MASHA - the formation of the daily menu in preschool

Greetings to you, dear reader!
It will not be the story of a successful takeoff or fatal fall. There will be no statistics, technology promotion, answers to the question "How to make a million?". I will try only to highlight the main points that may be useful to those who are faced with the implementation and implementation of SAAS projects. Despite the fact that I do not like the word "startup", the discussion will deal with a project that generally fits this definition.

It all started back in 2010. By that time I had already had a decent development experience, work for myself, for the company, for myself in the company.

The moment the first. The idea is not specifically invented, you just have to do what you love.

And I did. I must say that it was not only programming. This is also the result. Everyone has their own Gordian knot, someone unravels it, someone chops, but there is nothing better than the feeling at the moment when you finally did it. So I lived, waiting for what else "knot" to lower my "sword".
This time, my gaze went to a completely unexpected area: a kindergarten that my children went to. By chance, I knew what problems were arising there with the management of the food process. So, it is decided, I will help to solve these problems! As a solution, I identified a WEB application that should automatically create a menu (breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc.) based on certain rules.
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The second moment. If you are a carpenter, then better be a good carpenter than a poor toolmaker.

My main tool is PHP. During my activity I saved enough bicycles and knew which one I would use. The action plan was formed in the head, gradually overgrown with the necessary trifles. Why in the head? Yes, because I did not consider it necessary to plan anything at all. More precisely, I had a plan, but only one: to do everything quickly. Imagine the squeamish grimaces on the faces of some. Yes, a thorough systematic approach is good, but not in this case. Absolute non-binding nature of this project contributed to such reckless behavior. This means that I could stop it at any time without consequences. For a start, I was completely amused by WAMP, deployed on a computer in kindergarten without Internet access. So, riding my bike, I got ready for a marathon.

The third moment. Maximum detailed study of the subject of development.

Today I am absolutely sure that if I hadn’t learned in detail what needs to be developed, the project would have been dead. If you yourself can not comprehend the subject of development, find someone who knows this subject thoroughly. Otherwise, take care of another project. You can be the second Donald Knut, you can know how to do it, but if you do not know what to do, it will be very difficult to get the result.
A person who knew everything about the subject became my task director and conductor in the world of nutrition for preschoolers. But it was not there. This did not mean at all that it remained only to write code. My task designer was far from programming just as I was from the power of preschoolers. For days we sat, figuring out what and how it should work. I didn’t even try to do any TK and I don’t regret it. New requirements arose suddenly and it was not possible to document them when development was underway. Many times I wanted to throw everything to hell! But the result wanted more.

Fourth moment. For a startup do not need money.

I did the best things in my life for free. This does not mean that everyone should do so. Someone is looking for investment, forming or hiring a team, planning risks and doing other difficult work. This is good and correct if it leads to the achievement of results. For starters, I had enough work at home in the evenings. To be honest, that in the future I will earn on it, I did not think then. It was important one thing: to solve the problem for which I took. It's like a sport, when you want to run, you run, and you don't wait until you get paid for it first. You can run together or three, but for this you need the same desire of all participants.
So I continued. Is free. Calmly accepting the surprised reaction of some observers who tried to find the background of such a disinterested rush. In my head there were new solutions and the process was unstoppable. So I got to the first alpha-beta version.
“Why do you call it beta? “Cause it's betta than nothing.”

The fifth moment. The project must ripen.

This is probably everyone knows. However, it is very difficult to determine how long the ripening takes and how it will pass. In the case of my project, it took a year and a half :)
At this stage, the project is already really working. Does this mean that the result is achieved? Not. In the process of maturation get out all the flaws and omissions. But the train has already gathered speed, it is becoming more and more difficult to change something. This is where the experience saved me. He forgave me for the lack of planning and design, giving in return a good architecture. It was due to the architecture that I managed to rebuild a lot under the requirements that were updated on the fly. Modules were polished, errors were corrected, confidence in success grew.
Evaluated and platform. I understood that the project would also be useful for other kindergartens. First, I organized a platform on the small servache that I had at my disposal. Each new client was decided to create their own database and their own subdomain. At the same time, the application itself remained common to all customers.
So my small local venture became a service. I still can not call it a full SAAS. We needed documentation, user support, a more reliable platform, and a whole lot more. It takes time, time to ripen. When a child is born, he does not speak or walk, but he already breathes and feels! He lives! The rest he learns, and you need to help him in this. So any project. If he began to live, do not leave him, let him mature, help him to mature.
In the meantime, you need to think about what to do next. Overripe fruit loses its taste and attractiveness. Need a fresh stream, and by tradition, this is money.

The moment of the sixth. Make money. If you can.

Making money alone is tough, which means the cards are on the table. I enlisted the support of the management of the company in which I work. After agreements on my author's remuneration, the project received a new round. We have determined the price of a license for one preschool institution. Identified a list of modules, which is included in this price. It remained to wait for customers.
But I could not leave my child and rest on the laurels of authorship. And I jumped into the process in full. I made a business card site, more for order than for attracting clients (we can do without advertising here, the address of the site is in my profile). Recorded a couple of video files describing the system, started a couple of blogs in social networks. I typed a note in Computer News.
However, a full-scale promotion of the project was not planned, due to specificity. Clients could only be preschool institutions, and therefore 99.9% were state institutions. Oh yeah! Work with goskantoryami, this is a separate song. I will not describe here all the idiocy that sometimes accompanies such cooperation. But as time went on, word of mouth worked, and we collected rave reviews in a few presentations.
With increasing customers, the platform has expanded. I moved to a new server, which was specially allocated for this purpose by our wise leadership. Established a backup. Improved registration of new customers. Since the service is closed, registration was the creation of a new virtual host client, a database and several folders. But when once I had to quickly connect 60 clients, I realized that the manual method does not fit and I must be prepared for such situations. The solution was obvious: the script that made the cut of the reference database created the necessary folders and led the user for each client.
And here is the moment of the first payment from customers. No euphoria; I think you already understood that it was not for the money that I was playing this game. Don't laugh, I certainly am not against rewards :) but I remembered the main thing. The main thing - his Majesty Result!

The seventh moment. Respect your customers.

Our clients are heads of preschool institutions. These are 100% women who are 80% far from information technology. At the same time, technical support is free and our technical support phone number is specified ... correctly, my telephone number. It is difficult to even describe what kind of questions I had to answer, but I held out and was extremely correct with everyone. What is most striking, I myself was at a loss to explain this phenomenon. In everyday life, I am terribly annoyed by dull people, I can not help but raise my voice, with repeated explanation of seemingly elementary things. Here, without much straining, I endured all requests and questions. Moreover, I called back to the client whenever I missed his call. Of course, this can only be explained by love for your SAAS brainchild.
But the clients paid me the same. There were simply no negative reviews, and many sincerely were surprised at the speed with which errors were corrected and new improvements were made. On this positive wave, I even refused to differentiate prices for licenses, depending on the composition of the service, and generously “watered” customers with new modifications. As a result, the functionality of the system has almost doubled at the old price. And I do not regret it at all.

Result.

So is the result or not? Where is the desired feeling when you did it? Perhaps this is the main secret. I think a lot is still to come. Today the name "MASHA" is already known, they wrote about us in a specialized magazine for executives, the client base is increasing. In fact, not everything was as rosy as you might think. Lack of difficulties, just do not want to write about the negative. My goal was a sincere desire to help, I can consider it achieved. But the result is something else. This is something that does not dry out. I know that the project can become better, and I will do it better. So I will do what I love! The circle is closed. Well, ready to return to the first moment?