Skwibl - how to do a startup and have time to relax?

This picture makes the post 20% lighter.

Today I did a good job, I managed to do a lot, I solved several difficult problems.
“Yes, it is already 10 o'clock in the evening, but today it’s Friday and at home I’m waiting for rest and comfort,” I thought and woke up on Monday morning.
It is good to solve problems in a dream if you have a big beard and you are engaged in chemistry, and here, an ordinary IT start-up is hard work, exhausting, demanding full returns, and therefore a good rest.
So how do you engage a startup and still have time to relax?
Under the cut a lot of photos (some were made in a dream)

Let's start with how I came to life like that, because before that I had dreamed of beautiful nymphs, and now here’s the job, the problems that still have to be solved!

In the hot summer of 2011, I realized that I was tired of Java and began to look closely at something more interesting. NodeJs accidentally caught my eye (well, how did it happen? All mathematicians are actually connected by a telepathic network, but only tssss!) And I liked it. I liked it so much that I had played enough and started writing a small part on it for online communication in real time. The web sockets were new at the time, so it was bold, and most importantly, interesting. From the product we got a prototype in which you could chat together via chat, watch movies, play simple toys and draw Kalyaka-Malyaki (this was the most fun).
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Acquaintances and friends used, played and praised, but the prototype would have remained the prototype if it were not for my good friend Tanya (well, how good - I want to triple her, and she will get rid of me =). Studying in Europe, Tanya heard a lot about incubators and accelerators and even managed to work in a startup. She convinced me to try to apply. In Kiev, the start-up movement was only in its infancy, so we started with foreign incubators. However, due to problems with communication (it often broke off and, in general, there was a lot of interference) we did not manage to reach an understanding.

MEDIX PC-307 Incubator

It got to the point of absurdity - we were asked “can we come?”, I tore at my shirt and recalling the lessons of Lydia Fyodorovna shouted “Es! EU of Kors! ”, But as it turned out later, some members of the commission thought that we could not come (perhaps, if Tanya had torn his shirt, everything would be different =).

Soon we learned about EastLabs , and there everything was really different (no, I didn’t have to tear the shirt =). It is just much easier to communicate live, to see the reaction of the listeners, to explain incomprehensible moments. And the commission was just wonderful.
After several interviews, we were invited to become members of the first accelerator business in Kiev!

Welcome to EastLabs

In EastLabs we communicated with a large number of mentors, each is an expert in his field. Thanks to them, we were able to hone the idea and make it more suitable for the real world.

Today Skwibl is a service for communication between a designer and a customer. All those who worked with designers know how difficult it is sometimes to explain their vision. And it’s not very easy for designers to read tasks like “move the left button in the lower right corner 20 pixels to the left”. It is much easier to work with visual material, instead of parsing a few paragraphs of text. Now you can upload images to Skwibl , and then mark edits, add comments and tasks directly to them! It is simple and natural. For a couple of clicks, we convey our thoughts to the designer and no longer risk falling into the list of hellish clients. For us and our designers, this has halved the number of iterations.

Skwibl - mark edits right on the images!

A startup is a big responsibility and a lot of stress. A small team must solve many difficult and often not familiar tasks. Therefore, it is very important to love what you do. Love on weekends, love without money, day and night until you meet a younger startup with a bigger budget =) No, seriously, you should enjoy what you are doing.

If you fail to do this, you apparently are doing something wrong, because the accelerator with partners (and sympathizers) constantly provides an opportunity to recharge your mood and have a good rest. The main thing is not to miss such moments and to notice them in time. If you still miss the most interesting, I will tell you what to do.

1. Talk with a successful person you trust.

On the path of start-ups, you will always have doubts - are we doing this, and is it really necessary, can you try something else? Do not hesitate - ask for advice from someone who has already helped you somehow. For me, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk became such a person, it was his work on quasi-integrable systems that helped me become interested in supersymmetry and choose a topic for my dissertation. Conversation with him added confidence and helped me not to give up. By the way, Svyatoslav also sings great!

Famous physicist, author of a robot with quasi-integrable systems - Svyatoslav Vakarchuk

2. Do not forget about the sport.

Going headlong into programming, you can completely lose shape sitting in place. Therefore, it is very important to remember the sport. Boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko helped us refresh our memories.
Communicating with Vladimir replaces a good workout, he is interested, asks difficult questions, praises or doubts the answers. After this, you feel invigorated. Although you should not forget about the gym, yet these people do not come every day =)

World Boxing Champion - Wladimir Klitschko

3. Participate in contests.

A good way to understand if you are moving in the right direction is contests. It is fun, interesting and makes you think creatively.
And even if you do not win, a place in the semifinals is also very nice.

Awarding of the winners of the international IT conference IDCEE 2012

4. Learn something new.

Concentrating on a startup and its problems, you sometimes stop to find a way out even from simple situations. In such cases, do not get hung up, you need to forget about everything for a while and discover something new. Do not hesitate, education is fun, especially if you are trained in the funniest incubator in Kiev (and Kiev region = P) Happy Farm . For me, the lectures of Bob Dorf became a real rest, and besides they gave answers to many questions that tormented me.

Co-author of the best-selling book The Startup Owner's Manual, Bob Dorf, shares the experience of creating startups in the Happy Farm incubator.

5. And most importantly - always be yourself.

No matter what happens - ups, downs, successes or failures, always be yourself. Joke, enjoy life, do not forget about love and everything will be fine with you!

Skwibl Team on Office 360 ​​Presentation

A startup is a long road. We stand at the very beginning of it and still want to finish and realize a lot. Now I am working on improving the performance on tablets, in the near future - quick prototyping tools, video collaboration and much more.

We did the service primarily for people, and not for the sake of money, so everything that is now available on the site, we will offer for free. Yes, we are going to monetize, but it will be possible to pay for additional features that will actually cost a little money. There is always a place for beauty between capitalism and socialism =)


We tried to make Skwibl useful, and I think we did it. We love what we do, and we do it precisely because we love. I hope you will love our service too and will be able to forgive us some minor flaws, we, in turn, will try and get better. Try it and feel free to share your opinion.


With love, Skwibl team.