Gin's guessing gourmet, or how LeClick was created
It just so happened that I really love to eat, or rather I love to eat tasty and beautiful food, and therefore I like good and “delicious” restaurants. And again, it just so happened that for more than 11 years I worked in the field of IT, the last seven of which are at Microsoft.
While working at Microsoft, she was often in the States. And in one of these trips, I realized that the process of choosing and booking a restaurant there is much easier and more convenient, this is what I miss in Moscow. Yes, we have quite a lot of different sites for searching and booking, and, although they call themselves online, in fact, they are not. In addition, not all declared search and booking is really convenient and work.
Knowing about my gourmet weaknesses, and awareness of the topic, friends and colleagues quite regularly turned to me for recommendations on restaurants (And for a family? And for children? And for business meetings? And where to wait out the traffic jam in the center? Quiet? Wifi? And etc. e) Why my opinion about the lack of such a service only strengthened.
')
It was then that the thought occurred to me to make a “real” online service that would be convenient for both end users and restaurants. Without thinking twice, she turned to her good friends, also ex-Maykrosoftovskim to the bone of corporate comrades, and announced that we should do “Jinn-Guessing Machines”, but only in restaurants. Perhaps you remember this "phenomenon" - at one time such a computer game was very popular - "Djinn-Akinator", in which you were asked to guess a hero - be it Putin, Pugacheva, Kolobok, D'Artagnan, whoever. And you were told that after a few questions you can guess who or what you are thinking about (and, paradoxically, but it worked!).
Friends thought, doubted (quite a bit), but generally approved. And we immediately took up this puzzle.
There was enthusiasm - more than enough, and probably, therefore, for the most part, only 6 months passed from idea to realization. By the middle of 2012, we had a portal for finding and booking places in restaurants with an impressive base of represented establishments and a wide range of various filters and parameters, including geolocation. We began to publish a description of restaurants, the mode of operation of a particular place and the price level. Later, interesting news and special offers of restaurants, thematic reviews and other information were added to this. In short, we try to attract the attention of the audience.
At the end of 2012, I dared to participate in the discussion of those in power in the angel-venture financing market - in my Facebook tape, I think a somewhat cynical discussion of what the first question a business angel asks a start-up with burning eyes when he comes to an audience . The variety of answers could not but rejoice - “Are you again a millionaire?”, “Do you want to lay an apartment?” And stuff like that.
Our team still managed to “accumulate” start-up capital when it was working in corporate structures, which gave a sense of independence, so at that time I had the first reaction - “protect the rights of poor startups”. Therefore, I openly wrote that we didn’t go for the money, they didn’t ask anyone for anything if they were to mortgage the property, and we’ll do it without delay, well, simply because we firmly believe in our idea. (In general, it turned out this way, it was not without credits in banks under personal guarantees, property, etc.).
The work at that time was already considerable. In addition to the site, we wrote our own CRM system (hostess.leclick platform — a cloud solution on the web or iPad app) to automate and manage the process of booking, collecting and maintaining guest databases. The CRM system is a personal account - online reservations are received and processed through the Internet using booking forms (widgets) posted on the website www.leclick.ru , on the website and / or on the restaurant page on Facebook and partner sites. (Yandex, 2GIS, InYourPocket, MasterCard, Vmet.ro, etc.) or by phone (electronic analogue of the book of reserves). All information on guests (name, phone, e-mail), number of armor, status of armor, guest status is stored in the personal account. The functionality of the system allows you to generate reports on the institution's load, the efficiency of the services with which a particular restaurant cooperates, to make targeted SMS and e-mail newsletters. There are opportunities for integration with third-party systems and API for external access. At the level of the solution architecture, integration with R-keeper, Micros, iiko has been worked out.
In the same post on Facebook I wrote what our project was about, what are the analogies with the American services for automation and online booking of tables in restaurants, and our colleagues almost immediately left us from one interesting accelerator program from the United States at the request of the Russian Open Table. At the end of 2012, with the second co-founder, our CTO flew to California, learn the mind, take part in the accelerator and communicate with colleagues from the Open Table. At the same time, Aeroflot wrote about us in its in-flight magazine - the section “Planet-Internet, news”. True, we learned about it quite by accident, being all in the same States. At the same time, they wrote about us on Zuckerberg Rings, showed reports on TV - well, everything, no matter how well it could foreshadow a rapid success!
The reality began a little later - when we started selling our product and searching for the dream team. Despite the fact that we ourselves did not doubt the need to introduce our product, the Russian market at that time did not particularly share our point of view, in other words, we were not very ready for our know-how.
Habit is second nature. Everyone wanted to work in the old-fashioned way, writing orders to the book of reserves, handing out questionnaires, rewriting contacts manually in Excel and in any way you like, but without automation. And we had to break through this wall of distrust of the new, very long and thoroughly explaining all the advantages that automation provides in general, and our CRM in particular. We were constantly confronted with misunderstanding and, to some extent, fear of restructuring and introducing new technologies into the business.
