instudies.com: first blood

This story is about how a team of three young professionals turned out to be in the startup world. We walked a difficult path, stuffing a bunch of cones, losing faith, and sometimes even dropping our hands. But, despite all this, we managed to reach our initial goal and launch our own project. The story promises to be long, so sit back.

Prehistory

The last days of 2009. I (Egor, a graphic designer) and Alex (layout designer) decided to meet in one of the city cafes - we had something to discuss, because we had known each other for years, and at that time both were working through the free-lance.ru exchange. Word for word, we concluded that it was time to do your own project. So there was enthusiasm and the first idea, and with them the feeling that we were on the threshold of something very important. Inspired by the idea, we headed for Valik (programmer), who is also freelance.
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Interrupting each other, Lesha and I told Valik about our plans, inspiring him too. Meetings began in urban cafes, where we came with laptops, discussed the concept of the site, thought out the functionality and drew a preliminary design. Very soon, we realized that it was impossible to fully work in such an environment, but it was also problematic to get together from someone else - at that time we all lived with our parents. Perhaps it is worth noting that I was then 20 years old, Lesha - 18, and Valik - 17.

The year 2010 has come, and we decided that to complete the project we need a place where no one will interfere. So in the middle of February we received the keys to a spacious three-room apartment. To convey those feelings is difficult: on the one hand, we finally got our own "office", on the other - damn it, we live separately from our parents!

The holiday did not last long - of course, we began work on the project, and I even completely painted the design of all the layouts. However, without even noticing it, each of us plunged into our own freelancing orders, as we had to eat something, pay rent and utilities. Thus, the first breakdowns of deadlines and the loss of faith in the project appeared - we almost completely “left” to everyday life, sometimes casually recalling our project, but no one was burning eyes from these words and thoughts. We needed a new breath of air, a new idea and inspiration. I did not have to wait long: the next conversation, idea, inspiration, in other words - a new project. I will only note that we still embodied this idea into reality, but did not give it life. Everything died down again when we were facing a direct launch and no one had the strength to change anything.

The end of September 2010. Lesha and I are transporting our belongings back to our parents. The roller moves to a rented one-room apartment. For seven and a half months of living together, we have not achieved anything, and the desire to talk about it did not arise.

A new beginning

Mid November 2010. I was lucky - I get the keys to a rented three-room apartment, which I immediately move to. A few days later, with a laptop under his arm, Lyosha came to visit, and we watched the film “Social Network”, which just stirred our consciousness!

Old new idea

Even during the lease of the first apartment, Lesha kept saying that it would be convenient to have a website for the exchange of educational information and for communication within one class / group, but for some reason we did not listen to him, but for some reason he did not insist on himself .

After watching the above film, this idea resurfaced, and we looked at it from a completely different angle. In the end, Lesha had to move in with me for 2 weeks. Almost all the time we spent on the elaboration of a detailed concept of our new project - instudies . Of course, we told everything about Valik, and he, fortunately, agreed.

The team was again assembled, even though they all lived in different apartments (by the way, Lesha, like us, managed to separate from the parents again). Now we had the opportunity to get together, without intertwining that “bytovuha” into the work. It was very comfortable, and most importantly - brought its results.

Stage 1. Smoke from the ears

In a very short time we registered domains, began to draw the design, typeset the first layouts and implement the basic functionality. We talked about instudies day and night, fell asleep with the thought of him and devoted all our free time to our new creation.

It is worth noting that each of us is a student of a university, therefore, in the process of project implementation, we faced problems that our service was going to solve. We knew exactly why we were doing instudies , and that was very important.





Note: At that time, the release of the alpha version of the project was planned for the end of January (the beginning of the second semester).

Stage 2. Smoke break

The end of December 2010. The pace of work is markedly reduced. For some reason, the design of new layouts is not drawn, for some reason, the remnants of finished layouts are not made up, and, in fact, there is nothing to program.

At the next meeting we give ourselves a promise that from the second of January we begin to work hard and start, as we planned, by the beginning of the second semester. But the holidays have done their job - we almost did not sit down to develop the project. Perhaps it is worth noting that we did not lose inspiration and continued to talk about instudies .

Stage 3. Pacification

By the end of January, we continued to develop. By the deadline did not have time, but his hands did not fall from this. It seems to me that by that moment, each of us has matured in some way. There were, of course, during this period both nerves, and deadlines and unfulfilled promises. But looking back, these events cause nothing but a smile. We looked like sharply grown-up children, who sometimes still threw out tricks, but the reaction to them was completely different.

Everyone plunged into their work on the project. I clearly understood that in addition to the development of the project itself, it would take a long time to work with it further, so I sat down at all sorts of books about startups and started reading Habr every day. Reading articles on startups has become commonplace for us, and in a very short time we began to feel in this area like fish in water.

Stage 4. Alpha version

April 2011. We finally came to the launch of the alpha version of the project. Being an activist in my life, I quickly hooked on the instudies of the university group in which I studied. It was my fellow students who became our first real users, and I listened attentively to all that they said. But the main thing - the project came to their liking, and the best reward was their words of gratitude!

Stage 5. The official launch of the alpha version

May 17, 2011. The school year was coming to an end, and it would be most illogical to launch the project at this particular time. But we didn’t care about logic, and each of us published a link to the project on the social networks in which it was registered. Of course, this had little effect, but it was extremely important for us to know that we nevertheless reached a certain result, that the project officially began its life. It was pleasing that we were able to overcome the unfortunate experience of the past and, as a result, achieve the desired result.

Stage 6. Business plan, investors and all that.

In the twenties of May, I told one of my customers about our project. Hearing rave reviews, he wondered how we were going to develop it and I replied that while we were doing this on our own and with our own means, but the investments would be a very good incentive and acceleration for us. Thus, our first potential investor, who demanded a business plan, appeared. None of us had any business planning experience, and since I took on the role of a project manager, this task fell on me. I spent several days reading articles and books on business planning, several nights I dreamed about these business plans, and after 10 days our own was written. Now, of course, I understand that this was a note for a friend rather than a business plan, but this was an important stage in our development.

That potential investor did not become real (otherwise everything would have been too rosy, wouldn’t it?), But I am very grateful to him for the direction that he, without knowing it, indicated to us.

A few days later I met with another potential investor. He gladly listened to my story about the project, and then, over the course of an hour and a half, asked me questions related not to startups, but to business. By the way, I was ready for questions, as they are repeatedly touched upon in various literature devoted to start-ups (what my advice to you is, read everything that comes your way). As a result, this company did not invest us, because it wanted to merge our project with its own, with which we could not agree. But even after that, they called us and asked how our business was going. It pleased!

After that there were a few more conversations with other investors. And here's what I will tell you: arrange meetings for investors, talk with them, argue and listen to them very carefully. It was thanks to investors, or rather their remarks, that we were able to look at the project precisely from a business perspective, significantly strengthen the business model, and simply came an understanding of how to proceed.

Stage 7. Beta

September 2011. We launched the beta version, adding a small amount of new functionality. Soon we will be advertised, we are going to go on television, we are finishing a new business plan, and we will continue to write to investors. In the meantime, we are developing everything on our own and are by no means going to surrender!

A brief summary:

Website address: www.instudies.com
Project objective: to provide students with simple and convenient tools for organizing the educational process.
We are on facebook: on.fb.me/qih74O
We are in twitter: www.twitter.com/instudies

UPD: Read about how we got to Silicon Valley