What to pay special attention to today when launching a FinTech product, Evgeny Cherkashin, CEO of humex service design company, is working with experts from Sberbank and MTS Bank.
New in the field of FinTech: import substitution, relations with the state and profitability
FinTech startups, like the entire Russian IT market, depend on foreign software and platforms. This includes a product development environment, specialized programs for design, data analysis, and management tools — for example, process organization and project management.
Many companies that provided such solutions left the market and stopped selling licenses to Russian companies. Here startups have two options: to transport the entire team abroad, or at the stage of the idea to decide which alternative programs to use.
In quieter times, large companies and banks could afford to maintain unprofitable startups for years in order to attract users, increase awareness, just for the prestige of the brand. Now they are being massively closed. For example, Sber refused the Citymobil service. Those projects that plan to become profitable as quickly as possible have a chance to invest today.
According to recent research, 35% of startups failed because their products were not needed by anyone. Today, in Russia and in the world, people’s behavior scenarios are changing even faster than usual — and the danger of not meeting the needs of the target audience has increased even more.
Therefore, it is important to start testing your hypotheses as early as possible and dismiss those that do not work. And to bring early — even slightly “raw” — versions of the product to the market as soon as possible to make sure that it is in demand.
Relations with the state are of particular importance. The entire IT sector should keep an eye on what is happening with the legislative framework, with the regulation of banks and currencies, and so on.
By the way, the state is becoming an active player in the market. Today it actively supports IT startups with benefits and subsidies – it is worth taking advantage of this.