How to release financially successful startups. The look of the creators of Moykrug and MirTesen. Part 1
Recently, Internet startups appear more than ever. But like in a regular business, most startups do not become profitable.
In an interview with Nikolai Samokhvalov and Ivan Zolotukhin (the developers of MoKrug and MirTesen social networks and PostgreSQL DBMS activists from Postgresmen), I would like to draw the attention of beginners to what allowed them to succeed. And also the widespread idea of ​​the “theft of ideas”, which, as a result of logical reasoning, seems to be a fallacy.
- Tell me how it all started?
The main conversation turned out to be with Nikolai, therefore, where the respondent is not indicated, the answers are from him.
- Even before the start of our own projects, we were striving for web-dance trends :) Although, of course, there was no such word yet. Where we worked on hired work (stereo.ru, mobil.ru), we were always given the opportunity to comment on articles, pushing for interactivity.
')
As a team, we started with small projects (various job search sites and others), this was its formation, the final formation took place at the beginning of work on Moykrug. Now I keep the number of 10-15 people in my head, a large number will already be difficult to manage and maintain the atmosphere that we have.
IZ: I would not have thought in any way if 4 years ago I had been offered to go to the team that is now.
NS: I don't use Agile Programming, although when we started using this technique, we didn’t know such a word, only XP (meaning eXtreme Programming - PN comment). Initially, we do not set the release date for projects with a certain functionality, but set the general direction, which is then gradually specified.
- But what about the orientation to the speedy launch, do you have it?
- We believe that you can first release a raw version, with the most basic functionality, and further develop the project together with your audience. Updating development plans occurs once a week, and project releases are also released once a week. We have never violated this rule since the beginning of 2005, which has its pluses and minuses. It is better to graduate with less, but the fact that in time is more important. ( The same ideas are promoted by 37signals, calling them Getting Real - PN ).
OF. - The most basic functionality can be released quickly, My Circle has been done for 6 weeks, MirTesen - 8.
NS: We consider this tactic to be the most justified in our dynamic time, when a new startup is released every week. And then we look at how users respond to the functionality, and based on their wishes, competition and their own ideas, we adjust the plan. At this pace, the project can develop 1-1.5 years. For niche projects it can be less - six months, for example.
I.Z .: Everything, of course, depends on the subject of a particular project.
NS: D a. So there are more than 50 releases after launch. Further, there is already no such dynamics, and the main efforts are shifting to new projects.
- How did the idea of ​​this project come to mind?
“We always have a lot of ideas, we felt the potential in LinkedIn functionality in the Runet and thought:“ Why not try it? ”We determined that there were enough resources and released the first version in November 2005.
And I do not agree with those who consider this a clone of LinkedIn. Still, it’s not like Vkontakte and Facebook :) We took the idea itself (business contacts, job search), basic interfaces, and then constantly developed our project, with weekly releases.
- How did the project come to its popularity? After all, in social networks the main thing is the community, how did you manage to attract it to the resource?
- We have quite a lot of friends from the Physical Engineering Institute and the Moscow State University (and this is just the target audience of the resource - PN comment), and having sent the news, we received a primary interest in the project, “caught a wave”, and then went on it.
- That is, people were willing to accept that much was not yet ready? was some kind of public beta?
- Essentially, yes.
- And what about the fact that a person comes to a resource, sees nothing, leaves, forgets, and never comes again. This problem at the beginning of the way how to solve?
- We were generally the first social network in RuNet. Before this was, of course, Livejournal, but there are blogs ... and nicknames. And from Moikrug users began to learn to enter their real names. In addition, there were no Web2.0 projects yet, and it was very interesting for people to try and touch all this.
- ... and after 1.5 years, in the spring of 2007, the project was sold to Yandex. Many believe that the project was sold very cheaply, how can you comment on this?
- Let them think so. We have nothing against it :)
IZ: there are still no exact data, and the available estimates differ quite strongly.
NS: since there is no public information on this issue, we prefer not to comment on this.
- Did I understand correctly that no one was engaged in attracting visitors specifically?
- Not exactly, there were no active advertising campaigns. Appearance
A new functional - in some way, after all, is an advantage (people
interesting, go to watch), so you can not say "absolutely nobody."
- How fast was the "development of the wave", what was the rate of increase in visitors after the launch?
- Quite quickly reached thousands of registrations per day.
- Was there a drop in the growth rate of visitors when Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte appeared?
- Did not have. In general, the audience did not overlap enough
at least at that time.
- How hard was it to maintain 1.5 years of development of such a project, or did the profit come from somewhere?
- Simple enough, because the team was small, and the costs were the same, and the prospect of the project almost immediately became apparent. Although the project was not made “for sale” ( We must understand that there was no profit - PN ).
