What the door is for
We enrich the local innovation ecosystem & support its sovereignty.
… and help build “the people of the future, strong & agile.” We provide a window of our local wonders to the world … and vice versa.
● The Legend · our history, 1900s → today
Follow the dotted line → Walked in with an idea. Left with a company.
Ideas scribbled on napkins had a habit of becoming companies, co-founders, first customers - and friends for life. Follow the dotted line from Chekhov’s fencers to the Yellow Door, Silicon Valley … and whatever comes next.
- The next gathering
Come to the next one.
Founders Coffee meets on Thursday mornings. Everything else gets a date when it is ready, and the guest list hears first.
- Founders CoffeeThursdays · weekly since 2011 →
- TGIF CocktailsFridays →
- Startup Crash TestPitches →
- Next StevesCo-founders →
- Late Night ArtsAfter dark →
- ConferencesWhere to meet us →
- Why people return
You come for one conversation & leave with a sharper question, a useful introduction, a harder truth about your pitch - or just the feeling that someone else understands the obsession.
Informal on purpose. Picky about people. Global by birth - it is where we come from - and for a multi-polar world.
Vision · Innov8 Global Labs
I8GL helps develop, source & build relationships with top local startups, investors and corporates looking to go global. We run courses, conferences, events to inspire & prepare for new market access & success - whilst enriching the local ecosystem & its sovereignty, showcasing it to the world. We make friendships which last a lifetime & create a more peaceful, prosperous, and fun world.
Since 2011
The Yellow Door, in numbers.
17,000+
Visitors
7,000+
Events
690+
Residents
At the legendary underground venture space on Strastnoi Boulevard - trainings, courses, events, conferences, parties & more. Today our work continues at Noodome, in Moscow’s Romanov Dvor, in offices & virtually around the world:
500+
startups a year touched through programs, workshops, events & referrals
~40
a year graduate our launchpad Intensives, still in their local markets
~20
a year accepted to top global accelerators or land at our landing pads
~10-15
a year funded by Innov8 Global Ventures + syndicates of top investors
What comes out the other side.
One project of Innov8 Global Labs ● Graduated
200+
Startups through the programmes.
● Raised
$270M+
By alumni, from global investors.
● Accelerators
31
Placed in top accelerators - 8 into YC, 23 into others.
● Exits
7
Local & global.
We create value & build pipelines
Our programming to inspire, educate & connect.
Weekly · walk in Founders Coffee & TGIFs Thursday morning meetings & Friday cocktails for founders to share, support & celebrate. Weekly since 2011. → Apply · 3-6 months Program “Intensives” Launch Pad programs in home markets for startups, investors and corporations prepping to go global. → Monthly · with Noodome The Future of The Future Lecture series on the future of tech with the world’s top speakers - Stanford & MIT VLAB, Singularity University. → Annual · winter → spring Big Ideas Challenge Competition for big ideas that will change the world, with top local universities. → Walk in Startup Crash Test Public pitching events - honest feedback, straight from the audience. → Walk in Next Steves Speed dating to find startup co-founders - as Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak found each other. → After dark Late Night Arts Hackathons, movies, unplugged concerts, visual art & more. Startups are about creativity & soul. → Chapters RU chapters for global orgs Techstars Startup Weekends, Startup Grind, Startup World Cup & more - run here, by us. → By invitation The Fencing & Jousting Society An “underground” cross-border community of mentors & investors. By invitation only. →
INSIDERS · Silicon Valley →
Intensive Courses prepare founders, investors & corporates to go global.
This is where founders are made. A 3-month launch pad that preps founders to go global - from their home market - and the front door to the fund. Closed-door pitches to YC, Techstars, 500, Alchemist, SkyDeck, StartX.
3-month hybrid · quarterly · December batches for Startups
- Prepares top local startups to enter global markets - all content critical for target market entry, workshops with top industry experts.
- Closed-door pitches to top investors & gurus from target markets for feedback, referrals & sometimes investment.
- Mentors who have gone through this themselves, some multiple times.
