Startups are characterized by unconventional and innovative solutions, errors understanding and testing of new ideas, uncertainty and constant adaptation of business models.

To analyse the ways a well-established business may benefit from startup culture, groups of Presidents' MBA-19 and Presidents' MBA-20 programs visited Lift99 Kyiv Hub with a training case.

During their visit, they took on the role of investors, and founders of three Ukrainian startups presented their projects to them. In particular, among these projects were: 1) a web platform for interaction with designers undertaking to fulfil a client's technical task during one business day; 2) an application for pre-ordering dishes and table reservation in the chosen food outlet; 3) a digital marketing and sales analytics service.

Participants of the Presidents' MBA program studied the relevance of the ideas, team capability to cope with these ideas implementation, as well as scaling prospects and key risks in each case. They also offered solutions to enhance the products presented.

At the end of the case, each of the participants of the Presidents' MBA program decided how to distribute USD 50,000 of investment between the three projects.

The meeting was held at Lift99 Kyiv Hub not by chance, as the hub is a center of gravity for the Ukrainian and international startups. Representative offices of Lift99 in Estonia and Ukraine have already become centers for sharing experience, finding both like-minded people and investors for the particular idea implementation. This is facilitated by various events held for residents and by the global network of Lift99 founders and partners.

Participants will soon visit Estonia and Sweden to explore the entrepreneurial culture of these countries and to see how the concept of cogrowing communities is implemented on a practical level.

Participants of the Presidents' MBA program acted as investors for the Ukrainian startups