March 3, 2014 at 08:56“Wash or not wash?” Or how do we launch our mobile application
“There is nothing complicated in life. That we are complicated.
Life is a simple thing, and in it what is simpler, the more correct ”
Oscar Wilde.
Most of the people around the world are engaged in the fact that everything around complicates. Look how our life goes on - the multitude of things, most of which we don’t carry, stacks of books that are dusty on the shelf and which we didn’t even read or didn’t use, extra food, expenses, relationships, thoughts, speech, weight ... We ourselves we complicate and clutter our lives. And then we are surprised that we have such complex problems with health, relationships, money .... And when they arise, we begin to look for new things, people, knowledge, etc., to solve some of our problems. And what happens when this happens:
1) we lose time on the next searches;
2) put off the case;
3) clutter up and complicate life.
It turns out a vicious circle. Where is the exit? And the way out is simple. You just need to simplify the task, give away unnecessary things to those in need, limit yourself to expensive food and generally to food, begin to understand people, thoughts, books ... there must be an ongoing process of simplification and begin to act. And that’s all. In the process of simple actions you will get the experience and knowledge you really need. Not trash, but real knowledge.
I admit, I have long wanted to write about Simplicity. It seems to me that in the modern and complex world this is one of the most underrated resources. Simplicity is a measure of the credibility of any physical theory. Long before Galileo, who found out that the Earth revolves around the Sun, there was a very complicated theory that described the trajectory of the Sun in the sky. Galileo with his approach - simplified.
I believe that many of the simple laws by which a business lives are not yet open. As soon as this happens, the business itself and the world will become simpler and brighter.
We have created many different projects on the Internet. And the simpler the solution offered to users, the greater the resonance it caused.
Somehow, returning from a trip where we went to the next startup project contest, I stopped with my partner to stretch my bones with a couple of exercises, and at the same time wipe my Mitsubishi's lobovuha. Denis, this is the name of my partner, suddenly asked me: “It’s sunny all week, and you don’t wash your car, why?”
At that moment I answered on the machine: “What if tomorrow is raining!”, And I remember if I saw that Something from the weather forecast for the last couple of days. But in fact, at that moment I least wanted to think, and even more so analyze. Affected two-day trip. And I replied: “That would be such an application that answered me one single question: Wash me your car or not wash? And so that the answer is based on the weather forecast for the next days. ”
And we were so hooked by the simplicity of such an application that we immediately decided to gash it. Saw down for ourselves, because then we did not even think that we would give someone to use it.
Further, the events developed so rapidly that I did not have time to realize what had happened and it seemed to me that all this was happening not with me.
After consulting with a partner, we asked the first dozen people we came across: “What do they think of our idea?” And then we realized that filing the application just for ourselves did not work out, because our idea was of interest to almost everyone and even to someone who did not have their own car.
During the night I “washed down” the landing page. Made a presentation. They scattered it over their friends, hoping to get feedback. In general, we approached the project in accordance with all the laws of Customer Development. Having received a huge number of people who want to use our application from the landing, we decided to "cut".
Having shared the idea with a friend’s mobile application developer and offered him a share in the project for his work, and at that time we didn’t even think about monetization and what our startup would grow into, we sat down to think about our algorithm for issuing tips based on the weather forecast for the next days, Actually: "To wash or not to wash?". At the same time, we submitted an application for the TURN8 contest, which was conducted by the Dubai i360accelerator accelerator and applied for an assessment of invest attractiveness in RussianStartupRating. We thought that it would not be bad to get some money for development, because everything needs resources, by the way it’s also PR.
And so, the advice distribution algorithm ...
At first we thought everything was simple. We get the weather with OpenWeatherMap for 5 days in advance, assign favorable or unfavorable conditions for washing for each day, start checking the status from the first day on an increasing basis and on which circle we rest on favorable conditions, accordingly we advise washing or postponing for the number of days equal to the number of checks plus unit. This algorithm, in principle, works to this day.
In summer, everything is simple; only rain affects adverse conditions. In winter, it is either when it is very cold, below -20 degrees and it does not matter if there is rainfall or not, or when it snows, but the temperature outside is at which this snow melts, which is in the region above -2 degrees. It turns out that unfavorable conditions in winter are affected not only by precipitation, but also by temperature.
And here we stumbled upon another difficulty - this is the temperature difference. For example, if it was snowing today and the temperature was, say, -10 degrees, which is a favorable condition, but there is no rain the next day, but it’s 5 degrees outside, which individually is also a favorable condition. But together, such days, as practice shows, result in slush and dirt on the road, which is very unfavorable. In addition, reagents are sprinkled on roads in megacities, which affects the critical temperature of snow melting on the road and lowers it by at least 5-7 degrees, which is about -7-10 degrees.
