A small intermediate result of the year of great work
Hello.
This is my second article on Habr, the first was to penetrate the community. This article will be devoted entirely to the history of business creation in the field of mobile applications. In the article I will share a little experience and tell you what we will do next (and invite you to the team). I must say that the business was done by two people, and it grew from zero to the cost of millions of dollars.
The company, as a business, started with one crazy idea in November 2011. The idea was very simple - why pay users for phone calls and SMS when they can watch ads instead. I will not hide, before that there were a lot of attempts to do this, but for the most part they tried to embed advertising in the conversation or in the application itself. Bad idea ... My grandmother will not understand the pause when I call her, in which she is told to buy powder - she will hang up. In our idea, the user can watch the promotional videos in a completely separate section of the application (or download other applications), get a balance and call where he wants, like from a regular phone.
The idea is good, but who will implement it? I will have to tell a little about myself. I have been involved in various businesses since 1988, and all types of businesses have been connected with telecommunications and the Internet. In 1996, my experience allowed me to quit my job and start a career as a serial entrepreneur (then it was called differently). Behind more than two dozen established businesses in the B2B sector, with an annual turnover of 3-6M USD. One of the brightest businesses is ixc.ua , which is one of the first in the world to sell a billing + softswitch solution for IP telephony.
Starting a new CFC business that works in a relatively new sector for me - B2C for mobile devices, I thought that I did not know programming. We will not write to the Assembler asset on 286 and x86 processors. It was interesting to me not just to do business, it was interesting to write everything from scratch to myself. At the same time, it’s necessary to check so much time for this, as my directors say in the plans. No sooner said than done.
Half a year was spent studying Obj-C, C, and writing the first, simple client-server application, just for the sake of self-study. A simple recommendation for anyone who follows my example: a book plus the desire to write something, gives far less experience than stackoverflow.com + the desire to write something. And without the desire to write something, you probably shouldn't waste time reading. There is a lot of water in the books, which is also dangerous to use (for example, KVO). But the first experience was obtained, which was later applied to the CFC project.
From November to April, the CFC application was written. He had one big plus - it really RINGED. And in April 2012, with a sinking heart, the first confirmation was received from the AppStore. At the same time, a second partner entered the project, who started promoting the project site (by the way, we also had a Java version). He believed in the project, did not demand a salary, and together we are developing the project so far.
It is strange to write it, but competitors had obvious things not to go (and even now too). They are obvious because when the client downloads the application, he wants to try the service. Not an abstract test call, he wants to call a friend (relative). We are the only ones who give such an opportunity. Do not ask how much money it costs us, this is a commercial secret.
Perhaps this fact, perhaps others, contributed to the popularity of the project from the very beginning. We spent minimal money on advertising, and users came and came. The task was exactly that - to create a service that would have a "viral effect." Because then any advertising will give a return of 1000% (for the less we do not agree, sorry).
Here is a schedule for the monthly increase in new users from the very beginning:
')
The number of hacking attempts grew steadily and reached 3-4 per week. These people do not get a lot of money from hacking, the fact of hacking is just important for them. If it were not for the specific knowledge that I obtained when creating previous businesses, the project would have long since absorbed all the money allocated to it and would have been closed.
Yes! We were not looking for investors! Because if you have an idea and you cannot build a business out of it that brings 5-10 thousand dollars a month, your idea is not very good. Well, or you yourself are not very good. People, do not waste your time and the time of investors, until you make such a profit. Nobody gives nothing for free, and the opportunity to behave in negotiations on an equal footing, decorates a noble don (or don, we will be tolerant). And to behave on an equal footing, only a real result will allow.
