Sergey Baryshnikov, BigPicture: “This led me to complete lack of money”

Maintaining a balance between the information and entertainment component of the resource has always been difficult. But it is he who influences which audience will visit the site. And from the point of view of monetization, it would be nice to have a solvent target audience.

In the case of BigPicture , there was one more difficulty - Sergey Baryshnikov did not even start the project from scratch, but there was nobody, say, a negative level (we will not repeat this story here at the request of Sergey). He simply had no ways to retreat, nor a second attempt.

We asked the entrepreneur to share his experience, to warn beginners against mistakes, to talk about how to recruit “your” people in a team and much more.

How did you come to create BigPicture?

This led me to complete lack of money.

Have you started doing this for your income?

I understood that hired work categorically does not suit me, and I need to do something of my own. By that time I had some experience in creating and monetizing entertainment content, and I launched my project.

Did you at the start understand that this idea has high potential or at first it moved solely because of your will?

BigPicture became profitable just two months after the launch. Our first advertiser was Phillips. The advertising campaign earned us $ 100.



And after 13 months, we took first place in the ranking of Yandex blogs and thereby attracted the attention of advertisers. They came to us with a steady stream, so it’s a sin for us to complain that everything has developed neither shakily, nor swell. On the contrary, it provided an adequate incentive to grow, develop in the field of content, and so on.

Quality content is an evaluation feature. What is important when managing such a project so that it really becomes successful. What can not be done, but what is optional?

As I said, I had experience in creating and managing resources like "Chips", "YaPlakal" and so on. I understood what advantages they had and what disadvantages. Previously, they had a large audience, and advertising was very cheap. The advertiser had the feeling that they are being placed for the audience of the current “VKontakte” - that is, for a young audience without money. I tried to get away from the stereotypes inherent in entertainment sites: to remove memes, easy jokes and make content for an older audience - for office plankton. This is an audience of 25-35 years old, they need to be distracted by something while working. We gave them educational and entertaining content, which is presented in the form of photographs.



That is, your monetary debts triggered the project to grow to the current stage?

Yes. I do not consider myself some kind of an outstanding media manager, journalist or photographer. Now BigPicture exists only because I had an incentive to work twenty-five hours a day and, against all odds, do a project that would bring money in a short time and close all my problems.

What is the main lesson from the history of the development of the company to the current moment?

I am a supporter of learning some lessons when the business is already over. I have learned a ton of lessons from my previous businesses. With BigPicture, everything is developing so fast that I do not have time to learn any lessons. I need to keep my nose upwind and watch where the media is moving in its current form.



Can you name a few major mistakes or problems that you had to solve during the development of BigPicture?

I will say what problem I had to solve with myself. When you leave one badly ended business and open a new one, it is very important to abstract these two stories as much as possible from each other. It is necessary to make sure that one does not pull the other along with it. You can easily make the second one seem like a successful business, but constantly take money out of circulation or be distracted by solving problems that remain from the first business. As a result, a successful new business can turn into even more “hemorrhoids” than the previous one. It was very important for me to absolutely separate these two stories.



A lot of people constantly repeat this way: someone writes, creates blogs, tries to gather a community. Can you give advice to people who are about to get their own cones along the way?

Less listen to various clever people who tell you how to do the right business. This is the most important advice. Now a lot of different coaches and businessmen have divorced, who will supposedly explain to you how to make a successful business in two months and earn the first million. In fact, it does not work - only your brains, only motivation, perseverance will help to make a successful business.

What did you do before BigPicture?

From 1999 to 2006, I had an online phone store. In 2006-2008 I had a break, I was developing one entertainment site. And since 2009, BigPicture began.



How do you feel about hiring people in startups? I know a couple of guys who work for you - they are passionate professionals. How much does this determine how the project feels? Do you have any unshakable rules? What kind of people should these be? How do you put together a team?

I collect people with whom you can do not only a specific project (for example, BigPicture), but any project that would be of interest to us. I don’t just need a good journalist or a good photographer. I need a person with whom it is easy, who can follow me on any of my adventures (this may seem like an adventure at first glance), who believes me and knows that together we will develop.

I need young and versatile people. I believe that the time for just good journalists has passed. We need people who can go, take off ourselves, make up ourselves and do it as quickly as possible.

And what about business development?

It's hard for me to talk about it, because I practically do not engage in hiring people in the commercial department, since there is a director there. He is responsible for this. Now I try to abstract as much as possible from monetary issues and deal with the product, the further strategic development of the company.

It is important for me that a person from the first day fit into the team and feel organically. This is the main thing. We will teach the rest.

Are there many such people in Moscow? You do not lack such employees?

In the sales department we are constantly looking for people. If a man comes to us tomorrow, and we understand that he is “ours,” we will take him. Good salespeople are never many. And in the editorial office all vacancies are closed.

As I understood from your words, you will have some next project. Do you know what it will be like? Or is this place and time multiplied by circumstances?

Everything is known. In parallel with BigPicture, we are developing the SALO communications agency. The same people who work in BigPicture are engaged in it. They spend part of their time on a new project. SALO helps small and medium-sized businesses communicate in PR and marketing. We take companies into service for 2-3 years and due to our capacities, agreements with bloggers, creativity and expertise in offline business, we help to increase sales and recognition.



It is important that on the other hand there are adequate people who understand what we are doing. We do not want to produce another agency in which two people are creative and two more are riveting reports. We almost do not make reports. Let customers watch reports on sales growth in 1C. We stand for maximum freedom of action and maximum confidence.