- And how much were the development costs at the time of sale (if not exactly, then approximately)?
- No comments.
After such a “friendly” answer, it makes no sense to ask questions about Ilya Shirokov and his affair. - P.N.
- What happened next?
- In RuNet there were already 3 large social networks, but nevertheless we decided to make the fourth one. If there is no similar functionality in other networks, the user will follow him to the new network if he is interested in him. In Odnoklassniki, people mark schools and institutions as a base for binding, and we went further, and decided to take geographical points as a base for binding. A social network + map is a fairly simple idea, and it is strange that nowhere else is this, in the west there are only a few networks in closed beta testing. This also creates certain problems: you have to cut through your own way through solving problems that others have not solved.
(In general, there is a not unreasonable opinion that if the Internet idea is not implemented anywhere in the West, this is a bad sign or at least a reason to think about it, given the enormous difference in the audience and the overall rest of the Runet from the com-zone - PN)
The MirTesen network is also different because it focuses more on offline, on organizing real meetings with those who are close to you, in places found through the service.
- That is, it turns out that if Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte have a primary focus on previously familiar people, in MirTesen it is new acquaintances.
- Yes and no. You can put a label where you lived, in what school, and the system will show you old acquaintances.
IZ: If you specify which year you went to at this school, there is no problem to show who attended that same year.
NS: But at the same time, you can meet a girl from a nearby office :) with similar interests and go to lunch at a cafe located not far from you. We know several such stories.
- Why aren't they told about them?
- - The large-scale promotion of the project has not yet begun, and we will certainly do this later. Now there is still a stage of improvements. The project was released in September 2007 (I can not say for sure, but I postponed that the project came out earlier. Apparently, because I found the distribution of invitations for beta testing . And the first mention in the press , oddly enough, was generally in 2006 - note PN. On the other hand, our expectations from the project have already been met. On the other hand, our expectations from the project have already been met.
IZ: More than justified.
- And how many network members are planned by now, and what percentage are active?
- Now there are nearly 300 thousand users (at the time of publication, 303,000 people - there you can scroll through
the last page (now - http://mirtesen.ru/people?page=12088 ) and understand the exact number at the moment - PN. ). As for the activity, about 20% of users visit the site daily.
Audio recording
See also: How to come to a successful business model, abandoning most of their ideas. Experience creators RSS2email
Prepared by Pavel Nosikov
In an interview with Nikolai Samokhvalov and Ivan Zolotukhin (the developers of MoKrug and MirTesen social networks and PostgreSQL DBMS activists from Postgresmen), I would like to draw the attention of beginners to what allowed them to succeed. And also the widespread idea of ​​the “theft of ideas”, which, as a result of logical reasoning, seems to be a fallacy.
We haven't broken the weekly release rule even since the beginning of 2005.
- Tell me how it all started?
The main conversation turned out to be with Nikolai, therefore, where the respondent is not indicated, the answers are from him.
- Even before the start of our own projects, we were striving for web-dance trends :) Although, of course, there was no such word yet. Where we worked on hired work (stereo.ru, mobil.ru), we were always given the opportunity to comment on articles, pushing for interactivity.
')
As a team, we started with small projects (various job search sites and others), this was its formation, the final formation took place at the beginning of work on Moykrug. Now I keep the number of 10-15 people in my head, a large number will already be difficult to manage and maintain the atmosphere that we have.
IZ: I would not have thought in any way if 4 years ago I had been offered to go to the team that is now.
NS: I don't use Agile Programming, although when we started using this technique, we didn’t know such a word, only XP (meaning eXtreme Programming - PN comment). Initially, we do not set the release date for projects with a certain functionality, but set the general direction, which is then gradually specified.
- But what about the orientation to the speedy launch, do you have it?
- We believe that you can first release a raw version, with the most basic functionality, and further develop the project together with your audience. Updating development plans occurs once a week, and project releases are also released once a week. We have never violated this rule since the beginning of 2005, which has its pluses and minuses. It is better to graduate with less, but the fact that in time is more important. ( The same ideas are promoted by 37signals, calling them Getting Real - PN ).
OF. - The most basic functionality can be released quickly, My Circle has been done for 6 weeks, MirTesen - 8.
NS: We consider this tactic to be the most justified in our dynamic time, when a new startup is released every week. And then we look at how users respond to the functionality, and based on their wishes, competition and their own ideas, we adjust the plan. At this pace, the project can develop 1-1.5 years. For niche projects it can be less - six months, for example.
I.Z .: Everything, of course, depends on the subject of a particular project.
NS: D a. So there are more than 50 releases after launch. Further, there is already no such dynamics, and the main efforts are shifting to new projects.
Let them believe that Moikrug is sold cheaply. We have nothing against
- How did the idea of ​​this project come to mind?
