How to release financially successful startups. The look of the creators of Moykrug and MirTesen. Part 2
Continuation of the conversation begun earlier with Nikolay Samokhvalov and Ivan Zolotukhin. In the first part, we focused on discussing the MirTesen network, further highlights the business model of the team’s projects, the preferred ways to promote their projects, and the PostgreSQL promotion activities.
- Do you consider Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte to be your competitors?
- Yes, of course we count! They are competitors ... on the other hand, we occupy an unoccupied niche, give users something that does not give those networks. Although they also move, for example, they make the job search functionality.
- At one time there was another conflict with Vkontakte ...
')
- Personally, we did not have any conflict :) It was just a strange behavior of Pavel Durov, who banned his own users who decided to use an open service ...
- How do you manage to attract users to the new network with such an abundance of old?
- On the one hand, users gradually get tired of Odnoklassniki.
I.Z.: My personal consideration (which is true of Odnoklassniki) is that the users of social networks after the initial surge of interest in the future comes disappointment.
NS: Classmates at a great pace to capture a new audience, but at the same time losing the old one. In this regard, we are at hand (compared to the time of formation of Moykrug), that users have become more advanced on social networks, they do not need to explain what friends are, etc.
Users began to express much more thoughtful opinions, and one of them, after a few useful comments, we hired :) especially well if they are programmers, because they are always needed :)
- What method of promotion did you plan to pay the most attention to?
- Our methods have not changed since the launch of the project.
I will repeat my point of view: the constant development and release of new functions is also a method of attracting attention and promoting the project. Our technical specialists are among the best in Russia in this field, and I believe that we will be able to surprise our users more than once with useful, convenient and high-quality functionality. We regard it at this stage (the early stage of the project’s life, becoming) as the most important. After all, now everything is just beginning.
In second place, I would call the property “self-promotion” of the project. it
when the network grows due to various functions “invite a friend”, for
word of mouth and the like Here we see great prospects for
development. I am sure that now in MirTesen people are not fully
"Felt" new, interesting opportunities to communicate with
existing friends, with neighbors and like-minded people. We are going to
help them with that.
- What was the most effective result? which gave the most people?
We combine various means of attraction. We experiment a lot.
It’s too early to talk about the results.
- How has the situation with the cost of maintaining a social network has changed since the time of MyKrug? and what does the most cost go - the technical part, the promotion, something else?
As for the "contain social network" - I do not know; develop expensive. We are changing a lot, looking for
we optimize. Many ideas are unique. Therefore, of course, on
At this stage, most of all funds are spent on development.
- At the same time, there was another project with a cartographic idea - DomNaKarte.ru, now it is, as far as can be judged, in a frozen state. Tell about its origin, development and freezing?
- Vanya, will you tell?
IZ: Or maybe you are better?
A little confusion :)
Perhaps because the project is not advertised, and no conversation on it was planned. If you try to contact the owners of the resource through open sources, they will not appear.
And maybe it was because his main developer was not at the meeting.
NS: The project is quite promising - in the west there are enough services with such a binding: real estate + card, and we decided to try this with us in due time.
IZ: moreover, it is not quite like the others, because it is not UGC.
- At the same time, it is also interesting for investment, now there are quite a lot of offers. We believe in the project, sooner or later he will shoot. At the same time, it would be a pity to give the project to a separate real estate agency.
“Any real estate web portal?”
- Maybe. But the project needs a large offline component, and we are looking forward to resolving this issue from our potential investor.
- For DomNaMarte, the monetization scheme is clear, and you are simply inactive in this direction. At the same time, the monetization of MirTesen is not visible either online or offline.
- At the stage of development of the project, we do not consider it appropriate to focus on the sale of advertising - it is more important to make a quality product and gather an audience. At the same time, we believe that the project can easily become self-sufficient. In general, it is no longer a secret that the MirTesen network transaction with FINAM is being completed.
We are also not focused on the complete sale of projects - rather, to attract investors while maintaining our attention to the project.
- And how is your interaction built? Opportunities for managing the same, or sooner or later there is a boss-subordinate relationship?
- It has now happened that Vanya is responsible for technical issues, I am all for the others. However, I also answer for technical questions :)
All major decisions are made collectively. At the same time, I have the right to veto any decision. I recently took advantage of it when there was a discussion of a photographic issue in MirTesen, and I’m seriously interested in the subject of photography from the project team.
- There is another topic for discussion: your activities within the Postgresmen. How did it all start?
- My interest in this topic is largely dictated by education, and I have it - on databases. And Vanya - in astronomy, and all the main figures for PostgreSQL in Russia - astronomers. So it turned out that they were all our friends.
- What are the main advantages of using this database in your web projects?
“Firstly, PostgreSQL is simpler than MySQL, it is more in line with what people read in SQL books. That is, when I started working with Postgres, I just sat down and had no problems. MySQL was different.
Secondly, it is a real open source. Now, in fact, MySQL is controlled by one company, Sun Microsystems, as opposed to the Postgres open source community. And participation in the development of languages ​​is arranged quite differently. If you add something and MySQL - you are forced to give up the rights to this piece of code, give a T-shirt ... and that's it :) And in Postgres you have to really convince the community that this solution is the best.
