Nikita Sherman (WIX): “I wanted to do too much with too little effort”

Co-founder and CEO of the educational company "Netology-groups" Maxim Spiridonov talked with businessman Nikita Sherman about the gaming industry, about interesting projects, about victories and defeats.

"Megamind" gives the most interesting facts and quotes from the interview.

Nikita Sherman worked as the chief editor of Dni.ru , Webluk and Runet.ru, but then he became an entrepreneur in the field of Internet services and the gaming industry. In 2004, he met with the founder of the IMI investment fund, Igor Matsanyuk.
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He, like me, just came to Moscow and launched the game "Territory" . She brought money, and Igor was eager to invest in the Internet. At first we just met and became friends with Matsanyuk. It was my first encounter with online games. I was fascinated not only by what they do, but also by the way they do. And most importantly - their degree of involvement in the process, the passion they invested in this business.

The most interesting was the project "Rush Hour". It was a game in which people could win a real apartment in Moscow. We agreed with the developers of PIK, and they provided three apartments. Rambler has become a playground.

About work in "Mamba"

There was a period when I was moving from place to place. I am not such an opportunist, I just found offers that were hard to refuse. Here is an example with Mamba . Lesha Bassov called me and offered me a beer. We sat with him in a cafe, and he said: "I need a president in Mambu." How can you give up on this?

It was necessary to make a qualitative leap against the background of the fact that RBC invested large budgets in the marketing and promotion of Loveplanet .

I can not say that I was responsible for the strategy. We developed it together with the general director Andrey Bronetsky and the operating director Maxim Trukhin. The reputation of “Mamba” as a frivolous dating site did not bother me. Moreover, I think that the struggle of “Mamba” with this stereotype is harmful to the service.

On the transition to "Odnoklassniki" and the introduction of tight monetization

I was not going to leave the Mamba anywhere, but I received a letter from Roma Tyshkovsky, a well-known headhunter at that time. I learned that we are talking about the position of the president of the company "Odnoklassniki". This is the next level. I faced a dilemma: to leave a comfortable place or take a new challenge.

In fact, I have never been responsible for the development of Odnoklassniki, so the strategy of rigid monetization does not have the slightest relation to me. As the first person, I took the blow on myself, but I could not suspend the process. After 9 months I left.

In retrospect, I understand that if I had been as wise as I was today, I would not have gone to Odnoklassniki at all .

About your project "Dreammy"

One of the first to call me after being fired from Odnoklassniki was Kolya Mityushin from the ABRT Venture Fund . He said: "If you have an idea, come, we will give you money." When I got her, I immediately called him back.

Mityushin began to attract partners from the fund Mangrove Capital Partners . I had only an idea, a presentation and a certain understanding of how we will go towards our goals.

In the first round, we raised $ 2 million and then a few more. We made the first product when 15 people worked for us in the company - the game “Fishing”. She immediately proved successful and began to earn money. Intoxicated by this success, we actively scaled. We conceived and implemented new products, thought about how to grow a company from the inside. At the peak of the company employed 130 people. We were breaking even, but not for long.

I wanted to do too much with too little effort. It was necessary to develop one product, "Fishing", by the efforts of those 15 people who then worked in the company. And it is on Facebook. When Odnoklassniki and My World opened their API, we had to deal with all Russian social networks. Customization of the game for each separate platform took a lot of time, effort, money, resources. It would be correct to choose one platform, the largest.

The second mistake - we did not focus on one game, but began to produce them. “Fishing” was a unique product from the point of view of genres, because then no one did the simulators at all. One could develop this genre and stake it out for oneself.

At the end of 2012 there were several scenarios, one of which was the sale of the company. There was a specific buyer. He bought not a company, but games that earned money. “Fishing” at that moment earned several hundred thousand dollars a month.

On the transition to Wix and the target audience of the service

When I had Dreammi , the Mangrove fund periodically took out its portfolio companies to events where we chatted, hung out and shared experiences. There we met the Wix founder.

The root audience of our services is small and medium business. As a rule, individual entrepreneurs. They themselves do not know what they need. In social networks, they build sales channels. But in addition to sales channels, you also need a place where you can be found. Our product is aimed at those people who do not understand a damn thing. As a child collects a house from cubes, so a site in Wix can be assembled on the principle of drag-and-drop.

All our sites by default have a universal design. They are adapted for both mobile and web versions at the same time. Mobile version can be improved, we have separate tools in the editor for this.

On the peculiarities of small business in Russia

First, in our country, the state does not make any efforts to develop this direction. Take a conditional wedding photographer. Does he consider himself an entrepreneur? He is not even registered as an entrepreneur, he is a creative person, an artist. Or a tutor who comes to your child to learn a foreign language. He does not consider himself an entrepreneur.

Secondly, the market in Russia is controlled by large network companies. In Europe and the United States, small businesses are highly developed, focused on the sale of goods and services to neighbors. For example, a bakery in France is usually a small family business. The bakery on your street belongs to one person, and the next to another. In France, thousands of private bakeries that belong to different people. And we have several bakeries in each city. We have a very network market.