ShoutEm - It's alright to pivot
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Transcript of ShoutEm - It's alright to pivot
ShoutEm story It’s alright to pivot
Luka AbrusFive Minutes CEO
ShoutEm Member of the board
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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
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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
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Web.
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(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”
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First pivot.
• Technology oriented – move to mobile– Smartphone platform growth– ShoutEm App – 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
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Misleading number of users.
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Epiphanies. Three of them!
1. People are willing to pay for their branded apps– One blog post briefly mentioned customized
apps– Huge interest – we picked a few & built them
2. Community management crucial for success– Examined 30.000+ networks on ShoutEm, very
few active– Build networks around existing sites and content
3. 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…
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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
VC funding
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New web.
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Interface.
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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…
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Today.
• Five Minutes– 35 people, services & product business
• ShoutEm– Sales. Sales. Sales. New York!– 10 people– Series B?
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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.
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That’s it.
Luka AbrusFive Minutes CEO