A coward does not play air hockey: how to win when there is no chance
Want to do your business? Get ready to take risks.
It is not difficult to deduce this simple moral from every second success story, whether it is an article in Forbes magazine or a biography of a famous businessman.
The risk, of course, is a noble cause ( we ourselves respect it ). Only here the real practice of entrepreneurship is actually far from being so romantic. At least because any risk goes hand in hand with a bluff.
')
Developing your business, you willy-nilly constantly have to bluff. Let people dust in their eyes. Inflate the cheeks. And promise what you (yet) do not.
Whether you like it or not, everyone who builds their business from scratch does it. How else to do something out of nothing? The main thing, while bluffing, is to have trumps in your hands - and at the right moment to get them out of the sleeve.
In this story, about which I want to tell, our chances of success from the very beginning tended to zero.
We risked not only losing money, but also sitting in a puddle in front of important federal officials and leaders of the largest Russian IT companies. And our bluff could get us sideways.
But the prize was worth it ...
For everything worth saying thank you to this blog.
In February, we took part in the 3dprintexpo exhibition, presenting 3doodler 3D pens and a Form 1 printer on it. Then we wrote a report on Habré . And read our entry in Mail.ru.
In general, thanks to our stupid activity and some luck, MadRobots received an offer to participate in the opening of the Mail.ru technopark in Baumanka. Provided, of course, that our glorious company will be able to present at the event truly non-trivial gadgets.
We decided that this is our chance to make a good statement about ourselves. Technopark opening was planned large-scale. They waited for the deputy minister of communications. Rector of the Institute. CEO Mail.ru Group Dmitry Grishin. And many famous people in the IT market.
In addition, the terms of cooperation offered quite commercial. And the proceeds from the event allowed to attract engineers to MadRobots , who were required to set up the equipment.
And this meant that we could even come closer to our dream by half a millimeter: in time, turn the online store into a company that not only sells, but also develops innovative electronics.
In general, such offers are not refused. We made a shortlist of various interesting pieces that could show. And tried to make it truly impressive.
From this list, Mail.ru chose our 3Doodler pens, a Choc Edge Creator chocolate 3d printer, an Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet, and an air hockey robot.
As a result, we signed a contract. And everything would be just great if we were the happy owners of all these superdevices. But, besides pens, we really had nothing (for now).
One day at four in the afternoon I received a letter from Mail.ru: we want to drive to your office tomorrow morning, look at the virtual reality helmet. Yes please, I answered. And he immediately went to Yandex and opened Avito's message board.
Although the helmet project turned out to be noisy and collected three million dollars on Kickstarter, we hadn’t thought of buying it before. Because its first version was raw and intended only for software developers.
That is, sending a letter, I still could not know for sure if we could actually show this helmet in the morning. We only had a few hours to find and buy a working model. I was bluffing - but about presenting what cards I had on my hands.
After sitting on the phone and being a little nervous, we got this helmet and the next day we proudly demonstrated it in our office.
However, solving the problem with air hockey and a chocolate printer turned out to be somewhat more difficult. Because, strictly speaking, we did not have any confidence that both of them exist in nature in general.
We told our wonderful partners at Mail.ru about the chocolate printer that it has already been ordered and is about to be delivered.
It was not something that is not true ... Let's say this: artistic hyperbole. Having signed a contract with Mail.ru, I immediately wrote to the UK the developers of this chocolate unit. Fortunately for me, they quickly replied to me, promising to send my device in a short time.
But then we started bureaucratic troubles. They bill us in pounds. By law, we could not pay it from our foreign currency account, because it was opened in dollars. While we figured out how to pay them, it took almost two weeks (eventually paid through PayPal).
Then, as always, they began to suffer with delivery, and realizing that we did not have time, they sent the printer to Italy in despair and dragged him out of there, sending the courier by plane. He took the printer and brought it in the baggage.
Because inside they saw a bunch of strange pieces of iron - and not a single piece of paper, which would tell you how to put them together.
We called England, after which the guys sent us some vague instructions. This is partly facilitated the task of assembly. Only here along the way the box was shaken and the printer bent over an important detail. I had to tinker.
The fate of the air hockey was even more dramatic. It could not be bought at all - it could only be done on its own, using the instructions laid out on the Internet by its inventor.
The scheme in general looked simple. It turned out to be difficult to get all the necessary details, since some of them, according to the plan, had to be printed on a 3d printer. And our printer, as for evil, broke.
I had to look again for spare parts headlong all over Moscow, and even Russia (some of which we eventually found in Kazan). As a result, the last Circuits for the air hockey robot came to us one day before the technopark opened.
The story reached a dramatic heat in the evening on the eve of the solemn event.
