Nickstarter, a different kind of crowdfunding

Nick Starter is one of the companies in the field Crowdfunding has started its work. This collection in its short period of activity managed to finance several Startup Product oriented. Nice starter work only to Introducing the startup has not summarized, but accelerates the product market and formulates the strategy of the teams in a macro way. In the following, we will join Dr. Mohammad Ismail Khanian to tell us more about Nick Starter’s way of working.

First, introduce yourself and tell how you came up with the idea of ​​starting Nick Starter.

I am Mohammad Esmail Khanian, a graduate of the bachelor’s degree in aerospace and MBA in the master’s degree from Sharif University of Technology. Later, I completed my doctorate jointly in the universities of Washington, Utah and Arlington, USA, in the field of system management, which is one of the DBA trends.

My friends and I started scientific activities in Sharif University in the field of aerospace since 1982 and we participated in international competitions for three years, and we were first in two years. Since 1984, we have continued the group that was already formed for the competition and as the first team entered the light class of the unmanned aircraft; But because of the type of B2G business we had, we didn’t receive regular salaries, so our activity was also subject to change.

Therefore, we decided to direct it towards B2B and B2C. We made different products, but to develop the work, we had to do marketing and negotiations ourselves, and finally we got into trouble.

Later, during my doctoral studies, I got to know the field of crowdfunding, especially the Kickstarter startup, which provides teams with the right facilities to enter the market and develop their business.

After some time, we planned to import Kickstarter to Iran, which was not possible for some reasons, and we decided to create Nice Starter with the aim of compensating for the business weaknesses of the ecosystem and startup teams. At first, no one cooperated with us, but later we were able to cooperate with Barkat Institute. In June 1996, the site was launched on a trial basis and officially started working in September of the same year.

What teams with what characteristics are accepted in Nick Starter?

Our mechanism is such that we support startups that meet two conditions for initial market entry:

1. Provide a creative product in which new innovative work has been done. Teams must also have an MVP to continue working.
2. Have a cohesive team. If they are not a team, we will not accept them under any circumstances.

Currently 40% of our inbound teams are from accelerators and 60% from the ecosystem. We even have teams from regions like Sistan and Baluchistan that have been investigated. So far, we have identified about 212 teams and for this we have traveled to about 20 provinces. We supported 60 teams and introduced 45 teams on the site, of which 31 teams attracted funds. Among them, 9 teams lost and 6 teams were successful.

Do you have a limit on the type of fields you enter?

no Any team with Ideas Creative, innovative and cohesive team has the ability to enter the Nick Starter. Various examples in various fields such as games, works of art, Internet of Things, smart gadgets, health and wellness, disabled people and books have entered our site.

How does Nick Starter help startups?

Our goal is that every BusinessWe help those who need to attract capital in the first round to enter the market. At first, we only intended to operate in the field of crowdfunding; So we introduced the team and people invested in it, but due to the lack of a good team, we also entered the acceleration phase.

In the review of the teams, we evaluate them technically and check their product production ability, then we help to form their business model, and we adjust the marketing strategy to enter the market and then the advertising, expansion and content production strategy for them, so that after These steps enter the site.

We will guide you on what reforms to make, what groups to join and what events to organize. Finally, capital is attracted.

Have you partnered directly with an accelerator?

We receive projects from 8 accelerators, but they do not accelerate for us; Because the acceleration of the accelerators is in line with product development, but our work is the acceleration of the product market.

The difference between our work and accelerators is that many teams at the beginning of their work are forced to give their shares to accelerators for small amounts, while with this method of financing, the startup’s shares are preserved.

Where is the position of crowdfunding in the startup ecosystem?

Accelerators support an idea and then leave the startup to raise funds. On the other hand, VCs also want to lower the investment risk. For this reason, they need information such as market feedback, market traction, and startup production ability to evaluate the probability of success. The position of crowdfunding is to help both groups of startups and venture capitalists to enter the market early so that they can better know and evaluate the product market.

For example, I was talking to one of the European angel investors and he said that we no longer do venture capital directly. Rather, we first take the project to crowdfunding so that the market research of that project is done, and then when the results are known, we make a decision about investing in it. In fact, a startup that has been tested in a smaller community is less risky for investment.

Nick Starter also helps startups with market research before entering to make the necessary changes in their work. For example, the hand-painted startup, which did not even design an MVP at the beginning, has gained a billion value after six months and with the help of the reforms made in Nice Starter.

With the help of crowdfunding, how much capital have startups attracted?

So far, we have collected about 1 billion nine hundred and ninety five million tomans from 1882 people and this has been completely received from the people.

Of course, small grants are also available for those who like a project.

What are the specialties of the team members and how many are there?

About 20 people are members of Nick Starter, 8 of them are permanent and 12 of them are part-time. Those who are permanently employed specialize in the areas of management, project recruitment, evaluation, content creation, team support and consulting.

What is Nickstarter’s earning model?

We receive a 15% commission on the capital raised, and we also have income from side businesses such as film production and stock acquisition, although so far it has mostly played a supporting role.

What is the difference between you and other groups that are active in the field of crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding has 4 types: donation, reward base, P2P, equity. Every team in Iran that has claimed crowdfunding in the reward base method has finally changed its direction to donation, and 90% of them are active in the field of donation, and only 10% of the activities are done in the reward base method; But our job is not to know. Therefore, we are the only live reward base platform at the moment.

What challenges did you face along the way?

Due to the investments that have failed in Iran and the uncertainty that people have in pre-selling new products, we have faced challenges in order to gain people’s trust. The problem is the lack of culture; People are not familiar with crowdfunding. For culture building, we have come to the conclusion that if people don’t touch the product in their hands, they won’t gain their trust. For this reason, we have participated in more than a hundred events to introduce products.

Weakness and lack of maturity in startup teams and unclear legal rules from the government are other problems in the field of crowdfunding.

What is Nick Starter’s goal to expand his business in the future?

We are planning to reach 100 projects per month in the next two years, but we are not going to provide acceleration and ancillary services. We have already designed 12 side businesses. For example, we have launched startups that make videos for our teams or take over the teams’ digital marketing.

With these we simply become an entry point and hold events for the teams and then the fundraising happens. In the future, our plan is to help any business that needs capital to enter the market, and our work is not only for startups, and we can help them to attract capital instead of borrowing through pre-sale.

What is the amount of entrepreneurship of each project on the site?

According to the statistics of 31 teams from Nick Starter, 300 direct jobs have been created so far and we have been able to create jobs for about 600 people indirectly. The number of members of each team was 2 to 3 people before Nick Starter, but after leaving Nick Starter, it has reached 12 people; For example, Bazizar had 5 people in the beginning and now it has reached 12 people and managed to pre-sell 800 products. One of our honors is creating jobs with only ten million Tomans per person, which was collected by the people and not by the government.

What services have you provided to help city teams?

Due to the lack of accelerators in most cities and underprivileged regions, with the help of friends, we presented a project titled “Helping Startups in Underprivileged Areas” to support teams in underprivileged areas in this way. Currently, we have entered 5 less privileged regions including: Khuzestan, Sistan and Baluchistan, Kerman, Hormozgan; Most importantly, we tried to make our contributions towards the provincial needs of each team and worked on projects that no one has supported so far. In many of these cities, work has been done on infrastructure, but no attention has been paid to commercialization.

How do you feel about the social impact made by Nick Starter?

As I said, twelve years ago when we started our business in the field of aerospace, no one was helping us and we were very annoyed. This has made me feel like I belong to every new team that comes. That’s why I want to help them in any way possible.