Video interview from Silicon Valley. Ilya Semin: "I do not need investors" - how to build a business in IT without attracting investment

With you a new issue of informative interviews and reports from Silicon Valley. This time, the interview is not with Rock Star, which are probably already a bit tired , but simply with a talented entrepreneur from the Valley, who recently managed to build a successful business and assemble a team of 8 people. Ilya Semin, a former Nokia developer, once decided to quit his job at a company and move across the whole of America from Boston to Silicon Valley to build his company there. Ilya has created an application that, by the principle of a search engine, bypasses millions of sites and looks at which Internet technologies are being used on them. Based on this information, customers can, for example, see when a competitor’s product appeared on one of the sites, and taking advantage of the moment, “intercept” a client from a competitor.

For example, if a company makes an advanced version of Google Analytics, Datanyze will help it track those who use this technology and, thus, give a list of potential customers who can offer a service. As Ilya himself says: “Datanyze is a tool to offer your product to the right company at the right time. We give information about who to offer, when, their contacts and all the necessary information about the company (how many people work, what profit they have, funding, year of foundation, etc.). ”In the interview, Ilya Semin tells why he left working at Nokia, how he set up the company, why he is not looking for investments, and also shares marketing secrets on Twitter and LinkedIn. Under the cut more information and interview questions.

(Another example: the company makes a plugin for WordPress - you can track through Datanyze who just moved to WordPress and offer them your own plugin. Another example: you are a consultant for some company, for example, Salesforce - again, you can watch as soon as started using a competitor's product - offer your own. The whole list of technologies that Datanyze tracks are very large, you can see it here )

Interview Questions:

• Tell me why you left the Nokia office in Boston, made such a long way across America to Silicon Valley to make your startup here.
• What did you do in Nokia?
• How to work in your own startup?
• Can you give a specific example?
• At what stage of development is your startup? Many clients?
• How did the idea come about, and why did it take you so much that you decided to quit your job at Nokia?
• Do you have any investors?
• Don't you even consider attracting investments to spur growth and development?
• That is, you are more interested in investment in the form of customers and experience than just money?
• Do you have mentors now?
• What advice can you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who still want to receive investments?
• What are the best ways to attract customers for you?
• And on Twitter, you are in contact with anyone?
• With mass following on Twitter, have you had any problems? Account is not banned?
• And on LinkedIn, you’re not using the InMail function, but just guessing the email? (Mentioned Rapportive plugin)
• Is there any community of Russian-speaking entrepreneurs in the Valley? ( Talking about AmBAR )

')
Thank you for your attention and for the positive feedback. Subscribe to the channel to follow video updates (reports and interviews). If someone wants to help with decoding - it would be great. I have this, unfortunately, just do not have time.

PS: The next interview will be with Igor Scheufot , a well-known serial entrepreneur, investor and representative of the TMT Investments investment fund in Silicon Valley, who has invested, among others, with Virool, whose interview I recently posted . Write in the comments what questions you would like to ask Igor.

Previous posts:
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Alex Debelov is a graduate of YCombinator, leader and co-founder of Virool, an online video promotion service.
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Sergey Burkov - a serial entrepreneur, mentor 500 Startups, the first head of the Google development center in Russia
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Members of Council of AmBAR, the largest business association of Russian-speaking high-tech professionals in the United States
Report from Silicon Valley. Blackbox - American startup accelerator focused on non-American startups
Report from Silicon Valley. Hacker Dojo Tour - Free Coworking Center
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Max Skibinsky - serial entrepreneur, business angel and incubator mentor 500 Startups