Starter "from scratch", my experience, success stories
I launched my current startup in March 2012. Before that, I have been involved in business on the web since 1999. I started in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine. An antediluvian telephone line, on which conversations of people unknown to me periodically hung, could only be paged by the USRobotics modem. With it, you could get into the magical world - a ray of hope in the midst of total hopelessness.
Since then, I have been able to experiment with the launches of dozens of three projects, which, overgrown with experience, smoothly flowed into each other, becoming 6 profitable projects.
The very first successful project was krivbass.ua.ru (ibn.dp.ua). March 2000, the first course. Then in the city there were only about 900 Internet users. The three of us (I, my friend and fellow student Dima, and his friend Andrew) just posted ads on the domain. No one cared that no one knew the site and no one was calling from the ads. The main thing was that "information about the company will be available worldwide." Some of the Internet customers have never seen, but wanted to be there through us. They were looking for clients as I was taught in network marketing, they printed flyers on the printer and went to the main street in each store, office, demanding a director (“On what issue?” - “On cooperation”). At that time, sales agents had not yet been shot off and it was possible to talk to the majority of directors in such a simple way. Step by step, receiving 3-5 dollars a month from the client, we eventually collected as much as 100 bucks. Crazy money for a poor student. Then they only drove once a month and harvested.
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Already in October 2000, after this dizzying success, I was hired to work in Kiev for the position of assistant manager of the Internet project Turbaza.com.ua and soon - the manager. I was handed a site that brought 10 dollars of income per month. My task is simple - to increase revenue.
Kiev is not Krivoy Rog, the Internet charms on clients do not work here, advertising does not work, Google. Adsense has not yet been invented, you need to think and test hypotheses. With the method of scientific poking and sorting through the options, I managed to find something for which the travel agencies were willing to pay for a subscription to the orders of the tours (this is the way all freelance exchanges work now). After a year of my work, the site already received $ 750 per month of monthly fee. This is despite the fact that my s / n was - $ 150. All this was also crowned with a victory in the nomination “The Best Business Idea of ​​the Year 2001” at an all-Ukrainian web competition held by Sun Microsystems.
In 2002, I decided to try myself in freelancing. I made a website, I found a client who ordered a banner network development from me. I bought a book for PHP4 with prepaid money, I started learning and coding. After 2 months, having delayed all the deadlines, I made a mega monster. If I had been told to make this system in the form of TK, I would never have believed that I could, from complete zero, without knowing a single PHP function, syntax, nothing.
Customer expectations were exceeded a hundred times. I wanted to apply a slightly smaller factor to the expected second part of the payment. As a result, left with his beloved banner system and without payment. Looking ahead, a year later the same customer, with whom we are still friends, bought the system. Meanwhile, I began to promote my network to the masses, sending invitations to site owners. In response to one such letter, I was invited to work at Board.com.ua.
After school I had no desire to go to college. I had an exemption from the army (thanks to the good doctor). I sat quietly in my apartment and was engaged in building a pre-Internet business. Although, the only thing that attracted me to the institute was the abundance of candidates for the title of my future ideal wife, whom I set out to find.
I realized this mission in the first course. On the second - I transferred to Kiev. After the first semester of the second year I went to the rector and said that in the summer there will be a wedding with a student of the provincial branch of your university, can you translate it after the wedding? I received an answer that I remembered for the rest of my life: “So why wait for the summer, let's translate right now. We need happy students. ”. No comments.
The next years at university I “studied” by inertia. Site Turbaza I taxied after full-time university study. So much precious time for the cat because of the university. The patience ended after I passed all the tests of the 7th semester and I was invited to work at Board.com.ua. Write a letter of resignation and take a certificate - everything you need for happiness. The application was written, and the certificate of completion of secondary education was not given, since I lost my student one. Well, okay. I will be without a certificate.
In addition to the fact that for 4 months of my work, the income of the site I managed increased from $ 100 to $ 1000, another significant fact was that here I met my future business partners: Max and Sanya. In June 2003 we decided to leave everything together and start our own business - webmanager-pro.com web design studio.
Thanks to Max’s talented language, we had the first clients for a system that no one else had done. I was responsible for the technical part, for finding customers and design - Max and Sanya. The endless marathon of creation, development of its own CMS and monotonous clone stamping began. After two years of such activity, I was turned back by her. The soul was drawn to the development of its web services, or as it is now fashionable to say - products.
Back in 2002, after developing the banner network, I made a portal for webmasters and a bulletin board. By 2004, the bulletin board was unwound by a self-propelled movement in my opinion, up to thousands of 5-10 hosts per day. Two years of development, and the only thing that came from it was the beautiful numbers on the meter and the invoice for hosting. Close the site was more profitable than keep. What I did. A couple of months after the domain has already been deleted and bought by squatters, I will know about the appearance of Google.Adsense. Hmm ...
Domain and attendance is no longer to return, but there is SEO experience and database backup with ads. In order to increase my chances for a quick promotion, I made two bulletin boards, sharpened for a narrow specialization. One - purely to Kiev. The other is purely for metal, equipment in Ukraine. It worked. Both got accustomed and, at the best of times, gathered thousands of 10 hosts per day, providing me with Google checks.
After I sold the banner network in 2003, I immediately launched the hosting portal Karman.com.ua in Ukraine. He was the first and only on this topic. Having increased the audience, it's time to monetize the resource. Google.Adsense gave meager efficiency, but, thanks to a narrow theme, good old direct advertising sales worked.
Having a minimum allowable income for the support of life activities from my products, I was relieved to finish my site-punching career. From the former customers of the sites remained only hosting, also giving an additional stable income. But calls to technical support were chained to the workplace around the clock, so in March 2007 I sold it.
From this moment came paradise on earth. We managed to get rid of everything that was tormenting our souls, leaving only Google checks and a sea of ​​free time. You could take care of yourself and rehabilitate your tormented soul. From 2007 to 2010, I deeply took up my favorite Toych IDEAL method, spent rare consultations with pleasure, looked for my talents: I wrote a book, took photographs of weddings, drew, delivered pizza, and got drunk from all the samples.
Interestingly, my webmanager-pro partner Sanya was a guitar player, and we decided to play together for the sake of interest. At the very first trial, both of them incredibly liked the idea. Rehearsal for rehearsal and now we have a rock band with big plans.
In March-April 2010, the pension sharply decreased threefold. That is how the attendance fell, and with it the income. It is not surprising. For 3 years the topic with bulletin boards became so popular that only the lazy did not make his own. An overdose in the search delivery of identical ads began to let know about itself. And the prospects did not look bright. As wisdom used to say in some person: “There is only one stability in life - this is stable development and movement forward. Who stands still, he actually falls down. ” After walking a couple of months in thought, I decided that it was not interesting to wait for the full departure from Google, you need to go all in.
