Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Tymofeev) and Andrew Kryvorchuk about Anti-Pitching Project

Ruslan Tymofieiev

While most startup founders have to stress out before meeting investors in order to pitch their project right, the initiators of Hey, Pitches! offer startuppers to get free tips on developing their businesses and help them improve their projects before pitching. This way, Hey, Pitches! wants to improve the whole startup ecosystem of the country.

The first meeting of startuppers and experts of Hey, Pitches! happened in August 2021 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The project was initiated by venture funds Adventures Lab and Flyer One Ventures. Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Tymofeev), the founder of Adventures Lab, and Adventures Lab Managing Partner Andrew Kryvorchuk talk about the initiative and what changes it can bring to the Ukrainian startup market.

According to Andrew Kryvorchuk, one should not consider Hey, Pitches! as an opportunity to learn how to pitch their projects. Vice versa, the project meeting goes on a friendly mode, and instead of trying their best to impress the investors, startup founders talk to investors on an equal footing and get advice on developing their startups so they can come for pitching later to any investor with a truly promising project.

Any startup can send an application form to Adventures Lab to get to the meeting. The fund picks up about ten projects and provides one-hour meetings with each of them. The initiative became in great demand, and the very first session of Hey, Pitches! was applied by more than 60 startups.

Ruslan Tymofieiev (Ruslan Tymofeev), the founder of the venture capital fund Adventures Lab, explains that such an initiative helps startup founders to look at their business through the eyes of experts. Most young businessmen focus on their ideas too much and ignore all the alternatives, not to mention their competitors and weaknesses of the initial idea. The Hey, Pitches! experts do not intend to give ready solutions to startuppers, instead, they opt to talk to them and ask them questions that lead startup founders to expand their horizon and look at their project from a different angle.

According to the experts from Adventures Lab, the initiative became popular among IT startups, especially those that develop mobile apps and other software. Aсcording to Ruslan Tymofieiev, about 70% of the Hey, Pitches! participants are teams at the MVP stage, while the rest 30% have already got their first income and now need to understand how to scale their business.

Among the projects that met the Hey, Pitches! experts this summer, there was Pavooq, a platform for analyzing human interaction in online communication. According to the project representative, Hey, Pitches! conducted a crash test on their startup and pointed out the flaws of the project. This way, the startup will be able to update its strategy and develop its business accordingly.

Another startup that met the Hey, Pitches! experts was Zeely. The young company develops a mobile app aimed at increasing online sales for businesses that operate in poorly developed countries. According to the company representative, there is nothing like the initiative in Ukraine that can advise young startups especially that would give tips to founders in the informal mode.

Such meetings are planned to be held once a month to help the whole startup market in Ukraine. The experts from Hey, Pitches! believe that such an approach will help startup founders get more motivation to develop their business and succeed faster.