CDNvideo - 3 years!
Dear Habralyudi!
3 years ago, we quit our existing jobs and launched our own company, the CDNvideo content delivery network. Then we worked together, we had one room, several servers and not very large, by the standards of current startups, amount on the account received from friends-investors. Today, through our CDN we distribute video and statics of 6,000 sites, we have about 100 servers located in different countries and continents, 30 people in the state, an office in the center of Moscow and a representative office in Kiev. This is probably what is called success, although I do not like the word. And, despite the modesty, we still want to share the experience of creating our own business, and at the same time boast a little of our achievements :)
I well remember our first day of work: I received the keys to the room, 3 computers and furniture from the administration of the Strogino industrial park. I connected the Internet and telephony to a local telecom operator. And only then he clearly felt that there were no more bosses and organizations above us - now we are our own masters, and we will have to rely only on our own strengths. And that we definitely need to run a working business before we go through all the investor money. In order not to forget that everything must work out, I printed it from the Internet and posted this photo on the wall:
Although, of course, there were doubts about the success of the enterprise - especially since I had never had my own business before that. As a person who spent most of my life working in large companies, I heard about administrative obstacles and other difficulties in doing business in Russia. In fact, everything turned out to be much better - at least so far we have not noticed any special administrative barriers. On the contrary, once in the technopark "Strogino" under the Moscow Government, to their surprise, they felt real support from the state. structures - they immediately gave us everything necessary for work (premises, communications, computers, furniture), six months later they gave a subsidy for business development, and they taught us for free at various useful lectures, even managed to look at Gleb Arkhangelsky there.
In our experience, in order to create your own business, in addition to the belief that everything will work out and the absence of doubts, you need 3 more things:
1. Put the right people in a team.
2. Make a good product.
3. Find customers.
All these things are extremely important, and at different stages of business development, they alternately overtake each other in importance. Oddly enough, you need to start at the end of the list - that is, at the very beginning of the business, you first need to find customers or those who can potentially become them. They will tell you about their problems and needs, knowing which, you can already start making your product, discussing its functions with potential customers.
ProductIt must be innovative enough, otherwise you will be lost among the sea of competitors, but at the same time already in demand in the market, otherwise you risk getting ahead of time. Your product will be judged by those of your customers whom you do not know personally. Therefore, having a good product is extremely important at the stage of entering a wide market.
But to make a product is not so bad, it is much more important for any business, at least in IT - to maintain and develop your product. And here the team comes to the first role. If the technical part of the team cannot quickly fix problems in the product and release its updates, you will not be saved by either a product that is excellent in its properties, market popularity, or good customer relations. In turn, if the commercial part of the team cannot promote and sell the product, then the titanic efforts of techies will be left without reward.
All of the above are the fruits of our real experience. When we started , we first of all began to communicate with potential customers , and this helped us a lot - for example, without talking to clients during preparation for the launch, we would not understand the importance of broadcasting video to mobile devices. We started around the same time with the first iPad, and it so happened that we were the first in RussiaThey turned mobile video broadcasting into a product , and for some time they were the only ones on the market who provided this service. Subsequently, thanks to the active listening of our customers, we launched a number of cloud video broadcasting services . And, of course, without our wonderful team of system administrators, programmers, sellers, marketers and accountants, without their clear, well-coordinated and, sometimes, dedicated work, we would not be able to become a really working, fast-growing business.
3 years ago, we quit our existing jobs and launched our own company, the CDNvideo content delivery network. Then we worked together, we had one room, several servers and not very large, by the standards of current startups, amount on the account received from friends-investors. Today, through our CDN we distribute video and statics of 6,000 sites, we have about 100 servers located in different countries and continents, 30 people in the state, an office in the center of Moscow and a representative office in Kiev. This is probably what is called success, although I do not like the word. And, despite the modesty, we still want to share the experience of creating our own business, and at the same time boast a little of our achievements :)
I well remember our first day of work: I received the keys to the room, 3 computers and furniture from the administration of the Strogino industrial park. I connected the Internet and telephony to a local telecom operator. And only then he clearly felt that there were no more bosses and organizations above us - now we are our own masters, and we will have to rely only on our own strengths. And that we definitely need to run a working business before we go through all the investor money. In order not to forget that everything must work out, I printed it from the Internet and posted this photo on the wall:
Although, of course, there were doubts about the success of the enterprise - especially since I had never had my own business before that. As a person who spent most of my life working in large companies, I heard about administrative obstacles and other difficulties in doing business in Russia. In fact, everything turned out to be much better - at least so far we have not noticed any special administrative barriers. On the contrary, once in the technopark "Strogino" under the Moscow Government, to their surprise, they felt real support from the state. structures - they immediately gave us everything necessary for work (premises, communications, computers, furniture), six months later they gave a subsidy for business development, and they taught us for free at various useful lectures, even managed to look at Gleb Arkhangelsky there.
In our experience, in order to create your own business, in addition to the belief that everything will work out and the absence of doubts, you need 3 more things:
1. Put the right people in a team.
2. Make a good product.
3. Find customers.
All these things are extremely important, and at different stages of business development, they alternately overtake each other in importance. Oddly enough, you need to start at the end of the list - that is, at the very beginning of the business, you first need to find customers or those who can potentially become them. They will tell you about their problems and needs, knowing which, you can already start making your product, discussing its functions with potential customers.
ProductIt must be innovative enough, otherwise you will be lost among the sea of competitors, but at the same time already in demand in the market, otherwise you risk getting ahead of time. Your product will be judged by those of your customers whom you do not know personally. Therefore, having a good product is extremely important at the stage of entering a wide market.
But to make a product is not so bad, it is much more important for any business, at least in IT - to maintain and develop your product. And here the team comes to the first role. If the technical part of the team cannot quickly fix problems in the product and release its updates, you will not be saved by either a product that is excellent in its properties, market popularity, or good customer relations. In turn, if the commercial part of the team cannot promote and sell the product, then the titanic efforts of techies will be left without reward.
All of the above are the fruits of our real experience. When we started , we first of all began to communicate with potential customers , and this helped us a lot - for example, without talking to clients during preparation for the launch, we would not understand the importance of broadcasting video to mobile devices. We started around the same time with the first iPad, and it so happened that we were the first in RussiaThey turned mobile video broadcasting into a product , and for some time they were the only ones on the market who provided this service. Subsequently, thanks to the active listening of our customers, we launched a number of cloud video broadcasting services . And, of course, without our wonderful team of system administrators, programmers, sellers, marketers and accountants, without their clear, well-coordinated and, sometimes, dedicated work, we would not be able to become a really working, fast-growing business.