Overview of startups. One year later
It's time to revive the tradition of startup reviews on Habré.
Today, in a review of startups in 2010, with a different error. We can say that the majority are now in the juice itself, when enough time has already passed to assess their need, prospects and profitability.
Startup owners needed to answer 3 questions:
1) Attendance
Attendance 600,000 per month, registered users 160,000. The audience is lawyers and those who want to get acquainted with regulatory information. Since other ATP do not provide free access to documents and are not accessible to individuals due to the high monthly fee.
2) Monthly income
Not yet monetized.
3) Plans To
leave all the main legal acts free (federal law and codes), break the ATP market by providing users with a product that meets the requirements of web 2.0 and user requirements.
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
Rubex is a service that allows you to find out unusual and interesting information about money. What is the point: you register banknotes and get the opportunity to monitor their movement around the country.
1) Attendance
Registered users a little more than 2 thousand. Among them, 40% are weekly active. April was closed for views of 20 thousand, and a little more than 7 thousand for visitors.
2) Monthly revenue
Absent at all, since the monetization of the project at this stage is no good sense, and displaying contextual advertising is not interesting in principle, since it annoys us, so is our user.
Now the site does not make a profit, but is an object of investment, the current maintenance and work cost about 40-50 thousand per month.
3) Plans
Now the release of our applications for social networks VKontakte and Facebook is almost ready. At this stage, beta versions are being tested. Work is underway to release the site version 2.1, which will include a bunch of new and accumulated offers from users. As soon as we are done with this, we’ll take up the promotion of the project, at this stage we don’t spend our time or our money.
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
The signoserver was created to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people and all comers with online access to the resources of the Russian sign language and sign languages of the world.
1) Attendance
The main audience of our site are people with hearing impairment and people who want to learn Russian sign language. It can be used by social workers and other services in learning the language of the deaf, parents of deaf children.
Recently, we found a link to the site in a message on the forum where the site was recommended for learning sign language for the purpose of secret communication between students in lessons and exams.
2) Monthly income
This project is based on the initiative of laboratory 17 IPU RAS named after Trapeznikov and is socially oriented, so making a profit is not a priority.
3) Plans
We plan to create new services based on the signoserver: Signoser 2 and Socio.Sourdo.
Signoserver 2 is a web application that allows you to independently learn sign language from scratch without the help of any courses. It is assumed that there is a system of an individual training course that adapts to the user in the learning process. Additionally, an application will be created for mobile devices with the Android operating system - a "phrasebook" of sign language.
Socio.Sourdo is a social platform whose main goal will be the further development and unification of Russian sign language. As part of the platform, systems for downloading video clips with gestures, discussing them, evaluating them, and making a joint decision on choosing the most suitable gestures for new words will be available. Integration with other popular social networks is planned, such as: VKontakte, Twitter and Facebook.
Also planned research in the field of gesture recognition using 3d cameras (Xbox Kinect).
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
Tulp.ru is a specialized social network for ordinary people who use certain services and want to share this experience.
1) Attendance
About 400,000 visitors per month (according to Google Analytics).
The increase in the number of visitors is an average of 30% per month (according to Google Analytics).
About 9,700 accounts (data as of 05/05/2011; 2.4 times growth since 01/01/2011).
More than 30,000 establishments.
About 50,000 reviews (growth from January 1, 2011 by 2.3 times).
2) Monthly income
We found a smart investor who invested $ 3 million in tulp.ru. While tulp.ru does not generate income. We plan to raise the issue of monetization in 2012.
3) Plans
We will create and sell various services for businesses. For example, the ability to edit the profile of the institution, communicate directly with consumers, hold promotions, etc. At the same time, we will not allow for any money to edit reviews, delete “uncomfortable” stories or photos, etc. The issue of user reputation and trust is a strategic one for tulp.ru.
4) A comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
When we started working on tulp.ru last summer, we realized that this was necessary for people and at the same time a large-scale and very ambitious project.
“Traffic jams from a window” develop a stationary network. Any owner of a computer connected to the Internet, whose apartment windows face the road, can download a special program from the site, install a webcam on the windowsill and take part in the project. This program for the video image of a conventional webcam determines the congestion of the road in the surveillance zone and transmits this data together with individual frames to the server.
1) About the service
The project was launched in September 2010. Own funds of the founders were used as seed investments, and a grant was received from the Fund for the Promotion of the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Field (www.fasie.ru). This is a state fund that provides free funding for promising innovative projects.
Within 3 months after the launch, the threshold of 80 cameras online was crossed. After the first 3 months of operation, the project fell into the investment hole when the funds of the founders ran out, and the necessary base of cameras - at least more than the market leader - was not recruited. It took several months to find an investor. For this period, the number of cameras online decreased and stabilized at the level of 50-60. Finally, at the end of April, an investor was found who provided funds for development.
2) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
TaroTaro.ru is an affiliate program offering a unique service for ordering Tarot handouts, as well as a new section for your site.
