How to build an interesting startup?

What it is?

A new, but already very popular word “startup” appeared just a few years ago and is most often used in relation to new and / or promising web projects. It is rather difficult to assess the prospects of the project, as well as the commercial or social attractiveness of the concept. The term of launching a web resource is much easier to learn.



Is every new resource worth calling a startup? I think that this title should be distributed very carefully: for an interesting idea, original implementation, compliance with the requirements of the market and the audience, as well as some other parameters that will allow the web project to exist for at least 2-3 years. Moreover, the existence of a startup should be dynamic - the audience grows with time, information is updated, services run smoothly. A good indicator of success is the appearance of clones, imitators of the startup idea.



For example, Google exactly 10 years ago was a startup whose founders had an original idea, experience of successful implementation and getting into a wave of market demand for new search engines. Now Google is one of the largest players on the Internet, creating its own start-ups and buying successful ideas for business development. The successful example of Google and other projects became the basis for the massive launch of tens of thousands of web resources around the world that tried to repeat their success ... but most of these startups have sunk into oblivion.



The presence or absence of startups reflects the level of development of the Internet industry in a particular country, region or segment of the Internet. Behind each newly created startup, there is at least one person or team who has the necessary skills, ideas and faith in success. The more talents, the more ideas, respectively, the number of "live" projects, useful to people, attracting investment, the audience and opening up great opportunities.

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Startup in KazNet

Are there any startups on the Kazakhstani Internet? Are there any interesting ideas, developers and audience in Kazakhstan that would like to use Kazakhstan services? The answer to all questions is positive, the only problem is one - the lack of investors and developers of a vision about the opportunities and development potential of KazNet.



All resources and “startups” of KazNet can be divided into two groups:

1. Web resources focused exclusively on Kazakhstan users or even on users of one of the cities of Kazakhstan. Examples of such resources: portals ( Music Portal KZMZ ), statistical systems ( 2fly.kz ), mail systems ( mail.kz ), forums ( bb.ct.kz ), news resources ( gazeta.kz ), catalogs, blogs, and many others whose creators do not plan to expand their audience geographically or compete with major Russian or foreign resources. So to say “local startups”, which are unlikely to be of interest to investors and the main source of income for them will be Kazakhstani advertisers at Kazakhstan prices and there will always be a limited audience size, whose growth will mainly be associated with the growth of KazNet in general, and not with the growth of service or development of a web resource.

2. Web resources that do not limit their development to the geography of Kazakhstan, designed either for the entire Runet (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc.), or even for the whole world. Examples of such resources: the COMPORT information portal , the ZigZag photo service , the Qwate search engine are vivid examples of the work of Kazakhstan developers who have received international feedback and already have an audience outside of Kazakhstan. Such web resources are interested in finding investors and can offer long-term prospects to both them and advertisers.



The successful “local startups” include the Music Portal KZMZ , which for 3 years of its existence has firmly occupied the niche of the national music resource, which united Kazakhstan artists. What is very important, the portal strictly observes the copyright laws and works directly with the performers. The audience of the resource is quite large - up to 3,000 people per day from all over Kazakhstan, advertisers constantly place banner ads on the Portal, the brand is recognizable and supports music promotions and concerts throughout Kazakhstan. It can be said that the portal has reached the peak of its development - there are no competitors, the majority of performers are covered, the Portal is updated daily, new music is uploaded from the “first hand” and a popular music forum is functioning.



The popularity of KZMZ is due to the well-chosen launch point, original idea, efficiency of the administration and the trust of the audience. But the potential growth of the audience and the demand for the Portal are limited. According to forecasts, attendance will grow to a maximum of 7-8 thousand people per day, unless cardinal changes are made to the geographical or service policy, including technological and stylistic updating of the Portal. Therefore, we will wait for updates in 2009.



At the same time, KZMZ, in my opinion, is still at the level of a startup, which is determined by not fully realized development opportunities, and first of all by the possibility of expanding the portal services to the nearest countries. Everything is in the hands of the ideologists of KZMZ.



With a group of international startups, everything is much more complicated, because the geographical breadth of the audience implies a different level of management organization, other means of brand promotion and popularization of services, as well as constant competition with the world's leading developers and popular international projects with a good history and multimillion-dollar audiences.



Let's try to formulate some principles, in the presence of which a startup can claim success on an international scale:

1. Analysis and monitoring of the target market - you need to know the direct competitors, to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

2. Idea or competitive advantages - the resource being developed should attract an audience of competitors or new visitors with greater convenience, speed, adaptability or a new solution.

3. Timing - it is necessary to clearly understand the relevance of the capabilities or ideas of a startup by Internet users.

4. Technological and human resources - a startup should have a long-term technical base, experienced developers and management to implement tactical and strategic steps to develop the project.

