From b2b applications to mass service around the world

Hi, Habr! My name is Yevgeny Lisovsky, I lead the project MAPS.ME - this is an international project, interesting and very ambitious. Our task is to compete with Google, Apple and several second-tier companies. Today I will briefly talk about my career path, then to dwell in more detail on the most interesting stages.

I worked part time before the institute, I assembled computers to order. I had my own computer in 1995, at the age of 13 - thanks to my parents, it was really very cool. At the institute, I started learning PHP myself, MySQL, and built my own engine for an online store. Made three sites, took $ 300 each. Since 2004, I worked at the international company Radmin.com, which creates a b2b-product for remote control of computers, where I spent six years. Then he rushed into startups: KupiBonus, baby products BabyBoom. It was interesting there! Not only successful projects are important, but also feils: it is necessary to analyze well why they happened. Then there was Liters. A very interesting business is to sell e-books at a piracy rate of 96%. In 2015, we earned 15 million dollars, since 2011, revenue has increased 18 times. Then, together with my partners, I launched my own project, MoikaMoika.ru. Not that the founders immediately became millionaires, but this is an interesting experience. The project is alive and well. And then about all this - in more detail.

Institute of

I wrote in C ++ the software part of my thesis, and my partner did the hardware. Essentially, a circuit board. The device was very simple: it took an ECG from three leads - right hand, left hand, left foot - and formed an electrocardiogram. It was filmed with a simple analog-to-digital converter, plus a frequency modulator at the sound frequency, and transmitted through the computer's sound card. Since there is a sound card in all computers, this is the easiest way to enter data in digital form. Then I programmatically shot the envelope, which is an ECG. According to the height of the teeth and the distance between them, it is possible to determine different types of diseases, mark certain patterns, compare them with the base and draw a conclusion about the diagnosis.

It was back in 2004. Then I understood that our device could become a mass product, but I was too green and young. My main problem in the past is self-doubt. It seemed to me that the world is so big, around such adult uncles, they earn money, and I am still so stupid, small and I can not do anything. This is a key difficulty. It is imperative to overcome fear. When you do something new, it always seems to you that the task is very heavy. And then a month or two passes, you turn around and understand: damn, what was I afraid at all? Everything is normal, there is nothing complicated about it. Throughout my career I have struggled with fear. And it is also very important to be able to admit your mistakes and correct them.

First company

After graduation, I started looking for a job as a web programmer, a PHP programmer, MySQL programmer or a sysadmin. For the last post there were not enough skills, I even interviewed Kaspersky Lab, but it turned out to be very difficult. Yes, and with PHP-programming was not really. I came, and they tell me: here is a notebook, write us a plug-in. And you think: why a notebook, when there is a DreamWeaver, in which all tags are highlighted.

Then I was invited to an international software company Radmin by an internet marketer. I had free English. They drove all sorts of IQ tests, asked questions, I answered everything, and my future leader said: “I see that you are a normal guy, but too young. If you immediately get into everything at once and in six days you join the work, then we take you. Did you do marketing? ”I think: I did websites, SEO did — well, of course, marketing is my favorite. He: "Google Adwords you know?" And I in contextual advertising - in general, or in the tooth foot. But I really needed money, I only had a son born. I say: "Of course!"

So I got a job. I was lucky. This experience gave me, the engineer, a huge profit. It became very easy for me to communicate with the developers. You know, there is a classic confrontation between developers and marketers. A marketer comes in, says: make me such a beautiful red button so that everything works well. And the engineers answer: yes, you go to hell ... And that's it, the separation begins. And when you come and say: dude, everything is fine, I also coded in C ++, then the IT director immediately exhales with relief. And it becomes much easier to communicate. After all, almost all modern IT projects are a symbiosis of product development and marketing, they are inseparable from each other. And when they are artificially separated, the situation is not very good.

In this company, I worked with contextual advertising back in 2004, when there were very few internet marketers in Russia. Very interesting experience. I traveled to various international conferences, where testing of landing pages was already discussed then. In the USA and Europe, A / B testing, conversion optimization and other techniques were worked out at the highest level. Before us, this was done with a delay of about five years.

I can not say that I did a lot during my work at Radmin. Having gone to a startup KupiBonus - a coupon project, - in six months I did more than six years in the previous company. Perhaps the dynamics of life on the Internet was a little lower, or I struggled with myself: it seemed to me that it was time to leave, but I stayed, because it is a good reliable company. I thought: I will come to the position of internet marketer, I will grow to a marketing director - and here it is, happiness. In fact, happiness is the achievement of goals in the creation of any products.

In the crisis year of 2009, I managed to reposition the product. I traveled all over Russia, all federal districts, did a lot of work with salespeople, who then spread our business process optimization system across the country. And as a result, in the crisis year, it turned out to raise revenue in Russia by 30%.