As an all-bank candidate, the idea of ​​a global world bulletin board + price list catalog + product reviews + forum + reviews + video + photos came to me. Great idea, I'm excited, I want reviews of all products and prices from around the world. But to develop it, you need money. The only source of money that I saw was to sell my business, leaving the comfort zone to the zone of obscurity, faith and hope.
June 2010. I sell one of my businesses. For the implementation of the TZ I allocate 2 months and $ 2500. And another 4 months and 1500 dollars remain in stock. It should work out.
While still in retirement nirvana, I believed and hoped that everything would be easy. I will write TK, give it to freelancers, they will do it, and I will earn millions. At the stage of searching for an artist, I discovered that 2,500 is not enough, the pros asked for 18,000. But I still managed to find a rare performer who agreed to implement his plans for this amount. Everything went according to plan. I traveled with my wife by car a month, and freelancers kodili. August 20 - deadline. To this date is not done yet half. September 20th The 20th of October. We do Skypecall, during which it turns out that everything that has been done is not at all applicable to what was intended. Money is returned, but 4 months of time you will not return.
Find a new artist was even harder than in June. I had to cut down the TZ to find at least someone. Mr. "At least someone" worked in November, December, January and February, and then said that he had not yet begun.
I had to sell the car and throw everything out of the TZ, like ballast from a balloon, leaving only the main thing - the balloon. It took another 7 months. Salvage exhausted. I had to remember the skill and finish what I started with my own hands. And at the same time to sell the second business.
Autumn 2011 was a period of discovery for me. It turns out that there is a startup movement. It turns out that what I'm doing is a startup. It turns out that there are live investors, angels, funds and this is not a fairy tale. It turns out that from 99, when I started, the Internet grew to unprecedented heights. It turns out that I am not the only one who is a geek, but there are hordes of like-minded people.
In the meantime, my project has already had 2.5 million price lines and about a hundred connected online stores. Investments were needed for further development, so I began to look for them, while at the same time improving the project. To develop further, you need super-software, sharpened to handle hundreds of millions of prices every day for a very limited time. This is far beyond my capabilities.
2 months can not find any investment. And there is only money left for 5 months. Damn, you need to do something ...
ABOUT! We need to urgently record an album that has been dragging on for 2 years, while you still have the opportunity! We made this decision with a friend at the end of December 2011. And now, by the end of January, in just a month, the album “Under the Sky (Fantastish Global Systems)”, consisting of 12 selected tracks, was ready. Pecking ass cock works wonders.
In February, I specifically engaged in promotion around the world in all available ways all day long. A couple of radio scrolls in England and the United States, a couple of magazine publications and $ 8 in revenue. Hmm ... Not what we expected ...
There is no business, there is money left for 3 months, there are no investors, music is not for sale, do I really have to get a hired job ... How I hate it.
It is the most severe frosts of February in the courtyard, and I go on interviews, reluctantly with teeth, just like Maresyev in the famous Soviet work. But my record did not impress anyone. I do not look like an ideal employee. And time was ticking ...
In early March, as a gift from heaven to searchengines.ru, there was a business angel from Moscow who wished to invest $ 10K. Considering that during the month no other proposals were received, I of course agreed.
There was a question of official registration of shares. The easiest way to re-register a domain for two, but it is impossible. You can only one person or one legal entity. Thanks to New Zealand for the government website, where it was easy to register a company online, providing only scans of foreign passports.
Renting a virtual office with our physical box for storing official documents and all registrations took about 2 weeks and $ 600. Shares could be managed directly online. We agreed that a business angel invests gradually as the need arises, and I gradually increase my share.
In March 2012 Arkady Moreynis came to Kiev with the event “Startup weekend”. The lecture that to test the soundness of an idea, $ 50 is enough to demolish my roof. I now hold it as the most important rule of a startup.
If there is a super idea, you need to make a simple HTML page, on which to describe this idea with the text, what will be here, paste the form for the subscription, social. widgets and sharers. Then - for $ 50 to buy ads on VKontakte. Based on the reaction of visitors to make a decision.
I trusted my idea for two years and for $ 5K, and then in one day and 50 bucks. No words. Only emotions. Previously, I did not attend conferences, forums, tusnyaki, master classes. Why do they need me? I already know everything. But after March 2012 I loved them with all my heart and soul.
In order for you to be selected at Startup Weekend, you had to prepare and send a presentation for review. Once I told my family about the project, the presentation, about the fact that I found an angel. And as an unexpected reaction, I received an offer of angelic investment and a complaint as to why I had not previously told about such a cool opportunity to invest.
If fate exists, then my script definitely created an extreme with a rich imagination and a bright original sense of humor.
With the first angel, we had not yet formalized a firm and did not re-register the domain. But I’m used to it like this: if you give a word, then keep it, even if it’s not profitable. If he had not given his word, he would certainly have made a more convenient choice in the direction of the family.
After some time, an unexpected idea comes to me. And what if in parallel to start another startup. Moreover, I had an interesting idea in the process of promotion of our group - to make a catalog of the works of talented people so that customers could find authors for these works.
I ordered a design. He gave the moderator the task of compiling a catalog of all the talents of a person and the filters by which they could be found. After a week, it became clear that it would take about a year to compile only one rubricator of all talents.
Returning from Startup Weekend, I decided to immediately implement one more important rule: “No need to try to satisfy everyone. It is better to focus on a single task, a single group of people, but to satisfy them to the maximum. ”
Since the music is closest to my soul, I decided to concentrate on the musicians and their music. He made a list of filters and noticed that they can ideally select music for every taste, every mood. This will be the chip to attract the audience. And if you make a catalog of works in the form of a nonstop playlist, then you’ll get a radio mood. Unexpected turn.
I do, as taught, the CTML promotion page, I buy ads on VKontakte and watch how people share a bare page and subscribe to the opening. Cool! You can run.
On cheap freelancers and piecework I already burned. I will not repeat mistakes. It is necessary to take on a permanent basis. And he took a novice programmer to permanent remote on the s / n.
As it turned out, in order to work effectively, one more worker should be included in the kit - a tester. But the main thing that should have come in is a sense of responsibility. Responsibility for the result that people will use your result. The desire to realize the dreams of these people. But this was not included.
The solemn launch of the startup Yaliti.com took place on May 28th. Planned, by the way, 25, almost in time. All the same, at least in something better than freelancing. And then go bugs. Bug on the bug, bug bug, along the way breeding and resurrecting. Nerves lasted for 20 days. I had to go into the code and edit myself.