We were often confused, and even now still confused, with services that are engaged in “driving” guests. Of course, we provide additional traffic to restaurants at the expense of a convenient portal, partner sites, SEO and SMM promotion, but the main idea of our service is a convenient functional site, real online and CRM system, which allows to increase customer loyalty and precisely increase loyalty to increase the number of customers.
Now a lot has changed, in just two years, the Russian market has accepted changes. We receive a lot of incoming calls, among our customers there is already one very popular restaurant from Vladivostok, we have released a mobile application, updated the website, and are developing affiliate programs. We have a lot of ideas and far-reaching plans.
"Dream Team" we, by the way, almost created. We have a very friendly team, working young and very ideological guys with extensive experience in sales, IT, PR, and even a little in the restaurant industry. We are already making money, until we just learned how to make more money than to spend. At the same time, we already have many good, serious and satisfied customers, and a clear understanding of how to replicate has appeared. The nearest plans are to enter the market of St. Petersburg and Kazan. As well as the sale of a franchise in one of the CIS countries, in which country - for the time being we keep it secret.
In general, for me personally, LeClick was one of those cases where a hobby can “catch up” with you at the most unexpected moment. And gradually, imperceptibly for you to grow into something more that will benefit not only you, but also those around you.
About the author: Lyustina Anastasia Vladlenovna, CEO of the service LeClick. She was born in the Crimea in 1982, in 1994 she moved to Moscow. Two higher education: computer science economist, translator in the field of professional communications. Languages: Russian, English, Hebrew with a dictionary. Hobbies: preference, chess, strong alcohol)))
VCStart: Anastasia, a woman at the head of a startup - in the West today is a real trend. According to recent CBS data, about 1,300 start-ups and small businesses are established daily under the women's leadership in the world. In my opinion, a colossal figure. In Russia, this is a rather rare phenomenon. How is it difficult for you to be a startup CEO?
About the project:
LeClick.ru is a brand new service that allows you to find and book a restaurant in seconds. No more than 1% of them use any CRM solution to optimize the main processes for updating the guest database, communications, and analytics. The main idea of the project is a comprehensive solution for automating and managing the process of booking restaurants online — for both b2c and b2b segments — from the visitors (www.leclick.ru), from the restaurants (hostess.leclick platform).
The startup is a business operating since 2013, collaborating with more than 4 thousand restaurants and tens of thousands of customers accessing the service through a web portal and applications on iOS and Android. The project is currently open for co-financing on the VCStart collective investment platform. The selling share is from 1 to 12%. Investments will be directed to the development of the sales department, promotion of the b2b segment, as well as website promotion and mobile applications. You can buy a stake in the LeClick project at VCStart.com .
While working at Microsoft, she was often in the States. And in one of these trips, I realized that the process of choosing and booking a restaurant there is much easier and more convenient, this is what I miss in Moscow. Yes, we have quite a lot of different sites for searching and booking, and, although they call themselves online, in fact, they are not. In addition, not all declared search and booking is really convenient and work.
Knowing about my gourmet weaknesses, and awareness of the topic, friends and colleagues quite regularly turned to me for recommendations on restaurants (And for a family? And for children? And for business meetings? And where to wait out the traffic jam in the center? Quiet? Wifi? And etc. e) Why my opinion about the lack of such a service only strengthened.
')
It was then that the thought occurred to me to make a “real” online service that would be convenient for both end users and restaurants. Without thinking twice, she turned to her good friends, also ex-Maykrosoftovskim to the bone of corporate comrades, and announced that we should do “Jinn-Guessing Machines”, but only in restaurants. Perhaps you remember this "phenomenon" - at one time such a computer game was very popular - "Djinn-Akinator", in which you were asked to guess a hero - be it Putin, Pugacheva, Kolobok, D'Artagnan, whoever. And you were told that after a few questions you can guess who or what you are thinking about (and, paradoxically, but it worked!).
Friends thought, doubted (quite a bit), but generally approved. And we immediately took up this puzzle.
There was enthusiasm - more than enough, and probably, therefore, for the most part, only 6 months passed from idea to realization. By the middle of 2012, we had a portal for finding and booking places in restaurants with an impressive base of represented establishments and a wide range of various filters and parameters, including geolocation. We began to publish a description of restaurants, the mode of operation of a particular place and the price level. Later, interesting news and special offers of restaurants, thematic reviews and other information were added to this. In short, we try to attract the attention of the audience.
At the end of 2012, I dared to participate in the discussion of those in power in the angel-venture financing market - in my Facebook tape, I think a somewhat cynical discussion of what the first question a business angel asks a start-up with burning eyes when he comes to an audience . The variety of answers could not but rejoice - “Are you again a millionaire?”, “Do you want to lay an apartment?” And stuff like that.
Our team still managed to “accumulate” start-up capital when it was working in corporate structures, which gave a sense of independence, so at that time I had the first reaction - “protect the rights of poor startups”. Therefore, I openly wrote that we didn’t go for the money, they didn’t ask anyone for anything if they were to mortgage the property, and we’ll do it without delay, well, simply because we firmly believe in our idea. (In general, it turned out this way, it was not without credits in banks under personal guarantees, property, etc.).