In part, we managed to solve these problems, but it would be great if experienced people shared their thoughts on what the algorithm for giving advice should look like: whether to wash or not to make it universal and work anywhere in the world?
I didn’t have to think about the business model for a long time either, as the car washes themselves said what they were willing to pay for. It turned out a business model like the Foursquare app, car washes pay for star allocation, and car enthusiasts get free coffee for car wash feedback. Plus, a lot of additional web-services of the Wannawash project for which the business is ready to pay.
The iOS application, which we called "Wash cars?", Was released in the AppStore within a month. The application database contains more than 10 thousand sinks in Russia, as well as sinks in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Italy and the Czech Republic. In the future, Latin America and the United States. At the same time, we won the TURN8 contest, which made it possible to undergo a 4-month acceleration in the Dubai accelerator, as well as a $ 30K seed investment. The expert committee from RussianStartupRating assigned us an A rating (high investment attractiveness). To date, the application has about 3,000 downloads per day. A $ 135K seed investment was received from the founders of the Gravitsap Foundation at the first Navigator campus hardware accelerator in Russia. There were many proposals for cooperation with business in the car wash industry. A contract was signed with the “Association of Car Wash Business of Moscow and the Region” for connecting 500 car washes in Moscow to the paid WannaWash service over the next 2 months with an average check of 2,000 rubles. A large network of car washes in Tyumen showed interest. An agreement has been reached to attract round A investments, from $ 500K. Our team managed to gather such people as Vasil Zakiev, Ramil Ibragimov, Denis Marganov and others. And all this happened in 2 months.
Legendary business leader Jack Welch described his recipe for business success in three words: simplicity, speed and self-confidence.
Simplicity is one of the keys to business success.
It is practically a form of art with many definitions. “For an engineer, simplicity means a clear, functional design with fewer components. For the manufacturer, simplicity means evaluating a process not by its level of sophistication, but by its level of comprehensibility for those who have to put it into action. In marketing, simplicity means clear wording and suggestions to customers and industrial consumers. And most importantly, on the personal level of human communication, simplicity takes the form of frank and direct conversation. And honesty. ”
Posted by Amin Shayakhmetov, Resident Navigator, Campus and Business Incubator, Chelny IT Park.
Life is a simple thing, and in it what is simpler, the more correct ”
Oscar Wilde.
Most of the people around the world are engaged in the fact that everything around complicates. Look how our life goes on - the multitude of things, most of which we don’t carry, stacks of books that are dusty on the shelf and which we didn’t even read or didn’t use, extra food, expenses, relationships, thoughts, speech, weight ... We ourselves we complicate and clutter our lives. And then we are surprised that we have such complex problems with health, relationships, money .... And when they arise, we begin to look for new things, people, knowledge, etc., to solve some of our problems. And what happens when this happens:
1) we lose time on the next searches;
2) put off the case;
3) clutter up and complicate life.
It turns out a vicious circle. Where is the exit? And the way out is simple. You just need to simplify the task, give away unnecessary things to those in need, limit yourself to expensive food and generally to food, begin to understand people, thoughts, books ... there must be an ongoing process of simplification and begin to act. And that’s all. In the process of simple actions you will get the experience and knowledge you really need. Not trash, but real knowledge.
I admit, I have long wanted to write about Simplicity. It seems to me that in the modern and complex world this is one of the most underrated resources. Simplicity is a measure of the credibility of any physical theory. Long before Galileo, who found out that the Earth revolves around the Sun, there was a very complicated theory that described the trajectory of the Sun in the sky. Galileo with his approach - simplified.
I believe that many of the simple laws by which a business lives are not yet open. As soon as this happens, the business itself and the world will become simpler and brighter.
We have created many different projects on the Internet. And the simpler the solution offered to users, the greater the resonance it caused.
Somehow, returning from a trip where we went to the next startup project contest, I stopped with my partner to stretch my bones with a couple of exercises, and at the same time wipe my Mitsubishi's lobovuha. Denis, this is the name of my partner, suddenly asked me: “It’s sunny all week, and you don’t wash your car, why?”
At that moment I answered on the machine: “What if tomorrow is raining!”, And I remember if I saw that Something from the weather forecast for the last couple of days. But in fact, at that moment I least wanted to think, and even more so analyze. Affected two-day trip. And I replied: “That would be such an application that answered me one single question: Wash me your car or not wash? And so that the answer is based on the weather forecast for the next days. ”
And we were so hooked by the simplicity of such an application that we immediately decided to gash it. Saw down for ourselves, because then we did not even think that we would give someone to use it.