After reaching a constant growth and popularity, we attended to the second question - profit. And successfully solved it. Along the way, we sent a description of our business in all sorts of funds. This was done “for fun”. A description of all the ridiculous answers are already in place, and I very often laughed while negotiating. It seems that the employees (owners !!!) of the funds live in some kind of their own world, where there is a billion facebook, and they have something to choose from. Today, the business in this area is so tough that only very tough people survive in it, and it is ridiculous to demand from such people to “lie down” under the fund. It is also ridiculous to require future partners to prove that the business can be scaled at the expense of profits. Realistically, why invest, if you multiply your profit every month by reinvesting it. It seems that the calculator was invented in the funds and no one else can use it.
There are sane owners of funds. They understand that times have changed. We found one (this is Altair Capital Management fund ), got the first assessment (we raised the cost of business 500 times a year) plus unlimited financing.
What will we do next? In addition to our own work on the project, we will look for people in the team. This will be an unusual team that will make absolutely fantastic code. We need four programmers, an expert on server and application security at the same time, and a crazy designer who has, among other things, experience creating characters for cartoons. You, working for a large (small) corporation, may see the shortcomings of your current job:
a) 20% of people do 80% of all work. You are from these 20 percent, otherwise do not write to us
b) there is often no sense of the need for your efforts (when you cannot enjoy the collective result, because some #% $% # @ decided that the button should be turned upside down, and it is just “closer” to the boss)
c) you are ripe to offer a completely new business process that will bring millions of dollars in revenue (and expect to receive adequate remuneration), but it’s harder to implement it in your company than to steal a Boeing ...
d) add to taste
What we will do together next:
a) work in a completely new team structure, and at the same time, it remains for the first year in the framework of 7 people.
b) constantly learn and pull each other in different areas of programming.
c) doubling / tripling / quadrupling the salary per year, in the case of solving issues outside the box and faster than competitors. At the same time, a salary is immediately offered above the market by 30-40%
d) apply completely new tools in a real product.
e) grow at least ten times a year.
Probably sounds a bit strange and unusual, well, or naive. Comments in the key "we have seen such startups cars" are expected, but not welcome. For those interested, I’ll just say - only Kiev and only full employment (and not plus one more job to ten current ones, sorry). The rest can be discussed in personal correspondence.
All success in their projects - large, small and any!
This is my second article on Habr, the first was to penetrate the community. This article will be devoted entirely to the history of business creation in the field of mobile applications. In the article I will share a little experience and tell you what we will do next (and invite you to the team). I must say that the business was done by two people, and it grew from zero to the cost of millions of dollars.
The company, as a business, started with one crazy idea in November 2011. The idea was very simple - why pay users for phone calls and SMS when they can watch ads instead. I will not hide, before that there were a lot of attempts to do this, but for the most part they tried to embed advertising in the conversation or in the application itself. Bad idea ... My grandmother will not understand the pause when I call her, in which she is told to buy powder - she will hang up. In our idea, the user can watch the promotional videos in a completely separate section of the application (or download other applications), get a balance and call where he wants, like from a regular phone.
The idea is good, but who will implement it? I will have to tell a little about myself. I have been involved in various businesses since 1988, and all types of businesses have been connected with telecommunications and the Internet. In 1996, my experience allowed me to quit my job and start a career as a serial entrepreneur (then it was called differently). Behind more than two dozen established businesses in the B2B sector, with an annual turnover of 3-6M USD. One of the brightest businesses is ixc.ua , which is one of the first in the world to sell a billing + softswitch solution for IP telephony.
Starting a new CFC business that works in a relatively new sector for me - B2C for mobile devices, I thought that I did not know programming. We will not write to the Assembler asset on 286 and x86 processors. It was interesting to me not just to do business, it was interesting to write everything from scratch to myself. At the same time, it’s necessary to check so much time for this, as my directors say in the plans. No sooner said than done.
Half a year was spent studying Obj-C, C, and writing the first, simple client-server application, just for the sake of self-study. A simple recommendation for anyone who follows my example: a book plus the desire to write something, gives far less experience than stackoverflow.com + the desire to write something. And without the desire to write something, you probably shouldn't waste time reading. There is a lot of water in the books, which is also dangerous to use (for example, KVO). But the first experience was obtained, which was later applied to the CFC project.