But with the designer I was lucky. Perhaps because here I did not compromise with the price and initially chose the design agency whose work I admired. For this, I was ready to wait a whole month until they were released. As it turned out, well, that in a month. For I ordered one, and in a month there was already a completely different startup.
Included with the design was supplied and responsibility for the result, as if it was their own startup. I love that. He always worked like that, even when he did a hired job. A lot of ideas, discussions, how about your own startup. By the way, the studio itself was a startup. Made my products. Apparently, startup is part of character.
After successful design work, the same agency offered cool programming services for at least steep money. Price bite, and also bite what you need to wait a month before work begins. But even more bit reluctance to step on the same rake. In the end, after a conversation with the family angel, everyone agreed.
But it was not there. The programmer turned out to be a non-startup character warehouse. He did not give himself control over the reports, threatening to raise the price. Trusting in a fresh, successful experience, I relaxed and engaged in the meantime SEO, attracting musicians, hiring music classifiers and other things. At the time of delivery of work on July 20, it turns out that, firstly, not everything is ready (I heard it somewhere), and, secondly, that he did the wrong thing (earlier version).
And then a familiar song: August 20, September 20, bugs, many bugs, a lot of bugs, infinity bugs. Fax ... In the end, it turns out that the project was made on pure Ruby, and for the programmer - this is the first project on Ruby, before that he coded PHP / Zend. None of the programmers, even for money, want to fix bugs and modify this code. How difficult it all is ...
On the nose, IDCEE 2012, where, by the way, took my startup, to which I was unspeakably happy, but there is still no new software. As a result, I translated the current version into English, made major modifications and presented the project with them.
It's still harder. The project is very difficult from a technical point of view. 10K is not enough to develop. It is only necessary to take a share of the pros. We ordered the design, received, layout too. And they began strenuously around the globe to seek a co-founder. Searched in the CIS, searched in England, searched in the USA, searched in India, searched everywhere. Found in St. Petersburg. We agreed on 1,5K per month and 10% share.
The start was good. Report sent. Lots of code, lots of ideas. In the second month I said that I would send a report in a week, then after 2, then - excuse me, I have problems, I will tell you how to decide. A month later, the problem was solved, everyone sighed with relief, and a week later he disappeared. A curtain.
In addition to this, the business angel did not pay for the server, it was turned off and deleted along with all the backups of the old version. Having remained friends, I came out of this expensive game.
Yaliti is the only music startup on the startup alley. Near our table constantly tusil people, choosing their own music in the mood. The listeners are ecstatic. The musicians are ecstatic about the plans. But from the investors blew a cool breeze. The only thing, I was invited to the meeting by the Eastlabs business incubator, obviously noticing how I finished myself on the IDCEE online networking page to the 4th place in the overall rating.
In August, I went to Odessa to the Odessa Camp conference, where I was fascinated by the California happiness by the producer Igor Scheufot. It turns out that the same values ​​that, while hiding from everyone, I profess, in California are a mass phenomenon, the basis of culture, especially in Silicon-Silicon Valley.
After seeing a personal and positive feedback about my startup from Igor Scheufot, I decided to prepare a presentation and go to the HappyFarm business incubator, where Igor Scheufot is listed as “The Chairman of the Farm Board of Directors”.
I passed the first selection. Then there was a demo day - a presentation of a startup 3 minutes live before the representatives of HappyFarm. And there I went too. One of 19ti. Then there were Skype-cola with representatives of the board. I wanted to talk about my startup Igor Shoifot and Vlad Voskresensky. I made a presentation and answered questions.
A few days later I was invited to meet and was told that I had reached the final, in which, apart from me, another 9 startups were selected. It's time to prepare for a demo day in front of the international board. Prepared, spoke, waiting for results.
Of the 10 selected 7. Three teams are not included, among them - I am. One of the main reasons is that the media market is a Jurassic park with dinosaurs that don’t want to change with modernity, which is fraught with gigantic expenses and the same amount of crap, and if you focus only on independent musicians, then the problem is with non-scalability and small by the market.
The first conversation was with Olga Belkova - Eastlabs partner. The presentation took place in an open and friendly atmosphere, during which Olga suggested to me the idea of ​​how to solve the problem with a non-scalable startup.
In my case, there are two ways. Either use the world ready base of music, then the project becomes interesting to visitors. But there everything is expensive, hard and the boards are packed. Or -
But this is what Olga suggested - to make a set of services for musicians, which they can buy and use without reference to the number of site visitors. For example: a site for a musician, a system for sending tracks to world radio stations, being present in a mobile application, maintaining contacts with fans, etc. Great idea! Thank! I went to pivot once again. Plus, I was told that I must have a co-founder programmer, otherwise - no chance.
I once made a decision for myself to go wherever possible. Among these innings was the application on the Innovation Breakthrough website. An ordinary site, one of thousands, did not foretell anything. One day I received a notification that about 330 startups from all over Ukraine and I, one of 90, who went to the semifinals, participated in the competition. Cool. Okay. Then you need to go to Happy Pharma (organizer of the competition), listen to a lecture, participate in a practical event, prepare an Executive Summary, Canvas, hand over your work and wait for the result.
After a while they call, they say that they reached the final, one of 20 applicants. The final will be held in Kiev City State Administration. There will be many investors from Norway, the USA and other countries. All 20 participants must present their project and answer questions in 3 minutes.
The main prize is a guaranteed residency in the business incubator Heppipharm, I mean, as a bud passed all the selections and the board chose you, like those 7x, which I did not enter. Plus, at the final there was information that there would be an additional separate prize - a $ 10,000 grant from the company CRDF Global, which itself, regardless of the judges, will decide who to award it. Good incentive. True CRDF Global added 10 more projects to the final. As a result, we were in the final 30.
Presentation day. All in strict suits, and I like the white crow - in jeans and a T-shirt. according to the lists of speakers, I'm somewhere in the middle. I waited for the queue. During the presentation, it appears that when converting from Google docks to Power Point, all the information disappeared from the competition slide.It was unexpected at the height of the presentation to see an empty slide, but it turned out to be a funny improvisational joke that there should have been competitors, but they disappeared.
In the evening in a solemn atmosphere - a buffet table, music, evening dresses, and I am in jeans and a T-shirt. Begin to announce the winners in nominations. I had hope for victory in the nomination “The Best Youth Project” or “The Best Innovative Idea” or “The Innovative Potential of Ukraine”. But all these nominations won other projects. Of the nominations, only one remained - the absolute winner, who will win the residency in Heppipharm. The heating of the situation, some introductory words and here call me. I was stunned.
