russian Internet technology market. According to experts, there are 62 million Internet users living in Russia, which automatically makes our Motherland one of the continent’s key markets: even in Europe there are fewer Internet users. Plus, the demand for Internet services in Russia is growing much faster than in Europe. Last June, British investment bank GP Bullhound estimated the Russian online advertising market at $1.4 billion. It was a year ago that it became larger than the print media advertising market.

Mikhail Lyalin, CEO of electronic games developer ZeptoLab (No. 1 in the ranking), says that the e-commerce sector is rapidly growing in Russia, and the number of people spending thousands of dollars on purchasing goods online on Christmas Eve is increasing every year.

Another important Russian trend is the growing popularity of credit cards. “Russia is slowly adapting to credit cards; their number has increased 2.5 times over the year,” says Lyalin.

And here's what the list actually looks like.

1. Zeptolab is one of the largest companies in Russia producing world-famous games for mobile devices. Thus, their hit Cut the Rope truly became a global phenomenon. Perhaps second after the hegemony of Angry Birds, created by Finnish developers from Rovio.

The Cut the Rope puzzle has been downloaded a total of 300 million times, and at least 60 million people play it every month. The Russian company makes money not so much from distributing the game as from selling related accessories to puzzle fans.

The company also does not hesitate to use all new communication channels to disseminate its ideas. Recently, Zeptolab released a series of cartoons called Om Nom, which reached a total of 100 million viewers. The company is now actively developing new mobile games and has no intention of resting on the laurels of its previous success.

2. Zingaya is a company developing a B2B service for calls over the Internet, which launched its service in 2010. The Russian platform differs from other IP telephony services (Skype for example) in that it is focused on the corporate sector: clients of companies operating Zingaya have access to their own support service and can count on the fact that they will always have communication through this tool. Now the company has more than six hundred corporate clients. Among them are TriNet, Swimoutlet and BlogTalkRadio, as well as such corporate monsters of the Russian Federation as the Russian division of Volkswagen, MTS Bank and Promsvyazbank.

Zingaya was already on Wired’s list last year, so it’s difficult to call the company a newcomer to the Internet services market.

Last year, users made 1.4 million calls using Zingaya. In 2012, the company's revenue tripled and amounted to $500 thousand. The startup's 27-year-old founder, Alexei Ailarov, says the company is close to reaching the break-even point. In 2011, the company received funding from American investor Esther Dyson in the amount of $1.15 million.

There is also a development strategy: Zingaya works with the global company Salesforce, the developer of one of the most popular CRM systems in the world. Most likely, new versions of this product will have a module for instant VoIP communication with colleagues.

3. Narr8 is a truly innovative publisher and online distributor of books, comics, and interactive digital stories. The company has become the developer of a free application for iOS and Android, which delivers interactive content to users created by Narr8 itself. From here - one step towards real publishing work. If a new digital era ever arrives, in which there is no place for traditional print publications, Narr8 could become one of the new market leaders, a kind of new Russian Amazon. Since the launch of the service in November last year, it has already gained 700 thousand users.

4. Ostrovok.ru - a service for online booking of hotels around the world. It's like Booking.com, only with an equally decent database of hostels and in Russian. Mass tourism is a relatively young phenomenon, but every year there are more and more Russians who regularly travel abroad, and therefore the sustainability of this startup’s business model seems an indisputable fact.

The company, founded by Kirill Makharinsky and Sergei Faget, already has eminent investors (Yuri Milner, for example) and a database that includes 135 thousand hotels in 200 countries.

5. Avito is the Russian version of the classifieds site, which has absorbed all the best from Slando, Craiglist and other Western services. Today it is the largest and most popular private classifieds website in Russia.

Avito unites 40 million users per month, who add 450 thousand new ads every day. The total cost of all goods placed on the service is 2% of Russia’s GDP.

6. Digital October is the main Moscow platform for representatives of the fashionable and “advanced” part of young people who are engaged in IT entrepreneurship. The organization produces its own content for startups, organizes the TechCrunch Moscow and Demo Europe conferences, and also has a fairly powerful business incubator. Among DO's partners is one of the largest online education services in the world, Coursera.

7. Onetwotrip is one of the most important and probably the most “fashionable” air ticket booking service in Russia. Founded in 2011, the company already has 600 thousand regular users and sells 5 thousand air tickets every day. The company's CEO Max Karausch says the company generates $50 million in revenue per month. The only significant competitor of Onetwotrip in the Russian Federation is the Aeroflot website.

