The story of how for the year $ 20,000 turn into $ 2,000,000. Copy one year later
Friends, like this, completely unnoticed by our team, a year has passed since Kopini was founded . We wrote idealistic posts about 600 thousand rubles. on launch , office and team , market volume and sales . Many predicted to us failure, bankruptcy and Armageda. But it turned out not so bad ...
Under the cut, the history of our company for the year, from the foundation, the first sales and attraction of a business angel, to the closing of the round of $ 500 thousand . from SoftLineVP. And of course the report, errors and our experience.
The idea of ​​the project was born in the summer of 2010. In August, we registered a company with a partner and started working on Kopini full time. The service saw the light on November 1, 2010 and everything went wrong according to plan =). Sales did not go, there was no understanding of what, how and for what. Toward the end of the year, they began to actively participate in various events: points, crash tests, etc. Realizing that the company needed a "godfather" / mentor began to look for a business angel. Not for money, but for expertise and connections.
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The first who came to mind was Pavel Cherkashin. As a result, a letter with the subject “Pavel, we need you =)” and the description of the project went to the cherished post. What was our surprise when we found the next day the registration in Kopini from the mail on the domain microsoft .com! 2 meetings, correspondence and Term Sheet was signed. The rest is formality.
In the meantime, an understanding has come of how to sell in b2b, what the market needs, how to PR and how to conduct marketing. We started to make the "right features", there were significant customers and first sales. By the way, we still keep it in the first payment from 11/29/2010 for 4,320 rubles from sms.ru.
In early 2011, our project was the best at the CloudConf competition from Softline. By that time, we had substantially revised the positioning, product and direction of development. That, apparently, and attracted the attention of SoftLine VP . And then, as usual: meeting, presentation, Term Sheet, Due Diligince, approval of investments and legal registration of the transaction. The result: $ 500 thousand for 25.1% of the company and the founders (of us) remained in control. I want to note that Pavel Cherkashin’s authority played a significant role in this transaction, for which he thanks a lot.
There were a couple of fun moments. As after StartupPoint, we were offered to buy 51% of the company (just a few months after its foundation) for ... $ 100 thousand. We even agreed not to negotiate with other investors. Thank God everything worked out.
We also talked with guys from Yandex about various partnerships. I note, very positive guys. Here we have already begun to pursue an aggressive policy and turned down the price for Kopini at $ 1 million. I, too, would have sent us away at that time =) All's well that ends well.
To sum up the year in figures and facts, it is:
PS
Perhaps in a couple of years, reading this text, I will call it also “idealistic” and will laugh at the Soviets for a long time. But today, this is the experience of our team and the history of creating a project from scratch. I will be glad to answer your questions.
Successes friends!
Under the cut, the history of our company for the year, from the foundation, the first sales and attraction of a business angel, to the closing of the round of $ 500 thousand . from SoftLineVP. And of course the report, errors and our experience.
our story
The idea of ​​the project was born in the summer of 2010. In August, we registered a company with a partner and started working on Kopini full time. The service saw the light on November 1, 2010 and everything went wrong according to plan =). Sales did not go, there was no understanding of what, how and for what. Toward the end of the year, they began to actively participate in various events: points, crash tests, etc. Realizing that the company needed a "godfather" / mentor began to look for a business angel. Not for money, but for expertise and connections.
')
The first who came to mind was Pavel Cherkashin. As a result, a letter with the subject “Pavel, we need you =)” and the description of the project went to the cherished post. What was our surprise when we found the next day the registration in Kopini from the mail on the domain microsoft .com! 2 meetings, correspondence and Term Sheet was signed. The rest is formality.
In the meantime, an understanding has come of how to sell in b2b, what the market needs, how to PR and how to conduct marketing. We started to make the "right features", there were significant customers and first sales. By the way, we still keep it in the first payment from 11/29/2010 for 4,320 rubles from sms.ru.
In early 2011, our project was the best at the CloudConf competition from Softline. By that time, we had substantially revised the positioning, product and direction of development. That, apparently, and attracted the attention of SoftLine VP . And then, as usual: meeting, presentation, Term Sheet, Due Diligince, approval of investments and legal registration of the transaction. The result: $ 500 thousand for 25.1% of the company and the founders (of us) remained in control. I want to note that Pavel Cherkashin’s authority played a significant role in this transaction, for which he thanks a lot.
There were a couple of fun moments. As after StartupPoint, we were offered to buy 51% of the company (just a few months after its foundation) for ... $ 100 thousand. We even agreed not to negotiate with other investors. Thank God everything worked out.
We also talked with guys from Yandex about various partnerships. I note, very positive guys. Here we have already begun to pursue an aggressive policy and turned down the price for Kopini at $ 1 million. I, too, would have sent us away at that time =) All's well that ends well.
To sum up the year in figures and facts, it is:
- 2250 created communities
- 550.000 community members,
- 1,320,000 rubles spent since launch,
- 2179 commits in VCS,
- 56 different presentations for clients, investors, partners,
- more than 1000 cold calls to customers
- and for a snack, those to whom we still got through =)
Errors
Now a few words about the mistakes that we made. Where do without them.- Unrealistic sales plan and high conversions. Tritely there was no experience of similar projects and b2b sales.
- Wrong accents in the design. Sometimes at the request of a potential client they made features. As a result, there is a feature, but there is no client.
- Poor marketing. Tried to sell Copini with cold calls ... you had to hear it. At one time, they even wanted to make a mix of call records. It even reached the mat by customers.
- And so on trifles
Our experience
- Try to look only for a profile business angel and funds. We are very lucky. Pavel Cherkashin knows perfectly well what CRM and b2b are, he has extensive entrepreneurial experience and useful contacts. At the same time, SoftLine group of companies is an excellent partner in the promotion and sales of b2b service.
- We didn’t have much opportunity to participate in start-up events, as many do (one SturtupPoint and one CrushTest). But this was enough to understand that by and large the parties are a waste of time. A lot of manpower and resources are spent on training, and there’s really little use to them. Not so long ago, I met comrades who, together with us, presented the project a year ago, and now they are still continuing to beg for investment (less money and more interest) without having done anything for the year. I recommend Yandex.Start, WebReady contest.
- If your non-project is not capable of generating at least some kind of investment without an investor, drive it (it’s about start-up entrepreneurs, without experience, connections and authority). If it does not bring real benefits to your customers - drive it to him. If you have not moved from a dead center in a year - drive in and move on.
- Do not listen to everyone. There are a lot of “experts” who will say that your project is shitty and will never shoot, although you are familiar with it from the pictures in the presentation. There are the same representatives of the funds, with high self-esteem and pathos, who begin to teach you how to do business when you have not had time to open your mouth.
- To be honest, the word “startup”, like many of you, is already turning back. So call what you do - business. Already such a definition means a certain income, liabilities and real customers.
- Do not make the project, thinking about selling it. Do for yourself, to generate profits.
- Expect that the project will start earning only after 2-3 years. And before that hunger, cold and sleepless nights.
PS
Perhaps in a couple of years, reading this text, I will call it also “idealistic” and will laugh at the Soviets for a long time. But today, this is the experience of our team and the history of creating a project from scratch. I will be glad to answer your questions.
Successes friends!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/128037/
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