- Pitch directly to top accelerators: Y Combinator, Techstars, 500, Alchemist, SkyDeck, StartX. We scout for them & they support us.
- Prepares individual (“angel”) investors to access cross-border deals, and learn how to build venture funds.
- Masterclasses on global best practices: how to structure funds & deals, raise money, source deal flow, conduct due diligence & invest for maximum return, reduced risk.
- Access trends & deals from Silicon Valley & other hotspots - and share your own.
- Trips to Silicon Valley for in-person meetings - investors, LPs, startups, academics. Build important relationships.
- Prepares corporations to test & access new markets, and to build Corporate Venture groups (CVCs) with global best practices, trends & deal flow.
- Masterclasses on how to structure CVCs & deals, model, build deal flow, conduct due diligence & invest to grow profits and build market share.
- Source for corporate venture; consult on innovation.
- 1-5 synergistic corporates per cohort. 200+ hours of content, pitches, workshops, mentor sessions & resources.
3 months
Week 1 in person, then daily online
< 10
Startups per cohort
12-15
Closed-door pitches
100+
Hours of mentor & investor time
… and what would life be without coffee?
We built The Yellow Door around this handmade La Marzocco Strada - with all the trimmings! Hand-assembled in Florence, Italy, she took the long way to Strastnoi Boulevard: San Diego, a van to Cupertino, crated and flown to Kiev, broken out of customs and into Moscow - and finally down the stairs, like a piano. The one thing in the house that has never missed a quarter (the rest of us have had our moments).
The full story of how she got to Moscow is told at the bar, one flat white at a time.
What they say about us.
Residents, in their own words
Andrey Lobanov
Algorythmika
“I love this place, these people, and everything they do and stand for: for this country, for the world, for their sincere optimism and kindness.”
Valeria Maiboroda
Grechka Media
“The Yellow Door reminds me of the great traditions of science, engineering, and deep thoughtfulness we possess here. And I understand how much we have to offer the world, and how much we can draw from it.”
Arkadiy Meshkovskiy
Rentomania
“The Yellow Door is like the portal in “Guests from the Future” - you go into a basement and are transported twenty years ahead, where people fly on spaceships.”
Anna Grom
Founder Institute
“A large, beating heart in the center of a big city, connecting us - our ideas, skills, and aspirations - with the wider world. It is a place of opportunity.”
Dima Popov
Melon · Shazam
“Have you ever worked in an office cubicle? Yellow Door is the opposite. Open, fresh, free. In a word: soul. And the people who come here are just like you.”
Roman Boldyrev
Memory Code
“There are few people, places, and communities in my life that have had a profound impact on me - and Yellow Door is definitely one of them. Thank you!”
“YD is a power center of our startup community & a door to Silicon Valley and the world.”
Some startups that passed through The Yellow Door.
… and 100s more
The ecosystem
In three moves.
What we do
We add value & support the full lifecycle.
Programs Our “Intensives” for startups, investors and corporates going global are Launch Pads. Explore, learn, prepare. Mentors A vibrant cross-border venture community, The Fencing & Jousting Society. Events Run conferences, competitions, local events, coffees, workshops & more. The Yellow Door (RU). Sales Studio Test markets, win pilot customers, get traction, refine product, generate revenue. Operations Studio Open legal entities, bank accounts, offices, support visits, set meetings. Landing Pads. Marketing & PR Studio Publish stories, run SMM, webinars, promote startups and new tech, support the entire marketing stack. Tech & Design Studios Develop & refine tech, design (& plug in the latest AI). Invest & Fundraise We invest ourselves and/or help raise syndicates for our startups’ rounds. Corporates Source for Corporate Venture (CVCs), consult on innovation. Exit … Founders return to our ecosystem as mentors, investors, serial entrepreneurs. Investors often reinvest earnings, ‘double down.’
Typical timeline
We help source & prepare startups in their home markets, then land them into new ones.
- OngoingEvents, meetups, programsSource & develop startups; partner with universities, accelerators, mentor referrals - in home markets.
