Startups: workshop # 3
Actually, as promised. I thought of a startup. Innovative to the fullest (by golly, tired of their social networks, blogs and bookmarks - is there absolutely no imagination left?). I planned for a long time, thought through to the smallest detail, bought a domain (but not simple, but gold ... in general, its previous owner probably bought several hundred new domains for the proceeds), a dedicated server, did, did ... Until the very last, until I have out of money. I had to run what was, and I had a very raw and buggy beta.
I didn’t want to think about any runet, even realized the support of the Cyrillic alphabet long after. And this is only because Russian demand exceeded certain expectations, as well as Brazilian, Indian, and all sorts of other demands. The priority was the North American market, due to well-known reasons, expressed in its size. TechCrunch is beyond praise, organized a post the very next morning. From there, as one would expect, in the manner of the virus, it spread across a multitude of blogs and media, and, in fact, it reached even Russian habr and news.
My plan was this: since my money is over, then, after the release of a functioning beta, a good investor will come running to me and give me a bag of popsicle. They came running. But not those and not from there. The fact is that I had to strain my friend from Vancouver in order to present the startup as Canadian. Such is its specificity - in order to avoid attacks by conspiracy theory supporters, who only give an excuse to convict the American (and even more so Russian) government of attempts to privacy of personal, in particular, financial information. It was decided to avoid such a risk in such an “original” way.
The bottom line is a long list of offers from Canadian funds and private investors, eager for informal communication. What is the power of geography! It turns out that I drove myself into a corner - like that, taking it tomorrow and moving to Canada seems somewhat unrealistic, and in Russia there is no such thing as venture. Judging by my communication (in a completely formal environment) with the leadership of several large Russian players, those involved in the purchase / financing of Internet startups (RBC, for example), they do not even have an understanding of the venture phenomenon. Everyone wants accurate numbers and models, a thorough calculation for several years to come. Sorry, this is not a venture, this is a normal business. With this logic, they should consider the business plans of breweries or hairdressers, where all numbers can be calculated with a very high degree of probability.
In general, these are all annoying little things that could only be stopped by a loser - I prefer to drive ahead. The most important thing I wanted to make sure of was whether such a service would be in demand in principle. Half a month of exploitation, beta demonstrated a very decent demand for such, even buggy and neutered, its (service) implementation. Now I can say with full confidence that, having implemented the business plan 100%, I will get a lot of users and a decent capital cost. The main trouble is that you will have to go back to regular work (how much can your wife hang around your neck?), And do the project in your free time. The second nuisance follows from the first: indecent development will be delayed.
... if no one helps.
Why on earth would someone help me? Of course, I’m not so naive as to think that a crowd of expert developers will just pick up and join me, as it happens in open-source projects. I have something to offer in return - a 33 percent share of the project will be distributed among those who respond and confirm their qualifications as a good PHP developer, who has some free (after the main work) time. A lot is not necessary, a maximum of 3 people. Those who believe that I am doing something stupid / blasphemous / arrogant / immoral / inadequate right now - just do not accept this offer at your own expense. This is not my first day in business, I am able to determine what will benefit him, and to the detriment. Comment on the case. The rest are socialized. It’s not binding on anything, but a stubborn attempt to create a successful startup on the global Internet market, albeit under the Canadian flag, but, most importantly, by the forces of the Russians, from beginning to end. It sounds a little pompous, but what would the present world look like without proper motivation? :)
Those who had the patience to read through to the end - an incentive prize. The project is called MyProgress.com.
I didn’t want to think about any runet, even realized the support of the Cyrillic alphabet long after. And this is only because Russian demand exceeded certain expectations, as well as Brazilian, Indian, and all sorts of other demands. The priority was the North American market, due to well-known reasons, expressed in its size. TechCrunch is beyond praise, organized a post the very next morning. From there, as one would expect, in the manner of the virus, it spread across a multitude of blogs and media, and, in fact, it reached even Russian habr and news.
My plan was this: since my money is over, then, after the release of a functioning beta, a good investor will come running to me and give me a bag of popsicle. They came running. But not those and not from there. The fact is that I had to strain my friend from Vancouver in order to present the startup as Canadian. Such is its specificity - in order to avoid attacks by conspiracy theory supporters, who only give an excuse to convict the American (and even more so Russian) government of attempts to privacy of personal, in particular, financial information. It was decided to avoid such a risk in such an “original” way.
The bottom line is a long list of offers from Canadian funds and private investors, eager for informal communication. What is the power of geography! It turns out that I drove myself into a corner - like that, taking it tomorrow and moving to Canada seems somewhat unrealistic, and in Russia there is no such thing as venture. Judging by my communication (in a completely formal environment) with the leadership of several large Russian players, those involved in the purchase / financing of Internet startups (RBC, for example), they do not even have an understanding of the venture phenomenon. Everyone wants accurate numbers and models, a thorough calculation for several years to come. Sorry, this is not a venture, this is a normal business. With this logic, they should consider the business plans of breweries or hairdressers, where all numbers can be calculated with a very high degree of probability.
In general, these are all annoying little things that could only be stopped by a loser - I prefer to drive ahead. The most important thing I wanted to make sure of was whether such a service would be in demand in principle. Half a month of exploitation, beta demonstrated a very decent demand for such, even buggy and neutered, its (service) implementation. Now I can say with full confidence that, having implemented the business plan 100%, I will get a lot of users and a decent capital cost. The main trouble is that you will have to go back to regular work (how much can your wife hang around your neck?), And do the project in your free time. The second nuisance follows from the first: indecent development will be delayed.
... if no one helps.
Why on earth would someone help me? Of course, I’m not so naive as to think that a crowd of expert developers will just pick up and join me, as it happens in open-source projects. I have something to offer in return - a 33 percent share of the project will be distributed among those who respond and confirm their qualifications as a good PHP developer, who has some free (after the main work) time. A lot is not necessary, a maximum of 3 people. Those who believe that I am doing something stupid / blasphemous / arrogant / immoral / inadequate right now - just do not accept this offer at your own expense. This is not my first day in business, I am able to determine what will benefit him, and to the detriment. Comment on the case. The rest are socialized. It’s not binding on anything, but a stubborn attempt to create a successful startup on the global Internet market, albeit under the Canadian flag, but, most importantly, by the forces of the Russians, from beginning to end. It sounds a little pompous, but what would the present world look like without proper motivation? :)
Those who had the patience to read through to the end - an incentive prize. The project is called MyProgress.com.