Report on Startup project scheduling

Telecommunications relay services enable persons who have hearing or speech disabilities and who otherwise would be unable to engage in voice telecommunications, to make voice telephone calls to other persons. In all forms of relay services, persons with disabilities connect to a communication assistant via a communications medium that is accessible to them. The communication assistant acts as an intermediary in the telephone call and converts between the accessible communication medium and voice, which is relayed from and to the person on the other end of the call.

The divergence of interests of innovation products' producers and agents of transfer is a cause of gap between the process of promotion of innovation products to market and innovation process. Therefore, a standard graphical notation will facilitate the understanding of the performance collaborations and business transactions within and between the organizations [21].

This will ensure that participants of innovation products' promotion to the market will understand themselves and participants in their business and will enable them to adjust to new circumstances quickly.

As can be seen below the structure of planning phase of promotion of innovation products to the market is illustrated in 

3.2.    Startup team building

One of the most important resources needed to promote an innovative business idea, embodied in innovative products, is experienced venture capitalists consider a business entity team. When selecting an innovative project for investing, they necessarily analyze the business entities on the basis of the previous experience of the founders in creating a business and implementing successful projects that were able to attract venture investments.

A study by CB Insights shows that 23% of business entities trying to market innovative products fall apart through an incorrectly selected team [22, p. 208 с].

That is why the author of an innovative idea, who decided to launch a startup to bring it to life, should follow the rules of its successful selection when forming a team. First and foremost, distinguish between a startup team and a team of employees.

Employees are not expected to have high loyalty and excessive commitment to startup development; This category of entities can be outsourced.

At the same time, the members of the startup team should be the exact opposite of the employees and meet the following qualities:

·       Treat the business as the owner, not the employee.

·       Be aware of the high probability of a failed start (approximately 10% success to 90% failure).

·       Understand that it is up to him / her to decide which aspect of the aforementioned 10/90 ratio will change (not the country's political situation, suppliers' honesty, crisis or other objective factors).

·       Be prepared to take responsibility for ownership of innovative products that are not yet available.

·       Be aware that for a successful result one has to pay for their time, emotional and physical efforts.

·       Be prepared to work for a nominal fee during the initial periods without any decent fixed salary.

Having multiple startup teams on the startup team is only for the benefit of the startup. Startup sole proprietors spend 3.6 times more time reaching a project level comparable to a similar project launched by 2 people, with sole proprietors 2.3 times less likely to get rejected by investors [23, p. С. 345]. The key is for the team to be balanced and able to respond quickly to market changes, capable of producing innovative products on time. Studies [24] have shown that the number of startups with 2-3 founders far outnumber other combinations.

Ideally, the team should be balanced in terms of the competencies and experience of the participants. It is considered that the best combination is the partnership of specialists: a businessman-businessman who knows the market well and potential consumers, and a technician who is able to be responsible for the implementation of the project from the technical side. At the same time, it is important that their roles and responsibilities, including the decision-making procedure, are clearly outlined in the legal statutes - this will avoid many issues and problems in the future and make decisions if consensus cannot be reached. Such a team is likely to attract up to 30% more investments and 3 times increase the number of consumers, which will have a positive impact on the development stage of the startup [25, p. С.36-43].

Those startups whose founders never stop learning new are more successful. Thus, working with mentors, internal team training and constant monitoring of the results dynamics by 80% increases the chances of attracting financing from investors and accelerates the number of consumers by 3.5 times [26].

Team building requires the management of egos and their constant demands for attention and recognition – not always warranted.   Team building is both an art and a science and the leader who can consistently build high performance teams is worth their weight in gold. [27]

Here is some effective team building ways successful teams are built to last [28]:

·       Selecting a Co-Founder - Identifying the gap in business. Whether it’s in a specific process or an entire business area, associating with someone who brings that expertise to the startup. Sometimes it's a good idea to partner up with someone that you’ve worked with before, as there will be familiarity with each others' work ethic, along with a mutual trust and respect for each other.

·       Selecting Team Members - Identifying the voids of startup to easily identify the skill sets required to satisfy company's needs.

·       Risk to avoid when building team - A potential hire needs to see the big picture. Not only will they understand their role in your startup, but it’ll keep them involved and excited.

Leaders are only as successful as their teams and the great ones know that with the right team dynamics, decisions and diverse personalities, everyone wins in the end.

Below is a diagram showing graphically the structure of a telecommunication relay service and the relative ranks of its parts and positions.

Existing research emphasizes the importance of trust and team building. Trust is a crucial factor for team performance; The preliminary results of our study reinforce the insights from the literature and contribute further insights relating to trust in high-performing teams and within business ecosystems. In particularly, these results highlight the importance of sharing critical information and having a high level of communication through constant interaction.

The research concluded that the initial aim of this study was to investigate the effect team building exercises have on performance.

3.3    Business Model development

The business model can provide a view of a company, which shows how a company’s internal structure is managed and how it connects with its external environment. Figure 3.4 covers TRS Business Model.

Notes to Figure 3.4:

– MoC: Mode of communication.

– Terminals and network details of relay service are not shown.

Vision: Safe, healthy individuals, families, and communities.

Mission: Improve safety and health of individuals, families, and communities by providing affordable relay telecommunication services and participating in partnerships.

Values: Excellency in service, respect, collaboration and partnership, diversity and accountability

Our impact: Together we improve hearing disability safety and health status, and increase educational and employment success to support people and communities in reach their potential

Goal: Improve economic stability.

Table 3.1

Business Model Development (Strategic, Actions, Partners and Key performance indicator