What conclusions did I draw for myself, having worked in a software company? I wanted to change the team. I realized that when a webmaster sits and literally asleep in front of me, this is a disaster. I tried to look for some project management systems, analyzed a bunch of different options. I thought that if I introduced a normal system, then everything would immediately play with bright colors. But in fact, the problem was in people. We must initially hire the right people.

First startups

I wanted to create my team from scratch. Having gone to a startup, I came to the ready-made team. This also turned out to be a problem, because I did not hire people. We did not have mutual trust, we had to build relationships, and this is quite difficult. In the coupon business, my work day began with chocolates and a cup of coffee at eight in the morning, and ended at eleven in the evening. There was even a period (end of 2010) when we worked 15 hours a day. This is a very dynamic business. Our top management was strong, and the guys on my team were rather weak. In the end, a lot had to do myself.

They said to me: Zhenya, you are a crap manager, took everything over, you have to delegate. And I understood that this is so. I did not try to deceive myself, I worked on myself, but still I continued to do it myself, because I could not get a project.

It was very nice when the president of the company, a Frenchman, the former (until 1998) owner of OZON.ru, came up and said: Eugene, marketing is key. This is true. I could not sleep at night until I figured out how to fulfill the plan. And we had a horse plan. I came from a company with a budget of 100 thousand dollars a year to a coupon business with a budget of 200 thousand euros per month. And we lacked leads.

Then there was the project BabyBoom ​​- a classic retail. My advice: do not work with the wrong people, lay off the weak, hire the strong. For example, in BabyBoom ​​and Liters, I put together teams from scratch and often made a choice in favor of maybe not the most experienced person, but ready to learn quickly. There is nothing supercomplex in marketing, everything can be mastered in a month, if you approach the process normally. As a result, it is much easier to learn people than to hire very experienced and expensive people. I also had a point to make it exactly my team.

But there is one problem. Boss Cap - Friend Cap. This is what I learned in BabyBoom, a startup selling children's products. At first, we raised $ 1 million in investments, began to increase turnover, increased five times. But logistics in children's products is very complicated: large-sized goods are often found. Although the average check is quite large, the margin reached 30%, but large-sized goods simply killed the business model. Logistics devoured all the margins. Add here far from complete information on the stock balance. Unfortunately, we failed to close the second round of investments due to too many risks. As a result, the project fell apart, and I went to Liters.

Grow hacking

Throughout my career, I tried to look for hacks, non-standard solutions that allow you to surpass the competition. The result is a team, a good product, good marketing, good management, but nothing will succeed without entrepreneurial skills. Need to work on the lead.

What can lead to success? Intellect, erudition, social adaptation, multiplied by entrepreneurial ability. A person can be an intellectual, but not very erudite, but at the same time have high abilities in entrepreneurship and social adaptation. Social adaptation is the ability to communicate, negotiate, build relationships with people. Very useful skill. Try to develop it in yourself.

The team is the basis of the success of the project. The key competence of the manager is the selection of employees. I myself was looking for people, without resorting to the services of personnel officers. I spent a lot of time, but it's worth it. How do I usually choose workers? I looked into their good eyes and talked about the project. Imagine: 2011, e-books - who buys them? It's like selling ice cream to the Eskimos. I said that in the US, e-books already occupy 20% of the entire book market, and now we will grow steeply. If the interlocutor's eyes widen, he gets poured with a blush - it means that the right person is interesting to him.

If you do what you like, you will achieve a great result, and everyone will see it: the management, the shareholders. Work as an owner. This is a very interesting concept. I always acted as if it were my money, and I spend it. I will not stay in a project that I don’t like, but I always work as if it’s my own project. It will be noticed, believe me. But do not follow the principle "I am an employee and I will not jump higher than my head, because I will not be paid anymore." This is the wrong approach, you need commitment.

Imagine, for example, a builder for hire. He is building houses for a blooper and dreams of having his own house when there is money. And if he worked for 20 years for hire and built as necessary, how do you think, can he build his own house well? Of course not. It is impossible to become an entrepreneur without being employed as an entrepreneur.

Be like Yoda. These are the truisms of the right leader in IT. Of course, there must be achievements. If you come to lead a team, it is very difficult to gain credibility. Need openness. If the guys understand what you did, they know about your achievements, then they will have no questions. If there are achievements, then it is easy to flow. You also need to be a leader and understand IT. This is where the technical background helps me a lot.

During the work you have to analyze a lot. If a person does not know how to use Excel - most likely, he has a non-systemic thinking , which means that we will not work together. I did not require technical education from people; the main thing is that the candidates understand the basic principles. One example. In BabyBoom, I hired a guy for affiliate programs to deal with women's forums. I say to him: there are hundreds of sites, let's choose the largest ones, let's rank. Make me a sign and see how we will continue to work. He went to think in the morning brings a sign. And in the cells with a rating not 4/5 numbers, but “four out of five points” are written down. I say: how do you turn on autofilter? These are just symbols, not numbers. But he did not even understand me.

