Armenia Startup Academy graduates: WooChess

On February 3 the American University of Armenia hosted the Demo Day of the first stage of Armenia Startup Academy’s accelerator, within the frames of which 11 teams introduced their projects.

Itel.am presents a special column, dedicated to the first graduates of Armenia Startup Academy.

WooChess

WooChess is an innovative educational system for chess players, where coaches can deliver online lessons to several players at once.

The webpage provides all the conveniences for organizing chess lessons: video call, chat, interactive chess board, opportunity to give home assignments and prepare for lessons, analyses pairings and various positions and many other chess tools.
 
“There is no other solution available now, which would combine all the tools necessary for organizing chess lessons. We have united all the tools on one webpage,” the startup representatives noted.

WooChess team involves 6 specialists. The Founder of the startup is former chess player Hrayr Shahbazyan, who has 8 years of experience in programming.

Although the company targets everyone willing to learn how to play chess, Hrayr Shahbazyan noted that they especially focus on professional chess players aged 10-18.
 
“I can’t find words to express my feelings, since my view on our startup was different from the one after participating in this program. Now I am more confident in myself and my team, as I learned everything concerning startups within the frames of the programs,” the Founder of WooChess said.

The team is going to launch the product as soon as possible and have 200 registered coaches and 10,000 hours of lessons by the yearend.

Armenia Startup Academy is initiated by Catalyst Foundation and implemented in the framework of the EU4Business Support to SME Development (SMEDA) Project, which is co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ’s Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Programme. SMEDA is part of the EU4Business and EU4Innovation initiatives of the European Union.

Narine Daneghyan