Stunned by happiness, under the arm with a diploma and a large certificate of residence in Heppifam, I return to the audience. I wonder who CRDF Global will choose to award a grant. Again, intrigue, again, introductory words, and then call me. Shock!
Actually, I was looking for him for a long time. For this purpose, I traveled specifically to Hackers & Founders in Lviv, and tusil at various start-up parties, but the impression was that they were visited only by Founders. I wrote personal invitations to programmers on job sites, went to local and international rubist rallies, to various developers' rallies, printed and distributed leaflets at specialized events with a 2-4K payment offer and shares, the result was zero. Heppipharm and Eastlabs on their own initiative offered to place on their social. pages my ad. The result is perfect silence. Volunteers in love with a startup themselves volunteered to help in this matter. The result is only a desire to take a deep long breath and exhale. It seems that a startup is a horror story for programmers, like a babay for kids. For me, hired labor is a horror story.And for them, that's the opposite. Like a programmer of some secret strategic nationwide operation, the soldering iron burned the entrepreneurial spirit.
After what was said by Olga from Eastlabs, I continued my search and decided to go through Russian sites of work, among which was hantim.ru. Gave a paid ad and was stunned. Only on the first day came about 6 applications from all over the Soviet Union. One was from Kiev. They met, talked, their eyes were burning, in love with the project, a waterfall of ideas - perfect. Agreed at 1.5K + share.
Two weeks - a partner draws beautiful graphics, makes plans, paints everything in detail, we write together a user-story. Agreed to do the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) by December 20th. In the course of the play, strangeness begins to appear. For example, he could fall for a day, not pick up the phone, and then report that he helped another friend solve his problems. One, second, tenth. On December 5, he disappears, he doesn’t pick up the phone, doesn’t answer letters, leave messages on Skype, but no answer. Day, two, three, five - silence. Fun…
I again give an announcement on Huntim and select applicants. Almost decided on the choice. Then after 10 days the partner is announced and reports that he was sick. It is strange of course that in 10 days it was impossible to inform at least SMS. There is an incomprehensible state inside me, but we continue to work. Hoping for the best. In the meantime, the help to another friend, the solution of problems in the family, the water flows, then there is no light, then the parents of the wife are invited to visit. By the New Year MVP is not ready. After NG, the partner gave himself a weekend for a week. But I’ve been listening to philosophical stories that the family is a glass ball, and business is a rubber ball. My counter-philosophy is valid only until the next payment 1.5K.
I am trying to pull him out of the house in order to concentrate fully on work. My family allocated one room for business, for 4 days we work together in the same physical space, the partner sleeps in the room and works all day. During these 4 days, we managed to do more than a month and a half before. The partner leaves and says that such a regime is not rolling, he wants to be with his family. MVP promises to do just as soon as it gets rid of another problem at home. Problems multiply, and MVP is transferred to the next tomorrow. I can not stand, put the final date for MVP - after 10 days, January 31. Promise? I promise no choice. February 1, the beginning of the first night. I call - “What aren't you writing?” - “I will finish tomorrow”. Clear.So cooperation finish.
After 10 minutes, a message arrives that my access to Google Docs and Gmail is not working. Facebook ejected. I am writing to the ex-partner in Skype - removed from the contacts, calling - silence. All night, I quickly change passwords and restore access to Google Docs and Gmail through the domain. I am thinking about what would have happened if we had already signed the papers, we would cooperate with investors. Reflections soothe and translate into positive.
On Facebook, Alain from Heppifarm wrote a parable of the type, as one programmer invested half a year in building architecture, developing an ideal, stable, secure startup, and as time passed it turned out that a startup was not needed. And the second - for a week, first version of the first version, then by feedback he refined it for the needs of customers, started selling the product and hired the first programmer for the money.
This story was the last straw for me to the enlightened understanding of the fact that my skill quickly govnododit - this is a super gift that I have not used before, because I thought it was super sediment.
In addition to everything that happened before, on the morning of February 1, an idea comes to me from the depths of the Universe - the answer to the question of where to get the mainstream music legally to get a scalable mood radio is YouTube. He has millions of tracks, plus for me - the complete absence of crap with royalties, copyrights and the need to communicate with dinosaurs. The only thing that the radio mood will turn into a TV mood.
So I have two scalable ideas. Heart and soul are asking TV in the mood. Moreover, the size of this market is 5.8 billion, and the market of services for musicians is about 300 million. In any case, if you don’t give a ride, then I will return to services for musicians.
I buy seeds, chocolate and leave for the daily 12 to 19 hours coding. I am testing the API, I check the monetization possibilities, everything works, there are no dead ends and crap. Already somehow not familiar. The forehead has already developed the habit of beating against the walls. Programming with my magic govnokodom makes me happy every day. What I expected from different developers a year, I did in 2 weeks.
Nevertheless, strategically, I understand that I won’t be able to pull everything alone for a long time; concentration, full responsibility and willingness to take risks like me.
February 10th music the classifier writes that the admin page does not work. I go to the server, and before my eyes the folders and files disappear. Among the deleted folders - a folder with music, mp3-files.
On the first of February night, when the ex-partner began to disconnect me from everywhere, to which he had access, I made myself just in case backup DB and all files. All but music. The base of 15,000 tracks, in which I invested more than $ 3K in filling with characteristics, flew off to warmer climes. Yaliti.com came kirdyk.
But for some reason I was not very upset. Probably because in 4 days I will have a new product ready, written by me from scratch.
February 14, I launch a new project instead of Yaliti.com. NextMusic.TV - nonstop music from Youtube exactly according to your mood. I listen to feedbacks from visitors, from Vlad Voskresensky (a low bow for him and high gratitude for him), I instantly make edits, I instantly correct bugs that do not breed and do not rise.
The result - for 2 months from February to April, attendance increased from 130 per day to 430 self-propelled vehicles without advertising. This is somewhere over 100% per month.
On May 20, my residence begins at Happy Farm, in June, participation in the Europe Venture Summit.
Such are the start-up roller coasters of Aladdin.
To be continued…
UPDATE: from 10.05.2013, completely and irrevocably falling in love with NextMusic.TV, Andrey Transsky joined the project: a serial entrepreneur and programming guru with experience of over 20 years.
Since then, I have been able to experiment with the launches of dozens of three projects, which, overgrown with experience, smoothly flowed into each other, becoming 6 profitable projects.
