Founder's advice. Alexey Vinogradov, CallsFreeCalls founder and creator of IXC

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Alexey Vinogradov, today's hero heading, hails from Odessa. His entire experience, starting from the Odessa Polytechnic University, is in telecommunications: from working as the head of the technical department of Vega to setting up a billing business for voice platforms and IP telephony.



This activity resulted in the creation of the IXC group of companies, which has become one of the leading billing systems on the market, softswitch systems and the collection of statistical data in VoIP.

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Alexey’s current project is a free CFC VoIP messenger that has existed since 2012. He says that he specially mastered Objective C and C ++ for this project in 6 months, since he wanted to write the first application code on his own. The test version was implemented as a simple mobile client server, which eventually became CallsFreeCalls.



Alexey with the team implemented a new model of monetization in the application, introducing virtual currency in the form of bonuses into the application and removing all the ads in a separate block (offer wall). Users decide for themselves when and how many bonuses they want to receive, for watching a video or downloading an application.



As a result, today, CFC has 300,000 active monthly users with a total registration level of 3 million. On average, iOS users speak about 8400 minutes per day, Android - 1400 minutes. Over 4,000 SMS messages are sent daily via the app.



CFC Investors - Altair.vc

When fanfare and copper pipes of movies and news about billionaire startups are in your head, you will be left alone with your decision to make your company. If you are going to implement or already implement this decision, I want to share some of the conclusions that I had to draw.

Today I work as a programmer, tomorrow as a marketer, the day after tomorrow as a tester and at the end of the week as director

Forget about the specialization that was on your job yesterday. Where the marketer did marketing and the programmer - programmer. Martin Scorsese talked about the secret of a successful movie like this: I have to be a little make-up artist, a little screenwriter, a little actor and so on. Of course, the idea of ​​finding a programmer’s partner is impressive, as is the number of dead startups due to the fact that the partner has left for a permanent job. So with a high degree of probability one must be ready to learn new professions.

To hell with investors and incubators - my main time should go to make money, but not running around after people who can give them

Leave alone accelerators and investors (very sorry for these people, well, honestly), until there is a stable income and stable growth. And the main thing is to understand that for a certain amount of investment you can do so and so much more growth. Believe me, the cost of time to get into the accelerator is much larger than just going and earning the money and making a company with it. Yes, and noble don not to beg.

I develop in different areas. And I switch periodically between tasks to not get hung up

I do not know about you, but my brain requires constant switching. He cannot work effectively on the same task. These switches are very important when you can spend an hour a day, for example, on music lessons. Or sports. Or more than where you will develop, but not in the industry where you work. Those who train, know that one undeveloped muscle inhibits the development of the rest. I made a curious conclusion - in the brain in the same way. If you do not develop different abilities, your ability to work well also has a ceiling.

It is unlikely that I will be engaged in a business that just calmly flows over the thumb

"Leave hope for peace coming here." A successful company is continuous innovation. Every day, every hour, inventing something new is the rule, but not the exception. Then at some point your customers are flooded with money, because the critical point has been crossed and you are above the market.

I believe in what I do and get high on the result

It seems that the occupation of your company - this is not a very fun event? Yes, there will be many problems in your life. But it pays off with one indisputable advantage, and it is not only money. This is a completely indescribable feeling of the project. Made in spite of everything and thanks to you. Probably, the filibusters felt that way when they saw America. Good luck on this journey!

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