A small interim result of a year of great work
Hello.
This is my second article on Habr, the first was to penetrate the community. This article will be devoted entirely to the history of creating a business in the field of mobile applications. In this article I will share a little experience and tell you what we will do next (and I will invite you to the team). I must say that two people did the business, and it grew from zero to a value of millions of dollars.
The company, as a business, started with one crazy idea in November 2011. The idea was very simple - why pay users for telephone and SMS when they can see ads instead. I must admit, before that there were a lot of attempts to do this, but in most of them they tried to embed advertising in a conversation or in the application itself. Bad idea ... My grandmother will not understand the pause when I call her, in which they tell her to buy powder - she hangs up. In our idea, a user can watch promotional videos in a completely separate section of the application (or download other applications), get a balance and make calls wherever he wants, like from a regular phone.
The idea is good, but who will implement it? I will have to tell a little about myself. I have been engaged in various businesses since 1988, and all types of businesses have been associated with telecommunications and the Internet. In 1996, my experience allowed me to quit my job and start a career as a serial entrepreneur (then it was called differently). Behind more than two dozen established businesses in the B2B sector, with an annual turnover of 3-6M USD. One of the brightest businesses is ixc.ua , which was one of the first in the world to sell billing + softswitch for IP-telephony.
Starting a new CFC business that operates in a relatively new sector for me - B2C for mobile devices, I thought that I did not know programming. We will not write assembler on 286 and x86 processors. It was interesting to me not just to do business, it was interesting to write everything from scratch myself. At the same time, check whether it takes so much time for this, as my directors write in the plans. No sooner said than done.
It took six months to learn Obj-C, C, and to write the first, simple client-server application, just for the sake of self-learning. A simple recommendation for everyone who follows my example: a book, plus the desire to write something, gives much less experience than stackoverflow.com + the desire to write something. And without the desire to write something, you probably should not waste time reading. In books, there is a lot of water, which is also dangerous to use (for example, KVO). But the first experience was gained, which then applied to the CFC project.
From November to April, the CFC application was written. He had one big plus - it really rang. And in April 2012, with bated breath, the first confirmation was received from the AppStore. At the same time, a second partner entered the project, who was engaged in the promotion of the project site (by the way, we also had a Java version). He believed in the project, did not demand a salary, and together we are developing the project so far.
It is strange to write this, but the obvious things from the competitors were not in use (and now too). They are obvious because when the client downloads the application, he wants to try the service. Not an abstract test call, he wants to call a friend (relative). We are the only ones who give such an opportunity. Do not ask how much money it costs us, this is a trade secret.
Perhaps this fact, perhaps others, contributed to the popularity of the project from the very beginning. We spent minimal money on advertising, and users came and came. The task was just like that - to create a service that will have a "viral effect." Because then any advertising will give a return of 1000% (we don’t agree on less, sorry).
Here is a graph of the monthly growth of new users from the very beginning: The
number of hacking attempts has constantly grown and reached 3-4 per week. These people do not get a lot of money from hacking, the fact of hacking is simply important to them. If it were not for the specific knowledge that I obtained during the creation of previous businesses, the project would have long absorbed all the money allocated for it and would have been closed.
Yes! We were not looking for investors! Because if you have an idea, and you cannot build a business from it that brings 5-10 thousand dollars a month, your idea is not very good. Well, or you yourself are not very good. People, do not waste your time and investor time until you make such a profit. No one gives anything for nothing, and the ability to conduct oneself in negotiations on an equal footing adorns the noble Don (or Don, we will be tolerant). And to behave on an equal footing will allow only a real result.
