INNOVATIVE START-UPS IN RUSSIA: CREATION AND MARKET PROMOTION PROBLEMS

The innovative modernization of the Russian economy updates the development of start-up companies as significant elements of the national innovative system. Russia has seen rapid growth in venture capital investments in high-tech start-ups field (47.3-fold in the period 2006-2012). By the end of 2012, Russia was among the 5 leading countries (after the UK, France, Germany and before Sweden) on investments in high technology. Development of start-up businesses in the Russian economy in modern conditions is hampered by the interrelated problems of methodological, institutional, organizational, informational, marketing and investment issues. One of the important methodological problems is the lack of unified approach to identification of the key characteristics of start-ups. In economic practice in different countries companies that have different age, number of employees, the amount of own and borrowed funds, the amount of income are related to startups. At the same time considered approaches share a common idea - the presence of a startup company’s innovative activity nature, fold increase in sales and profits within a fairly short period of time since the start of the project. Formation of a unified system of characteristics for classifying companies to startups has become an urgent theoretical and practical task requiring scientific justification. The problem of start-up company’s status and its fixing in the Russian economic legislation also has to be solved. Among the organizational problems of particular importance we should mention bringing start-up projects to the investment stage, determining to a large extent the success of their implementation. Other important factor include implementing start-up projects, effective marketing using innovative technologies of their internet promotion and opportunities to attract investments (public-private ? through the development institutes, private ones ? from businesses, venture funds, collective investment on the basis of crowdfunding) provided by specialized internet platforms as well as crowdfunding websites accomplished with such websites communities creation in the social networks. A comprehensive solution of these problems will contribute to the successful functioning of innovative start-ups and strategic goal of implementing innovative model providing for competitive, sustainable and safe development of the Russian economy.