- 2-3 monthsVenture Labs · Launch PadsIntensive courses for startups prepping to go global.
- 1 monthOperations StudioSets up the company & operations in the new market.
- 3-6 monthsSales StudioTests traction in the new market, generates revenue.
- 3-6 monthsFundraising Advisory StudioHelps close rounds. Some startups accepted into global accelerators.
- 1-6 months +Landing PadsMeetings, conferences, visits to close deals & rounds.
- OnwardsVenture FundInvests, supports & scales startups from home & new markets.
Who we are
Cross-border expertise.
We have a strong track record of cross-border work, growing early-stage startups into global businesses & supporting corporates, investors entering Western >< BRICs markets.
- We invest in local innovation ecosystems & support their sovereignty. We showcase top startups & trends to the world - and vice versa.
- Our Labs help source & develop top startups in their local markets, our Studios help them enter new markets efficiently, and our Fund invests to scale their growth.
- We are Silicon Valley natives, with offices & partners in BRICS & Western ecosystems.
- We specialize in early-stage startups, but also advise investors & more mature companies.
- We have 30+ years experience as entrepreneurs & operators. Practical & actionable.
- Our extensive networks include potential customers, corporates, startups, investors, academics, accelerators, mentors, lawyers, accountants, technologists, designers & more.
- We support the entire product & investment lifecycle - from problem identification, to product-market fit, building operations, developing products and markets, winning initial pilot projects, scaling growth, raising investments - all the way through to exits.
- We understand global competitive landscapes, best practices, current trends and standards required by top players.
55°46′N 37°36′E - Strastnoi Blvd → 37°23′N 122°05′W - Silicon Valley
The magic is in the unobvious.
Finding meaningful connections between people and ideas that are not obvious to the rest of the world is where our magic happens. The Yellow Door is a wormhole between tech-rich emerging markets, Silicon Valley and the rest of the world.
By invitation. Fly fast, get things done.
“Find the world's most overlooked technical genius - a scientific tradition orthogonal to the Valley's - and carry it to the world's stage.”
The Yellow Door
The founding brief
Where we are
90
ambassadors, and growing
Moscow & St. Petersburg Palo Alto New York Berlin London Dubai Novosibirsk Bali Rio de Janeiro Yerevan Mexico City Shanghai Tehran
Our secret ingredient
The Yellow Door builds a strong community of Mentors & Advisors. Without doubt, they are the secret of our success.
50+
mentors
- Highly experienced & vetted. Most have gone through our programs themselves as founders & operators. We ‘walk the talk.’
- Many entered global markets themselves, graduated top accelerators, have direct experience, success, even exits.
- Few theoreticians. Our work aims to be practical & actionable.
- We live & work around the world, like to ‘give back’ & help others.
- Specialists in many verticals - marketing, dev, sales, ops. De facto, we are all also generalists.
500+
advisors
- From venture funds, angel networks, corporations, startups, accelerators around the world.
- We often practice pitches with them, test sales demos, ask for industry- or geography-specific advice.
- Give Masterclasses on global best practices: how to raise money, protect IP, close deals, grow sales.
- Share top trends & deals from Silicon Valley and other innovation hotspots - and we share ours with them.
- Often organise & host trips and conferences. Introduce others, build important relationships.
Individual approach · the mentor programme
The Night Climbers
- Startups access our mentor network through our programs; mentors form the core of our Fencing & Jousting Society, and are thought leaders in their industries.
- Mentor sessions on demand, tailored to a startup’s growth & needs - to build a clear long-term vision, or to solve the problem of the week.
- Regular masterclasses, publications, podcasts & workshops share best practice in local & global markets.
Let's stay in touch.
The dispatch
A letter, occasionally.
Cohort openings, party invitations, the odd confession. Once a fortnight at most, and never boring - we'd be too embarrassed.
The channels
Hear it first.
The Telegram channel gets everything first - dates, photos, the odd rumour. Everyone else is fashionably late.
The envelope
Show us what you've got.