Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Young developers and startup founders in Andijan Region have learned how to validate business ideas, find their first customers and prepare projects to attract investment.
A practical workshop titled “From Idea to Investment” was held on 8 October at AI Hub, the Artificial Intelligence Centre in Andijan Region.
The event was organised by the Andijan branch of IT Park Uzbekistan. The programme targeted young people interested in entrepreneurship and founders of early-stage startups.
Participants explored the main stages of developing a project, including identifying the problem it aims to solve, analysing the target audience and assessing market potential.
They were introduced to the Lean Startup and Customer Development methodologies and practised defining a value proposition, identifying target customer segments and developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to test business hypotheses at limited cost.
One of the participants was 15-year-old programmer Oyatbek Abduganiev, who is working on two startups, ParkOS and Ilimli. Both projects are at the MVP stage, and he attended the workshop to prepare them for market entry and sales.
“I learned about the Lean Startup approach here and decided to review the business models of my projects.
“I do not intend to postpone applying what I have learned. I will start working on the business models of both startups today,” Abduganiev said.
A separate session focused on fundraising. Participants learned how venture capital funds and business angels operate, as well as the factors investors consider when evaluating startups, including market size, team experience, business models, early results and financial performance.
Practical exercises helped young entrepreneurs determine how much investment they needed, justify their projected expenses and define the results their projects should achieve with the funding.
Yakhyobek Khabibullaev, a programmer and head of the Smart Lab team, also shared his experience in project development. His team is currently working on a solution to bring traditional laboratories online.
“I had previously tried launching small startups, but they were unsuccessful. That is why I came to the workshop to learn more about startup development. I plan to apply what I have learned to this project and to my future startups,” Khabibullaev said.
Another topic was preparing a pitch deck, a presentation founders use to introduce their projects to potential investors.
Participants learned how to clearly present the problem and proposed solution, describe the product and market, analyse competitors, explain the business model, introduce the team and outline their investment request.
The workshop concluded with a pitching session in which participants presented their projects in three minutes, followed by two minutes of questions and discussion with experts.
The format allowed founders to test how clearly they could explain their projects and their advantages, while receiving recommendations for further development.
Promising projects are expected to be referred to incubation and acceleration programmes run by the Andijan branch of IT Park Uzbekistan.
Their founders will also be able to work with mentors and continue preparing to attract investment.
