Founding tips. Igor Debatur and Anatoly Chernyakov, co-founders of Whitescape

On the "Megamind" again "Founder's Tips" . This time, the conversation turned out to be unusual, since two Whitescape co-founders immediately shared their advice with the reader: Igor Debatur and Anatoly Chernyakov.

Whitescape was founded in 2008 by Igor Debatur and Anatoly Chernyakov. From 2008 to the current day, Whitescape has launched more than 130 web projects and mobile apps. Company offices are located in St. Petersburg and Tallinn, customers - worldwide.
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After Whitescape, Tolya and Igor launched two startups: Uploadcare (SAAS solution for web and mobile developers) and RIDERS (extremes community). Both startups have attracted investment and are actively developing.

All these tips are based on bitter experience, they are very easy to give and very hard to follow, even when you write them yourself.

Trust intuition

If you have already started your own business or startup, then your intuition did not let you down at least once. Trust her in the future, do not ignore.

Often, intuition strongly advises some solution, but routine and a large number of cases during the day do not allow to reach it and analyze the pros and cons, and because of this, the decision is postponed.

Moreover, it often happens that the first thing that came to mind, after analyzing the situation, turns out to be true, and the time lost is expensive. It is better to learn not to miss such signals. To pull in with no business is worth anything, something is either working or not, and the main task is to quickly understand it.

Set challenging goals

Simple tasks don't make you better, they turn work into a routine, which is bad
affects you and the team. If you can’t get away from simple tasks, delegate them, scale the business, grow, learn new things. Scaling will be the most difficult goal, will develop you and turn a startup into a business. Do not allow the routine, it can get bogged down for years and come to nothing.

Imagine how you want to see your business or project, when everything is already all right with it, and aim right there, otherwise you will just run in a circle and lifestyle business.

When we started Whitescape, we looked a lot ahead. It is very important at the very start to answer the question: why are you starting to do this? We wanted to learn how to develop and run complex and interesting web projects, and then, when there are enough resources and skills for this, try to implement your own ideas.

Each new project, each new person in the team was considered through the prism of this goal. Will we learn something new by spending months on this project, are we ready to work with this person for years? The decision immediately became obvious.

We wanted to be among the professionals who want and are able to solve the most unusual tasks. That is what laid the main vector of the company's development, which has remained unchanged over the past 7 years. And after 3 years, we had enough resources to launch our first startup ourselves.

Concentrate

Do not spray your attention at once on several businesses or startups. Do something alone until it has begun to live its own life or is not sold. Switching attention during the day will easily reduce productivity not even by two, but by three or more. There was a short period when we were simultaneously engaged in Whitescape , Uploadcare and RIDERS , we remember him with a shudder.

Control growth

At the same time, it is very important to consciously grow the team. If you can cope with something yourself, you know how long it will take - take this time and do it, you don’t need to immediately plug the holes with new people, in our experience nothing good came of it. If you know how to write well, understand design - these are the advantages that you need to use without a doubt.

Only after the whole process has been worked out and it becomes obvious that it brings real benefits to the project, connect someone you can transfer to it and switch to other tasks. At the same time, do not be afraid to try something new. Try to do everything yourself that seems clear to you and lifting. Small experiments will help you quickly understand which direction can bring tangible results and will save money and time.

Choose allies carefully

One African proverb says: If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together. And it's not just that you can eat companion :)



Starting a new company you need to be prepared for the fact that this path may be a long one. There will be different difficulties, the solution of which will require completely different competences. Knowing and knowing everything is impossible, so it’s good if there is a person next to you who shares your passion and vision, complementing your skills with your own. It is very difficult to find such a person, but having met him, you will immediately understand. We are lucky, we are very different, but we complement each other perfectly, which allows us to evaluate tasks from completely different angles. The fact that one person may seem obvious, another may simply not notice. It's easier together, more fun together.

Editorial note: if you have a desire to participate in the “Founder’s Tips” section, write to us at editor (at) megamozg.ru