First success
The very first successful project was krivbass.ua.ru (ibn.dp.ua). March 2000, the first course. Then in the city there were only about 900 Internet users. The three of us (I, my friend and fellow student Dima, and his friend Andrew) just posted ads on the domain. No one cared that no one knew the site and no one was calling from the ads. The main thing was that "information about the company will be available worldwide." Some of the Internet customers have never seen, but wanted to be there through us. They were looking for clients as I was taught in network marketing, they printed flyers on the printer and went to the main street in each store, office, demanding a director (“On what issue?” - “On cooperation”). At that time, sales agents had not yet been shot off and it was possible to talk to the majority of directors in such a simple way. Step by step, receiving 3-5 dollars a month from the client, we eventually collected as much as 100 bucks. Crazy money for a poor student. Then they only drove once a month and harvested.
')
Kiev
Already in October 2000, after this dizzying success, I was hired to work in Kiev for the position of assistant manager of the Internet project Turbaza.com.ua and soon - the manager. I was handed a site that brought 10 dollars of income per month. My task is simple - to increase revenue.
Kiev is not Krivoy Rog, the Internet charms on clients do not work here, advertising does not work, Google. Adsense has not yet been invented, you need to think and test hypotheses. With the method of scientific poking and sorting through the options, I managed to find something for which the travel agencies were willing to pay for a subscription to the orders of the tours (this is the way all freelance exchanges work now). After a year of my work, the site already received $ 750 per month of monthly fee. This is despite the fact that my s / n was - $ 150. All this was also crowned with a victory in the nomination “The Best Business Idea of ​​the Year 2001” at an all-Ukrainian web competition held by Sun Microsystems.
Freelance
In 2002, I decided to try myself in freelancing. I made a website, I found a client who ordered a banner network development from me. I bought a book for PHP4 with prepaid money, I started learning and coding. After 2 months, having delayed all the deadlines, I made a mega monster. If I had been told to make this system in the form of TK, I would never have believed that I could, from complete zero, without knowing a single PHP function, syntax, nothing.
Customer expectations were exceeded a hundred times. I wanted to apply a slightly smaller factor to the expected second part of the payment. As a result, left with his beloved banner system and without payment. Looking ahead, a year later the same customer, with whom we are still friends, bought the system. Meanwhile, I began to promote my network to the masses, sending invitations to site owners. In response to one such letter, I was invited to work at Board.com.ua.
University
After school I had no desire to go to college. I had an exemption from the army (thanks to the good doctor). I sat quietly in my apartment and was engaged in building a pre-Internet business. Although, the only thing that attracted me to the institute was the abundance of candidates for the title of my future ideal wife, whom I set out to find.
I realized this mission in the first course. On the second - I transferred to Kiev. After the first semester of the second year I went to the rector and said that in the summer there will be a wedding with a student of the provincial branch of your university, can you translate it after the wedding? I received an answer that I remembered for the rest of my life: “So why wait for the summer, let's translate right now. We need happy students. ”. No comments.
The next years at university I “studied” by inertia. Site Turbaza I taxied after full-time university study. So much precious time for the cat because of the university. The patience ended after I passed all the tests of the 7th semester and I was invited to work at Board.com.ua. Write a letter of resignation and take a certificate - everything you need for happiness. The application was written, and the certificate of completion of secondary education was not given, since I lost my student one. Well, okay. I will be without a certificate.
Latest employment experience
In addition to the fact that for 4 months of my work, the income of the site I managed increased from $ 100 to $ 1000, another significant fact was that here I met my future business partners: Max and Sanya. In June 2003 we decided to leave everything together and start our own business - webmanager-pro.com web design studio.
Riveting sites
Thanks to Max’s talented language, we had the first clients for a system that no one else had done. I was responsible for the technical part, for finding customers and design - Max and Sanya. The endless marathon of creation, development of its own CMS and monotonous clone stamping began. After two years of such activity, I was turned back by her. The soul was drawn to the development of its web services, or as it is now fashionable to say - products.
Its products
Back in 2002, after developing the banner network, I made a portal for webmasters and a bulletin board. By 2004, the bulletin board was unwound by a self-propelled movement in my opinion, up to thousands of 5-10 hosts per day. Two years of development, and the only thing that came from it was the beautiful numbers on the meter and the invoice for hosting. Close the site was more profitable than keep. What I did. A couple of months after the domain has already been deleted and bought by squatters, I will know about the appearance of Google.Adsense. Hmm ...
Domain and attendance is no longer to return, but there is SEO experience and database backup with ads. In order to increase my chances for a quick promotion, I made two bulletin boards, sharpened for a narrow specialization. One - purely to Kiev. The other is purely for metal, equipment in Ukraine. It worked. Both got accustomed and, at the best of times, gathered thousands of 10 hosts per day, providing me with Google checks.
After I sold the banner network in 2003, I immediately launched the hosting portal Karman.com.ua in Ukraine. He was the first and only on this topic. Having increased the audience, it's time to monetize the resource. Google.Adsense gave meager efficiency, but, thanks to a narrow theme, good old direct advertising sales worked.
Having a minimum allowable income for the support of life activities from my products, I was relieved to finish my site-punching career. From the former customers of the sites remained only hosting, also giving an additional stable income. But calls to technical support were chained to the workplace around the clock, so in March 2007 I sold it.
Retirement
From this moment came paradise on earth. We managed to get rid of everything that was tormenting our souls, leaving only Google checks and a sea of ​​free time. You could take care of yourself and rehabilitate your tormented soul. From 2007 to 2010, I deeply took up my favorite Toych IDEAL method, spent rare consultations with pleasure, looked for my talents: I wrote a book, took photographs of weddings, drew, delivered pizza, and got drunk from all the samples.
Interestingly, my webmanager-pro partner Sanya was a guitar player, and we decided to play together for the sake of interest. At the very first trial, both of them incredibly liked the idea. Rehearsal for rehearsal and now we have a rock band with big plans.
Pension reform
In March-April 2010, the pension sharply decreased threefold. That is how the attendance fell, and with it the income. It is not surprising. For 3 years the topic with bulletin boards became so popular that only the lazy did not make his own. An overdose in the search delivery of identical ads began to let know about itself. And the prospects did not look bright. As wisdom used to say in some person: “There is only one stability in life - this is stable development and movement forward. Who stands still, he actually falls down. ” After walking a couple of months in thought, I decided that it was not interesting to wait for the full departure from Google, you need to go all in.
Go global
As an all-bank candidate, the idea of ​​a global world bulletin board + price list catalog + product reviews + forum + reviews + video + photos came to me. Great idea, I'm excited, I want reviews of all products and prices from around the world. But to develop it, you need money. The only source of money that I saw was to sell my business, leaving the comfort zone to the zone of obscurity, faith and hope.