1) Users
During the work more than 150 partner sites have already joined the system. Among them are the largest resources on the Internet: Rambler.Ru portal,
Lady@Mail.ru, WomanJournal.Ru, as well as other popular female and astrological sites.
2) Monthly income
Over the past 12 months, the project has reached self-sufficiency, revenue amounted to $ 150,000, and the subscriber base is 450,000.
3) Plans
This year TAROTARO plans to launch an astrological portal, an online store of magic goods and an application for social networks.
For these purposes, it is planned to attract $ 500,000 of foreign investment.
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
In turn, I would like to say that startups were not selected in any way. Who sent the answers to the questions was published. In total, 30-40 letters were sent.
On the one hand, this is good - the startups examined either bring a good income, or at least are very useful and somehow unique. But there are very, very few such startups. In the search process, more than half of the startups a year ago were completely closed, and a significant part of the remaining ones were pretty abandoned.
Next time it is planned to consider “dead startups”. That is, those who did not succeed, the idea did not work, they did not find an investor, etc.
If you want potential clients or investors to know about your project, we can help you. PR Hero is a simple tool for performing complex tasks.
Thanks for attention!
Today, in a review of startups in 2010, with a different error. We can say that the majority are now in the juice itself, when enough time has already passed to assess their need, prospects and profitability.
Startup owners needed to answer 3 questions:
- Current site audience
- Monthly income
- Plans
1) docs.pravo.ru
1) Attendance
Attendance 600,000 per month, registered users 160,000. The audience is lawyers and those who want to get acquainted with regulatory information. Since other ATP do not provide free access to documents and are not accessible to individuals due to the high monthly fee.
2) Monthly income
Not yet monetized.
3) Plans To
leave all the main legal acts free (federal law and codes), break the ATP market by providing users with a product that meets the requirements of web 2.0 and user requirements.
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
“ The project has already managed to find its fans, the system continues to develop and improve. For the year we have done more than the main market players did not have time for 20 years.
Today already in ATP Pravo.ru more than 6,000,000 documents are available, 3,000 are added daily.
The project is ambitious and is aimed primarily at creating a worthy alternative to existing ATP. It was their quality, the interface of the 90s and the terrible navigation that encouraged us to create ATP Pravo.ru . ”
2) roobex.ru
Rubex is a service that allows you to find out unusual and interesting information about money. What is the point: you register banknotes and get the opportunity to monitor their movement around the country.
1) Attendance
Registered users a little more than 2 thousand. Among them, 40% are weekly active. April was closed for views of 20 thousand, and a little more than 7 thousand for visitors.
2) Monthly revenue
Absent at all, since the monetization of the project at this stage is no good sense, and displaying contextual advertising is not interesting in principle, since it annoys us, so is our user.
Now the site does not make a profit, but is an object of investment, the current maintenance and work cost about 40-50 thousand per month.
3) Plans
Now the release of our applications for social networks VKontakte and Facebook is almost ready. At this stage, beta versions are being tested. Work is underway to release the site version 2.1, which will include a bunch of new and accumulated offers from users. As soon as we are done with this, we’ll take up the promotion of the project, at this stage we don’t spend our time or our money.
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
“Did the project live up to expectations? Definitely yes. The beta version immediately after the release was recognized as the site of the day on rambler, after the post from traffic our first server died :) after the transmission was transmitted to MTV, then it became clear that we need to bring our site to the “mind” what we are actually doing now. ”
3) surdoserver.ru
The signoserver was created to help deaf and hard-of-hearing people and all comers with online access to the resources of the Russian sign language and sign languages of the world.
1) Attendance
The main audience of our site are people with hearing impairment and people who want to learn Russian sign language. It can be used by social workers and other services in learning the language of the deaf, parents of deaf children.
Recently, we found a link to the site in a message on the forum where the site was recommended for learning sign language for the purpose of secret communication between students in lessons and exams.
2) Monthly income
This project is based on the initiative of laboratory 17 IPU RAS named after Trapeznikov and is socially oriented, so making a profit is not a priority.
3) Plans
We plan to create new services based on the signoserver: Signoser 2 and Socio.Sourdo.
Signoserver 2 is a web application that allows you to independently learn sign language from scratch without the help of any courses. It is assumed that there is a system of an individual training course that adapts to the user in the learning process. Additionally, an application will be created for mobile devices with the Android operating system - a "phrasebook" of sign language.
Socio.Sourdo is a social platform whose main goal will be the further development and unification of Russian sign language. As part of the platform, systems for downloading video clips with gestures, discussing them, evaluating them, and making a joint decision on choosing the most suitable gestures for new words will be available. Integration with other popular social networks is planned, such as: VKontakte, Twitter and Facebook.
Also planned research in the field of gesture recognition using 3d cameras (Xbox Kinect).
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
“Practice has shown that“ Surdoserver ”turned out to be an extremely demanded and useful resource: the number of visitors is hundreds per day, and the geography of users goes beyond Russia, and this result was achieved without advertising and financial costs for promotion.
