История успеха проекта, которую вам никогда не повторить – но вы должны все равно пробовать. Success story you will never repeat: but should try anyway. 1. Хронология успешного проекта. a. Построение отношений между основателями b. Поиск людей, которые будут работать на Вас, и поиск партнеров, которые будут работать с Вами c. Сотрудничество с юристами, менторами, советниками, и консультантами для продвижения вперед d. Сбор всей своей интеллектуальной собственности в одну корзину (компанию) e. Подход к инвесторам f. Переговоры с инвесторами, основные недостатки и ошибки g. Инвесторы вошли в Вашу компанию – как теперь ею управлять 2. Фатальные ошибки, которые собъют Ваш бизнес при взлете 1. A timeline of a successful project. a. Forming relationship among founders b. Finding people to work for you and finding partners that would work with you c. Working with lawyers, mentors, advisors, and consultants to move forward d. Gathering of all of your intellectual property in one basket (company) e. Approaching investors f. Negotiations with investors, main shortfalls and mistakes g. Investors are in – how do I run my business now? 2. Critical mistakes that shot down many projects at the takeoff

1. Success Story You Will Never
Repeat – But Should Still Try
by Dmitri Dubograev
© 2013

2. The story of Pinxter™

3. 1. Inception (DOs)
1
 Birth of the Idea (March 8, 2013!!!)
 Need to think through, live and improve the idea
 “I would use it” – merge the two worlds
 “Other people would use it”
 It solves a specific problem with ease
 Could be a unique problem but (better!) you
should offer a unique solution!
 It does not need to be YOUR problem. But you
need to know people whose problem it is.
 Solution has to be better or (better!) – simple!!!

4. 1. Inception (DOs)
1
 Things that women need (and men don’t
want to deal with)

5. 1. Inception (DON’Ts)
1
 Failed ideas of other projects:
 Assumes it solves a problem (but there is none)
 “I would not use it but someone should”
 Easy to replicate (but not always!). Run fast!
 No focus, no need, no goal
 No monetary value (time, money or fun)
 too much work with little resources
 Don’t assume “so simple – somebody probably
did it”. What if you are wrong?

6. 2. Building the Team (DOs)
1
2
 April: connections, conferences, word of
mouth
 Trust is important
 DO NOT SAY TOO MUCH until Term Sheet/NDA
 Skill
Дешева рибка - погана юшка ©
 Do your due diligence, track record, their ideas
 Manage expectations
Partner/salary/investor – again, put on paper/email
 Make sure they have “skin in the game” or be
ready to pay them or push them away

7. 2. Building the Team (DON’Ts)
1
2
 Failed Teams in other pojects
 too much disparity in approach (one focus)
But you do not need the same skill
 NOT a partner/founder – ask for $$ every day
If there is a discussion “how much you will pay
me” in first weeks – this is not a partner
 signing stupid papers at initial stages
giving away/disclosing too much IP
Misunderstanding re ownership %% (think in raitio
me/you 3:1, rather than you will have 25%)

8. 3. Architecture/Shape (DOs)
1
2
3
 Company (Pinxter Inc. formed on June 3 in
US)
 Formation is the key
USA/EU v. “Laundromats” (v. ридна ненька
Украина?)
 Scalable and set for growth (no “restructure”)
 Company is also to protect you (limited liability)
 Relationship b/w founders (understanding)
Necessary votes to act, issue new shares/new team
members
Veto re important issues, how do we sell the project
Adjustments if one works/the other does not

9. 3. Architecture/Shape (DON’Ts)
1
2
3
 Failed structures
 “offshore” – focus on making more money for
yourself and NOT on paying less taxes
 bad jurisdictions and problems:
can lose everything (creeping nationalization - Cyprus)
Money sending/receiving, certificates, bad rep
 NO UNDERSTANDING AMONG PARTNERS
AS TO THEIR POWER DISTRIBUTION
 if you can afford attorney/advisor – this is the
time to get it to avoid serious issues

10. 4. The “Filler”/IP (DOs)
1
2
3
4
 EVERYTHING MUST GO to the COMPANY
 All of ideas and IP:
Developed BEFORE (assignment)
Transfer AT THE TIME of formation (assignment)
Becomes property on “click” of the keyboard of each
developer in the FUTURE –software development agt
“Alien code”:
 GPL, GNU, “copyleft”, LGPL, “hippy code” - LICENSE it!
 “Well, there is some code that I used for other project” - make
sure that your developer licenses it to the company (or vice
versa)
 Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and trade
secrets

11. 4. The “Filler”/IP (DOs)
1
2
3
4
 by June 10 - Pinxter filed for TM (intent to
use), ©, patent is in the process plus NDA
with ALL

12. 4. The “Filler”/IP (DON’Ts)
1
2
3
4
 lost or uncertain IP
 “leaking” vessel cannot float (nor financed/sold)
 copyright not registered
 – hard to prove, hard to match
 Descriptive or generic TM are bad:
 “Best Race”, “Good Farm”, facebook (need a lot money to defend!)
 Must be:
 fanciful (Playzum, Fozium, Alawar, Playrix, Luxand, Pintrest)
 Arbitrary (BlueTooth, Gaijin, Oxygen)
 Suggestive (Pinxter, Apple, SkyOdds, ToonBox, ZBrainy)
 More read at: IT Grabli: how to choose the name for you product
wp.me/p2AI6A-1n via @femidaUS

13. 5. MONEY (DOs)
1
2
3
4
5
By June 21, Pinxter gets 1 round of
financing from a consortium of
angels:
Truly smart money (=connections)
 Investment Funds are spent on
Development
Marketing
Legal Protection
Founders chose NOT to take any salary…

14. 5. MONEY (DOs)
1
2
3
4
5
Polished Product before release

15. 5. MONEY (DOs)
1
2
3
4
5
 Big role: existing company, IP,
agreements
 fair deal:
 Veto, restrictive covenants, board seat
 Minimum day-to-day interference (if all goes as
planned)
 minimum changes to the EXISTING
agreements
 Maximum help (almost as much as with
founders)

16. 5. MONEY (DON’Ts)
1
2
3
4
5

17. 5. MONEY (DON’Ts)
1
2
3
4
5
You have to be ready to take the
money
Danger areas:
Don’t make investors do YOUR job
Don’t give out too much
Perform as promised
Put things on paper/agreement
Protect you IP

18. 6. Release (DOs)
1
2
3
4
5
 July 22, App is released
6

19. 6. Release (DOs)
1
2
3
4
5
 Test on users and then full blown marketing
 By August 31 – three new updates

20. 6. Release (DON’Ts)
1
2
3
4
5
6
LEGAL FAILURES:
Privacy
terms of use
licenses
DMCA
 Dangerous/weak agreements (exclusive etc.)
 Complete mess with the contractors,
employees and consultants

21. 7. Accelerate and expand…
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
September 1:
Second round of investment…
…. from the SAME group of investors
 BUILDING on TRUST and PERFORMANCE
It’s not the ‘success‘ yet…
…but it’s ready for one

23. Contact information
Need your feedback!
email: dd@femida.us
blog: facebook.com/femidaUS
skype: ddFemida
ph:
1.703.739.9111