8. Game Insight - developer and publisher of mobile games. The company is only three years old, but it already has 150 million users of its products around the world. CEO Alisa Chumachenko started the business without outside investment, but recently raised $25 million for development from Russian investment company imi.vc.

9. LinguaLeo is the most popular platform in Russia for learning foreign languages ​​online. The service operates as a gaming application that offers to learn a language together with a virtual lion - this, of course, is not the user’s alter ego, but something akin to a pet that requires regular care. As soon as the user forgets about regular exercise, his digital “animal” becomes despondent. It is believed that such “gamification” of the process seriously increases the level of motivation.

Many people liked the approach. Every day 10 thousand new users register on LinguaLeo.

10. Eruditor Group is a platform that brings together teachers, doctors and other professionals who offer their services and find new clients here. Now the company, founded in 2010, has 100 thousand registered tutors and about 400 thousand buyers of their services. Clients of the service earn a total of up to $200 million a year, says company founder Egor Rudi.

Over the years, the popularity of professional freelancers will only grow, and therefore Eruditor, without a doubt, will be a great commercial success.

The list itself, of course, many will dispute, but it clearly demonstrates: the most proven and reliable way to achieve success on the RuNet is to take the idea of ​​a global or American project and localize it on the domestic market, taking into account local characteristics. As a matter of fact, all the largest Russian Internet companies did this at one time. And in the same way, domestic Internet entrepreneurs continue to move en masse to this day. Coming up with something truly new that has no analogues in the world is far from the best way to make money and build a truly useful service. In the end, the main thing is not the idea, but its implementation.

Having seen enough successful stories of billionaires who invented Internet services from scratch and became rich, newcomers to business also want to follow this path. They are also trying to come up with something completely new that will be useful to people, but not everyone’s expectations are met. To ensure that your startup ideas are in demand, follow these recommendations:

1. Come up with a service, service or product that will improve your life.
2. You yourself have a clear idea of ​​how to bring your plans to life.
3. Your idea is also interesting to others.

How to find startup ideas?

Don't complicate your life, don't reinvent the wheel. Constantly brainstorming ideas can only cause constant stress and nervousness.
1. Examples of successful startup ideas show the need to find a problem and meet people's needs. This is easy to do - you need to observe and identify discontent in your current life.

Mark Zuckerberg, by creating Facebook, solved his problem. He spent a lot of time on the Internet, he wanted to meet and communicate with people also on the Internet. He solved his main problem, and then it turned out to be a solution to the problem of the world community.

Observe what irritates you and what others do, while simultaneously thinking about how you can improve the situation.

That is, change your focus from the category of inventing to the position of noticing.

2. After you have noticed the problem and come up with its solution, evaluate at first glance the prospects for the development of this idea. How many people can you benefit? Will a startup be able to grow into a big company?

3. The next stage is the search for like-minded people, just like you, who believe in the idea, who are turned on by the mere thought of working on a project, and who are not ready to work only for a salary.

Typical startup mistakes!

1. Most likely, there was little faith in this idea or the problem was just invented, but in fact society did not need it.
2. Not all startupers work with like-minded people. They try to organize everything themselves. Having just one founder in a startup makes it difficult to attract investment.

3. This mistake does not apply to Internet startups, it is more for offline businesses. It is important to choose the right location. Perhaps you should choose a more central area in the city for promotion or choose a completely different city.

4. Selecting a startup with low margins. Small sales combined with low margins and, as a result, the enterprise is unprofitable.

5. No customer focus! In this case, when a businessman follows his own policy and does not analyze feedback from the client. By listening to customer wishes, you can improve the product, thereby retaining new satisfied customers.

6.Unqualified team. The ability to recognize a professional in his field and invite him to work in a team is worth a lot. Only a beginner can not always do this. He does not always understand who is a professional, especially in an area in which he understands nothing.

7. Lack of sufficient funding. Try to last as long as possible on your own funds and achieve certain results. To go to investors, it is important to show some results from independent work. In this case, they will have more confidence in the project than if the idea is at the zero stage.

8. There is no clear representation of the portrait of the audience who will want to buy the product. Not knowing the client is a failure in marketing promotion.

Successful startups in Russia!

