Sergey Baryshnikov, BigPicture: “To this led me a complete lack of money”

To keep the balance between the information and entertainment component of the resource has always been difficult. But it is he who influences which audience will visit the site. And from the point of view of monetization, it would be good to have a solvent target audience.



In the case of BigPicture there was another difficulty - Sergey Baryshnikov started the project not even from scratch, but there was no one, let's say, a negative level (we will not repeat this story here at the request of Sergey). He had no way of retreat, nor did he have a second attempt.

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We asked the entrepreneur to share his experience, to warn beginners from mistakes, to tell about how to recruit "their" people and many other things to the team.



How did you come to create BigPicture?



To this led me a complete lack of money.



Have you started doing this to search for income?



I understood that hired work categorically does not suit me, and I need to do something of my own. By that time I had some experience in creating and monetizing entertainment content, and I launched my project.



Did you realize at the start that this idea has high potential, or did it move at first solely because of your will?



BigPicture became profitable two months after launch. Our first advertiser was Phillips. The advertising campaign brought us $ 100.







And after 13 months, we took the first line in the ranking of blogs “Yandex” and thus attracted the attention of advertisers. They came to us in a steady stream, so it is a sin for us to complain that everything developed in our company neither shakily, nor shakily. On the contrary, it gave an adequate incentive to grow, to develop in the field of content and so on.



Quality content is an evaluation feature. What is important in managing such a project is that it truly becomes successful. What can not be done, and what to do optional?



As I have already said, I had experience in creating and managing resources like "Chips", "Yaplakal" and so on. I understood what advantages they have and what disadvantages. Previously, they had a large audience, and advertising was very cheap. The advertiser had the feeling that they are being placed for the audience of the current VKontakte - that is, for a young audience without money. I tried to get away from the stereotypes inherent in entertainment sites: remove memes, light jokes and make content for a more adult audience - for office plankton. This is an audience of 25-35 years old, they need to be distracted while working. We gave them informative and entertaining content, which is presented in the form of photographs.







That is, your cash debts served as a trigger to ensure that the project has grown to the current stage?



Yes. I do not consider myself to be an outstanding media manager, journalist or photographer. Now BigPicture exists only because I had an incentive to work twenty-five hours a day and do a project in spite of everything that would bring money in a short time and close all my problems.



What is the main lesson you can learn from the history of the company to the current moment?



I am in favor of learning some lessons when the business is already over. I learned a lot of lessons from my previous businesses. With BigPicture, everything develops so fast that I don’t have time to learn some lessons. I need to keep my nose in the wind and watch where the media is moving in its current form.







Can you name a few major mistakes or problems that had to be solved in the development process of BigPicture?



I will tell you what problem I had to solve with myself. When you leave one badly ended business and open a new one, it is very important to abstract these two stories as much as possible from each other. It is necessary to do so that one does not pull the other. It is easy to make a second kind of successful business, but constantly take money out of circulation or be distracted by solving problems that remain from the first business. As a result, a new successful business can turn into an even bigger “hemorrhoids” than the previous one. It was very important for me to absolutely separate these two stories.







A lot of people constantly repeat this way: someone writes, creates blogs, tries to build a community. Can you give advice to people who are about to get cones on their way?



Less listen to the various wise men who tell you how to do the right business. This is the main advice. Now there are a lot of different coaches and businessmen who supposedly explain how to make a successful business in two months and earn the first million. In fact, it does not work - only your brains, only motivation, perseverance will help make a successful business.



What did you do before BigPicture?



From 1999 to 2006, I had an online phone store. In 2006-2008 I had a break, I was engaged in the development of a single entertainment site. And in 2009, BigPicture began.







How do you feel about hiring people in startups? I know a couple of guys who work for you - they are passionate professionals. How much does it determine how the project feels? Do you have any immutable rules? What kind of people should it be? How do you even make a team?



I collect people with whom you can do not only a specific project (for example, BigPicture), but any project that would be interesting to us. I don't need just a good journalist or a good photographer. I need a person with whom it is easy, who can follow me to any of my adventures (it may seem an adventure at first glance), who believes in me and knows that together we will develop.



I need young and most versatile people. I think that the time for just good journalists is gone. We need people who can go, take off themselves, finish themselves and do it as quickly as possible.



And if we talk about business development?



It’s hard for me to talk about it, because I’m practically not engaged in hiring people in the sales department, since there is a director there. He is responsible for this. Now I try to abstract as much as possible from money issues and deal with the product, the further strategic development of the company.



It is important for me that a person from the first day fit into the team and feel organic. This is the main thing. The rest will teach.



Many such people in Moscow? You do not have a shortage of such employees?



In the commercial department we are looking for people constantly. If a person comes to us tomorrow and we understand that he is “ours”, we will take him away. Good salesmen are never enough. And in the editorial board all vacancies are closed.



As I understand from your words, you will have some next project. Do you know how it will be? Or is this place and time multiplied by circumstances?



Everything is known. In parallel, BigPicture we are developing a communication agency SALO. They are engaged in the same people who work in BigPicture. They spend part of their time on a new project. SALO helps small and medium businesses to carry out communications in PR and marketing. We take companies in service for 2-3 years and at the expense of our capacities, agreements with bloggers, creativity and expertise in the offline business, we help increase sales and awareness.







It is important that on the other side there are adequate people who understand what we are doing. We do not want to produce another agency in which two people are creative, and two more are riveted reports. We almost do not make reports. Let customers look at their sales growth reports in 1C. We stand for maximum freedom of action and maximum trust.