"Successful people solve problems is bad, but quickly" - an interview with the owner Mike Melanin

Mike (Michael) Melanin - the best young entrepreneur in 2017 according to EY. Award he received for his work as Director of Development Statsbot - bot that integrated analytical systems messenger Slack. Startup quickly took off and attracted investments in Silicon Valley.

We talked about how to be a businessman from scratch and sell the idea of ​​California investors, and find out what successful entrepreneurs are different from everyone else.

"I'm just not afraid to be wrong" - about how to become an entrepreneur

- Mike, you said that when the project started Statsbot, you had no business skills. Two years have passed, and you get a special prize "Young Entrepreneur". How so?

- I think I'm not doing for a long time in that business. I went to Baumanke and tried to become a programmer, but I have more design skills. In two years, without any education has built a career interface designer, working in the studio, he headed the design department. The same happened to the business.

Entrepreneur is not born but are, but I do most of my life did not get into the environment.

My parents - smart engineers, and I dreamed of becoming an engineer, then - as a programmer, designer. I have not experienced entrepreneurs, I did not communicate with them. At some point, I began to learn about business opportunities in the US by IT-entrepreneurs. And then I tried, and everything went by itself. There is no secret I do not, I'm just not afraid to make mistakes.

- Does this mean that now you can do without education?

- Almost all education today off the market - it can not keep up the reality and does not let the right people. There is the widespread phrase: education does not prepare for life. Programs are made slowly, few focused on the requirements of the IT-industry, and this situation is not only in Russia but also in the world. Man ends up study in 25 years maximum, it is believed that he should choose a deal of a lifetime. It is not right. After high school, it is impossible to make such a choice.

In general, everything changes now so that should not be a time to learn something, and then apply the knowledge every day. Man will wash away from the market as a specialist if he would do so. Learning is necessary for life. Of course, education provides the skills, but these are general skills and special items become obsolete too quickly. It helps self. I've finished the course onlineAt Coursera.

- When it became clear that it was time to go to work and throw a hired hand at startup?

- It was clear that sooner or later I resigned because I burned at work. This accumulated like a snowball, did not want to be closed in the same framework. I became interested in his own startup, working with friends.

Feature has been communicated, when we were called for an interview at Y Combinator. And one more feature - when we were called to our first accelerator BetaWorks Botcamp. I realized that I would build a career in a different direction, which is not willing to work in a corporation at the place where he was.

"You do not have to look for a unique niche" - on how to sell a startup in California

- You are focused on the US market just because the product features designed for users Slack? Or do you just want to Silicon Valley?

- In the US, are really more Slack and better understand what we do. We just built a product for that market. And in general IT-products in the US market is wider than in other countries, especially in Russia. If you try to implement a cloud service, it is necessary to do it in the US, because it is easier to sell a product, in spite of the cultural and linguistic gap and lack of dating.

- A legal technicalities?

- Everything can be solved on the go, I understood myself. I asked Russian Founder, who have already passed the same way, read the manual, which are presented on the websites of companies and legal resources. In this sense, the right in the United States is regulated, there are many use cases and typical cases, there is something not adjusted. The legal system is slow and is not optimal, but it will not get into a situation where, in principle, it is not clear what to do.

- Where to recruit a team to enter the US market? Start in Russia or just take experts out there?

- If you can unwind in Russia, it makes sense to do everything here. But when we started, we had nothing, neither here nor there. When such things being equal, we were easier to advance to the United States. Especially if there are, say, 20 thousand dollars, which is not a pity to invest.

Team clearly have to take in Russia, if you start here. Engineers, specialists, scientists should look for Russian-speaking - to hire workers in the US is extremely expensive and without links is problematic. And the people in charge of marketing and sales, you can already search there, because for these areas need people who are able to sell in the language and understand the cultural code. But we must be prepared for the fact that it is expensive.

- Now you konsultiruesh startups who want to enter the US market. What mistakes Russian Founder do most often?

- Can be divided into three main ones:

1. Sometimes they try to do a lot at once and move a feature at a time and do not engage in sales. And you need to choose just one product feature that brings more money, and to redouble their efforts to just sell it.
2. Even if they found this feature, a long time it is brought to perfection. These transformations can not bring in any new product features, but they are still trying to make a "nice" and do not fall into the expectations of users and the market.
3. They do not realize the international ambitions and are closed on the Russian market.

- You are just a lot of work with users to find out their expectations. What does this teach you?

