29.08.2018

My name is Toleubaev Almas, I am a schoolarship holder of the Yerzhan Tatishev Foundation in 2017 and a pioneer of the unique BesTіrek program. In short, the goal of this program is not only to obtain fundamental theoretical knowledge in the field of marketing, but also to gain practical skills as a startup, to create their own business, while still a university student (some of our students did this).The unique program allows at the end of training not to waste time searching for a decent job, but to become an employer himself, develop the skills of doing business, create his own startups and projects. In turn, this helps to increase jobs, create new enterprises and, accordingly, develop the economy of our country. The training is carried out in two specialties: “Major” / “Management” (main specialty) and “Minor” / “Entrepreneurship” (additional specialty). A feature of this program is the training of students in entrepreneurial skills, the ability to create business projects and startups and their successful realization.

At the beginning of our studies, we were told that at the end of the first year we will have a three-minute “Rocket Pitch”, where we show our projects that we managed to create in the first year of study, the winners will have the opportunity to take paid courses at the best US entrepreneurial university, Babson College. For this purpose, I developed the Balmuzdak.net project, which is a kind of online platform for applicants.This site contains all the necessary information about the universities of Kazakhstan in an accessible and convenient form. The project was highly appreciated by the commission and took an honorary 1st place in the competition “Start Up Night AlmaU”, organized by the AlmaU Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development, 3rd place in the special competition “DOING THE INTERNET BETTER” within the framework of Enactus Kazakhstan from Beeline Kazakhstan, was also noted at the Kazan forum of young entrepreneurs of OIC countries (2018). My project took first place in Rocket Pitch, so I got a unique opportunity to go to study at Babson College!

The road was long, but amazing. I got to Boston with two transfers: first I flew to the capital of Azerbaijan, the city of Baku, where I spent 10 hours and visited the main attractions of this wonderful city.Then my path continued in the richest country in the world – Qatar, the city of Doha; after which I flew to Boston. On the first day in Boston, I immediately went to the best universities in the world – Harvard and MIT!

A lot of student from different countries came to the courses: Latin America, India, South Korea and many others. I was the only representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Classes were held on various topics, such as: entrepreneurial thinking, design thinking, marketing and finance in a startup, how to get investment in your project, business growth, etc.Of particular interest, in my opinion, was to sort out the cases of successful business projects of graduates. After graduation, I visited New York, the city impressed me with its architecture, the famous Times Square, the huge Central Park and a lot of people, tourists.

Thanks to this trip, I was given new knowledge and invaluable experience in the field of entrepreneurship and business, and most importantly – new acquaintances. With all my heart and very sincerely, I want to thank the Yerzhan Tatishev Foundation, my Almaty Management University and the AlmaU Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development for this unique opportunity!