My mistake: I didn’t ask him enough about the interview. After that, I gave all candidates the following assignment: “Imagine that you are the affiliate program manager at Liters. There are 10,000 book sites. Your task is to share with all these sites. How will you act? ”It is important for me to evaluate how a person understands business processes. Does he think structurally: “I’ll enter a sign, sort by descending traffic, take the top 20, which are most likely to generate 80% of the traffic, and I’ll start working with them first.” In fact, Excel and Google Docs Spreadsheets are peculiar CRM. I have done everything on them and worked it out on a bunch of startups, no project management system is needed.

Creating in my head a team structure and hiring people, I always let them know where they might be. For example, I said to a candidate who came to partner programs: “I have a plan for the company's structure for two years to come, and there is a position here - the head of partner programs. I do not guarantee anything, but if you actively grow and develop, you can be there. ” In the end, he really took this position. And I am very pleased. I love it when employees grow. I also openly explain that a career is not a cloudless flight, when everything is smooth and smooth, everyone can stall. But either the person moves forward, or we part. There are two states: fall and rise. No options.

About the product

In 2011, in Liters, we made a mobile application. So so, just a reader. No bookmarks, no notes, no position synchronization - nothing, a primitive reader with a catalog for money.

It took some promotion. I had no experience in mobile marketing, and I agreed on mutual consulting with Alawar Entertainment, with the mobile games division. I consulted them on the classic web, and they me - on the mobile segment. So I gained knowledge, and we began to promote my reader. In 2012, revenue increased by 120%. Then in Russia, few people engaged in mobile marketing as actively. We just bought a bunch of traffic. As soon as AdMob, subsequently Facebook, appeared advertising, we were one of the first in Russia who began to actively buy it.

If we decided in 2011 to first make a super cool product with a bunch of opportunities and run it a year later, we would miss the decisive 2012 year. When I came to Liters, one of my acquaintances made a deal with Dream Industries. Bookmate project. And at the end of 2011, these guys raised $ 30 million. And my marketing budget in 2012 was 9 million rubles. What do you think, what thoughts did I have? And I worked in Liters only a month. I resorted to the general director: “Seryoga, what to do?” - “Well, work.”

How did we work? Just as the horses are covered with their blinders so that they do not see what is happening around, so we just rushed forward. A year has passed, we turn around - but something and not see anyone from behind. Time to Market - on time made product and good marketing decided the fate of the project.

Nothing will take off. Many people think that it is enough to make an excellent product, put it in the App Store or Google Play, and it will go yeast. This has not been working for a long time. Now we need a systematic streamlined marketing, attracting traffic from a heap of different channels, analysis of conversions and cohorts, internal analytics. Do not expect that the button "Tell friends" will give you a powerful viral effect.

System marketing

Here is the basic approach to marketing. There are impressions, clicks, installations, etc. Let's say you are buying traffic on Facebook. You think that if you put a CPI of 50 cents, then Facebook will bring you a bunch of installations. This will not happen, because Facebook assumes all the risks for a bad creative, for a bad landing page, for bad descriptions, a low rating, etc. Naturally, it will also raise the bar. I will show on the example of contextual advertising. Conducting interviews for positions in marketing, I asked a simple question: “Explain how contextual advertising works?” The candidate says: “Here, there is a ranking system ...” - “Why is it needed?” - “For advertisers to be normal with each other, so that there was an honest sorting ... "It's not like that.

Imagine that I am the commercial director of Yandex.Direct. My task is to increase revenue by a thousand impressions from the context. How KPI can express this? And CPM, revenue per thousand impressions. How to maximize it? The ranking algorithm in Yandex.Direct is a formula that maximizes revenue per thousand impressions, and nothing more. This is not a system that allows equalizing the rights of advertisers. This is a system that maximizes revenue. There are several factors: CTR, CPC. If you have a high CTR, then more traffic goes to the advertiser’s side, which means more money.

There is another one - the quality of the landing page. Why is it needed? Here, candidates were generally lost and answered: "So that people feel good." In fact - to increase the revenue lifetime value. We must understand that the one who sells you traffic needs money. And this factor allows you to control the level of trust in contextual advertising. If a user goes to a landing on an ad, where there is completely different information, then he will lose confidence in contextual advertising and in the long term will be less likely to click on it.

