A gourmet guesser genie, or how LeClick was created
It just so happened that I really like to eat, or rather I like to eat deliciously and beautifully, and therefore I like good and “tasty” restaurants. And again, it just so happened that for over 11 years I have worked in the IT field, the last seven of which are at Microsoft.
While working at Microsoft, I visited the States very often. And on one of these business trips, I realized that the process of choosing and booking a restaurant there is much simpler and more convenient, which is exactly what I miss in Moscow. Yes, we have quite a lot of different search and reservation sites, and although they call themselves online, they are essentially not. In addition, far from everywhere the declared search and booking are really convenient and work.
Knowing about my gourmet weaknesses and my knowledge of the subject, friends and colleagues regularly contacted me for recommendations on restaurants (And for the family? And for the children? And for business meetings? And where can I wait for the traffic jam in the center? Quiet? Wifi? And etc.) Why is my opinion about the shortage of such a service only strengthened.
Then it occurred to me to create a “real” online service that would be convenient for both end users and restaurants. Without thinking twice, she turned to her good friends, also ex-Microsoft corporate partners, to the bone and announced that we should make the "Genie-Guesser", but only in restaurants. Perhaps you remember this “phenomenon” - at one time such a computer game - “Genie Akinator” was very popular, in which you were asked to make a hero - be it Putin, Pugacheva, Kolobok, D'Artagnan, and anyone else. And it was suggested to you that after a few questions you can guess who or what you are thinking about (And, paradoxically, it did!).
Friends thought, hesitated (quite a bit), but generally approved. And we immediately took up this task.
There was enthusiasm - more than enough, and probably, mainly because of this, only 6 months passed from the idea to the embodiment. By the middle of 2012, we had a portal for searching and booking seats in restaurants with an impressive database of institutions and a wide range of various filters and parameters, including geolocation. We began to publish a description of the restaurants, the mode of operation of a particular place and the price level. Later, interesting news and special offers of restaurants, thematic reviews and other information were added to this. In short, we try to attract the attention of the audience.
At the end of 2012, I dared to participate in a discussion of those in power on the angel-venture financing market - in my Facebook feed, in my opinion, there was a somewhat cynical discussion of which first question a business angel asks a startup with burning eyes when he comes to an audience . The variety of answers could not but rejoice - “Are you a millionaire again?”, “Do you want to lay an apartment?” And so on.
Our team nevertheless managed to “accumulate” start-up capital while working in corporate structures, which gave a feeling of independence, so at that time my first reaction was “to protect the rights of poor startupers”. Therefore, she openly wrote that we didn’t go for money, didn’t ask anything from anyone if it was necessary to pledge property, and we will do so without delay, well, simply because we firmly believe in our idea. (In general, it turned out that it could not do without bank loans against personal guarantees, property, etc.).
The work at that time was already done considerable. In addition to the site, we wrote our own CRM system (hostess.leclick platform - a cloud solution on the web or iPad app) to automate and manage the process of booking, collecting and maintaining guest bases. The CRM system is a personal account - online reservations are received and processed online, arriving at the restaurant via the Internet using booking forms (widgets) available on the website www.leclick.ru, on the website and / or on the restaurant’s page on Facebook and partner sites (Yandex, 2GIS, InYourPocket, MasterCard, Vmet.ro, etc.) or by phone (an electronic analogue of the reserve book). All information on guests (name, telephone, e-mail), number of reservations, reservation status, guest status is stored in your personal account. The functionality of the system allows you to generate reports on the loading of the institution, the effectiveness of the services with which a particular restaurant cooperates, and to make targeted SMS and e-mail newsletters. There are options for integration with third-party systems and APIs for external access. At the architecture level of the solution, integration with R-keeper, Micros, iiko has been worked out.
In the same post on Facebook, I wrote about what our project was about, what are the analogies with American services for automation and online booking of tables in restaurants, and colleagues almost immediately came to us from one interesting accelerator program from the USA at the request of the Russian Open Table. At the end of 2012, we, with the second co-founder, our CTO, flew to California to learn the mind, take an active part in the accelerator and talk with colleagues from the Open Table. At the same time, Aeroflot wrote about us in its logbook - the section "Planet Internet, news." True, we found out about this quite by accident, while still in the same States. At the same time, they wrote about us on “Zuckerberg Will Call”, showed reports on TV - in general, everything, as best as possible, portended a rapid success!
The reality began a little later - when we started selling our product and finding a dream team. Despite the fact that we ourselves did not doubt the need to introduce our product, the Russian market at that time did not particularly share our point of view, in other words, it turned out to be not very ready for our know-how.
Habit is second nature. Everyone wanted to work the old-fashioned way, writing down orders in the reserve book, handing out profiles, rewriting contacts manually in Excel and anything else, but without automation. And we had to break through this wall of distrust of the new, for a very long time and carefully explain all the advantages that automation gives in general, and our CRM in particular. We constantly faced with misunderstanding and, to some extent, fear of restructuring and introducing new technologies into the business.
