International expansion with multi-platform mobile apps

Martin Villig

Topics

● Short Bio of Martin

● What is Taxify and what are we building?

● Taxify clients & platforms

● Development process & Releases

● Mobile apps - Clients & Drivers

● Challenges for international growth

● Q & A

Martin Villig ● Entrepreneur, 15 years in IT/Startups

● Education: Estonian Business School

● Started 1st Co during university

● Worked at Tallinn Stock Exchange,

Skype, Fortumo, ...

● Co-Founder: SLC, Garage48.org, HUB

● Co-Founder & Expansion Mngr of Taxify

● http://twitter.com/waldec

2-click taxi booking + in-app payments

Why Taxify?

● Easy & Fast – closest taxis by price, rating, car

● Taxi arriving – visible on map

● In-app payments – really easy and convenient

Marketplace with Drivers & Clients

Offline business

Initial product launch was failure

● Funding: Enterprise Estonia vs family (FFF)

● Freelance developer: prototype 3 month o Used Cordova 2.7, bad product

● Street sales to pessimistic drivers

● Early adopter customers, bugs

● Oliver joined as Developer – Sept ‘13 o New product re-write within 1 month

● Good growth since October ’13, Native Apps

● Today: Node.js, PHP, MySQL, Android/iOS

20x growth during 2014

150 000 Rides/Mo Cities growing 15% monthly

Leader in Baltics Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland

30+ employees in 8 countries

Micro round

Funding €1.45M Rubylight, TMT, adCash, Angels

Baltics covered, expansion in Europe

Our customers

Cloud systems,

connecting

people

Taxi

Users

Taxi Drivers

Taxi company

manager Taxify region

admins

Dispatchers

Taxify systems

Android

Client

Android

Driver App iPhone

Client

iPhone

Driver App

Cloud & backend

systems

Dispatcher

Dashboard VOIP

integrations

PBX systems

Back-office

systems

Taxi company

Dashboard

Windows

Phone

client

Web app

for clients

Corporate

Dashboard

Daily action on real-time maps

● Black/Yellow:

Free Taxi

● White/Yellow:

Client’s location

● Red: Driving to

or/with client

● Purple: Busy Taxi

● Ideas: research, planning & prioritization

● Development: UX, servers + all apps, testing

● Internal Testing: multiple devices, configurations

● External Testing: beta testers, devices, locations

● Publish & Upgrade: gradual rollout, step by step

● Info & PR: user guides, active feedback, PR

Feature Development Process

Countries Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Georgia

Finland

...

Testing & Backward Compatibility

Android Client ● Latest

● Latest -1

● Latest -n

● Outdated

iPhone Client ● Latest

● Latest -1

● Latest -n

● Outdated

Server backend

+ databases

WinPhone client ● Latest (Web)

● Outdated

Driver Android ● Latest

● Latest -1

● Latest -n

● Outdated

iPhone Driver ● Latest

● Latest -1

● Latest -n

● Outdated

● UX is #1 priority

● 2 platforms

● Design iterations,

long process before

perfect

● Changing of core

functions (car choice)

● As simple as possible

Client Apps: Android, iOS, Windows, Web

Testing multi-platform apps

● Releasing to hundreds of thousands of

live users is risky

● Android vs iOS vs Windows Phone

● Internal Alpha testing, Devices

● Beta testing, Devices & Locations

● Gradual rollout

Driver app: used 10h per day ● Daily usage

patterns

● E-mail

● Localization

● Simplicity

● Notifications

● Business

Critial App

● Learning

curve

● Beta drivers

Learnings from our Expansion

● Choose markets wisely, wrong market o Lost investments, opportunity cost and time!

● Local team is key for success o 4-step hiring process, including practical tasks

● Strong 1st mover advantage

● Product market-fit? Local vs global needs?

● Clear goals & team communication

● Local francises: tricky to get working

Thanks! Questions?

● Write martin@taxify.eu

● Follow twitter.com/waldec

● Download @ taxify.lv

● Follow: facebook.com/taxifyapp

● Order taxi: Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania,

Belarus, Georgia and Netherlands ...

● Rate drivers after your ride!