Lizaveta Peniaz: How to Build a Successful Startup Ecosystem

Lizaveta Peniaz, the leader of the Belarusian startup community, talks about developing entrepreneurial infrastructure in the country and launching Belarus's first startup accelerator.

Photo from the personal archive of Elizaveta Penyaz

Lizaveta, how did your journey in the world of startups and entrepreneurship begin?

While studying at the Belarusian State University, I became interested in how classical business differs from startups. I was also attracted to creative industries, and my first project was created at the Department of Cultural Studies. It was the School of Creative Industries, where we talked about how the business model changes with a creative component and what creative startups are. It was a series of lectures for cultural figures about launching a business in their field, demonstrating successful international cases. One of our speakers was Ragnar Siil, ex-deputy minister of culture of Estonia. Attracting such an expert was a great achievement for us.

What sparked your deeper immersion into the startup ecosystem?

The desire to understand the mechanisms of company success led to an internship at the crowdfunding platform TALAKA.BY, where I saw how startups attract investments and conducted research on startup accelerators in the US market. After the internship, I began to study the work of business incubators, organizations that support young entrepreneurs' projects at all stages - from idea to implementation. At the business incubator "The Future is With Us," I organized seminars and forums for entrepreneurs and searched for interesting business projects. I also completed the "Internet Entrepreneurship Teacher" course at the Internet Initiatives Development Fund - the largest venture fund in Russia.

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Tell us about your first major projects.

I organized the first international startup competition and business forum SU&IT. It was a large-scale event with many speakers, about eight hours of presentations, and over 1000 participants. I managed to invite experts from Google for Startups, CEO of "Megaplan," senior investment analyst from Runa Capital, Ideal Machine, and many others. More than 300 startups participated in the ideas competition.

After SU&IT, I organized a hackathon as part of the "International Urban.Tech Moscow Tour" for the Moscow Innovation Agency. I also searched for partners for the business incubator to participate in international global projects. This was my first experience participating in grant programs, including writing a project application for a grant from the European Commission together with partners from Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and Poland.

How did you start working on creating a startup accelerator in Belarus?

I applied for a grant from the project "Support for Local Economic Development in the Republic of Belarus," funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Program in partnership with the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus. In the application, I described in detail the problems and the need to create a comprehensive structure to support entrepreneurship. I won the grant, and that's how work on the startup accelerator began.

Tell us more about your accelerator. How does it work?

Our accelerator is a three-month program aimed at helping participants launch startups from idea to first sales, attract investments, scale, and enter international markets. We use various work formats: weekly meetings with a tracker, group sessions, and individual consultations with experts. The training program includes all necessary seminars on key topics: from building a value proposition to financial modeling.

Photo from the personal archive of Elizaveta Penyaz

What methodologies do you use in working with startups?

We rely on hypothesis testing, the HADI approach (Hypothesis-Action-Data-Insights), Customer Development, testing attraction channels, and the critical chain method. An important element of our culture is the readiness to quickly change the approach if something doesn't work.

How do you develop the startup ecosystem beyond the accelerator?

We don't limit ourselves to working only with startups. We created a course for trackers - specialists in working with startups. We also conduct training for investors and a course on product management. We've created a barrier-free environment with an online platform where anyone from anywhere in the world can participate in our training online.

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Share your success stories.

I will name only a few, but there are many more.

• A foodtech project for healthy meal delivery, reaching a million dollars in revenue: a service offering personalized healthy meal plans with ready-made meal delivery, helping clients maintain a balanced diet.
• An AI startup for CT scan diagnostics that entered the European market: they analyzed CT scans during the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly speeding up doctors' work and helping diagnose pneumonia faster.
• An AR/VR project in online shopping: using augmented reality, users could virtually try on clothes and create a personal virtual wardrobe, improving the online shopping experience.
• A telemedicine project: an online platform for patient rehabilitation with an extensive database of doctors and the development of a program for remote diagnostics and online training sessions, making medical care more accessible.

But there are also successes from our course graduates. We are proud to have inspired the creation of the first Trackers Association in Belarus, organized by our graduates. New projects supporting entrepreneurs and startups are also emerging, which is important for infrastructure development.

Lizaveta Peniaz proves by her example that even in challenging conditions, it's possible to create and develop successful startup ecosystems. Her efforts help shape a new entrepreneurial culture in Belarus, inspiring a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.

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