The foreign and Russian entrepreneurship market is noticeably different. What is popular abroad does not always take root here. I will pay attention specifically to Russian startups that have development prospects. The most popular industries are IT technology, medical, nuclear, and space developments. Here are some successful startup ideas:

1. IT, Internet technologies, mobile applications.
http://www.ecwid.com is a convenient online store module. This is an application that can embed a store on any website and is the best application for selling on Facebook. For convenience, the store is added to all your social accounts. networks, blogs and administered from one place.

http://gvidi.ru is a convenient mobile application for iPhone and Android. This mobile guide recommends where to eat. It takes into account a person’s tastes, searches for nearby establishments, and can be used to reserve tables.

http://oktogo.ru is a convenient service that allows you to book a hotel anywhere in the world.

http://wizee.ru is an indispensable application for offline shopping. It makes it possible to locate stores in a shopping center, where promotions and discounts take place.

http://ibuildapp.com is a unique platform that allows people who are not programming literate to create their own applications for iPhone and Android.

http://www.excursiopedia.com is a useful service for tourists and vacationers that allows you to book places of entertainment, excursions and other active recreation.

2. Another broad area is scientific and medical developments.

http://www.knopka24.ru is a service through which you can call for help. Designed for older people and people with disabilities.

http://www.latan.info - scientific development of an artificial lens for the eyes, which is of high quality and can enter the international market.
http://lactocore.com – a unique development of components identical to breastfeeding, which allows baby food to have a beneficial effect on child development.

Ideas for a startup are near us, you just have to look around.

Where to make money: TOP 6 business ideas! Choose yours and earn a million!!! Where to make money: 5 unique business ideas that will help you get rich!

Apple, Facebook, Google, SpaceX - all these projects began as simple experiments - these ideas seemed simply crazy, but they still tried to bring them to life. Here are 20 more successful projects that their founders were involved in in addition to their main activities.

For many people, changing course is also a sign of weakness. This is the same as admitting that you don't know what you're doing. This seems especially strange to me. I believe that a person who cannot change his point of view is dangerous. Steve Jobs often changed his views depending on the situation, and I don’t know anyone who thought he was weak,” writes Ed Catmull in his book “Inc. How to manage a team of creative people."

The founder of Apple (and 20 other people, whom we will talk about below) were not afraid to follow their ideas. Even Y Combinator, the most successful business incubator in the world, asks applicants to pitch their side project idea when they apply (and many are chosen to pursue their idea instead of the company's idea).

Product Hunt

Do you need technical knowledge to open a business in this field? What about a business that is dedicated to discovering new technical products? For Ryan Hoover, founder and CEO of ProductHunt, this has never been a problem. ProductHunt is a platform and community that helps people discover new tech products and interact with their team. Instead of agonizing over the technical aspects of his side project, he simply decided to do what he knew how:

“I wasn't an engineer, so I wasn't going to invest the time or money into building an entire website from scratch, but I could easily build an email list. So I did. Through the mailing list, I invited several hundred investors, founders and my friends who, in my opinion, might like my project and who had a nose for technical products.”

Within a few years of the startup's launch, ProductHunt had grown into a community with hundreds of thousands of users. AngelList recently acquired ProductHunt for $20 million.

Groupon

How did a social network for activists turn into a collective discount service that reaches 45 countries and is valued at $1 billion? And all this happened in just two years after launch. Groupon's path to success is a bit strange and winding. However, it defines the spirit of this startup.

The project was originally called The Point. The platform was aimed at uniting people around a specific action. One day, the founder of the platform, Eric Lefkofsky, saw how users came together in a large group to buy a product and get a discount. After this, the company began to develop as Groupon. The 2008 economic crisis prompted Lefkofsky to launch Groupon in Chicago, and we already know the rest.

Twitter

Now almost everyone has it. Previously, Twitter was a small side project of Odeo. It was initially used as an SMS service for a small group of employees. The project did not seem interesting to the press and investors at the time, despite the support of CEO Evan Williams. Here's what TechCrunch wrote about him ten years ago:

“What is this company doing to make their offer attractive? How do their shareholders feel about side projects like Twttr when their main product is a complete bore? Only the design is good.”

Back then they could not even imagine that the founders of Odeo had built a new business that would change the way we communicate on the Internet.