Finally, I will give an example of what we did in coupon systems. This is from the category of growth hacks, how to hack the system. Then Darberry was on the market, then Groupon bought it. They had accommodation on Mail.Ru Group for 300 thousand rubles a day. Very expensive, as it seemed to me then. I managed such budgets for the first time. The CTR was quite low, and the cost per lead was 86 rubles, although according to the model it was about 50. Expensive, also a female audience. What to do? I had an employee who was responsible for the layouts of banners. He says at six o'clock in the evening that he must go to school. And I have to send a mockup by eleven. I say: "My campaign starts, and you leave." - "Well, soryan." Then I fired him, but that evening I had to sit down and think about what to do.

I just opened Paint and drew a banner, wrote on a white background “–90%”, stretching to the maximum extent the screen, without edging. I do not know how then it missed. Later, by the way, they banned making banners without edging and made a gradient fill. But then it rolled. I've posted. There is a book by Steve Circle “Don't make me think”. It is necessary to simplify everything - the simpler the better. Thanks to this primitive banner, the CTR has grown more than eight times. Naturally, the conversion to registration fell, but at the output, I still got the cost per lead of 34 rubles.

True, then the legal service of Mail.Ru Group came to us and said that you have written “–90%” here, and there is no such action on the website. Indeed, it was not. Then we started picking stocks for such large placements.

Your startup

In 2014, we and partners decided to launch MoikaMoika. This is a record of the queue without washing. And it sounds good, and the market is decent. Indeed, there is such a problem - the queue for washing. There is a certain seasonality here, but we calculated the business model, we figured everything out. In 2014, they began development, in February 2015 they released it on iOS and Android and took up marketing. I invented all sorts of creatives. Then, by the way, they were blocked, but for some time they worked.

Here is an example of the fact that if you work on creative, on CTR, efficiency, if you make a CPI binding, the result will be much worse.

The initial capital of a startup is about 300 thousand from each of the founders. An example of the calculation of the MoikaMoika business model with cohorts, conversions, approximate approach:

MAPS.ME

As for MAPS.ME, today the project is somewhere in the sixth place in the world in terms of audience size, while we are not trying to be Google Maps, we have our own niche and our users. Now we are cards for travelers: light, fast and reliable, created to work without the Internet. We are the leaders in this segment, since the majority of the navigators of the “old guard” are not designed for pedestrian navigation at all, and about 70% of tourists traveling without a car. Google estimates that 40% of travelers prefer to use offline maps.

It is for this market segment that we are fighting. About 1.3 billion travelers per year in the world are enough for us :) However, we are faced with the task of fighting for the daily use of MAPS.ME, for which we are actively working on functionality that will allow us to better retain the audience. For example, in December 2016, we launched traffic jams in 38 countries of the world, which made it possible to raise the level of the daily audience among motorists and convert users from the tourist use scenario to daily. At the same time, we introduce simplicity and reliability into all the added functionality: traffic jams are efficiently compressed and consume four times less mobile traffic than competitors' applications, which allows us to use our navigation with traffic jams even when roaming. Also, all the functionality - search, auto, bike and foot navigation, bookmarks, notes - works without the Internet. This does not mean that our users generally do without it: according to our statistics, more than 80% connect to the Internet during the day, which allows us to earn from affiliate programs with travel giants like Booking.com, with which we entered the top six months 10 partners in terms of bookings. The integration of Booking.com for us is not only an opportunity to earn money, but also a demanded functionality of finding hotels on the map. It is very convenient if it is important for you to see where the hotel is located and how far it is from transport hubs and main attractions.

We have many development plans based on user surveys and backlogs from our customer support service, but all tasks are prioritized according to a simple principle: by contributing to audience retention, monetization, attracting audiences and developing complexity. This allows us to achieve quick victories and move forward in development, however, we pay considerable attention to long-term (three years) strategic functionality.

If we talk briefly about our long-term strategy, then within the framework of the tourist segment there is a task to expand the use of MAPS.ME, turn it from the “get from point A to point B” tool into a full-fledged traveler assistant. Therefore, we plan to add functionality that is in demand among tourists: UGC (user-generated content) - ratings, reviews, so that it is easier for tourists to choose a restaurant or any other institution; search for interesting places; purchase tickets to museums and various local activities. We are convinced that the map is an instrument of basic regular need, around which additional complementary functionality can be built on, expanding the scenarios of tourist use. At the same time, the demand for offline cards will only grow, especially in developing countries, where mobile Internet is expensive and has poor coverage.

In terms of monetization, we also believe in hyper-local advertising, which has been gaining momentum lately, because small and medium-sized businesses are significantly limited in advertising tools.

We have a strong team of developers and marketers and a streamlined system for planning and managing business processes. Our motto: good product is good marketing. This allows you to achieve maximum synergy for the proactive development of the project and achieve high results.

Useful materials

I put all my work in the open access for free for any use (non-commercial / commercial): www.lisovskiy.ru/edu . There are templates of examples of calculating business models in tablets, presentations. There is a detailed training course: in 2016, I tried to put together all my practical experience. I hope someone will find this useful and will help in launching new projects and developing existing ones.