June 2010. I sell one of my businesses. For the implementation of the TZ I allocate 2 months and $ 2500. And another 4 months and 1500 dollars remain in stock. It should work out.
Freelancers
While still in retirement nirvana, I believed and hoped that everything would be easy. I will write TK, give it to freelancers, they will do it, and I will earn millions. At the stage of searching for an artist, I discovered that 2,500 is not enough, the pros asked for 18,000. But I still managed to find a rare performer who agreed to implement his plans for this amount. Everything went according to plan. I traveled with my wife by car a month, and freelancers kodili. August 20 - deadline. To this date is not done yet half. September 20th The 20th of October. We do Skypecall, during which it turns out that everything that has been done is not at all applicable to what was intended. Money is returned, but 4 months of time you will not return.
Attempt # 2
Find a new artist was even harder than in June. I had to cut down the TZ to find at least someone. Mr. "At least someone" worked in November, December, January and February, and then said that he had not yet begun.
Attempt number 3
I had to sell the car and throw everything out of the TZ, like ballast from a balloon, leaving only the main thing - the balloon. It took another 7 months. Salvage exhausted. I had to remember the skill and finish what I started with my own hands. And at the same time to sell the second business.
Startup
Autumn 2011 was a period of discovery for me. It turns out that there is a startup movement. It turns out that what I'm doing is a startup. It turns out that there are live investors, angels, funds and this is not a fairy tale. It turns out that from 99, when I started, the Internet grew to unprecedented heights. It turns out that I am not the only one who is a geek, but there are hordes of like-minded people.
In the meantime, my project has already had 2.5 million price lines and about a hundred connected online stores. Investments were needed for further development, so I began to look for them, while at the same time improving the project. To develop further, you need super-software, sharpened to handle hundreds of millions of prices every day for a very limited time. This is far beyond my capabilities.
Urgently album
2 months can not find any investment. And there is only money left for 5 months. Damn, you need to do something ...
ABOUT! We need to urgently record an album that has been dragging on for 2 years, while you still have the opportunity! We made this decision with a friend at the end of December 2011. And now, by the end of January, in just a month, the album “Under the Sky (Fantastish Global Systems)”, consisting of 12 selected tracks, was ready. Pecking ass cock works wonders.
In February, I specifically engaged in promotion around the world in all available ways all day long. A couple of radio scrolls in England and the United States, a couple of magazine publications and $ 8 in revenue. Hmm ... Not what we expected ...
Not fun at all
There is no business, there is money left for 3 months, there are no investors, music is not for sale, do I really have to get a hired job ... How I hate it.
It is the most severe frosts of February in the courtyard, and I go on interviews, reluctantly with teeth, just like Maresyev in the famous Soviet work. But my record did not impress anyone. I do not look like an ideal employee. And time was ticking ...
New Zealand
In early March, as a gift from heaven to searchengines.ru, there was a business angel from Moscow who wished to invest $ 10K. Considering that during the month no other proposals were received, I of course agreed.
There was a question of official registration of shares. The easiest way to re-register a domain for two, but it is impossible. You can only one person or one legal entity. Thanks to New Zealand for the government website, where it was easy to register a company online, providing only scans of foreign passports.
Renting a virtual office with our physical box for storing official documents and all registrations took about 2 weeks and $ 600. Shares could be managed directly online. We agreed that a business angel invests gradually as the need arises, and I gradually increase my share.
Roof demolition
In March 2012 Arkady Moreynis came to Kiev with the event “Startup weekend”. The lecture that to test the soundness of an idea, $ 50 is enough to demolish my roof. I now hold it as the most important rule of a startup.
If there is a super idea, you need to make a simple HTML page, on which to describe this idea with the text, what will be here, paste the form for the subscription, social. widgets and sharers. Then - for $ 50 to buy ads on VKontakte. Based on the reaction of visitors to make a decision.
I trusted my idea for two years and for $ 5K, and then in one day and 50 bucks. No words. Only emotions. Previously, I did not attend conferences, forums, tusnyaki, master classes. Why do they need me? I already know everything. But after March 2012 I loved them with all my heart and soul.
Another angel
In order for you to be selected at Startup Weekend, you had to prepare and send a presentation for review. Once I told my family about the project, the presentation, about the fact that I found an angel. And as an unexpected reaction, I received an offer of angelic investment and a complaint as to why I had not previously told about such a cool opportunity to invest.
If fate exists, then my script definitely created an extreme with a rich imagination and a bright original sense of humor.
Dilemma
With the first angel, we had not yet formalized a firm and did not re-register the domain. But I’m used to it like this: if you give a word, then keep it, even if it’s not profitable. If he had not given his word, he would certainly have made a more convenient choice in the direction of the family.
After some time, an unexpected idea comes to me. And what if in parallel to start another startup. Moreover, I had an interesting idea in the process of promotion of our group - to make a catalog of the works of talented people so that customers could find authors for these works.
Startup number 2
I ordered a design. He gave the moderator the task of compiling a catalog of all the talents of a person and the filters by which they could be found. After a week, it became clear that it would take about a year to compile only one rubricator of all talents.
Returning from Startup Weekend, I decided to immediately implement one more important rule: “No need to try to satisfy everyone. It is better to focus on a single task, a single group of people, but to satisfy them to the maximum. ”
Since the music is closest to my soul, I decided to concentrate on the musicians and their music. He made a list of filters and noticed that they can ideally select music for every taste, every mood. This will be the chip to attract the audience. And if you make a catalog of works in the form of a nonstop playlist, then you’ll get a radio mood. Unexpected turn.
I do, as taught, the CTML promotion page, I buy ads on VKontakte and watch how people share a bare page and subscribe to the opening. Cool! You can run.
Hired programmer
On cheap freelancers and piecework I already burned. I will not repeat mistakes. It is necessary to take on a permanent basis. And he took a novice programmer to permanent remote on the s / n.
As it turned out, in order to work effectively, one more worker should be included in the kit - a tester. But the main thing that should have come in is a sense of responsibility. Responsibility for the result that people will use your result. The desire to realize the dreams of these people. But this was not included.
The solemn launch of the startup Yaliti.com took place on May 28th. Planned, by the way, 25, almost in time. All the same, at least in something better than freelancing. And then go bugs. Bug on the bug, bug bug, along the way breeding and resurrecting. Nerves lasted for 20 days. I had to go into the code and edit myself.
Design
But with the designer I was lucky. Perhaps because here I did not compromise with the price and initially chose the design agency whose work I admired. For this, I was ready to wait a whole month until they were released. As it turned out, well, that in a month. For I ordered one, and in a month there was already a completely different startup.