Further, the events developed so rapidly that I did not have time to realize what had happened and it seemed to me that all this was happening not with me.
After consulting with a partner, we asked the first dozen people we came across: “What do they think of our idea?” And then we realized that filing the application just for ourselves did not work out, because our idea was of interest to almost everyone and even to someone who did not have their own car.
During the night I “washed down” the landing page. Made a presentation. They scattered it over their friends, hoping to get feedback. In general, we approached the project in accordance with all the laws of Customer Development. Having received a huge number of people who want to use our application from the landing, we decided to "cut".
Having shared the idea with a friend’s mobile application developer and offered him a share in the project for his work, and at that time we didn’t even think about monetization and what our startup would grow into, we sat down to think about our algorithm for issuing tips based on the weather forecast for the next days, Actually: "To wash or not to wash?". At the same time, we submitted an application for the TURN8 contest, which was conducted by the Dubai i360accelerator accelerator and applied for an assessment of invest attractiveness in RussianStartupRating. We thought that it would not be bad to get some money for development, because everything needs resources, by the way it’s also PR.
And so, the advice distribution algorithm ...
At first we thought everything was simple. We get the weather with OpenWeatherMap for 5 days in advance, assign favorable or unfavorable conditions for washing for each day, start checking the status from the first day on an increasing basis and on which circle we rest on favorable conditions, accordingly we advise washing or postponing for the number of days equal to the number of checks plus unit. This algorithm, in principle, works to this day.
In summer, everything is simple; only rain affects adverse conditions. In winter, it is either when it is very cold, below -20 degrees and it does not matter if there is rainfall or not, or when it snows, but the temperature outside is at which this snow melts, which is in the region above -2 degrees. It turns out that unfavorable conditions in winter are affected not only by precipitation, but also by temperature.
And here we stumbled upon another difficulty - this is the temperature difference. For example, if it was snowing today and the temperature was, say, -10 degrees, which is a favorable condition, but there is no rain the next day, but it’s 5 degrees outside, which individually is also a favorable condition. But together, such days, as practice shows, result in slush and dirt on the road, which is very unfavorable. In addition, reagents are sprinkled on roads in megacities, which affects the critical temperature of snow melting on the road and lowers it by at least 5-7 degrees, which is about -7-10 degrees.
In part, we managed to solve these problems, but it would be great if experienced people shared their thoughts on what the algorithm for giving advice should look like: whether to wash or not to make it universal and work anywhere in the world?
I didn’t have to think about the business model for a long time either, as the car washes themselves said what they were willing to pay for. It turned out a business model like the Foursquare app, car washes pay for star allocation, and car enthusiasts get free coffee for car wash feedback. Plus, a lot of additional web-services of the Wannawash project for which the business is ready to pay.
The iOS application, which we called "Wash cars?", Was released in the AppStore within a month. The application database contains more than 10 thousand sinks in Russia, as well as sinks in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Italy and the Czech Republic. In the future, Latin America and the United States. At the same time, we won the TURN8 contest, which made it possible to undergo a 4-month acceleration in the Dubai accelerator, as well as a $ 30K seed investment. The expert committee from RussianStartupRating assigned us an A rating (high investment attractiveness). To date, the application has about 3,000 downloads per day. A $ 135K seed investment was received from the founders of the Gravitsap Foundation at the first Navigator campus hardware accelerator in Russia. There were many proposals for cooperation with business in the car wash industry. A contract was signed with the “Association of Car Wash Business of Moscow and the Region” for connecting 500 car washes in Moscow to the paid WannaWash service over the next 2 months with an average check of 2,000 rubles. A large network of car washes in Tyumen showed interest. An agreement has been reached to attract round A investments, from $ 500K. Our team managed to gather such people as Vasil Zakiev, Ramil Ibragimov, Denis Marganov and others. And all this happened in 2 months.
Legendary business leader Jack Welch described his recipe for business success in three words: simplicity, speed and self-confidence.
Simplicity is one of the keys to business success.
It is practically a form of art with many definitions. “For an engineer, simplicity means a clear, functional design with fewer components. For the manufacturer, simplicity means evaluating a process not by its level of sophistication, but by its level of comprehensibility for those who have to put it into action. In marketing, simplicity means clear wording and suggestions to customers and industrial consumers. And most importantly, on the personal level of human communication, simplicity takes the form of frank and direct conversation. And honesty. ”
Posted by Amin Shayakhmetov, Resident Navigator, Campus and Business Incubator, Chelny IT Park.