NSU Teacher’s Startup Became the Winner of A:START

Joining the list of winners of the Akadempark A:START acceleration program means getting a real opportunity to take your place in the market and establish yourself in Russian science. This year, the list of winners included a graduate student of the FF NGU, a senior lecturer of the Department of VM FF NGU and the Department of FTI FF NGU.Nikita Oslotnikov. Together with the team, he assembled and presented a robot for pallet logistics.

—It turned out that precisely robotics: large language models (LLM) significantly simplify code writing, so there are many IT teams now, whereas there are very few robotics teams in Russia and, in particular, in Novosibirsk. And this is despite the fact that technology development makes robotics much easier: lidars can now be bought at an affordable price, and algorithms have significantly improved. Therefore, it seems to me that now is the perfect time to develop robotics in Russia., — explains Nikita.

The desire to develop his own startup appeared in Nikita back in his student years, when, being a student of the Physics Faculty, he worked part-time at the robotics startup R2Robotics.

—I liked the atmosphere in the startup, when you do something useful, when you are a jack of all trades. Something about it “clicked” with me. I always have a lot of project ideas, and I tried several times to gather a team. But either everyone was very busy with studies, or the idea itself, after minimal validation, turned out to be unpromising.— Nikita recalls.

In the winter of this year, he saw several posts in social networks about pallet logistics in warehouses; this topic interested him, and he began to delve into it. The Catalyst and A:START acceleration programs helped him to formulate and present ideas, as well as find the necessary contacts for developing the startup. Nikita admits: the most difficult thing was finding time to develop the project because a startup at an early stage for survival and a quick market launch requires a lot of resources. Meanwhile, his work tasks did not disappear anywhere instantly, and they still needed to be “taken care of.”

The modular robot forklift easily operates where the use of large forklifts is impossible. It builds a map of the surrounding environment in real time, accurately determines its position, and does not deviate from the assigned route. The robot is able to lift loads weighing up to one ton and confidently move over uneven surfaces, combining stability and efficiency even in challenging conditions.

Nikita and the team are currently working on obtaining financing. They submitted an application for the START-1 competition from the Innovation Assistance Fund and are negotiating with potential investors. Next — refining the current version of the loader to the state of a full-fledged prototype, which will be tested in real conditions at companies that have expressed a willingness to provide a pilot site. They will also continue to demonstrate it at startup and logistics conferences to get maximum feedback. If the product finds a buyer, the team will scale up production.Nikita admits that if the results of the pilot launches turn out to be unsatisfactory, the team will continue to modernize their product according to the real customers’ requirements.

—Don’t get fixated on your product and ignore the real problems of people. It’s very frustrating to develop some product for several months or years and only then find out that no one needs it. First, talk to potential customers and find out: whether they really have the problem, or if you yourself have imagined it, and whether they are willing to pay for its solution. Don’t be afraid to understand that the idea is bad. It’s better to find this out as early as possible.

Look for a team of like-minded people. People with whom you enjoy working, with whom you share common goals. There are only 24 hours in a day, and startups have a very hectic pace. Either you work fast, or the project dies on the shelf. And doing everything alone is practically impossible.

Use all available opportunities: accelerators, Innovation Assistance Fund programs, Leader-ID events, and other support measures. All this is absolutely free and truly helps to quickly develop your project., — shared advice Nikita Orlotnikov.