Startups: Workshop # 3
Actually, as promised. I thought of a startup. Innovative utterly (by God, fed up with their social networks, blogs and bookmarks - absolutely no imagination left?). He planned for a long time, thought through to the smallest detail, bought a domain (and not simple, but gold ... well, his previous owner probably made some hundreds of new domains with the money he got), a dedicated server, and did, did ... Until the very last, while I didn’t run out of money. I had to run what was, and I had a very raw and buggy beta.
I didn’t want to think about any runet, I even realized the support of the Cyrillic alphabet long after. And that is only because Russian demand has exceeded certain expectations, as well as Brazilian, Indian, and all sorts of other demands. The priority was the North American market, in view of the well-known reasons expressed in its size. TechCrunch is beyond praise, organized a post the next morning. From there, as one would expect, in the manner of the virus spread through a variety of blogs and media, in fact, it even reached Russian Habr and lists.
My plan was this: once my money is out, then after the release of a functioning beta, a kind investor will come running to me and give me a bag of popsicle. Come running. But not those and not from there. The fact is that I had to strain my friend from Vancouver in order to present the startup as Canadian. Such is its specificity - to avoid the attacks of conspiracy theorists, who only give a reason to catch the American (and especially the Russian) government in attempted privacy of personal information, in particular, financial information. It was decided to avoid such a risk in such an “original” way.
')
The result is a long list of offers from Canadian funds and private investors eager to communicate in an informal setting. What is the power of geography! It turns out that I have driven myself into a corner - it seems like something not very real to take and to move to Canada tomorrow, but in Russia there is no such thing as a venture. Judging by my communication (in quite a formal setting) with the leadership of several large Russian players, those involved in buying / financing Internet start-ups (RBC, for example), they do not even understand the venture phenomenon. Everyone wants exact figures and models, a thorough calculation for several years ahead. Sorry, this is not a venture, this is business as usual. With this logic, they should consider the business plans of breweries or hairdressing, where all the figures can be calculated with a very high degree of probability. Breakthroughs and super-profits with such an approach simply do not shine, cowardice surpasses it.
In general, these are all annoying little things that could have stopped except a loser - I prefer to drive through. The most important thing I wanted to make sure was whether such a service would be in demand in principle. Half a month of operating the beta showed a very decent demand for such, even buggy and neutered, its (service) implementation. Now I can say with full confidence that by implementing the business plan for 100%, I will get a lot of users and a decent capital cost. The main trouble is that you will have to go back to regular work (how much can your wife have on her neck?), And do the project in your free time. The second trouble stems from the first: development to the obscene will be delayed.
... If no one helps.
Why would anyone help me? I, of course, are not so naive as to think that it will be so easy for me to take and join a crowd of expert developers, as it happens in open-source projects. I have something to offer in return - a 33 percent share of the project will be distributed among those who respond and confirm their qualifications as a good PHP developer who has some free (after main work) time. Many do not need a maximum of 3 people. Those who think that I am doing a stupid / blasphemous / arrogant / immoral / inadequate act now - just do not accept this offer on your own account. I'm not the first day in business, able to determine what will benefit him, to the detriment. Comment on the case. The rest - socialize. This is a non-binding, but persistent attempt to create a successful startup in the global Internet market, albeit under the Canadian flag, but, most importantly, by Russians, from beginning to end. It sounds a little pompous, but how would the current world look like without proper motivation? :)
Those who have had the patience to finish reading to the end are the incentive prize. The project is called MyProgress.com.
I didn’t want to think about any runet, I even realized the support of the Cyrillic alphabet long after. And that is only because Russian demand has exceeded certain expectations, as well as Brazilian, Indian, and all sorts of other demands. The priority was the North American market, in view of the well-known reasons expressed in its size. TechCrunch is beyond praise, organized a post the next morning. From there, as one would expect, in the manner of the virus spread through a variety of blogs and media, in fact, it even reached Russian Habr and lists.
My plan was this: once my money is out, then after the release of a functioning beta, a kind investor will come running to me and give me a bag of popsicle. Come running. But not those and not from there. The fact is that I had to strain my friend from Vancouver in order to present the startup as Canadian. Such is its specificity - to avoid the attacks of conspiracy theorists, who only give a reason to catch the American (and especially the Russian) government in attempted privacy of personal information, in particular, financial information. It was decided to avoid such a risk in such an “original” way.
')
The result is a long list of offers from Canadian funds and private investors eager to communicate in an informal setting. What is the power of geography! It turns out that I have driven myself into a corner - it seems like something not very real to take and to move to Canada tomorrow, but in Russia there is no such thing as a venture. Judging by my communication (in quite a formal setting) with the leadership of several large Russian players, those involved in buying / financing Internet start-ups (RBC, for example), they do not even understand the venture phenomenon. Everyone wants exact figures and models, a thorough calculation for several years ahead. Sorry, this is not a venture, this is business as usual. With this logic, they should consider the business plans of breweries or hairdressing, where all the figures can be calculated with a very high degree of probability. Breakthroughs and super-profits with such an approach simply do not shine, cowardice surpasses it.
In general, these are all annoying little things that could have stopped except a loser - I prefer to drive through. The most important thing I wanted to make sure was whether such a service would be in demand in principle. Half a month of operating the beta showed a very decent demand for such, even buggy and neutered, its (service) implementation. Now I can say with full confidence that by implementing the business plan for 100%, I will get a lot of users and a decent capital cost. The main trouble is that you will have to go back to regular work (how much can your wife have on her neck?), And do the project in your free time. The second trouble stems from the first: development to the obscene will be delayed.
... If no one helps.
Why would anyone help me? I, of course, are not so naive as to think that it will be so easy for me to take and join a crowd of expert developers, as it happens in open-source projects. I have something to offer in return - a 33 percent share of the project will be distributed among those who respond and confirm their qualifications as a good PHP developer who has some free (after main work) time. Many do not need a maximum of 3 people. Those who think that I am doing a stupid / blasphemous / arrogant / immoral / inadequate act now - just do not accept this offer on your own account. I'm not the first day in business, able to determine what will benefit him, to the detriment. Comment on the case. The rest - socialize. This is a non-binding, but persistent attempt to create a successful startup in the global Internet market, albeit under the Canadian flag, but, most importantly, by Russians, from beginning to end. It sounds a little pompous, but how would the current world look like without proper motivation? :)
Those who have had the patience to finish reading to the end are the incentive prize. The project is called MyProgress.com.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/13919/
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