How to sell a company twice or CleverPumpkin History
A new project, Little Tattle, opened yesterday - news about Russian mobile studios. The site will cover interesting events in the life of companies, personnel changes, completed competitions and tenders of major brands. Subscribe if you are interested in this topic or share news if you are a mobile studio :)
The first news is an interview with former CEO of CleverPumpkin Ivan Kozlov. Ivan told how he sold the team of his studio AviaSales, and then a large share of the same studio to a business angel. Of interest: Ivan’s business partner left Mobile Up, and the current director of the studio from the infamous MediaPhone.
')
The history of the creation of CleverPumpkin is quite banal: in the summer of 2011, Ivan Kozlov suggested that his friend, developer Vsevolod Billevich from Vstrcher (now Mobile UP ), open his mobile studio.
Ivan Kozlov, photo from Facebook
The search for customers began with cold sales. Ivan compiled a list of potential customers and arranged it alphabetically. The first on the list was Aviasales . Ivan found Kostya Kalinov’s contacts on the site and wrote him a letter. The guys were lucky and in August 2011 they signed a contract.
Interestingly, the application interface was designed by Usability Lab .
In the process of working from Aviasales several times an offer to purchase the team. But Ivan constantly laughed off, since there was nothing to sell except the founders, two programmers and computers. Work on the project ended in May 2012.
CleverPumpkin continued to develop, recruited people, an office appeared. In June 2012 a new purchase offer was received. Ivan and Vsevolod agreed. At that time, the company had 4 programmers, a designer and 5 remote developers. All staff members and both founders became part of the Aviasales team. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.
Max Krainov , CEO of Aviasales, comments on the deal on the CPU :
Brand CleverPumpkin, office, contracts with customers were no one needs. They wanted to close the studio, but there was an unrevealed business angel, who bought a large stake in the company. Ivan and Vsevolod became minority shareholders.
A new team was recruited into the studio; a hired director, Ivan's school friend, Denis Germanenko, came . Denis worked at RipDev with Slava Karpenko and Alex Patsay, and later moved to the infamous Media Phone SA. The restart process took two and a half months. Some customers did not even know about the changes.
Today, CleverPumpkin has 12 employees (half remotely). Main customers: Sports.ru and two corporate customers. New customers come themselves, thanks to a good portfolio. Other sales channels are almost never used.
UPD: judging by the 180th edition of Runetology, a mysterious business angel was found, it is Ivan's father, Viktor Kozlov. Victor participated in the creation of companies Reksoft, OZON.ru and ASSIST.
The first news is an interview with former CEO of CleverPumpkin Ivan Kozlov. Ivan told how he sold the team of his studio AviaSales, and then a large share of the same studio to a business angel. Of interest: Ivan’s business partner left Mobile Up, and the current director of the studio from the infamous MediaPhone.
')
The history of the creation of CleverPumpkin is quite banal: in the summer of 2011, Ivan Kozlov suggested that his friend, developer Vsevolod Billevich from Vstrcher (now Mobile UP ), open his mobile studio.
Ivan Kozlov, photo from Facebook
The search for customers began with cold sales. Ivan compiled a list of potential customers and arranged it alphabetically. The first on the list was Aviasales . Ivan found Kostya Kalinov’s contacts on the site and wrote him a letter. The guys were lucky and in August 2011 they signed a contract.
Interestingly, the application interface was designed by Usability Lab .
In the process of working from Aviasales several times an offer to purchase the team. But Ivan constantly laughed off, since there was nothing to sell except the founders, two programmers and computers. Work on the project ended in May 2012.
CleverPumpkin continued to develop, recruited people, an office appeared. In June 2012 a new purchase offer was received. Ivan and Vsevolod agreed. At that time, the company had 4 programmers, a designer and 5 remote developers. All staff members and both founders became part of the Aviasales team. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.
Max Krainov , CEO of Aviasales, comments on the deal on the CPU :
... After we saw how professional guys from Clever Pumpkin were, we decided that we definitely needed them on staff.
1.1. Generally advice: mobile developers are needed precisely in the state, because more ideas than any studio can realize. The problem is not even in money, but in time ...
Brand CleverPumpkin, office, contracts with customers were no one needs. They wanted to close the studio, but there was an unrevealed business angel, who bought a large stake in the company. Ivan and Vsevolod became minority shareholders.
A new team was recruited into the studio; a hired director, Ivan's school friend, Denis Germanenko, came . Denis worked at RipDev with Slava Karpenko and Alex Patsay, and later moved to the infamous Media Phone SA. The restart process took two and a half months. Some customers did not even know about the changes.
Today, CleverPumpkin has 12 employees (half remotely). Main customers: Sports.ru and two corporate customers. New customers come themselves, thanks to a good portfolio. Other sales channels are almost never used.
UPD: judging by the 180th edition of Runetology, a mysterious business angel was found, it is Ivan's father, Viktor Kozlov. Victor participated in the creation of companies Reksoft, OZON.ru and ASSIST.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/163923/
All Articles