After reaching constant growth and popularity, we became preoccupied with the second issue - profit. And they successfully solved it. Along the way, we sent out a description of our business to all kinds of funds. This was done for fun. The description of any ridiculous answers is already on the hub, and I very often laughed when negotiating. It seems that the employees (owners !!!) of the funds live in some kind of their own world, where there are a billion facebooks, and they have plenty to choose from. Today, the business in this area is so tough that only very tough people survive in it, and it is ridiculous to require such people to “go to bed” under the fund. It is also ridiculous to demand from future partners the evidence that the business can be scaled at the expense of profit. Really, why invest, if you multiply your profit on a monthly basis by reinvesting it. The impression
There are sane fund owners. They understand that times have changed. We found one (this is Altair Capital Management fund ), got the first estimate (we raised the value of the business 500 !!! once a year) plus unlimited financing.
What will we do next? In addition to our own work on the project, we will look for people in the team. This will be an unusual team that will make absolutely fantastic code. We need four programmers, a server and application security specialist at the same time, and a crazy designer with, among other things, experience in creating characters for cartoons. You, working for a large (small) corporation, may see the shortcomings of your current job:
a) 20% of people do 80% of the work. You are from these 20 percent, otherwise do not write to us
b) often there is no sense of the need for your efforts (when you can’t enjoy the collective result, because some #% $% # @ decided that the button should be turned upside down and it’s just “closer” to the bosses)
c) you are ripe for in order to offer a completely new business process that will bring millions of dollars in revenue (and expect to receive an adequate reward), but implementing it in your company is harder than hijacking a Boeing ...
d) add to your taste
What we will do together further:
a) work in a completely new team structure, and n and this, it is for the first year within the 7-man.
b) constantly learn and pull each other up in different areas of programming.
c) double / triple / quadruple RFP per year, in case of resolving issues non-standard and faster than competitors. At the same time, it is immediately proposed that RFPs above the market by 30-40%
d) apply completely new tools in a real product.
e) grow at least ten times a year.
It probably sounds a little strange and unusual, well, or naive. Comments in the key “we saw such startups with wagons” are expected, but not welcome. For those interested, I’ll say right away - only Kiev and only full employment (and not plus one more job for ten current ones, sorry). We can discuss the rest in personal correspondence.
All success in their projects - large, small and any!
This is my second article on Habr, the first was to penetrate the community. This article will be devoted entirely to the history of creating a business in the field of mobile applications. In this article I will share a little experience and tell you what we will do next (and I will invite you to the team). I must say that two people did the business, and it grew from zero to a value of millions of dollars.
The company, as a business, started with one crazy idea in November 2011. The idea was very simple - why pay users for telephone and SMS when they can see ads instead. I must admit, before that there were a lot of attempts to do this, but in most of them they tried to embed advertising in a conversation or in the application itself. Bad idea ... My grandmother will not understand the pause when I call her, in which they tell her to buy powder - she hangs up. In our idea, a user can watch promotional videos in a completely separate section of the application (or download other applications), get a balance and make calls wherever he wants, like from a regular phone.
The idea is good, but who will implement it? I will have to tell a little about myself. I have been engaged in various businesses since 1988, and all types of businesses have been associated with telecommunications and the Internet. In 1996, my experience allowed me to quit my job and start a career as a serial entrepreneur (then it was called differently). Behind more than two dozen established businesses in the B2B sector, with an annual turnover of 3-6M USD. One of the brightest businesses is ixc.ua , which was one of the first in the world to sell billing + softswitch for IP-telephony.
Starting a new CFC business that operates in a relatively new sector for me - B2C for mobile devices, I thought that I did not know programming. We will not write assembler on 286 and x86 processors. It was interesting to me not just to do business, it was interesting to write everything from scratch myself. At the same time, check whether it takes so much time for this, as my directors write in the plans. No sooner said than done.
It took six months to learn Obj-C, C, and to write the first, simple client-server application, just for the sake of self-learning. A simple recommendation for everyone who follows my example: a book, plus the desire to write something, gives much less experience than stackoverflow.com + the desire to write something. And without the desire to write something, you probably should not waste time reading. In books, there is a lot of water, which is also dangerous to use (for example, KVO). But the first experience was gained, which then applied to the CFC project.
