Founder's advice. Ilya Ekushevsky - about Busfor online transport service

Busfor - “Uber for buses”, as English-language publications willingly call it, or a ticket aggregator of international and intercity bus passenger flights. Last week, the project raised $ 20 million from new investors - Baring Vostok and Elbrus Capital funds, while the current shareholder, InVenture Partners, increased investments in the company. The total amount of funds raised to date is $ 25 million.

According to Western analysts, it is quite possible that we are dealing with a new potential “unicorn”, since the growth of Busfor can be called impressive. By 2019, the company hopes to occupy 20% of the ticket market, while accelerating growth in existing (the company operates in Russia, the CIS countries, eastern Europe and Thailand) and new markets such as Asia.
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We talked to Ilya and found out how he managed to build a full-cycle transportation service using IT technologies.

Ilya, what did you do before that? How did you get together with Artem at the helm of this startup?

I used to trade stocks on stock exchanges. My partner was a developer, managed real estate, real estate investments.

When we had financial opportunities, we decided to invest in a joint Internet project. The Internet was already developing very actively by that time - it was in 2011. We began to look for niches, directions in which to apply our experience, to use our money. So we found a huge market with great potential online, studied the global experience of existing players, local features of different geographies, conducted a serious analysis and decided to start such an idea.

I heard about you for the first time relatively recently. In my opinion, this was last summer, when you received the first batch of investments. You have competitors in the market. How do you assess your position, and how interesting is it to promote this service?

Of course, very interesting, and above all due to the fact that our service is changing the market. Reading reviews on "Habré" and other services, we see that some people are unhappy with the service of transportation. And this is true, since in most cases this carriage is performed at a low level. But all at once does not happen. We are actively working on the quality of transportation, helping transport companies to improve the level of passenger service during the trip, and thereby transform the market.

The social mission of our project is to change the bus transportation for the better, to make them more convenient for passengers, to make carriers respect the passengers. This is a big important social task.

In addition, we are actually making a new product in a new market. This is something unexplored, and we are pioneers. This is a very serious challenge.

When we talk about competitors, it is important to understand our and their place in the distribution process. Our technologies essentially cover the whole chain: we offer b2b solutions for suppliers (bus terminals and carriers) that help them manage inventory effectively, and b2c solutions for end users, including ticket selling sites and mobile applications. Who and in what direction to consider our competitors?



If someone has a website for selling bus tickets, then of course to a certain extent they are our competitors online. But they do not have a reservation system, the so-called GDS, so from this point of view they are not our competitors. The same goes for bus terminal systems: most providers lack quality b2c solutions, and they focus on offline and b2b.

We have no competitors covering the full distribution chain.

Is that why you are doing relatively well?

In aviation there are companies Amadeus, Saber, Travelport. These are global booking systems (GDS). For decades, they were able to connect a large number of carriers and build distribution. These companies work as if in the middle, between carriers and agents. However, they practically do not work directly with end customers.

We are actively developing both directions, like the same Uber or Airbnb. These services also operate on two fronts - supply and demand. This is a great advantage, because when you integrate inventory into your service, you subsequently invest more confidently in sales development.

If you only have a b2c solution, and you work exclusively as an agent, then this model is always more risky due to the lack of its own booking system and guaranteed inventory.

I now understand why they call you "Uber for buses" ...

What is the main lesson that can be learned from the company's development experience within five years from the moment the idea appeared?

When you build a new project, the pitfalls always pop up. Probably the main lesson is that in such a situation it is necessary to remain a startup that can be flexible and able to quickly respond to a changing situation. We are always looking for ways to increase profitability in all directions - in working with carriers and with end users. We try to make all workflows more efficient. And it was not we who invented this: Facebook and other large successful projects still remain startups.

We have something new going on all the time. The company is constantly progressing, new directions are emerging, new hypotheses are being tested. We rarely have a situation where we can build a process once and forget about it.

In the new market, everything is constantly changing. Here you need to constantly drive yourself, not lose motivation, be in search. In our business, this is especially difficult, because we will attack in several directions at once.

How did the company staff grow? How many employees are working now? What units do you have? What is the ratio of their sizes?

Now we employ about 100 people. Quite a lot of employees (20-25%) are focused on end-user support. Over the past three years, our staff has grown 10 times.

We clearly spell out business processes. There are people who are responsible for contacting carriers, there are those who are responsible for introducing them into our system. As soon as we agree with the carrier, immediately begins the work of the technology department.

At the same time, lawyers communicate with them - they conclude an agreement. When this process ends, other departments are involved in the work, which are starting to promote new flights. Then turn on the customer support department.

Do you have a development department inside?

Of course, all our development is done in-house. Sometimes, when deadlines are tight, we use out-staff. We have external contractors with whom we are friends and cooperate. At some moments we are strengthened by their developers. But in general, we believe that we are building a large project that is deeply and infrastructurally embedded in the market, so it is important for us to develop competencies within our company, and not to outsource it.

Many projects use outstaff or outsourcing, but then there is a risk that competence will not grow within the project. It grows just outside of it. In this case, it happens that an external developer has pumped and left to work in another area. And for us it is important that key employees work with us as long as possible. The more a person works with us, the stronger his competence grows, he generates more suggestions for improving something.

At the same time, we are constantly hiring new people. They look at the processes from a different angle and also recommend something with a fresh look. After all, if you work every day on one thing, there is a risk to stop noticing something.

How many developers are there in your department?

About twenty-five people.

As I understand it, your difference from young and inexperienced startups is that you already had experience working with high-level partners: you were engaged in selling securities, Artem worked with commercial real estate. But there were some moments that can be called the main mistake or the main obstacle that appeared in the course of building a business?

There were no gross errors. There were moments when we were wrong in people. I myself was quite seriously burned several times. But this is inevitable, especially if the company is always in search of the best employees. At the moment of growth, it is very important to attract the right people to the company who grow with the business and are interested in increasing their own expertise. It is important for us that the work was a challenge for the team.

Those who deal with it become an important link for the company. At the same time, we believe in our employees. For example, within our company, many intelligent specialists have grown up, who started from simple positions and today occupy key positions.

In addition, to increase the expertise within the team, we try to constantly use external consultants and advisers. We receive important information from them and move on.

Yesterday we did a poll on "My Circle". There are a lot of people in IT who tried to enter the market with their project. According to our data, they are 36%. We know that IT is an area where competition is most fierce. What advice can you give to people who are just starting out?

I know quite a lot of projects that the developers have launched, successful and unsuccessful. And he repeatedly witnessed when developers forget that they are primarily technical specialists. That is, they really do qualitatively close the development in the project, but forget that for success it is important to effectively work in other areas: finance, sales, marketing. Without partners who are strong in other areas, it is very difficult to succeed.

Now I am just watching such a project. They are engaged exclusively in two developers. Of course, they are building a cool product, but other components of success - commerce, distribution, and attraction of investments - are not worked out by them. Even if you are a cool developer, you need to find an equally strong partner in a project that will close other areas. If you find the weak, you will not be able to bring the project to the market, you will not be able to sell it, you will not attract investments, whatever the desired product. You even risk to bring it to commercial exploitation.

And there are far fewer good businessmen than good developers. Therefore, I recommend finding the right partners at the idea or early prototype stage.