We somehow managed to set up the printer, but we didn’t succeed in cracking the robot. Engineers entrenched themselves in the office that served us as the production hall, because they swore not to close their eyes, but to overcome the apparatus. Therefore, the assembly of stands in the technopark was simply not enough hands.
Mail.ru managers got worried and even wanted to lock me up at the facility, so that I would help to install the equipment, despite all my admonitions that my hands are growing from the wrong place and there will be more harm from me than good. In the middle of the night I went to “Yulmart” to buy workers a second shuropovert ...
No one seems to have believed that we will have time.
But we had time.
The printer printed chocolate figures. Our robot quite briskly beat the puck in the air hockey. We smelted figures on 3Doodler. They showed people the future of virtual reality.
It was as if they were preparing for this event for half a year, and not screwing up the last details the night before.
And when all the commotions were left behind, it turned out that Mail.ru was not satisfied with our work.
More importantly, thanks to this story, we learned about the existence of a demand for technology shows and interactive design. They understood that this is an interesting direction - both for business and for creativity. And we want to deal with them.
Create installations from Tesla coils. Play with their help the imperial march from Star Wars. Print artwork on a chocolate printer (and not necessarily chocolate - you can and mayonnaise on sausage). Develop robots - and not just for air hockey ...
If you want to implement something similar for your company or you are interested in participating in the implementation of such a project, write .
It is easy to imagine what would have happened to us if, after all, we had screwed up. Yes, puff up your cheeks, splurge, bluff - it may not be too noble. But in business, as in life, the winners are not judged.
And what do you need to win? Willingness not to sleep at night, to work hard, to seek non-trivial solutions ... And even more trivial luck. And the further - so all this needs more.
After all, with each new step rates are growing. Adrenaline rises. There is excitement (which, probably, killed not one start-up entrepreneur). But, in my opinion, otherwise you will not build any business at all.
Want to become an entrepreneur? Welcome to the bluff club.
///
Previous parts of the Madrobots story:
Part 1. How I bought a wi-fi scale, quit my job and started living
Part 2. Suitcases of iPhones and Gopniki in Butovo: how we almost went bankrupt on Apple products
Part 3. 80 meetings in 3 days: how we played big in Vegas
It is not difficult to deduce this simple moral from every second success story, whether it is an article in Forbes magazine or a biography of a famous businessman.
The risk, of course, is a noble cause ( we ourselves respect it ). Only here the real practice of entrepreneurship is actually far from being so romantic. At least because any risk goes hand in hand with a bluff.
')
Developing your business, you willy-nilly constantly have to bluff. Let people dust in their eyes. Inflate the cheeks. And promise what you (yet) do not.
Whether you like it or not, everyone who builds their business from scratch does it. How else to do something out of nothing? The main thing, while bluffing, is to have trumps in your hands - and at the right moment to get them out of the sleeve.
In this story, about which I want to tell, our chances of success from the very beginning tended to zero.
We risked not only losing money, but also sitting in a puddle in front of important federal officials and leaders of the largest Russian IT companies. And our bluff could get us sideways.
But the prize was worth it ...
ON A POLMILLIMETER CLOSER TO A DREAM
For everything worth saying thank you to this blog.
In February, we took part in the 3dprintexpo exhibition, presenting 3doodler 3D pens and a Form 1 printer on it. Then we wrote a report on Habré . And read our entry in Mail.ru.
In general, thanks to our stupid activity and some luck, MadRobots received an offer to participate in the opening of the Mail.ru technopark in Baumanka. Provided, of course, that our glorious company will be able to present at the event truly non-trivial gadgets.
We decided that this is our chance to make a good statement about ourselves. Technopark opening was planned large-scale. They waited for the deputy minister of communications. Rector of the Institute. CEO Mail.ru Group Dmitry Grishin. And many famous people in the IT market.
In addition, the terms of cooperation offered quite commercial. And the proceeds from the event allowed to attract engineers to MadRobots , who were required to set up the equipment.
And this meant that we could even come closer to our dream by half a millimeter: in time, turn the online store into a company that not only sells, but also develops innovative electronics.
In general, such offers are not refused. We made a shortlist of various interesting pieces that could show. And tried to make it truly impressive.
From this list, Mail.ru chose our 3Doodler pens, a Choc Edge Creator chocolate 3d printer, an Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet, and an air hockey robot.
As a result, we signed a contract. And everything would be just great if we were the happy owners of all these superdevices. But, besides pens, we really had nothing (for now).
There was no helmet, no air hockey, no chocolate printer. There was only confidence that we would have time to get all these innovative gadgets in the right time.
One day at four in the afternoon I received a letter from Mail.ru: we want to drive to your office tomorrow morning, look at the virtual reality helmet. Yes please, I answered. And he immediately went to Yandex and opened Avito's message board.