Particular attention is supposed to be paid to the attractiveness of the project for a children's audience. This is especially important because in our country there is an acute shortage of children's institutions for the education and upbringing of children with hearing impairment. "
4) tulp.ru
Tulp.ru is a specialized social network for ordinary people who use certain services and want to share this experience.
1) Attendance
About 400,000 visitors per month (according to Google Analytics).
The increase in the number of visitors is an average of 30% per month (according to Google Analytics).
About 9,700 accounts (data as of 05/05/2011; 2.4 times growth since 01/01/2011).
More than 30,000 establishments.
About 50,000 reviews (growth from January 1, 2011 by 2.3 times).
2) Monthly income
We found a smart investor who invested $ 3 million in tulp.ru. While tulp.ru does not generate income. We plan to raise the issue of monetization in 2012.
3) Plans
We will create and sell various services for businesses. For example, the ability to edit the profile of the institution, communicate directly with consumers, hold promotions, etc. At the same time, we will not allow for any money to edit reviews, delete “uncomfortable” stories or photos, etc. The issue of user reputation and trust is a strategic one for tulp.ru.
4) A comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
When we started working on tulp.ru last summer, we realized that this was necessary for people and at the same time a large-scale and very ambitious project.
We came up with tulp.ru so that everyone could share their experience - and use the experience of others, without fear of falling for the bait of hidden advertising.
It would seem that the small thing is to create an environment that would favor the accumulation of national experience and the exchange of it. And this is the catch. The fact is that attracting content consumers to the site is a fairly simple and straightforward task. But how to motivate people to talk about their experiences? How to guarantee people that they are protected from hidden advertising and other "gray" ways to promote goods and services? Finally, how and for what money to implement this entire complex system with a huge number of functions and nuances?
Last summer, we began to act simultaneously in three directions: we organized and launched the collection of content using the prototype site, started designing a social network and started looking for an investor.
5) probkiizokna.ru
“Traffic jams from a window” develop a stationary network. Any owner of a computer connected to the Internet, whose apartment windows face the road, can download a special program from the site, install a webcam on the windowsill and take part in the project. This program for the video image of a conventional webcam determines the congestion of the road in the surveillance zone and transmits this data together with individual frames to the server.
1) About the service
The project was launched in September 2010. Own funds of the founders were used as seed investments, and a grant was received from the Fund for the Promotion of the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Field (www.fasie.ru). This is a state fund that provides free funding for promising innovative projects.
Within 3 months after the launch, the threshold of 80 cameras online was crossed. After the first 3 months of operation, the project fell into the investment hole when the funds of the founders ran out, and the necessary base of cameras - at least more than the market leader - was not recruited. It took several months to find an investor. For this period, the number of cameras online decreased and stabilized at the level of 50-60. Finally, at the end of April, an investor was found who provided funds for development.
2) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
The idea of using a ready-made infrastructure for building a road data collection network seemed very attractive to me, ”said the author and project manager Maxim Gruzdev,“ I worked in the markets of road facilities and video surveillance systems, so I have a good idea of what it means to create a professional urban monitoring system consisting of at least 50 cameras. Both technically and organizationally, this is a difficult task. And, of course, it would be orders of magnitude more expensive, which would hardly make the project cost-effective. Of course, since this is my first experience on the Internet, I underestimated the difficulty of attracting an audience. It seemed that the growth of project partners would be faster and easier. Now we have worked on the bugs and are ready to continue work on expanding the database of webcams.
6) tarotaro.ru
TaroTaro.ru is an affiliate program offering a unique service for ordering Tarot handouts, as well as a new section for your site.
1) Users
During the work more than 150 partner sites have already joined the system. Among them are the largest resources on the Internet: Rambler.Ru portal,
Lady@Mail.ru, WomanJournal.Ru, as well as other popular female and astrological sites.
2) Monthly income
Over the past 12 months, the project has reached self-sufficiency, revenue amounted to $ 150,000, and the subscriber base is 450,000.
3) Plans
This year TAROTARO plans to launch an astrological portal, an online store of magic goods and an application for social networks.
For these purposes, it is planned to attract $ 500,000 of foreign investment.
4) Comment from you (did you live up to expectations, what are the growth trends, etc.)
The year of work on the project was difficult, but our team achieved the main thing - the viability of the model was demonstrated. We are grateful to our partners who believed in our service and successfully promote it on their portals. Now we are negotiating with investors on raising funds for the accelerated development of the project, in accordance with current tasks.
In turn, I would like to say that startups were not selected in any way. Who sent the answers to the questions was published. In total, 30-40 letters were sent.
On the one hand, this is good - the startups examined either bring a good income, or at least are very useful and somehow unique. But there are very, very few such startups. In the search process, more than half of the startups a year ago were completely closed, and a significant part of the remaining ones were pretty abandoned.
Next time it is planned to consider “dead startups”. That is, those who did not succeed, the idea did not work, they did not find an investor, etc.
If you want potential clients or investors to know about your project, we can help you. PR Hero is a simple tool for performing complex tasks.
Thanks for attention!