Included with the design was supplied and responsibility for the result, as if it was their own startup. I love that. He always worked like that, even when he did a hired job. A lot of ideas, discussions, how about your own startup. By the way, the studio itself was a startup. Made my products. Apparently, startup is part of character.
Dear outsourcing
After successful design work, the same agency offered cool programming services for at least steep money. Price bite, and also bite what you need to wait a month before work begins. But even more bit reluctance to step on the same rake. In the end, after a conversation with the family angel, everyone agreed.
But it was not there. The programmer turned out to be a non-startup character warehouse. He did not give himself control over the reports, threatening to raise the price. Trusting in a fresh, successful experience, I relaxed and engaged in the meantime SEO, attracting musicians, hiring music classifiers and other things. At the time of delivery of work on July 20, it turns out that, firstly, not everything is ready (I heard it somewhere), and, secondly, that he did the wrong thing (earlier version).
And then a familiar song: August 20, September 20, bugs, many bugs, a lot of bugs, infinity bugs. Fax ... In the end, it turns out that the project was made on pure Ruby, and for the programmer - this is the first project on Ruby, before that he coded PHP / Zend. None of the programmers, even for money, want to fix bugs and modify this code. How difficult it all is ...
On the nose, IDCEE 2012, where, by the way, took my startup, to which I was unspeakably happy, but there is still no new software. As a result, I translated the current version into English, made major modifications and presented the project with them.
But what about startup number 1?
It's still harder. The project is very difficult from a technical point of view. 10K is not enough to develop. It is only necessary to take a share of the pros. We ordered the design, received, layout too. And they began strenuously around the globe to seek a co-founder. Searched in the CIS, searched in England, searched in the USA, searched in India, searched everywhere. Found in St. Petersburg. We agreed on 1,5K per month and 10% share.
The start was good. Report sent. Lots of code, lots of ideas. In the second month I said that I would send a report in a week, then after 2, then - excuse me, I have problems, I will tell you how to decide. A month later, the problem was solved, everyone sighed with relief, and a week later he disappeared. A curtain.
In addition to this, the business angel did not pay for the server, it was turned off and deleted along with all the backups of the old version. Having remained friends, I came out of this expensive game.
IDCEE 2012
Yaliti is the only music startup on the startup alley. Near our table constantly tusil people, choosing their own music in the mood. The listeners are ecstatic. The musicians are ecstatic about the plans. But from the investors blew a cool breeze. The only thing, I was invited to the meeting by the Eastlabs business incubator, obviously noticing how I finished myself on the IDCEE online networking page to the 4th place in the overall rating.
Business incubator HappyFarm
In August, I went to Odessa to the Odessa Camp conference, where I was fascinated by the California happiness by the producer Igor Scheufot. It turns out that the same values ​​that, while hiding from everyone, I profess, in California are a mass phenomenon, the basis of culture, especially in Silicon-Silicon Valley.
After seeing a personal and positive feedback about my startup from Igor Scheufot, I decided to prepare a presentation and go to the HappyFarm business incubator, where Igor Scheufot is listed as “The Chairman of the Farm Board of Directors”.
I passed the first selection. Then there was a demo day - a presentation of a startup 3 minutes live before the representatives of HappyFarm. And there I went too. One of 19ti. Then there were Skype-cola with representatives of the board. I wanted to talk about my startup Igor Shoifot and Vlad Voskresensky. I made a presentation and answered questions.
A few days later I was invited to meet and was told that I had reached the final, in which, apart from me, another 9 startups were selected. It's time to prepare for a demo day in front of the international board. Prepared, spoke, waiting for results.
Of the 10 selected 7. Three teams are not included, among them - I am. One of the main reasons is that the media market is a Jurassic park with dinosaurs that don’t want to change with modernity, which is fraught with gigantic expenses and the same amount of crap, and if you focus only on independent musicians, then the problem is with non-scalability and small by the market.
Business Incubator Eastlabs
The first conversation was with Olga Belkova - Eastlabs partner. The presentation took place in an open and friendly atmosphere, during which Olga suggested to me the idea of ​​how to solve the problem with a non-scalable startup.
Scalability is the ability of something to be interesting to buyers at the very beginning with a certain minimum value + ability to be cloned. My startup was not interesting to musicians until there were a lot of listeners on it. But he was not interested in the listeners, until there were a lot of musicians on it. This is a closed unscaled circle.
For example, the minimum valuable Facebook product is fame in one university. It can be cloned to the whole world.
In my case, there are two ways. Either use the world ready base of music, then the project becomes interesting to visitors. But there everything is expensive, hard and the boards are packed. Or -
But this is what Olga suggested - to make a set of services for musicians, which they can buy and use without reference to the number of site visitors. For example: a site for a musician, a system for sending tracks to world radio stations, being present in a mobile application, maintaining contacts with fans, etc. Great idea! Thank! I went to pivot once again. Plus, I was told that I must have a co-founder programmer, otherwise - no chance.
Innovative Breakthrough 2012
I once made a decision for myself to go wherever possible. Among these innings was the application on the Innovation Breakthrough website. An ordinary site, one of thousands, did not foretell anything. One day I received a notification that about 330 startups from all over Ukraine and I, one of 90, who went to the semifinals, participated in the competition. Cool. Okay. Then you need to go to Happy Pharma (organizer of the competition), listen to a lecture, participate in a practical event, prepare an Executive Summary, Canvas, hand over your work and wait for the result.
After a while they call, they say that they reached the final, one of 20 applicants. The final will be held in Kiev City State Administration. There will be many investors from Norway, the USA and other countries. All 20 participants must present their project and answer questions in 3 minutes.
The main prize is a guaranteed residency in the business incubator Heppipharm, I mean, as a bud passed all the selections and the board chose you, like those 7x, which I did not enter. Plus, at the final there was information that there would be an additional separate prize - a $ 10,000 grant from the company CRDF Global, which itself, regardless of the judges, will decide who to award it. Good incentive. True CRDF Global added 10 more projects to the final. As a result, we were in the final 30.
Presentation day. All in strict suits, and I like the white crow - in jeans and a T-shirt. according to the lists of speakers, I'm somewhere in the middle. I waited for the queue. During the presentation, it appears that when converting from Google docks to Power Point, all the information disappeared from the competition slide.It was unexpected at the height of the presentation to see an empty slide, but it turned out to be a funny improvisational joke that there should have been competitors, but they disappeared.