5. Possibilities of advertising and attracting an audience - financial resources and / or channels of communication with a potential audience are needed to draw attention to a startup. In the first case - investors, in the second - partner or own popular resources with a target audience.



If all the listed requirements coincide, we can say that a startup can get a chance for life, but does not guarantee its long-term or mandatory popularity. Each of the principles should be maintained and changed in accordance with the requirements of the situation and the market - new technologies, additional resources, staff turnover, planning deficiencies and much more should be corrected and changed as quickly and efficiently as possible.



An example of such a startup in Kazakhstan can be considered the new generation employment portal “ Team of CREW professionals ”.



1. The analysis of the market showed the lack of high-quality technological and convenient resources not only in RuNet, but also in the international Internet, while online job search services are always relevant.



2. What competitive advantages are you planning to offer to a demanding audience?

but. Technological innovations - extensive use of AJAX-technologies (work without rebooting), when the service becomes an analogue of a local application for convenience and speed of work; recent developments to ensure maximum speed of the web resource; original interface solutions targeted even by an inexperienced Internet user. The use of the latest technologies automatically takes this startup to the first positions in the search results of Google and Yandex, leaving behind more “old” and popular resources.

b. Integration of legal entities and individuals into a single social network “Workers” at CREW with a focus on creating a professional recruiting tool and a place for everyday communication of professionals, including those not interested in finding or changing their current place of work.

at. The first multilingual social network, automatic duplication and translation of information, the principle of the wiki for the addition and translation of missing information. For the first time, an attempt was made to create a Kazakh-Russian-English-language resource, where all language versions are synchronized.

The portal is configured for the region, city, language and currency, individual for each user.



3. The developers and ideologists of the startup are the professional team of the Advertising Agency DG , which has experience in the development of several successful Kazakhstani startups and dozens of major web resources.



4. The CREW portal is supported by third-party investors, popular web resources and partners, including Kazakhstan's recruiting agencies, Kazakhtelecom JSC, which provides ongoing support and support for the Project, as well as electronic and print media. This gives hope for early success and the emergence of a new brand on the Internet.



But is this enough to create a truly popular resource that could compete with Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Mail.ru, foreign Facebook, Linkedin and other large resources with multimillion audiences? Enough to start, but for long-term growth and development, much more resources are needed that are available at the time of developing and launching a startup. It is important to understand these limitations and future costs for successful planning and increase the chances of achieving the stated goals of the startup.

Online and offline ...

Continuing the example of analyzing the success of a startup in the conditions of Kazakhstan and the claim for international recognition, it is necessary to dwell on the additional, often ignored potential of off-line capabilities.



It is not a secret that most startups in the world are completely focused on Internet and Internet users, all operations, communication and service occur online, rarely which web resources have advertisements in non-specialized off-line printed publications, outdoor advertising and printed products. Only large and successful projects begin to carry out traditional promotional activities, having at that time the necessary budget for their implementation. So what do startups do at the launch stage, not having extra funds for off-line promotion, but understanding the need to attract an additional audience by traditional means?



There are a lot of options, as always, and the limitation is only in the imagination of the startup management. Here are some of them:

1. Organization of partnerships with off-line companies offering online opportunities on a startup.

2. Barter relationship.

3. Friendly relations or support targeted offline events as an informational sponsor.



Practically for any high-quality startup, you can find interested off-line partners without additional financial costs.

Work, work and work ...

But even if you make every effort and having a good off-line support, a startup can fail and not even reach the first launch stage for many reasons. We will not consider force majeure in the form of floods or wars :) But most of the reasons for stopping work, failures or overcoming them are related to the personal qualities and performance of the team of developers and ideologists both as a whole and on an individual level.



Most of the problems can be overcome, any “black PR” can be leveled, you can always find a way out of a seemingly hopeless situation, find support in difficult situations, but only if the startup team does not stop, if the team’s motivation is high and people believe in the success ideas of a startup, and are willing to work sometimes around the clock to address current issues.

The possibilities are endless

Is it worth it to start up such projects as an international startup organization? After all, these are constant problems and difficulties, hard work and the flow of negative information, disappointment of partners, lack of funds and time.



Every specialist engaged in the field of web design and the Internet (as well as all other industries) is not only worth it, but it is also necessary to set most important tasks for ourselves and strive to implement them, because, first of all, they characterize the process of continuous personal development and company , teams and skills, test business connections for strength, form the infrastructure of future projects and create the basis for unlimited development of the industry (in our case, KazNet). Not to mention the image of the developers and the country as a whole.



Startups will always be unsuccessful for outside observers who will not be able to evaluate the experience gained and the ideas that have emerged, which could become a catalyst for abandoning the old idea for the transition to a new one. Every start-up should wish good luck, and start-ups in Kazakhstan to help with all their might, not “just for profit”, but also understanding the strategic importance of their presence for the development of the market.