Nerses Ohanyan: Armenian startups learned how to present to the investors properly

#CreateTogether technological event is held in Yerevan on October 5, 6 gathering innovators, startups, businessmen and investors.

Itel.am talked to one of the manager of #creatTogether Nerses Ohanyan who lives in the U.S. about the event, the tendencies of Armenian startup ecosystem as well as about HyeTech technological event that is planned to be held in the U.S.

-Who is #createTogether especially organized for and what problems is it solving?

- When organizing #createTogether, our goal was to gather Armenian and non-Armenian businessmen and to create an opportunity for them to visit Armenia. We chose October as Digitech Expo, half-marathon of Yerevan and HyeTech conferenceare held on these days. We are organizing events from October 2. It’s pleasant to see that people feel good, ask questions and get answers. Mainly people that are present are those interested in work of successful businessmen and wish to know how they succeeded, what obstacles they overcame.

-And how active are the startups?

-The quantity of startups and participants were lower than expected. But the smaller the auditorium, the warmer the atmosphere.

-What do you think are the developments in Armenian IT sphere?

-I encountered with Armenian startup ecosystem around 3 years ago by work. The companies that reached great success nowadays were just making their first steps at that time. We had done considerable amount of work with some of them. We saw how, for instance PicsArt, Plexonic and others were growing and becoming what they are now.

Three years ago, startups couldn’t present their ideas to possible investors and customers properly. They couldn’t talk about the problems they were solving and startup’s potential. This problem is solved now. We see companies that come and tell the investors and customers about their problems and vision. There is a positive change in this way.

Also the level of English has improved significantly. The same people who had difficulties presenting their startup in English 3 years ago now have improved their language proficiency due to hard work. It’s very pleasant to see.

-Tell us about forthcoming technological event in the Silicon Valley, please.

- HyeTech technological initiative is working for already 3 years. Connections are created with businessmen from around the world, startups and other representatives from the sphere. We bring specialists to Armenia from abroad to introduce to the ecosystem and invite Armenians to the Silicon Valley for a couple of weeks to have meetings in different companies and form an idea about the American startup ecosystem.

We will organize HyeTech Showcase in Berkeley, U.S., where businessmen, Armenian and startups from other counties are invited. Foreign investors and company managers will also be present.

- Have you already chosen the Armenian startups that will participate?

-Not yet. We will start to accept applications this week and then finally make our choice.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Nerses Ohanyan