Skycryptor Founder: Participation in StartupIstanbul was “an invaluable experience”

Results of StartupIstanbul international contest were summed up yesterday, and Armenian Skycryptor startup was included among Top-15.
 
Founder of Skycryptor Aram Jivanyan told Itel.am that he aimed to reach at least the final from the very beginning.
 
“Besides being successful in practical terms, the participation was also a wonderful experience in emotional and other terms. And it demanded to perform with winning pitches for several days in a row, right from the moment you got off the plane. There was a bit of “sporting” interest. I introduced Skycryptor to big audiences twice before, though it took me a whole day to get emotionally prepared for a confident introduction to the auditorium of this scale, especially in Istanbul. I think it was not bad; anyway, it was an invaluable experience. And besides, not every day Y Combinator and Andreesen-Horovitz  representatives are in jury, and this means that the mentioned venture funds are a step nearer and more available not only for  Skycryptor, but surely for all other Armenian startups as well,” Aram Jivanyan noted.

photo © StartupIstanbul

Carrying on, Aram Jivanyan told about the strategic move, for which they went to Istanbul.

“One needs a guarantee from one of Y Combinator’s partners to be interviewed by them. I think that no Armenian startup has a relative or an acquaintance there. Try to find any startup event, where one of accelerator’s partners is among jury, necessarily get to the final performance, and do not miss a chance to drink beer with them before or after the performance. Only after this you will surely have the important acquaintance that you established on your own,” Skycryptor founder explains.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Aram Jivanyan

Representatives of 10 Armenian startups had an opportunity to participate in Startup Istanbul Regional Forum on October 6-10, 2016 with the support of Public Journalism Club (Armenia) and TEPAV Foundation’s (Turkey) Mutual Visits of Businessmen project.

Mutual Visits of Businessmen project is aimed at creation of new opportunities of cooperation between Armenian and Turkish businessmen, programmers, designers, sales managers, producers and startups from the sphere of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).  

Armenia-Turkey Normalization Process program is implemented by consortium of eight Armenian and Turkish NGOs, by European Union’s financial support.