We were often confused, and even now confused, with services that deal with the “drive” of guests. Of course, we provide additional traffic to restaurants through a convenient portal, partner sites, SEO and SMM-promotion, but the main idea of our service is a convenient functional site, real online and CRM-system, which allows you to increase customer loyalty and precisely due to increase loyalty increase the number of customers.
Now much has changed, in just two years, the Russian market has accepted change. We receive many incoming calls, among our customers there is already one very popular restaurant from Vladivostok, we have released a mobile application, updated the site, and developed affiliate programs. We have a lot of ideas and far-reaching plans.
By the way, we almost created a “dream team”. We have a very friendly team, young and very ideological guys who have extensive experience in sales, IT, PR and even a little in the restaurant sector work. We are already making money, until we just have learned how to earn it in a larger amount than to spend. At the same time, we already have many good serious and satisfied customers, a clear understanding of how to replicate has appeared. From the immediate plans - access to the market of St. Petersburg and Kazan. As well as the sale of a franchise to one of the CIS countries, which one - we will keep it secret for now.
In general, for me personally, LeClick has become one of those cases when a hobby can “catch up” with you at the most unexpected moment. And gradually, imperceptibly for you, grow into something more that will benefit not only you, but also those around you.
About the author: Lustina Anastasia Vladlenovna, CEO of LeClick service. Born in Crimea in 1982, in 1994 moved to Moscow. Two higher educations: computer economist, translator in the field of professional communications. Languages: Russian, English, Hebrew with a dictionary. Hobbies: preference, chess, spirits)))
VCStart: Anastasia, a woman at the head of a startup - in the West today is a real trend. According to recent CBS data, about 1,300 startups and small businesses are being established daily under the female heading in the world. In my opinion, a colossal figure. In Russia, this is a rather rare phenomenon. How do you find it difficult to be a startup CEO?
About the project:
LeClick.ru - a brand new service that allows you to find and book a restaurant in a matter of seconds. No more than 1% of them use some kind of CRM solution to optimize the main processes for updating the guest base, communications, analytics. The main idea of the project is a comprehensive solution for the automation and management of the process of booking restaurants online - for both b2c and b2b segments - from the side of visitors (www.leclick.ru), from the side of restaurants (hostess.leclick platform).
Startup is a business operating since 2013, collaborating with more than 4 thousand restaurants and tens of thousands of customers accessing the service through a web portal and applications on iOS and Android. Currently, the project is open for co-financing on the VCStart collective investment platform. Share sold - from 1 to 12%. Investments will be directed to the development of the sales department, the promotion of the b2b segment, as well as the promotion of the site and mobile applications. You can buy a stake in the LeClick project on VCStart.com .
While working at Microsoft, I visited the States very often. And on one of these business trips, I realized that the process of choosing and booking a restaurant there is much simpler and more convenient, which is exactly what I miss in Moscow. Yes, we have quite a lot of different search and reservation sites, and although they call themselves online, they are essentially not. In addition, far from everywhere the declared search and booking are really convenient and work.
Knowing about my gourmet weaknesses and my knowledge of the subject, friends and colleagues regularly contacted me for recommendations on restaurants (And for the family? And for the children? And for business meetings? And where can I wait for the traffic jam in the center? Quiet? Wifi? And etc.) Why is my opinion about the shortage of such a service only strengthened.
Then it occurred to me to create a “real” online service that would be convenient for both end users and restaurants. Without thinking twice, she turned to her good friends, also ex-Microsoft corporate partners, to the bone and announced that we should make the "Genie-Guesser", but only in restaurants. Perhaps you remember this “phenomenon” - at one time such a computer game - “Genie Akinator” was very popular, in which you were asked to make a hero - be it Putin, Pugacheva, Kolobok, D'Artagnan, and anyone else. And it was suggested to you that after a few questions you can guess who or what you are thinking about (And, paradoxically, it did!).
Friends thought, hesitated (quite a bit), but generally approved. And we immediately took up this task.
There was enthusiasm - more than enough, and probably, mainly because of this, only 6 months passed from the idea to the embodiment. By the middle of 2012, we had a portal for searching and booking seats in restaurants with an impressive database of institutions and a wide range of various filters and parameters, including geolocation. We began to publish a description of the restaurants, the mode of operation of a particular place and the price level. Later, interesting news and special offers of restaurants, thematic reviews and other information were added to this. In short, we try to attract the attention of the audience.
At the end of 2012, I dared to participate in a discussion of those in power on the angel-venture financing market - in my Facebook feed, in my opinion, there was a somewhat cynical discussion of which first question a business angel asks a startup with burning eyes when he comes to an audience . The variety of answers could not but rejoice - “Are you a millionaire again?”, “Do you want to lay an apartment?” And so on.
Our team nevertheless managed to “accumulate” start-up capital while working in corporate structures, which gave a feeling of independence, so at that time my first reaction was “to protect the rights of poor startupers”. Therefore, she openly wrote that we didn’t go for money, didn’t ask anything from anyone if it was necessary to pledge property, and we will do so without delay, well, simply because we firmly believe in our idea. (In general, it turned out that it could not do without bank loans against personal guarantees, property, etc.).