The work at that time was already considerable. In addition to the site, we wrote our own CRM system (hostess.leclick platform — a cloud solution on the web or iPad app) to automate and manage the process of booking, collecting and maintaining guest databases. The CRM system is a personal account - online reservations are received and processed through the Internet using booking forms (widgets) posted on the website www.leclick.ru , on the website and / or on the restaurant page on Facebook and partner sites. (Yandex, 2GIS, InYourPocket, MasterCard, Vmet.ro, etc.) or by phone (electronic analogue of the book of reserves). All information on guests (name, phone, e-mail), number of armor, status of armor, guest status is stored in the personal account. The functionality of the system allows you to generate reports on the institution's load, the efficiency of the services with which a particular restaurant cooperates, to make targeted SMS and e-mail newsletters. There are opportunities for integration with third-party systems and API for external access. At the level of the solution architecture, integration with R-keeper, Micros, iiko has been worked out.
In the same post on Facebook I wrote what our project was about, what are the analogies with the American services for automation and online booking of tables in restaurants, and our colleagues almost immediately left us from one interesting accelerator program from the United States at the request of the Russian Open Table. At the end of 2012, with the second co-founder, our CTO flew to California, learn the mind, take part in the accelerator and communicate with colleagues from the Open Table. At the same time, Aeroflot wrote about us in its in-flight magazine - the section “Planet-Internet, news”. True, we learned about it quite by accident, being all in the same States. At the same time, they wrote about us on Zuckerberg Rings, showed reports on TV - well, everything, no matter how well it could foreshadow a rapid success!
The reality began a little later - when we started selling our product and searching for the dream team. Despite the fact that we ourselves did not doubt the need to introduce our product, the Russian market at that time did not particularly share our point of view, in other words, we were not very ready for our know-how.
Habit is second nature. Everyone wanted to work in the old-fashioned way, writing orders to the book of reserves, handing out questionnaires, rewriting contacts manually in Excel and in any way you like, but without automation. And we had to break through this wall of distrust of the new, very long and thoroughly explaining all the advantages that automation provides in general, and our CRM in particular. We were constantly confronted with misunderstanding and, to some extent, fear of restructuring and introducing new technologies into the business.
We were often confused, and even now still confused, with services that are engaged in “driving” guests. Of course, we provide additional traffic to restaurants at the expense of a convenient portal, partner sites, SEO and SMM promotion, but the main idea of our service is a convenient functional site, real online and CRM system, which allows to increase customer loyalty and precisely increase loyalty to increase the number of customers.
Now a lot has changed, in just two years, the Russian market has accepted changes. We receive a lot of incoming calls, among our customers there is already one very popular restaurant from Vladivostok, we have released a mobile application, updated the website, and are developing affiliate programs. We have a lot of ideas and far-reaching plans.
"Dream Team" we, by the way, almost created. We have a very friendly team, working young and very ideological guys with extensive experience in sales, IT, PR, and even a little in the restaurant industry. We are already making money, until we just learned how to make more money than to spend. At the same time, we already have many good, serious and satisfied customers, and a clear understanding of how to replicate has appeared. The nearest plans are to enter the market of St. Petersburg and Kazan. As well as the sale of a franchise in one of the CIS countries, in which country - for the time being we keep it secret.
In general, for me personally, LeClick was one of those cases where a hobby can “catch up” with you at the most unexpected moment. And gradually, imperceptibly for you to grow into something more that will benefit not only you, but also those around you.
About the author: Lyustina Anastasia Vladlenovna, CEO of the service LeClick. She was born in the Crimea in 1982, in 1994 she moved to Moscow. Two higher education: computer science economist, translator in the field of professional communications. Languages: Russian, English, Hebrew with a dictionary. Hobbies: preference, chess, strong alcohol)))
VCStart: Anastasia, a woman at the head of a startup - in the West today is a real trend. According to recent CBS data, about 1,300 start-ups and small businesses are established daily under the women's leadership in the world. In my opinion, a colossal figure. In Russia, this is a rather rare phenomenon. How is it difficult for you to be a startup CEO?
Anastasia Lyustina: To be honest, I don’t see much difference. Women, perhaps, in something even easier, by virtue of intuition and social status. Now, by the way, there is Startup Women, in which girls support emerging start-ups, hold events to share experience, knowledge, contacts and ideas.
In general, as in any work, there are difficulties and advantages. And of course, a lot depends on the team, and we really have a great one, all great professionals and well done!
About the project:
LeClick.ru is a brand new service that allows you to find and book a restaurant in seconds. No more than 1% of them use any CRM solution to optimize the main processes for updating the guest database, communications, and analytics. The main idea of the project is a comprehensive solution for automating and managing the process of booking restaurants online — for both b2c and b2b segments — from the visitors (www.leclick.ru), from the restaurants (hostess.leclick platform).
The startup is a business operating since 2013, collaborating with more than 4 thousand restaurants and tens of thousands of customers accessing the service through a web portal and applications on iOS and Android. The project is currently open for co-financing on the VCStart collective investment platform. The selling share is from 1 to 12%. Investments will be directed to the development of the sales department, promotion of the b2b segment, as well as website promotion and mobile applications. You can buy a stake in the LeClick project at VCStart.com .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/236155/
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