How to find an investor for 2 cups of coffee
In the post is a fascinating story that all the impossible is possible.
We promised to tell why we are burning with the Gfranq project, we are rapidly developing and are becoming more and more confident that we have created a useful service. We tell.
Gfranq is the brainchild of a programmer, developer and simply ideological person Artem Orlov. Not the first and not the most difficult project. He has a gaming social network CtrlRpg.com , several entertainment sites, working with government orders. But just for the sake of this project, Artem decided to put together a team and go for investments.
Gfranq was not created from scratch. Before him, a niche of online photo editors was explored using the Pichapi.com project, a Polaroid-style photo processing service. Pichapi statistics showed that it is important for people, especially young people, to quickly and effortlessly make something interesting and fashionable from their photos. To show off in social networks, to be "in trend." In general, we counted on this.
')
Contrary to the popular opinion that Gfranq was reaching for Instagram, let us clarify: we knew vaguely about the existence of this social network. Yes, yes, it can be if you do not have an iPhone. Gfranq grew out of the idea that every person, regardless of his knowledge and skills, having a professional camera or phone of a certain brand, should be given the opportunity to make stylish and high-quality photos. Quick and easy. Artyom embodied this idea in the beta version of gfranq.com.
The first month we tested the site, created its “face”. Then about 8,000 users came to us. They may remember that the symbol for Gfranq at first was the Russian doll. Barbel Dzhifrank came later, together with the fateful appearance of Igor Arkadyevich Ryabenky in our life. And he appeared in a miraculous way.
In any free time, our team gathered in Moscow coffee shops and wrote a business plan. It was not easy for the programmer, advertiser and philologist, what can I say. Therefore, once we called to the meeting of a friend of a businessman who sympathized with startups like us. Over a cup of coffee, we discussed prospects, and he gave us the phone number that gave Gfranq a start in life. The room belonged to Ryabenky Igor Arkadyevich. All that we knew about Igor then was that he was a business angel with extensive experience in investing in IT, co-investor of the successful online tutor LinguaLeo.ru . All he heard from us was an idea, a development plan and current statistics. Artem and Vlada (SMO project) drank the second "golden" cup of coffee already in the office of Igor. According to him, he never so quickly made a decision on investing. On the same day, after just two hours of conversation, Gfranq received an investment and the key to the IT start-up world. We are grateful and proud of it. The fact that a professional believed in us became a great help, moral and material. By the way, we didn’t finish the business plan, the investor was found earlier.
Since launching gfranq.com, a little more than 3 months have passed. The site interface has changed, the number has increased and the quality of filters has improved, new functions have appeared, the Android application has been updated, the mobile version of the website , the application will soon be released on the iPhone. We see where and how we grow, listen to the wishes of users. But the main thing is that we receive more and more positive reviews, which is just as important for our confidence as bad reviews are for constant motivation.
And here is the very first cup, the photo is random and clumsy - no one imagined what kind of gift she would give us
We promised to tell why we are burning with the Gfranq project, we are rapidly developing and are becoming more and more confident that we have created a useful service. We tell.
Gfranq is the brainchild of a programmer, developer and simply ideological person Artem Orlov. Not the first and not the most difficult project. He has a gaming social network CtrlRpg.com , several entertainment sites, working with government orders. But just for the sake of this project, Artem decided to put together a team and go for investments.
Gfranq was not created from scratch. Before him, a niche of online photo editors was explored using the Pichapi.com project, a Polaroid-style photo processing service. Pichapi statistics showed that it is important for people, especially young people, to quickly and effortlessly make something interesting and fashionable from their photos. To show off in social networks, to be "in trend." In general, we counted on this.
')
Contrary to the popular opinion that Gfranq was reaching for Instagram, let us clarify: we knew vaguely about the existence of this social network. Yes, yes, it can be if you do not have an iPhone. Gfranq grew out of the idea that every person, regardless of his knowledge and skills, having a professional camera or phone of a certain brand, should be given the opportunity to make stylish and high-quality photos. Quick and easy. Artyom embodied this idea in the beta version of gfranq.com.
The first month we tested the site, created its “face”. Then about 8,000 users came to us. They may remember that the symbol for Gfranq at first was the Russian doll. Barbel Dzhifrank came later, together with the fateful appearance of Igor Arkadyevich Ryabenky in our life. And he appeared in a miraculous way.
In any free time, our team gathered in Moscow coffee shops and wrote a business plan. It was not easy for the programmer, advertiser and philologist, what can I say. Therefore, once we called to the meeting of a friend of a businessman who sympathized with startups like us. Over a cup of coffee, we discussed prospects, and he gave us the phone number that gave Gfranq a start in life. The room belonged to Ryabenky Igor Arkadyevich. All that we knew about Igor then was that he was a business angel with extensive experience in investing in IT, co-investor of the successful online tutor LinguaLeo.ru . All he heard from us was an idea, a development plan and current statistics. Artem and Vlada (SMO project) drank the second "golden" cup of coffee already in the office of Igor. According to him, he never so quickly made a decision on investing. On the same day, after just two hours of conversation, Gfranq received an investment and the key to the IT start-up world. We are grateful and proud of it. The fact that a professional believed in us became a great help, moral and material. By the way, we didn’t finish the business plan, the investor was found earlier.
Since launching gfranq.com, a little more than 3 months have passed. The site interface has changed, the number has increased and the quality of filters has improved, new functions have appeared, the Android application has been updated, the mobile version of the website , the application will soon be released on the iPhone. We see where and how we grow, listen to the wishes of users. But the main thing is that we receive more and more positive reviews, which is just as important for our confidence as bad reviews are for constant motivation.
And here is the very first cup, the photo is random and clumsy - no one imagined what kind of gift she would give us
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/146089/
All Articles