“We always have a lot of ideas, we felt the potential in LinkedIn functionality in the Runet and thought:“ Why not try it? ”We determined that there were enough resources and released the first version in November 2005.
And I do not agree with those who consider this a clone of LinkedIn. Still, it’s not like Vkontakte and Facebook :) We took the idea itself (business contacts, job search), basic interfaces, and then constantly developed our project, with weekly releases.
- How did the project come to its popularity? After all, in social networks the main thing is the community, how did you manage to attract it to the resource?
- We have quite a lot of friends from the Physical Engineering Institute and the Moscow State University (and this is just the target audience of the resource - PN comment), and having sent the news, we received a primary interest in the project, “caught a wave”, and then went on it.
- That is, people were willing to accept that much was not yet ready? was some kind of public beta?
- Essentially, yes.
- And what about the fact that a person comes to a resource, sees nothing, leaves, forgets, and never comes again. This problem at the beginning of the way how to solve?
- We were generally the first social network in RuNet. Before this was, of course, Livejournal, but there are blogs ... and nicknames. And from Moikrug users began to learn to enter their real names. In addition, there were no Web2.0 projects yet, and it was very interesting for people to try and touch all this.
- ... and after 1.5 years, in the spring of 2007, the project was sold to Yandex. Many believe that the project was sold very cheaply, how can you comment on this?
- Let them think so. We have nothing against it :)
IZ: there are still no exact data, and the available estimates differ quite strongly.
NS: since there is no public information on this issue, we prefer not to comment on this.
- Did I understand correctly that no one was engaged in attracting visitors specifically?
- Not exactly, there were no active advertising campaigns. Appearance
A new functional - in some way, after all, is an advantage (people
interesting, go to watch), so you can not say "absolutely nobody."
- How fast was the "development of the wave", what was the rate of increase in visitors after the launch?
- Quite quickly reached thousands of registrations per day.
- Was there a drop in the growth rate of visitors when Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte appeared?
- Did not have. In general, the audience did not overlap enough
at least at that time.
- How hard was it to maintain 1.5 years of development of such a project, or did the profit come from somewhere?
- Simple enough, because the team was small, and the costs were the same, and the prospect of the project almost immediately became apparent. Although the project was not made “for sale” ( We must understand that there was no profit - PN ).
- And how much were the development costs at the time of sale (if not exactly, then approximately)?
- No comments.
After such a “friendly” answer, it makes no sense to ask questions about Ilya Shirokov and his affair. - P.N.
It is strange that no one has implemented a bunch of "social network + map"
- What happened next?
- In RuNet there were already 3 large social networks, but nevertheless we decided to make the fourth one. If there is no similar functionality in other networks, the user will follow him to the new network if he is interested in him. In Odnoklassniki, people mark schools and institutions as a base for binding, and we went further, and decided to take geographical points as a base for binding. A social network + map is a fairly simple idea, and it is strange that nowhere else is this, in the west there are only a few networks in closed beta testing. This also creates certain problems: you have to cut through your own way through solving problems that others have not solved.
(In general, there is a not unreasonable opinion that if the Internet idea is not implemented anywhere in the West, this is a bad sign or at least a reason to think about it, given the enormous difference in the audience and the overall rest of the Runet from the com-zone - PN)
The MirTesen network is also different because it focuses more on offline, on organizing real meetings with those who are close to you, in places found through the service.
- That is, it turns out that if Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte have a primary focus on previously familiar people, in MirTesen it is new acquaintances.
- Yes and no. You can put a label where you lived, in what school, and the system will show you old acquaintances.
IZ: If you specify which year you went to at this school, there is no problem to show who attended that same year.
NS: But at the same time, you can meet a girl from a nearby office :) with similar interests and go to lunch at a cafe located not far from you. We know several such stories.
- Why aren't they told about them?
- - The large-scale promotion of the project has not yet begun, and we will certainly do this later. Now there is still a stage of improvements. The project was released in September 2007 (I can not say for sure, but I postponed that the project came out earlier. Apparently, because I found the distribution of invitations for beta testing . And the first mention in the press , oddly enough, was generally in 2006 - note PN. On the other hand, our expectations from the project have already been met. On the other hand, our expectations from the project have already been met.
IZ: More than justified.
- And how many network members are planned by now, and what percentage are active?
- Now there are nearly 300 thousand users (at the time of publication, 303,000 people - there you can scroll through
the last page (now - http://mirtesen.ru/people?page=12088 ) and understand the exact number at the moment - PN. ). As for the activity, about 20% of users visit the site daily.
To be continued...
Audio recording
See also: How to come to a successful business model, abandoning most of their ideas. Experience creators RSS2email
Prepared by Pavel Nosikov
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/21075/
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