Events

Establishment and management of start-up project

16:00 01-11-2012

 
Most of the start-ups begin among students...

On Friday, the 1st of November,.2012 at 16:00, the Faculty of Technological Management, with the participation of the Association for Project Management in Israel (PMI), hosted a special seminar dedicated to the establishment and management of start-up projects.
Among the guests at this seminar were the owners, the joint GM of the Moldavsky Group, Mr. Yossi Moldavsky and PMI Vice-President, Mr. Alex Dan, who shared their experiences in the field of start-up project establishment and management with the audience by giving two fascinating lectures.
The seminar was attended by ca. 300 students and guests, all dreaming/thinking/planning at various stages: establishment/thought/fantasy/or just plain interest in initiating a start-up.

For a small taste of the forthcoming seminar, we met Mr. Alex Dan to clarify several issues.

What is the difference between managing a project, as we know it today, and managing a start-up project?
"In the community of start-up developers, project management is perceived as something belonging to the world of institutionalized projects in non-entrepreneurial, non-innovative fields. Every entrepreneurial project has its individual characteristics and risks that make it unique, such as the absence of prior data, but the methodology of managing similar projects can certainly be applied to them as well."

What are the components of a start-up that help it to succeed?

"The first challenge of any start-up project is to define its subject-matter: What is the project? What are its goals? When has it been completed? When is it time to go on to something else? As for the work involved, one must define the activities it requires: fundraising and technological risks. All this begins with what characterizes a start-up project, which is usually based on market prognosis. In the absence of such a market, a start-up has no right to exist and, therefore, the topic of 'market' is smoothly integrated into the subject-matter. In start-up ventures, there are no previous data, there are high risks, it is hard to raise funds and, therefore, the entrepreneur should take novel approaches in order to succeed in attaining the 'holy trinity': subject-matter, resources and time."

What will the lecture contribute to the students?

"The method is practical and finds its main expression in the community of students interested in founding a start-up. Anyone intending on becoming an entrepreneur can learn how to adopt the method and adjust it to his/her personal or joint venture. Most start-ups begin among students. Adopting this method enables the relatively quick identification of how to succeed, and success begins with the definition of the subject-matter. This method enables the execution of an informed, unstructured process for the management of the start-up project and is used to increase the project's chances of success."