How to sell a startup on Facebook in three months

    Eugene Nevgen, founder of MSQRD, as part of an open interview at the Gotech Forum, shared the story of creating a business that he sold to Facebook and revealed the secrets of forming a project team.

    It all started with a passion for programming. At the age of 19, the first successful project was the charity auction of meetings of MaeSens (in Russia it is known as GoodWillion). I was always wondering how to make the right design work. And with partner Maxim Kamenkov, we founded SplitMetrics, an A / B testing platform for app pages on the App Store and Google Play. Just a month after the announcement of the opening of the company, Rovio became our client.

    We launch all our projects with partners at the Hackathon, where you can get quick feedback. This strategy has never failed us. MSQRD was also created at Hackathon. It was thanks to him that he appeared in this form. Then we made the first most simplified version of the application, and people really liked it. I had to promise that in two weeks we will release MSQRD in the AppStore. And we succeeded.

    I gathered the project team one night in front of the Hackathon - through the list of friends on Facebook. Now it consists of 12 people. The key to this success is to be open to communication. In Minsk, I very often held conferences, meetups, where a huge number of engineers and designers gathered. So I met many.

    It is very important to understand that this was not our first product. And success was not accidental - the whole team worked in a constant hackathon mode, and on the days of releases, the working day lasted 20 hours. It is important that all team members were in the office and supported each other. In general, our team had only friends.

    Until now, no one in the world has been able to repeat our algorithm, created by one of the founders of MSQRD, Zhenya Zatepyakin, neither in speed nor in accuracy, although it has already passed how much time and so many people have tried to incline the product. This shows how serious engineering skills are at the heart of our technology. By the way, Zhenya has been involved in face tracking technology for 5 years. At every moment of time, he checked how modern smartphones are suitable for his technology. And maybe it’s good luck that he brought it out at the moment when we created the product and smartphones were ready for it.

    How did you look for money?
    Before I was looking for money for MSQRD, I had experience finding investments for SplitMetrics. And it was much more complicated than with MSQRD. No one was particularly interested in the product or team, everyone needed metrics, big numbers. At that moment, we could not show them, but we found a good investor through mutual acquaintances. Then I decided that I would work with those people who had already created their products. An investor for MSQRD had to meet two requirements: general acquaintances and experience in owning a food company.

    Expected such virality when launching MSQRD?
    As a result, all leading celebrities posted at least one photo or video through MSQRD. Naturally, this was not immediate. We never paid for posts on social networks. We had virality in the product itself. A person did not need to press extra buttons.
    At the start of the photo we posted, then asked our friends to do it. Then someone from micro-celebrity posted. Other celebrities appeared on one of these circles, one of them was restaurateur Arkady Novikov. His post has already been disseminated by famous people in Russia and the CIS. And after that a wave began.

    The company from the very beginning of its creation worked only in the white. We were constantly ready for due dilligence. For three months - from the launch to the sale - we were supported by several dozen lawyers.

    How impressive is a big company to sell?
    It is very important which corporation to sell. In general, the life of a startup founder within a corporation is very different. Therefore, you need to see who will be your partner for the coming years. We had a choice, Facebook was not the only option. And in this regard, we were lucky. We chose Facebook because it is the most dynamic company. She most of all reminded us of a startup - though such a giant startup already.

    The most important thing in the moments of such transactions is to understand what will happen to you, your team and your product after the documents are signed. In the Valley, in such cases, startup team members are usually hired for a contract. This is what happened with our employees. Now they are mainly located in Minsk.

    Will there be new startups from Eugene Nevgen?
    Of course yes. I am in search of people who have expertise, and those who are passionate about startups. Always open, talking with people so that at the right time something big can be done.
    In general, startups can take risks, they have such an opportunity, and this is the main thing that their founders should do. If we were some kind of corporation, we would never have created the mask of DiCaprio.

    It is important to remember that nothing ever happens the first time. Passion for projects is the key to success. A failure in a project is an opportunity to do something new and test a new idea.

    This publication is based on a video of Evgeny Nevgen’s speech posted in the official Gotech account on Youtube.


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