Craigslist

Craigslist (the American analogue of Avito) is immortal. Although it cannot be classified as a top tech company, it is still worth saying a few words about the platform, which has enjoyed great success in the American market for 20 years. But where and when did it all start? In the early 1990s, Craig Newmark, an IBM employee who had just moved to San Francisco, compiled an email list for local events (Craig's list, get it, right?). Craig thought the list would help him meet new people. The idea was picked up and the list became popular. People began to use it for more than just meetings. In the future, this inspired Craig, and he quit his job and started developing Craigslist. Today this company is worth $1 billion.

Unsplash

What do you do with the leftover photos after a landing page photo shoot? You create storage for royalty-free photos, of course. When Canadian startup Crew hired a professional photographer to take photos, they ended up with more photos than they needed. But instead of letting the photos get lost somewhere on the hard drive, the employees posted them on the website and gave them away for free. Then - one post on HackerNews, scattered throughout the Internet - and the photo was downloaded more than 50,000 times. Today, Unsplash has tens of thousands of amazing photos available for free download. Unsplash has become the place to go for free images.

AppSumo

You don't need a lot of money to create your side project. Check out AppSumo, the site for daily deals on digital goods and services. The site was launched for a small amount - $50. Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo, shared in an interview the story of how he learned about the need to create a discount site for online companies. Back then he was doing marketing for mint.com. He put up his own money (plus $20 in cash his mom gave him) to create a landing page and collect email addresses. In the first year, the company's value reached $1 million.

Oculus

There are many stories about how famous companies started their journey in garages: Apple, Google, Amazon, HP. And Oculus. After a long day at California State University's Mixed Reality Lab (MXR), founder Palmer Luckey was heading to the garage to try to build the future of virtual reality. After one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns, Luckey quit his job, dropped out of school, and sold Oculus to Facebook for $2.4 billion, $400 million in real money, $2 billion in Facebook stock (before they even had a product).

Houzz

If you're looking for something related to home renovation or decor, you'll likely come across a listing on Houzz. The community serves more than 40 million users per month and has approximately 1,000 employees worldwide. However, they started very modestly. One day, the founders of the company, the family of Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen, were engaged in renovations and faced a lack of resources for home improvement. This inspired them to create their own. Their first users were twenty parents from the school where Adi and Alon’s children went, and several architects and designers. Today the company is worth $4 billion.

Khan Academy

While teaching his relatives, the founder of the educational platform Khan Academy, Salman Khan, received a slightly backhanded compliment: his students suggested that he meet online rather than in person. Khan did not ignore this remark, it just stuck in his head. So he started making ten-minute YouTube videos about various subjects, from biology to art. At the same time, he worked as a hedge fund analyst. When the Youtube activity started to take off, Khan left his job and now has more than 100 employees under his leadership.

Gumroad

How do you know when you've come up with a killer idea for a side project? If you dropped out of college, somehow became the fourth employee at Pinterest, then quit your job to pursue this idea, this is definitely it. The same thing happened with Sahil Lavigna. While working as a designer at Pinterest, he realized that selling digital products online was unreasonably difficult. He tweeted his idea to get approval and then created his side project, Gumroad, over the weekend. Now the platform for selling digital products (from mailings to generating discount coupons) in the West is used by everyone - from Eminem to Tim Ferriss.

GitHub

“It all started with a domain, a cheap server from Slicehost, and some stock art.” Before GitHub became a $1 billion company, its founders Chris Vanstras and PJ Hiett built websites for the computer technology portal CNET. They didn't like the fact that it was so difficult to make changes to open source codes. So they created their own repository, working nights and weekends. Today, their side project has hundreds of millions in venture capital and approximately 20 million users.

WeWork

One of the most important startups in the world may not have appeared at all. Before founding WeWork, Adam Newman sold children's clothing with knee patches in a small building in Brooklyn. As Newman himself believes, at that time he “was mistaken and directed his energy in the wrong direction.”

As an additional income, Newman and his partner rented space in the same building for little money and opened a “green” coworking space there. With the proceeds from the sale of their stake in Green Desk (the original coworking company), they founded a new coworking space. Today it is worth $20 billion and is coming to Russia this year.

Udemy

How many happy IT consultants do you know? Most likely, in your circle there are either none at all, or they are all unhappy. When Gagan Biani wanted to leave the consulting company Accenture, he took up a side hustle - Udemy, where he was one of the founders. This is a platform where anyone can create and sell their online course. Today, perhaps, he is happy, because Udemy offers 42,000 courses and is worth more than $170 million.

