On Friday, April 4, 2025, the grand final of the republican youth project "100 Ideas for Belarus" was held at the National Children's Technopark. A total of 155 original developments were presented, including 6 projects by students of the Belarusian National Technical University. Young authors defended their projects before expert councils, and at the end of the day, at a meeting of the republican expert council, 30 winners of the competition in 10 nominations and three age categories were determined.
According to the results of the competition, the winner in the nomination "Best Business Idea" was the FinSpace project of BNTU students Yaroslav Barnatovich (CEO), Dmitry Markevich (Project Manager and CMO) and German Zhuravsky (STO). FinSpace is a personal financial assistant that makes money management a simple, fun and effective process.
- It's like Duolingo, but for your finances: a clear interface, instant data entry and accurate analytics in real time. Built-in gamification turns routine tasks into daily mini-challenges that you want to complete again and again. Financial discipline has never been so exciting! - said Dmitry Markevich, a student of the Faculty of Information Technology and Robotics (FITR).
– How did the idea of creating FinSpace come about? What was the inspiration?
– The idea came to us during the team’s participation in the Space Hackathon with BPC. That’s where the first prototype of the application appeared. After the hackathon, we continued to develop the project, which allowed us to study the needs of the population in detail and understand that the application could be in demand on the market, – the participants shared.
One of the biggest challenges when starting a project from scratch is to assemble a really strong team that not only knows how, but also wants to achieve its goals on time.
– Together (Yaroslav Barnatovich, Dmitry Markevich, German Zhuravsky. – Ed.) stood at the origins of the project and from the very beginning were engaged in its concept, product part and team formation. Today, our team has grown to 12 people – it includes talented designers and developers. Among them are our students from the Belarusian National Technical University, as well as managers, – noted Dmitry Markevich.
To develop the project, the students chose modern technologies, as they provide reliability, scalability and good user interaction. The application interface was created in JavaScript using the React library. This made the application fast and responsive. To work with the API, the developers used Axios. The visual part was designed using Material UI, Sass and the clsx library for class management.
Large projects require careful preparation and lengthy development. Every detail must be thought out, and every function must be thoroughly tested. This is the only way to create a truly high-quality and reliable solution that will please users with its functionality and convenience.
- Initially, FinSpace was conceived as an application that would combine all bank cards. However, after two months of work, we realized that in the current realities, implementing the original concept from scratch is too ambitious at the start. It was necessary to build a path step by step: first, gather an audience, gain the trust of users and only then scale up to the original idea, - said one of the project developers.
So the students decided to pivot (a sharp change in the direction of a startup with the aim of its further development and maintaining viability) and after a month of active work they have already implemented an updated version of FinSpace, which has become the first important step towards a big goal.
– What are your plans for the further development of FinSpace?
– The next stage in the development of FinSpace is a successful graduation from the HTP accelerator. The outcome of the program should be pitching to specialized investors, where we will attract the necessary investments for further development, – shared Yaroslav Barnatovich, a student of the Faculty of Management Technologies and Humanitarianization.
The Republican project "100 Ideas for Belarus" helps young talented people implement their innovative startups.
- For us, winning the "Best Business Idea" nomination is an indicator that we are making a popular product that solves important problems for society in the field of personal finance accounting. An experienced expert committee assessed FinSpace and confirmed that we are moving in the right direction, - noted Yaroslav Barnatovich.
A student of the Faculty of Information Technology and Robotics German Zhuravsky believes that it was the deep market analysis and identification of key audience needs, as well as the use of innovative technologies and coordinated teamwork that played a key role in winning the competition.
- The real victory is the implementation of the project. The launch of FinSpace for the general public is scheduled for the end of April. Then we will present a fully functional MVP with a wide range of financial accounting tools.
– What advice can you give to other students who want to create their own startups and take part in a detailed competition?
– Working on a startup is a big job. Authors should have not only the technical skills necessary to implement complex and advanced solutions, but also have a deep understanding of business, which will allow them to make effective management decisions. These qualities can only be formed through daily practice and self-improvement. In order to gain valuable experience and knowledge that you can successfully apply in the future when creating your own business, you need to take part in all kinds of startups, – said the developers.
If you are already the author of a startup, then remember that the success of an idea largely depends on persistence and faith in it, never give up and do not stop there. No one except the market will be able to appreciate your startup, so if at competitions they say that the idea is bad or unprofitable, keep moving forward and test hypotheses on the market and real consumers.
We congratulate the winners and wish them success in implementing the project!