Plus the convenience of working with data. When you need to run through a vast database, MySQL just does not stand up.
IZ: this is what determines the relationship with astronomy - there we have to deal with incomparable large volumes (several terabytes), such volumes are not reflected on the web.
Now Postgres has a lot of projects: Ramblers, job.ru, From hand to hand. If we talk about the com-zone, then we can recall a startup social network for schoolchildren.
IZ: hi more. Postgres is used by hi5.com, a social network that is one of the 10 most visited resources in the world.
NS: In addition, in Postgres, the best full-text search with regard to Russian morphology, written by Russian ... astronomers :)
- And what is the interest in the direction other than professional?
- We have several clients whom we advise. I am also going to give a course on databases at Moscow State University. It will be more practical than what is now usually taught at the institute. This is an educational interest.
- And also recruiting :) So, it turns out, you are such Ashman from the databases? Trying to shape the industry.
- Well, yes, we also hold seminars. I'm going to give a talk at a conference called “PostgreSQL + social networks = friendship” or even “... = love” :)
As for programming languages, we use the most popular of them, and it makes no sense to call it :) This is PHP. Despite all his shortcomings, he really has no alternatives. In many ways, and because of the staffing issue. Could use Python, but all good programmers in this language were taken by Yandex and Google.
IZ: Hosting we use foreign, because in Russia, in fact, there is no reliable hosting.
- What about the problem with ping?
IZ: - It is known, but solved, the same Russian Google servers are in Germany ...
According to the results of the interview, an image of web-dancer innovators has emerged who do not follow the beaten path of Western cloning (after all, Moykrug is less similar to LinkedIn than Vkontakte on Facebook and Odnoklassniki to Classmates), and they see their interest in the implementation of the new. And in achieving success they are accompanied by a strict orientation on the wishes of users and discipline in the release of updates.
Those who come from techies who remain techies in the soul believe that high-quality development can attract visitors to projects and lead them to success. A discipline to introduce new functionality helps them in this.
Like many techies, Nikolai is afraid to tell any details whatsoever, either by new ideas or by finance. People of this kind believe that their idea can be stolen and used against them. Although, if you think about it, you come to these conclusions:
Accordingly, here the ideas would in any case be told without marketing and would not have much value for espionage. But the result is what we get.
Audio recording of the conversation
See also: How to come to a successful business model, abandoning most of their ideas. Experience creators RSS2email
Prepared by Pavel Nosikov
- Do you consider Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte to be your competitors?
- Yes, of course we count! They are competitors ... on the other hand, we occupy an unoccupied niche, give users something that does not give those networks. Although they also move, for example, they make the job search functionality.
- At one time there was another conflict with Vkontakte ...
')
- Personally, we did not have any conflict :) It was just a strange behavior of Pavel Durov, who banned his own users who decided to use an open service ...
- How do you manage to attract users to the new network with such an abundance of old?
- On the one hand, users gradually get tired of Odnoklassniki.
I.Z.: My personal consideration (which is true of Odnoklassniki) is that the users of social networks after the initial surge of interest in the future comes disappointment.
NS: Classmates at a great pace to capture a new audience, but at the same time losing the old one. In this regard, we are at hand (compared to the time of formation of Moykrug), that users have become more advanced on social networks, they do not need to explain what friends are, etc.
Users began to express much more thoughtful opinions, and one of them, after a few useful comments, we hired :) especially well if they are programmers, because they are always needed :)
- What method of promotion did you plan to pay the most attention to?
- Our methods have not changed since the launch of the project.
I will repeat my point of view: the constant development and release of new functions is also a method of attracting attention and promoting the project. Our technical specialists are among the best in Russia in this field, and I believe that we will be able to surprise our users more than once with useful, convenient and high-quality functionality. We regard it at this stage (the early stage of the project’s life, becoming) as the most important. After all, now everything is just beginning.
In second place, I would call the property “self-promotion” of the project. it
when the network grows due to various functions “invite a friend”, for
word of mouth and the like Here we see great prospects for
development. I am sure that now in MirTesen people are not fully
"Felt" new, interesting opportunities to communicate with
existing friends, with neighbors and like-minded people. We are going to
help them with that.
- What was the most effective result? which gave the most people?
We combine various means of attraction. We experiment a lot.
It’s too early to talk about the results.
- How has the situation with the cost of maintaining a social network has changed since the time of MyKrug? and what does the most cost go - the technical part, the promotion, something else?
As for the "contain social network" - I do not know; develop expensive. We are changing a lot, looking for
we optimize. Many ideas are unique. Therefore, of course, on
At this stage, most of all funds are spent on development.
We believe in DomKarte, sooner or later he will shoot
- At the same time, there was another project with a cartographic idea - DomNaKarte.ru, now it is, as far as can be judged, in a frozen state. Tell about its origin, development and freezing?
- Vanya, will you tell?
IZ: Or maybe you are better?
A little confusion :)
Perhaps because the project is not advertised, and no conversation on it was planned. If you try to contact the owners of the resource through open sources, they will not appear.