Instagram

Think about Slack, which built its own messaging app internally because nothing on the market was working for them. Or the founding family of Houzz, who started their network because they couldn't find the resources they needed to renovate. Whatever you choose, there will be several people who will think the same way as you. Don't give up on your side project idea just because you think you're the only one who needs it.

2. Listen to the market

When Twitch first started, the gaming community was never a priority. But when the founders saw that more and more people were streaming their games every day, they realized: this is what people want. At the very beginning of Groupon, back then The Point, the goal was never to make money. He just wanted to unite for some social action. But once users banded together to get a discount on the product, Groupon's creators saw the full potential.

3. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty

WeWork, Buffer, HubSpot, Imgur and Oculus - their founders weren't one hundred percent sure of what they were doing, but they took the risk anyway.

The truth is that you should just try - then any startup mistake can be prevented. Start small and see if your idea works. Create, for example, a landing page or a blog, send cold emails to 100 potential buyers and see if they like your idea. Side projects are a great way to test the waters before getting serious about your next idea.

4. Colleagues and partners can validate ideas as well as users

Startup founders are often advised to get their idea approved by real users. This is of course important. But when you're looking for ideas for side projects or just want to figure out if you're on the right track, it's also important to listen to insiders. Talk to your team, employees, or partners about the problems they are facing, even if those problems are not related to your company.

As a project management tool company, it is important for Planio to be even more productive and efficient. Therefore, they made it a rule to seek confirmation within the company before developing and releasing new features.

5. The moment is important

What's great about side projects is that there's usually no outside pressure. They can be launched at any convenient time. But this does not mean that you can just sit and wait for the “right moment.”

Side projects are a chance to explore the future. This is a chance to take advantage of modern tools to create applications and products that perhaps no one has yet realized is needed. Think about Instagram, which was created purely because of the hype around location-based services like Foursquare. Subsequently, Instagram became the most popular social network for sharing photos.

Or even Oculus. Taking advantage of advances in technology and people's imagination, they rebooted an entire industry. All this happened because the founders looked to the future. At the same time, they did not forget to follow the course of events. It was important for them to know that they were directing their energy to the right side project, and that it would not be wasted.

So what does this all mean?

Side projects are an incredible source of inspiration and a way to experiment. Often, the business ideas behind side projects are better and more interesting than your current occupation. Why not try it?

The international publishing project of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russia Beyond The Headlines (RBTH), compiled the TOP-50 most ambitious Russian startups for 2015. This year the ranking features young Russian companies with potential for development abroad.

RBTH has been ranking new startups since 2012. The main goal of the project is to inform foreign investors and consumers about the potential and services of Russian technology companies. Traditionally, the ranking includes companies that would like to enter or are already entering foreign markets, and startups with Russian participation abroad.

The startups represented in the rating were selected according to the following criteria: the interest of foreign investors, the uniqueness of the idea, the demand of foreign consumers for the products and services offered, the potential for commercialization, as well as social significance, that is, the desire to improve people's lives through technology. The TOP 50 was made up of more than 200 Russian startups that met the requirements of the project authors.

The rating included the Russian-Ukrainian startup 2for1, aimed at the US market. The project was founded by businessman Alexey Romanenko, who lives in San Francisco. 2for1 is a service that brings together the best offers from the 15 most visited online stores in the US and Europe.

The application is designed for fashionistas and fashionistas from the middle class, who will be able to see products selected by the service with discounts of more than 50%. At the same time, 2for1 does not position itself as a retailer, calling itself a “filter” for customers.

Another participant in the rating was the technological project “3D Bioprinting Solutions”, which was founded by Chairman of the Board of Directors of INVITRO Group Alexander Ostrovsky and biologist Yusef Khesuani. The project is a biotechnology research laboratory that explores the topic of 3D organ bioprinting and creates its own products.

For example, 3D Bioprinting Solutions created the first Russian 3D bioprinter FABION - a software and hardware complex designed for printing living functional three-dimensional tissue and organ constructs.

The environmental project invites users around the world to monitor the air quality in their region of interest. A startup called AeroState uses simple Web API technology to do this.

The rating includes the AstroDigital project, a platform for accessing satellite data that provides fast and convenient search, as well as integration of satellite photos on the Internet and mobile applications.