In the evening in a solemn atmosphere - a buffet table, music, evening dresses, and I am in jeans and a T-shirt. Begin to announce the winners in nominations. I had hope for victory in the nomination “The Best Youth Project” or “The Best Innovative Idea” or “The Innovative Potential of Ukraine”. But all these nominations won other projects. Of the nominations, only one remained - the absolute winner, who will win the residency in Heppipharm. The heating of the situation, some introductory words and here call me. I was stunned.
Stunned by happiness, under the arm with a diploma and a large certificate of residence in Heppifam, I return to the audience. I wonder who CRDF Global will choose to award a grant. Again, intrigue, again, introductory words, and then call me. Shock!
Co-founder programmer
Actually, I was looking for him for a long time. For this purpose, I traveled specifically to Hackers & Founders in Lviv, and tusil at various start-up parties, but the impression was that they were visited only by Founders. I wrote personal invitations to programmers on job sites, went to local and international rubist rallies, to various developers' rallies, printed and distributed leaflets at specialized events with a 2-4K payment offer and shares, the result was zero. Heppipharm and Eastlabs on their own initiative offered to place on their social. pages my ad. The result is perfect silence. Volunteers in love with a startup themselves volunteered to help in this matter. The result is only a desire to take a deep long breath and exhale. It seems that a startup is a horror story for programmers, like a babay for kids. For me, hired labor is a horror story.And for them, that's the opposite. Like a programmer of some secret strategic nationwide operation, the soldering iron burned the entrepreneurial spirit.
After what was said by Olga from Eastlabs, I continued my search and decided to go through Russian sites of work, among which was hantim.ru. Gave a paid ad and was stunned. Only on the first day came about 6 applications from all over the Soviet Union. One was from Kiev. They met, talked, their eyes were burning, in love with the project, a waterfall of ideas - perfect. Agreed at 1.5K + share.
Two weeks - a partner draws beautiful graphics, makes plans, paints everything in detail, we write together a user-story. Agreed to do the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) by December 20th. In the course of the play, strangeness begins to appear. For example, he could fall for a day, not pick up the phone, and then report that he helped another friend solve his problems. One, second, tenth. On December 5, he disappears, he doesn’t pick up the phone, doesn’t answer letters, leave messages on Skype, but no answer. Day, two, three, five - silence. Fun…
I again give an announcement on Huntim and select applicants. Almost decided on the choice. Then after 10 days the partner is announced and reports that he was sick. It is strange of course that in 10 days it was impossible to inform at least SMS. There is an incomprehensible state inside me, but we continue to work. Hoping for the best. In the meantime, the help to another friend, the solution of problems in the family, the water flows, then there is no light, then the parents of the wife are invited to visit. By the New Year MVP is not ready. After NG, the partner gave himself a weekend for a week. But I’ve been listening to philosophical stories that the family is a glass ball, and business is a rubber ball. My counter-philosophy is valid only until the next payment 1.5K.
I am trying to pull him out of the house in order to concentrate fully on work. My family allocated one room for business, for 4 days we work together in the same physical space, the partner sleeps in the room and works all day. During these 4 days, we managed to do more than a month and a half before. The partner leaves and says that such a regime is not rolling, he wants to be with his family. MVP promises to do just as soon as it gets rid of another problem at home. Problems multiply, and MVP is transferred to the next tomorrow. I can not stand, put the final date for MVP - after 10 days, January 31. Promise? I promise no choice. February 1, the beginning of the first night. I call - “What aren't you writing?” - “I will finish tomorrow”. Clear.So cooperation finish.
After 10 minutes, a message arrives that my access to Google Docs and Gmail is not working. Facebook ejected. I am writing to the ex-partner in Skype - removed from the contacts, calling - silence. All night, I quickly change passwords and restore access to Google Docs and Gmail through the domain. I am thinking about what would have happened if we had already signed the papers, we would cooperate with investors. Reflections soothe and translate into positive.
Programmer inside me
On Facebook, Alain from Heppifarm wrote a parable of the type, as one programmer invested half a year in building architecture, developing an ideal, stable, secure startup, and as time passed it turned out that a startup was not needed. And the second - for a week, first version of the first version, then by feedback he refined it for the needs of customers, started selling the product and hired the first programmer for the money.
This story was the last straw for me to the enlightened understanding of the fact that my skill quickly govnododit - this is a super gift that I have not used before, because I thought it was super sediment.
In addition to everything that happened before, on the morning of February 1, an idea comes to me from the depths of the Universe - the answer to the question of where to get the mainstream music legally to get a scalable mood radio is YouTube. He has millions of tracks, plus for me - the complete absence of crap with royalties, copyrights and the need to communicate with dinosaurs. The only thing that the radio mood will turn into a TV mood.
So I have two scalable ideas. Heart and soul are asking TV in the mood. Moreover, the size of this market is 5.8 billion, and the market of services for musicians is about 300 million. In any case, if you don’t give a ride, then I will return to services for musicians.
I buy seeds, chocolate and leave for the daily 12 to 19 hours coding. I am testing the API, I check the monetization possibilities, everything works, there are no dead ends and crap. Already somehow not familiar. The forehead has already developed the habit of beating against the walls. Programming with my magic govnokodom makes me happy every day. What I expected from different developers a year, I did in 2 weeks.
Nevertheless, strategically, I understand that I won’t be able to pull everything alone for a long time; concentration, full responsibility and willingness to take risks like me.
Hello from ex-partner
February 10th music the classifier writes that the admin page does not work. I go to the server, and before my eyes the folders and files disappear. Among the deleted folders - a folder with music, mp3-files.
On the first of February night, when the ex-partner began to disconnect me from everywhere, to which he had access, I made myself just in case backup DB and all files. All but music. The base of 15,000 tracks, in which I invested more than $ 3K in filling with characteristics, flew off to warmer climes. Yaliti.com came kirdyk.
But for some reason I was not very upset. Probably because in 4 days I will have a new product ready, written by me from scratch.
NextMusic.TV
February 14, I launch a new project instead of Yaliti.com. NextMusic.TV - nonstop music from Youtube exactly according to your mood. I listen to feedbacks from visitors, from Vlad Voskresensky (a low bow for him and high gratitude for him), I instantly make edits, I instantly correct bugs that do not breed and do not rise.
The result - for 2 months from February to April, attendance increased from 130 per day to 430 self-propelled vehicles without advertising. This is somewhere over 100% per month.
On May 20, my residence begins at Happy Farm, in June, participation in the Europe Venture Summit.
Such are the start-up roller coasters of Aladdin.
To be continued…
UPDATE: from 10.05.2013, completely and irrevocably falling in love with NextMusic.TV, Andrey Transsky joined the project: a serial entrepreneur and programming guru with experience of over 20 years.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/178463/
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