OREANDA-NEWS. October 09, 2015. Today, the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO welcomes class 8 of Startup Academy, a programme for those who want to start their own businesses or give the necessary acceleration to existing start-up projects.

Entrepreneurs with business projects in the areas of IT, manufacturing, education, restaurants, fashion, design etc. comprise 60% of the class, while 30% of the students plan to launch their first startups. The startupers have 10% business angels among their classmates.

Today, the classes start for the winners of the Entrepreneurial Breakthrough of the Year award, established by the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO and Noubar Afeyan Foundation. They are the authors of the brightest and the most promising projects in the fields of IT, education and ecology. Class 8 participants, developing their projects in the field of restaurant business, have to work especially hard, for the stakes are high: they have a chance to start their business in partnership with Arkady Novikov, implement their project together with Novikov Group or receive compensation for the tuition fee in the amount of 350, 000 roubles.

The newcomers started their time at school with an on-campus quest called Great Discoveries and Innovations. After that, the students met Moti Cristal, one of the school’s most popular professors, who conducted Three Secrets of Successful Negotiations workshop for them.

The journey into the world of venture capital industry will last 10 weeks. Over this period, the students will go all the way from expert evaluation of business ideas to launching a startup or taking their existing project to a whole new stage of development. The participants will take part in intensive training, active networking and a trip to Israel – the second-largest startup hub after the United States. They will present the results of their work to key Russian investors and business angels.