Another participant in the rating is a service for yachtsmen or those who want to join this culture. In other words, with the help of the Anchor.Travel portal, anyone can rent a boat, motorboat or yacht, as well as offer someone their water transport. The service works similarly to Airbnb and provides for direct communication between users and yacht owners.

Russian scientists have made a breakthrough in medicine by launching the AntionkoRAN-M project, a gene therapeutic antitumor drug intended for the treatment of head and neck cancer. According to the results of preclinical studies, the drug increases the effectiveness of radiation therapy by 63%.

Another medicine that took a place in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta rating is the drug Ivix, also known as female Viagra. Target drugs for women with sexual dysfunction. While Ivix is ​​at the testing stage, it has proven itself well in animals.

The TOP 50 included the Cardberry project, which will help people save space in their wallets. Engineers are working on an electronic card that can replace a whole stack of discount cards, synchronizing with the application of the same name via Bluetooth. The project has received 800 pre-orders for 2016 and is currently in the funding phase.

Contactless payment provider CardsMobile and British startup Tedipay have begun working on an open platform for secure transactions. Using the technology, it will be possible to make any payments, including payment for transport, lunch, etc. To do this, you only need a smartphone, which the authors of the idea call a “wallet.”

An online auction for selling cars called Caprice is an analogue of the foreign portals Webuyanycar, WirKaufenDeinAuto and Al wataneya. The creators of the domestic auction promise that using the service you can sell a car in half an hour.

In 2015, the Siberian startup raised $1.4 million to create the first batch of 3D pens called CreoPop. The pens contain a new photopolymer ink that hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light.

The rating included the CrocoTime project, a program for HR specialists that tracks up to 10 thousand users simultaneously. The service offers automatic employee monitoring for a fee ranging from $14 to $50.

Among the most ambitious startups is the Russian private space satellite manufacturer Dauria Aerospace. In 2015, the Chinese investment fund Cybernaut invested in the development of the project, which gave the company $70 million, with the ultimate goal of tracking the life of one of the largest cities in the world.

Institute of Catalysis named after. G.K. Boreskov SB RAS developed the EcoCat technology. The project helps reduce the cost of heating industrial premises by 4 times.

A project called Ecwid can change the e-commerce industry: it is a platform for creating online stores using AJAX, which allows you to develop a website for an online store for free in a few minutes.

Another member of Elbi is an application created by supermodel Natalia Vodianova. The mobile service allows you to send £1 or $1 donations to charities around the world.

The rating also included the Russian analogue of numerous instant messengers and social networks, FireChat; in 2015, the number of registered users exceeded 5 million. The new version allows users to exchange personal messages and in group chats.

The Russian version of virtual reality from the company FIBRUM also attracted the attention of the authors of the rating. Engineers have created a headset in which the main element is not expensive materials, but an ordinary smartphone.

The list of best startups included the IBOX project, an innovative solution that allows clients to accept cash and non-cash payments without cash register equipment and terminals.

iBuildApp

Intersoft Eurasia,

iBuildApp is a platform that allows businesses to create mobile apps for iOS and Android in minutes. This service already has 1.3 million users, including the US State Department.

One of the participants in the rating was the startup Intersoft Eurasia, which develops cross-platform devices for monitoring human radiation exposure. The company offers several options for devices and their integration: a compact device that is an addition to a mobile device, a processor built into the mobile phone circuit, and dosimeter watches.

Travel service Intui.Travel helps travelers book a hotel and find a transfer from the airport. Using the application, users can create a route to any location.

Cloud video surveillance service Ivideon designed to work with already installed cameras, including on personal computers and laptops.

Kribrum has developed a social media monitoring system. The project is a tool for analyzing various mentions in the media. In 2015, the startup collected generous investments - more than $600 thousand. The system is aimed primarily at PR and marketing services.

Another participant in the rating is the visual image search system Kuznech, which allows you to track brands in a media stream, filter “adult” content, control offline merchandising, etc. The project supports video recognition and is adapted for smartphones.

The well-known project LinguaLeo, an online service for learning languages, also made it to the list of the best. Currently, there are about 12 million registered users on the portal who are learning English. The service is available to Russians, Brazil and residents of Turkey.

The Forest Watch project is a security system that allows you to prevent and monitor forest fires. The startup covers 33 regions of Russia and Bulgaria.

The Luka app provides recommendations for over 2,000 restaurants in San Francisco. Using an SMS conversation, the service finds out whether you are a vegetarian or a cheese fan, and then provides a list of establishments that suit your tastes.

