ShoutEm - It's alright to pivot

ShoutEm story It’s alright to pivotLuka AbrusFive Minutes CEOShoutEm Member of the board
1

How it all started.
Five Minutes development team
Web development company, 2 guys
Product oriented at first - Pticica, Trosjed…
Standard issues with local market
In a nutshell, too low ROI
Custom mobile & web apps
Service oriented
Global product developed in parallel
2

First steps.
Two key motivators
Google Android and Ning platform
Huge potential for Mobile Social Networking?
First idea: “Mobile Ning” (without the mobile)
Anyone can create their own community
Schools, sport clubs, companies…
Twitter simplicity
Web-only microblogging
Launched on LeWeb 2008
3

Web.
4

(No) Funding.
How to continue the development?
Finance it internally from other projects
5 people team / company
Working weekends, holidays, long hours…
Number of users rising, but no money
Trying to find VC’s and large customers
“Invest in lines, not in dots”
5

First pivot.
Technology oriented – move to mobile
Smartphone platform growth
ShoutEmApp – unified app for all communities
Year 2009 – year of learning
Networking, development, pitches, competitions
Number of users growing – freemium model
No conversion from free to paid, no profitability
6

Misleading number of users.
7

Epiphanies. Three of them!
People are willing to pay for their branded apps
One blog post briefly mentioned customized apps
Huge interest – we picked a few & built them
Community management crucial for success
Examined 30.000+ networks on ShoutEm, very few active
Build networks around existing sites and content
Majority of mobile apps are pretty similar
Huge interest for mobile apps – 400.000+ in iTunes
Typical costs 10-50k USD
News, Events, Community, Location, Podcasting, Photos, Videos…
8

Idea. Pivot. Investment.
Second pivot was business oriented
What if we could…
Create a standardized app that fits 75% needs
Sell it for 50-100$ per month
Do it as a self-service model and scale it
Build on top of current code base
RSG Kapital investment, VC from Ljubljana
They monitored us for two years
Five Minutes team grew to 25 people
100% YoY growth, worldwide clients
1.2m USD funding in August 2010
9
VC funding

New web.
10

Interface.
11

How did we use the investment?
Opened up London and New York offices
Hired sales representatives (Seedcamp network)
Boost up the development
Optimizing features, user experience, process…
Hiring only the best
And “restructuring” the rest
Speed up the sales process
Enterprise and lighthouse customers
Self-service is good, but…
12

Today.
Five Minutes
35 people, services &product business
ShoutEm
Sales. Sales. Sales. New York!
10 people
Series B?
13

Pivoting 101
Everyone does it.
YouTube, Nokia, 3M, Twitter, PayPal, Flickr, Seesmic…
Natural process of evolution.
Everyone will doubt you.
The team.
The partners.
The community.
You.
14

That’s it.
Luka Abrus
Five Minutes CEO
15

ShoutEm - It's alright to pivot

by ITDogadjaji.com

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 4

Statistics

ShoutEm - It’s alright to pivot Presentation Transcript