Although the helmet project turned out to be noisy and collected three million dollars on Kickstarter, we hadn’t thought of buying it before. Because its first version was raw and intended only for software developers.
That is, sending a letter, I still could not know for sure if we could actually show this helmet in the morning. We only had a few hours to find and buy a working model. I was bluffing - but about presenting what cards I had on my hands.
After sitting on the phone and being a little nervous, we got this helmet and the next day we proudly demonstrated it in our office.
However, solving the problem with air hockey and a chocolate printer turned out to be somewhat more difficult. Because, strictly speaking, we did not have any confidence that both of them exist in nature in general.
Pile of ferrules - and no single paper
We told our wonderful partners at Mail.ru about the chocolate printer that it has already been ordered and is about to be delivered.
It was not something that is not true ... Let's say this: artistic hyperbole. Having signed a contract with Mail.ru, I immediately wrote to the UK the developers of this chocolate unit. Fortunately for me, they quickly replied to me, promising to send my device in a short time.
But then we started bureaucratic troubles. They bill us in pounds. By law, we could not pay it from our foreign currency account, because it was opened in dollars. While we figured out how to pay them, it took almost two weeks (eventually paid through PayPal).
Then, as always, they began to suffer with delivery, and realizing that we did not have time, they sent the printer to Italy in despair and dragged him out of there, sending the courier by plane. He took the printer and brought it in the baggage.
In order to assemble the unit and understand how it works, we had two working days left. And when we opened the box, gasped.
Because inside they saw a bunch of strange pieces of iron - and not a single piece of paper, which would tell you how to put them together.
We called England, after which the guys sent us some vague instructions. This is partly facilitated the task of assembly. Only here along the way the box was shaken and the printer bent over an important detail. I had to tinker.
The fate of the air hockey was even more dramatic. It could not be bought at all - it could only be done on its own, using the instructions laid out on the Internet by its inventor.
The scheme in general looked simple. It turned out to be difficult to get all the necessary details, since some of them, according to the plan, had to be printed on a 3d printer. And our printer, as for evil, broke.
I had to look again for spare parts headlong all over Moscow, and even Russia (some of which we eventually found in Kazan). As a result, the last Circuits for the air hockey robot came to us one day before the technopark opened.
The story reached a dramatic heat in the evening on the eve of the solemn event.
We somehow managed to set up the printer, but we didn’t succeed in cracking the robot. Engineers entrenched themselves in the office that served us as the production hall, because they swore not to close their eyes, but to overcome the apparatus. Therefore, the assembly of stands in the technopark was simply not enough hands.
Mail.ru managers got worried and even wanted to lock me up at the facility, so that I would help to install the equipment, despite all my admonitions that my hands are growing from the wrong place and there will be more harm from me than good. In the middle of the night I went to “Yulmart” to buy workers a second shuropovert ...
No one seems to have believed that we will have time.
Bluff club
But we had time.
The printer printed chocolate figures. Our robot quite briskly beat the puck in the air hockey. We smelted figures on 3Doodler. They showed people the future of virtual reality.
It was as if they were preparing for this event for half a year, and not screwing up the last details the night before.
MadRobots has dug in the heart of the Russian technology industry. Against our background, Vladislav Surkov and Dmitry Grishin gave interviews about the future of technology.
And when all the commotions were left behind, it turned out that Mail.ru was not satisfied with our work.
More importantly, thanks to this story, we learned about the existence of a demand for technology shows and interactive design. They understood that this is an interesting direction - both for business and for creativity. And we want to deal with them.
Create installations from Tesla coils. Play with their help the imperial march from Star Wars. Print artwork on a chocolate printer (and not necessarily chocolate - you can and mayonnaise on sausage). Develop robots - and not just for air hockey ...
If you want to implement something similar for your company or you are interested in participating in the implementation of such a project, write .
It is easy to imagine what would have happened to us if, after all, we had screwed up. Yes, puff up your cheeks, splurge, bluff - it may not be too noble. But in business, as in life, the winners are not judged.
And what do you need to win? Willingness not to sleep at night, to work hard, to seek non-trivial solutions ... And even more trivial luck. And the further - so all this needs more.
After all, with each new step rates are growing. Adrenaline rises. There is excitement (which, probably, killed not one start-up entrepreneur). But, in my opinion, otherwise you will not build any business at all.
Want to become an entrepreneur? Welcome to the bluff club.
///
Previous parts of the Madrobots story:
Part 1. How I bought a wi-fi scale, quit my job and started living
Part 2. Suitcases of iPhones and Gopniki in Butovo: how we almost went bankrupt on Apple products
Part 3. 80 meetings in 3 days: how we played big in Vegas
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/222195/
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