The work at that time was already done considerable. In addition to the site, we wrote our own CRM system (hostess.leclick platform - a cloud solution on the web or iPad app) to automate and manage the process of booking, collecting and maintaining guest bases. The CRM system is a personal account - online reservations are received and processed online, arriving at the restaurant via the Internet using booking forms (widgets) available on the website www.leclick.ru, on the website and / or on the restaurant’s page on Facebook and partner sites (Yandex, 2GIS, InYourPocket, MasterCard, Vmet.ro, etc.) or by phone (an electronic analogue of the reserve book). All information on guests (name, telephone, e-mail), number of reservations, reservation status, guest status is stored in your personal account. The functionality of the system allows you to generate reports on the loading of the institution, the effectiveness of the services with which a particular restaurant cooperates, and to make targeted SMS and e-mail newsletters. There are options for integration with third-party systems and APIs for external access. At the architecture level of the solution, integration with R-keeper, Micros, iiko has been worked out.
In the same post on Facebook, I wrote about what our project was about, what are the analogies with American services for automation and online booking of tables in restaurants, and colleagues almost immediately came to us from one interesting accelerator program from the USA at the request of the Russian Open Table. At the end of 2012, we, with the second co-founder, our CTO, flew to California to learn the mind, take an active part in the accelerator and talk with colleagues from the Open Table. At the same time, Aeroflot wrote about us in its logbook - the section "Planet Internet, news." True, we found out about this quite by accident, while still in the same States. At the same time, they wrote about us on “Zuckerberg Will Call”, showed reports on TV - in general, everything, as best as possible, portended a rapid success!
The reality began a little later - when we started selling our product and finding a dream team. Despite the fact that we ourselves did not doubt the need to introduce our product, the Russian market at that time did not particularly share our point of view, in other words, it turned out to be not very ready for our know-how.
Habit is second nature. Everyone wanted to work the old-fashioned way, writing down orders in the reserve book, handing out profiles, rewriting contacts manually in Excel and anything else, but without automation. And we had to break through this wall of distrust of the new, for a very long time and carefully explain all the advantages that automation gives in general, and our CRM in particular. We constantly faced with misunderstanding and, to some extent, fear of restructuring and introducing new technologies into the business.
We were often confused, and even now confused, with services that deal with the “drive” of guests. Of course, we provide additional traffic to restaurants through a convenient portal, partner sites, SEO and SMM-promotion, but the main idea of our service is a convenient functional site, real online and CRM-system, which allows you to increase customer loyalty and precisely due to increase loyalty increase the number of customers.
Now much has changed, in just two years, the Russian market has accepted change. We receive many incoming calls, among our customers there is already one very popular restaurant from Vladivostok, we have released a mobile application, updated the site, and developed affiliate programs. We have a lot of ideas and far-reaching plans.
By the way, we almost created a “dream team”. We have a very friendly team, young and very ideological guys who have extensive experience in sales, IT, PR and even a little in the restaurant sector work. We are already making money, until we just have learned how to earn it in a larger amount than to spend. At the same time, we already have many good serious and satisfied customers, a clear understanding of how to replicate has appeared. From the immediate plans - access to the market of St. Petersburg and Kazan. As well as the sale of a franchise to one of the CIS countries, which one - we will keep it secret for now.
In general, for me personally, LeClick has become one of those cases when a hobby can “catch up” with you at the most unexpected moment. And gradually, imperceptibly for you, grow into something more that will benefit not only you, but also those around you.
About the author: Lustina Anastasia Vladlenovna, CEO of LeClick service. Born in Crimea in 1982, in 1994 moved to Moscow. Two higher educations: computer economist, translator in the field of professional communications. Languages: Russian, English, Hebrew with a dictionary. Hobbies: preference, chess, spirits)))
VCStart: Anastasia, a woman at the head of a startup - in the West today is a real trend. According to recent CBS data, about 1,300 startups and small businesses are being established daily under the female heading in the world. In my opinion, a colossal figure. In Russia, this is a rather rare phenomenon. How do you find it difficult to be a startup CEO?
Anastasia Lyustina: To be honest, I don’t see much difference. It may be easier for women in some ways, due to intuition and social status. Now, by the way, there is such a direction of Startup Women, in which girls support developing startups, conduct events to exchange experiences, knowledge, contacts and ideas.
In general, as in any work, there are difficulties, pluses. And of course, a lot depends on the team, and it’s really wonderful with us, all the great professionals and well done!
About the project:
LeClick.ru - a brand new service that allows you to find and book a restaurant in a matter of seconds. No more than 1% of them use some kind of CRM solution to optimize the main processes for updating the guest base, communications, analytics. The main idea of the project is a comprehensive solution for the automation and management of the process of booking restaurants online - for both b2c and b2b segments - from the side of visitors (www.leclick.ru), from the side of restaurants (hostess.leclick platform).
Startup is a business operating since 2013, collaborating with more than 4 thousand restaurants and tens of thousands of customers accessing the service through a web portal and applications on iOS and Android. Currently, the project is open for co-financing on the VCStart collective investment platform. Share sold - from 1 to 12%. Investments will be directed to the development of the sales department, the promotion of the b2b segment, as well as the promotion of the site and mobile applications. You can buy a stake in the LeClick project on VCStart.com .