And maybe it was because his main developer was not at the meeting.
NS: The project is quite promising - in the west there are enough services with such a binding: real estate + card, and we decided to try this with us in due time.
IZ: moreover, it is not quite like the others, because it is not UGC.
- At the same time, it is also interesting for investment, now there are quite a lot of offers. We believe in the project, sooner or later he will shoot. At the same time, it would be a pity to give the project to a separate real estate agency.
“Any real estate web portal?”
- Maybe. But the project needs a large offline component, and we are looking forward to resolving this issue from our potential investor.
First - make a quality product, sell advertising - then
- For DomNaMarte, the monetization scheme is clear, and you are simply inactive in this direction. At the same time, the monetization of MirTesen is not visible either online or offline.
- At the stage of development of the project, we do not consider it appropriate to focus on the sale of advertising - it is more important to make a quality product and gather an audience. At the same time, we believe that the project can easily become self-sufficient. In general, it is no longer a secret that the MirTesen network transaction with FINAM is being completed.
We are also not focused on the complete sale of projects - rather, to attract investors while maintaining our attention to the project.
- And how is your interaction built? Opportunities for managing the same, or sooner or later there is a boss-subordinate relationship?
- It has now happened that Vanya is responsible for technical issues, I am all for the others. However, I also answer for technical questions :)
All major decisions are made collectively. At the same time, I have the right to veto any decision. I recently took advantage of it when there was a discussion of a photographic issue in MirTesen, and I’m seriously interested in the subject of photography from the project team.
PostgreSQL. Because it is easier
- There is another topic for discussion: your activities within the Postgresmen. How did it all start?
- My interest in this topic is largely dictated by education, and I have it - on databases. And Vanya - in astronomy, and all the main figures for PostgreSQL in Russia - astronomers. So it turned out that they were all our friends.
- What are the main advantages of using this database in your web projects?
“Firstly, PostgreSQL is simpler than MySQL, it is more in line with what people read in SQL books. That is, when I started working with Postgres, I just sat down and had no problems. MySQL was different.
Secondly, it is a real open source. Now, in fact, MySQL is controlled by one company, Sun Microsystems, as opposed to the Postgres open source community. And participation in the development of languages ​​is arranged quite differently. If you add something and MySQL - you are forced to give up the rights to this piece of code, give a T-shirt ... and that's it :) And in Postgres you have to really convince the community that this solution is the best.
Plus the convenience of working with data. When you need to run through a vast database, MySQL just does not stand up.
IZ: this is what determines the relationship with astronomy - there we have to deal with incomparable large volumes (several terabytes), such volumes are not reflected on the web.
Now Postgres has a lot of projects: Ramblers, job.ru, From hand to hand. If we talk about the com-zone, then we can recall a startup social network for schoolchildren.
IZ: hi more. Postgres is used by hi5.com, a social network that is one of the 10 most visited resources in the world.
NS: In addition, in Postgres, the best full-text search with regard to Russian morphology, written by Russian ... astronomers :)
- And what is the interest in the direction other than professional?
- We have several clients whom we advise. I am also going to give a course on databases at Moscow State University. It will be more practical than what is now usually taught at the institute. This is an educational interest.
- And also recruiting :) So, it turns out, you are such Ashman from the databases? Trying to shape the industry.
- Well, yes, we also hold seminars. I'm going to give a talk at a conference called “PostgreSQL + social networks = friendship” or even “... = love” :)
As for programming languages, we use the most popular of them, and it makes no sense to call it :) This is PHP. Despite all his shortcomings, he really has no alternatives. In many ways, and because of the staffing issue. Could use Python, but all good programmers in this language were taken by Yandex and Google.
IZ: Hosting we use foreign, because in Russia, in fact, there is no reliable hosting.
- What about the problem with ping?
IZ: - It is known, but solved, the same Russian Google servers are in Germany ...
Conclusion
According to the results of the interview, an image of web-dancer innovators has emerged who do not follow the beaten path of Western cloning (after all, Moykrug is less similar to LinkedIn than Vkontakte on Facebook and Odnoklassniki to Classmates), and they see their interest in the implementation of the new. And in achieving success they are accompanied by a strict orientation on the wishes of users and discipline in the release of updates.
Those who come from techies who remain techies in the soul believe that high-quality development can attract visitors to projects and lead them to success. A discipline to introduce new functionality helps them in this.
Like many techies, Nikolai is afraid to tell any details whatsoever, either by new ideas or by finance. People of this kind believe that their idea can be stolen and used against them. Although, if you think about it, you come to these conclusions:
- not having such a discipline in the release of updates, their ideas are of little value without marketing - understanding how to attract visitors to the resources,
- and if there is a discipline in releasing updates , this is more important than having an idea. Anyway, sooner or later the idea will be recognized and repeated, the only question is who is faster,
- we still didn’t learn anything about marketing - either everything goes on as usual (as explained in the interview), or it’s considered correct not to spread about it,
Accordingly, here the ideas would in any case be told without marketing and would not have much value for espionage. But the result is what we get.
Audio recording of the conversation
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/21338/
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