Under the hashtag #buissup_mentors we continue to introduce you to the mentors of Buissup Global Forum 2022. This mentor knows the basics of building a competent investment strategy.
Samvel Gevorgyan is the founder-director of BSC Business Support Center. He shared his impressions of the Buissup Global Forum 2022 in Dilijan and spoke about the importance of such formats that contribute to the development of the foundations of business among young people.
- Mr. Gevorgyan, please share your impressions of Buissup Global Forum 2022.
First of all, I would like to note that everyone is talking about the event, how it’s going, what an interesting event is, and so on, but mostly I focused on the fact that Buissup is not an event in another environment. It’s outside the format of the event, an environment in which aspiring entrepreneurs, future entrepreneurs, communicating with each other, with mentors and investors, develop their thoughts and ideas. Even those participants who don’t win and don’t receive investments, take even more from this environment with them. That is, I don't call Buissup an event, and I share my impressions with the word "environment".
- Continuing your thought, how important is the creation of such an environment, given that this area is not so big in our country?
It’s even superfluous to talk about the importance, it’s a necessity. This is a necessary and sufficient condition for the development of the Armenian business environment, there is simply no other option. Because we are constantly talking about continuous entrepreneurial education, and it is in such formats that these opportunities are given. Here we are not talking about the presentation of the project, we are talking about education, training, exchange of experience and on the basis of this presentation of the relevant project to the market. The need for such media is more than important, I will say more, it is impossible to imagine the development of the Armenian business environment without such events.
- How realistic are the projects participating this year, and how much have they managed to generalize over these days for presentation to investors?
It's an interesting question, and I'm trying to answer similar questions in a comparative way. When you focus on one particular project or event, it is very difficult to give an overall assessment. If we compare, for example, there were much more emotions in last year's projects, from the point of view that people's expectations were much higher than those projects that were presented. For example, there are projects of average quality, there are projects that, one might say, should not have been here, there are projects that are excellent ideas and several factors, investments, efforts and a combination of other factors will achieve serious success. We can say that the entire palette of the Armenian business environment was presented here. from not very good, not very market-oriented, not very worthy projects to projects that can really have great success.
- Have the projects changed a lot these days thanks to working with mentors?
It seems to me that they have changed very, very much. The fact that the mentors did not have a minute of free time from 10 am to 11 pm shows this. This year there are more mentors, last year I was not one of the main mentors, but acted as a speaker, but in any case the number of mentors was large, these are the best specialists from different fields and with different thinking. And, it seems to me, I am more than sure that these changes have been noticed already within 15 minutes of mentoring. The participants came, entered the 15-minute tube with some kind of thinking, according to the opinion, according to the approach, let's assume about marketing, and a completely different way comes out. Although here I attach great importance to the behavior of a person presenting an investment project, leading a business idea. Of course, there are different people. There are types of participants who accept mistakes and change them, there are cases when they do not accept them. But in any case, working with mentors was an indescribable experience for them, and I am sure they will remember this all their lives.
- Were there any projects that impressed you?
It was a very interesting question, which I approached from the other side, that is, I chose projects that are close to me and really related to the time and trends of the future. For example, educational programs were very interesting, there were technological and product projects that were really amazing, how you can generate such ideas. I don't want to get hung up on the name of one project, but I can say that about 20-30% of the projects were really unexpected ideas. The surprise is also compounded by the fact that everything really worked if you put a little effort into it. Is it possible to achieve great success in the market? And we are talking not only about the Armenian market, but also about the global market.