- There is a phrase - customer development, or custdev. It was his and we experimented. But all these methods - agile, custdev, customer journey map - there is a shortage. Many people think that working on some technique, putting in her power, you can do nothing else, everything goes by itself.

I would advise to use different elements.

Yes, we used custdev, tried to listen to the users. But the main thing in this case - to turn the User Submissions in the sale. If a person is asking, it is necessary that he bought it. Of course, at the initial stage, we just talked to consumers, but people need to listen in so far as, because they often do not understand why certain things are done and not otherwise. All user requests have to pass through the filter.

- So what still needs to be done to attract US investors? What product will attract money?

- Not only in the product business. It should be competent positioning, without it even a good product does not attract money. Those projects that I have seen and have attracted investments from 500 thousand to 2 million dollars in the US market, owe their success to the product by about 30%, and promotion - by 70%. In Silicon Valley doing enough crude product which solves one problem and then correctly position the decision.

Not necessarily the whole life looking for something new and try to find a unique niche. Many successful companies are doing that to them has been recreated many times, just know how to properly present it: collect ideas, show investors, solving old problems sometimes controversial methods, but still get money. So I would not try to operate without positioning

- What, then, should be done for this position?

- Call in the interest of users. Make some noise: generate news spread something controversial on the court of the target audience to the project and interested in talking about it. It is necessary to form a number of clients using this interest to the investor could call the first user and to hear from them that the product is excellent.

We need to work with PR. It is clear that at the initial stage it is necessary to try to make all cheap or even free of charge. Many say that the investments can be obtained without the PR, but this is nonsense. Investors interested in everything new, but with caution invest, PR helps them make a decision.

Should not be limited by a single investor, it is necessary to work with many, because they communicate with each other and it stirs interest in the project.

You must try to do what is in the wake of HYIP. There were boats - boats had to be done. Who is interested in blokcheyn and artificial intelligence. Of course, such a strategy has attracted a lot of scams, and investors are getting tired of them. For example, it says that if the company no one has a degree in artificial intelligence, they will not consider the product.

But no investor can fully immerse yourself in what you are doing, so the project theme should be clear to him. If you are doing something rare and complex, the investor is difficult to assess, due to which you get growth and occupy a niche in the market.

"Successful entrepreneurs are not distracted by nonsense" - the planning work 24/7

- How do you organize the day?

- I keep notes in Google Keep, google Inbox (Replacement of Gmail from Google), create their list and then prioritize. I use the calendar on the Google of the same, so as not to miss the meeting because many things stuffed in the day. Workflow'm in Dropbox Paper.

Have life hacking, I spied in successful people: they try any problem resolve bad, but very quickly. This silent, and I am faced with this, when communicated with entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley. When you have something to offer or ask a person or refuses to immediately, or does not immediately bothered how well turned out.

- How do you disconnect from work? Is it true that entrepreneurs work 24 hours a day?

- Watch the show on Netflix in English, to listen to the American it, cruising on streamers or outside the city, on country roads.

In general, the importance of 24/7 exaggerated. Long work wear does not work, it is ineffective and pointless. So you can do, only when there is no choice, when something momentous happens. I was working on when to give up work and moved to the United States.

But usually the time 24/7 - this bike. From my acquaintance successful entrepreneurs nobody does. The only thing they do - do not spend time on all the small stuff.

Do not drive themselves to the regime framework and planning for 100%, but just not distracted on nonsense. It is necessary to set goals for the year, three to five forward, set goals for a week-day, and to do these things in the shortest way, cutting unnecessary. Do not spray, but not non-stop plowing.

Layfhakerstvo from Mike Melan'ina

We always ask headings heroes tell what's worth reading and seeing.

• The course of lectures "Startup", Peter Thiel, 2012. The most important and interesting book from the point of view of business.
• All popular articles on the Medium of the new technologies.
• "Attraction of investments in start-up," Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson.
• Classic. Read necessary for the overall development. Starting with Dostoevsky and Strugatsky, ending with London and Salinger.
• TV series. New on Netflix and HBO, although it is impossible to see everything. From the latter I liked the "Darkness" and "Very strange things». "Darkness" is even more interesting because it is European cinema, although filmed Netflix.
• Animated series "Rick and Morty." I do not know of any IT specialist, that he did not like.
• Free courses on YouTube. You'd be surprised how much there is educational material!
• Courses Lynda and Soursera - it is obligatory. Lynda me like it even more, because there are courses shorter.