From November to April, the CFC application was written. He had one big plus - it really RINGED. And in April 2012, with a sinking heart, the first confirmation was received from the AppStore. At the same time, a second partner entered the project, who started promoting the project site (by the way, we also had a Java version). He believed in the project, did not demand a salary, and together we are developing the project so far.
It is strange to write it, but competitors had obvious things not to go (and even now too). They are obvious because when the client downloads the application, he wants to try the service. Not an abstract test call, he wants to call a friend (relative). We are the only ones who give such an opportunity. Do not ask how much money it costs us, this is a commercial secret.
Perhaps this fact, perhaps others, contributed to the popularity of the project from the very beginning. We spent minimal money on advertising, and users came and came. The task was exactly that - to create a service that would have a "viral effect." Because then any advertising will give a return of 1000% (for the less we do not agree, sorry).
Here is a schedule for the monthly increase in new users from the very beginning:
')
The number of hacking attempts grew steadily and reached 3-4 per week. These people do not get a lot of money from hacking, the fact of hacking is just important for them. If it were not for the specific knowledge that I obtained when creating previous businesses, the project would have long since absorbed all the money allocated to it and would have been closed.
Yes! We were not looking for investors! Because if you have an idea and you cannot build a business out of it that brings 5-10 thousand dollars a month, your idea is not very good. Well, or you yourself are not very good. People, do not waste your time and the time of investors, until you make such a profit. Nobody gives nothing for free, and the opportunity to behave in negotiations on an equal footing, decorates a noble don (or don, we will be tolerant). And to behave on an equal footing, only a real result will allow.
After reaching a constant growth and popularity, we attended to the second question - profit. And successfully solved it. Along the way, we sent a description of our business in all sorts of funds. This was done “for fun”. A description of all the ridiculous answers are already in place, and I very often laughed while negotiating. It seems that the employees (owners !!!) of the funds live in some kind of their own world, where there is a billion facebook, and they have something to choose from. Today, the business in this area is so tough that only very tough people survive in it, and it is ridiculous to demand from such people to “lie down” under the fund. It is also ridiculous to require future partners to prove that the business can be scaled at the expense of profits. Realistically, why invest, if you multiply your profit every month by reinvesting it. It seems that the calculator was invented in the funds and no one else can use it.
There are sane owners of funds. They understand that times have changed. We found one (this is Altair Capital Management fund ), got the first assessment (we raised the cost of business 500 times a year) plus unlimited financing.
What will we do next? In addition to our own work on the project, we will look for people in the team. This will be an unusual team that will make absolutely fantastic code. We need four programmers, an expert on server and application security at the same time, and a crazy designer who has, among other things, experience creating characters for cartoons. You, working for a large (small) corporation, may see the shortcomings of your current job:
a) 20% of people do 80% of all work. You are from these 20 percent, otherwise do not write to us
b) there is often no sense of the need for your efforts (when you cannot enjoy the collective result, because some #% $% # @ decided that the button should be turned upside down, and it is just “closer” to the boss)
c) you are ripe to offer a completely new business process that will bring millions of dollars in revenue (and expect to receive adequate remuneration), but it’s harder to implement it in your company than to steal a Boeing ...
d) add to taste
What we will do together next:
a) work in a completely new team structure, and at the same time, it remains for the first year in the framework of 7 people.
b) constantly learn and pull each other in different areas of programming.
c) doubling / tripling / quadrupling the salary per year, in the case of solving issues outside the box and faster than competitors. At the same time, a salary is immediately offered above the market by 30-40%
d) apply completely new tools in a real product.
e) grow at least ten times a year.
Probably sounds a bit strange and unusual, well, or naive. Comments in the key "we have seen such startups cars" are expected, but not welcome. For those interested, I’ll just say - only Kiev and only full employment (and not plus one more job to ten current ones, sorry). The rest can be discussed in personal correspondence.
All success in their projects - large, small and any!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/205702/
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