From November to April, the CFC application was written. He had one big plus - it really rang. And in April 2012, with bated breath, the first confirmation was received from the AppStore. At the same time, a second partner entered the project, who was engaged in the promotion of the project site (by the way, we also had a Java version). He believed in the project, did not demand a salary, and together we are developing the project so far.
It is strange to write this, but the obvious things from the competitors were not in use (and now too). They are obvious because when the client downloads the application, he wants to try the service. Not an abstract test call, he wants to call a friend (relative). We are the only ones who give such an opportunity. Do not ask how much money it costs us, this is a trade secret.
Perhaps this fact, perhaps others, contributed to the popularity of the project from the very beginning. We spent minimal money on advertising, and users came and came. The task was just like that - to create a service that will have a "viral effect." Because then any advertising will give a return of 1000% (we don’t agree on less, sorry).
Here is a graph of the monthly growth of new users from the very beginning: The
number of hacking attempts has constantly grown and reached 3-4 per week. These people do not get a lot of money from hacking, the fact of hacking is simply important to them. If it were not for the specific knowledge that I obtained during the creation of previous businesses, the project would have long absorbed all the money allocated for it and would have been closed.
Yes! We were not looking for investors! Because if you have an idea, and you cannot build a business from it that brings 5-10 thousand dollars a month, your idea is not very good. Well, or you yourself are not very good. People, do not waste your time and investor time until you make such a profit. No one gives anything for nothing, and the ability to conduct oneself in negotiations on an equal footing adorns the noble Don (or Don, we will be tolerant). And to behave on an equal footing will allow only a real result.
After reaching constant growth and popularity, we became preoccupied with the second issue - profit. And they successfully solved it. Along the way, we sent out a description of our business to all kinds of funds. This was done for fun. The description of any ridiculous answers is already on the hub, and I very often laughed when negotiating. It seems that the employees (owners !!!) of the funds live in some kind of their own world, where there are a billion facebooks, and they have plenty to choose from. Today, the business in this area is so tough that only very tough people survive in it, and it is ridiculous to require such people to “go to bed” under the fund. It is also ridiculous to demand from future partners the evidence that the business can be scaled at the expense of profit. Really, why invest, if you multiply your profit on a monthly basis by reinvesting it. The impression
There are sane fund owners. They understand that times have changed. We found one (this is Altair Capital Management fund ), got the first estimate (we raised the value of the business 500 !!! once a year) plus unlimited financing.
What will we do next? In addition to our own work on the project, we will look for people in the team. This will be an unusual team that will make absolutely fantastic code. We need four programmers, a server and application security specialist at the same time, and a crazy designer with, among other things, experience in creating characters for cartoons. You, working for a large (small) corporation, may see the shortcomings of your current job:
a) 20% of people do 80% of the work. You are from these 20 percent, otherwise do not write to us
b) often there is no sense of the need for your efforts (when you can’t enjoy the collective result, because some #% $% # @ decided that the button should be turned upside down and it’s just “closer” to the bosses)
c) you are ripe for in order to offer a completely new business process that will bring millions of dollars in revenue (and expect to receive an adequate reward), but implementing it in your company is harder than hijacking a Boeing ...
d) add to your taste
What we will do together further:
a) work in a completely new team structure, and n and this, it is for the first year within the 7-man.
b) constantly learn and pull each other up in different areas of programming.
c) double / triple / quadruple RFP per year, in case of resolving issues non-standard and faster than competitors. At the same time, it is immediately proposed that RFPs above the market by 30-40%
d) apply completely new tools in a real product.
e) grow at least ten times a year.
It probably sounds a little strange and unusual, well, or naive. Comments in the key “we saw such startups with wagons” are expected, but not welcome. For those interested, I’ll say right away - only Kiev and only full employment (and not plus one more job for ten current ones, sorry). We can discuss the rest in personal correspondence.
All success in their projects - large, small and any!