Startup Mailburn aims to shake up the standards of business correspondence with controversial templates. Almost 80% of the application's users work outside of Russia, and the majority of the audience comes from the United States.

One of the TOP-50 participants was the MarketMixe project - a platform for trading from supplier warehouses with individual data processing for online stores and online trading platforms. MarketMixer automatically processes supplier price lists and prepares a selection of goods for sending to the online storefront

The startup Nanosemantics is a developer of a natural programming language that should be used on websites in chats with its representatives. The main key of the project is the relaxed human language in which bots communicate with site visitors.

Optograd Nanotech company, which works on strengthening products. The technology of nanostructural modification of the surface of materials and alloys using a laser was recognized as one of the best startups.

The N-tech.lab project, created at the University of Washington, allows facial recognition, surpassing other systems in quality and speed.

Another payment system that will make life easier for users is PayQR. With this online banking and QR codes, you can make purchases in seconds.

A product that can replace architects and designers in the future is the Planner 5 D application. It allows you to design a house and interior even before construction begins, from walls to furniture.

The startup Prixel will give anyone the opportunity to become a collector of the most famous paintings for nominal money. To create paintings, the company uses 3D scanning technology, which allows you to create exact copies. Prixel already has clients in the US, Mexico, Europe, Canada, South Korea and other countries.

One of the most positive startups in the rating is the Panda Money service, which is essentially online banking. However, it differs from other projects by the presence of a small character - a panda, which is “fed” by user payments.

Promobot is a retail robot that can identify people's speech and recognize their appearance. In this way, the robot can help existing customers and find new ones.

The online cleaning service Qlean has attracted investments of more than $327 thousand, and the service plans to enter the Asian market.

Relap is a B2B service aimed at increasing the time visitors spend on a website. The system recommends them using built-in widgets. The creators of the project promise that they will be able to increase the number of clicks to 30-50%.

A platform for teaching programming in English, where 16 million users are registered (!). In 2012, the creators of Codecademy announced the launch of a Russian-language version, but never finalized it: only a few menu items and tasks were translated.

There are no video lectures on Codecademy. Each lesson consists of a short, funny text and a small task. The student enters the resulting code into a special field and proceeds to the next module.

There are no educational projects similar to Codecademy in Russia. Creating its analogue is not an easy task, but the result will be worth it: in 2016, the company attracted $42.5 million in investments.

When a developer launches an English-language application, he knows exactly where to start promotion: on the . It's an incredibly respected resource for finding apps and services: 100-200 upvotes on Product Hunt can attract thousands of new users. In addition, Product Hunt is an important source of information for foreign media.

When a developer launches a Russian-language application, the issue of promotion remains open. The Product Hunt community is English-speaking and is not interested in local projects. So why not open a similar platform for Russian-language services and applications?

We've all made mistakes of varying severity on the Internet: 18+ photos from parties, obscene comments on Facebook. How to find and hide all the incriminating evidence?

For example, using a tool for managing personal reputation on the Internet. The service helps you monitor mentions of your name on the Internet and shows you a step-by-step strategy for improving search results.

The problem is that the service does not track content in Russian and does not take into account search results in Yandex. If you close these gaps, you can create a new useful product for Russian-speaking users based on BrandYourself.

It's the Uber for hair and makeup artists. Instead of calling salons or searching for a specialist on the Internet, US residents can now order makeup and hair styling at home through an app.

The investors of the famous Y Combinator believed in StyleBee, and the company received $1.2 million from them.

Women in Russia face the same problems finding hair and makeup artists as American women. And we need the help of Russian developers.

5. Eden

Imagine that all the computer technicians from the advertisements near the entrance are gathered on one site. They will not only fix your equipment, but also bring friends with them to wash the floor and paint the ceiling. This is exactly what Eden offers - a service for ordering technical support, cleaning and minor repairs to offices.

Eden is office-focused and based in San Francisco. But nothing prevents us from adapting such a service to apartments, retail premises, cottages or warehouses in any region of our country. Go for it!

New business ideas are the engine of progress. But there are also advantages to using the experience of other projects: someone definitely needs an existing product and a monetization model can be found for it. Additionally, the team can focus on design rather than thinking about the design. After all, the main thing is not to show off a new concept, but to create a sought-after product and develop it in a direction that is interesting to users.