What recommendations investors and mentors really use the business

Can the Council outsider to really help a struggling business? We spoke to successful entrepreneurs about what advice they were given mentors and investors, and why those words should have listened. It is interesting that many have benefited not only the views of professional advisers, but customers — even potential. Aleksey Sheremetiev, co-founder of online service for interior design Planner 5D

Our investor Igor Matsanyuk repeated so many times, I can say, I drummed into his head the idea that you never have to wait for anything. There's never a right moment, good conditions, and more. If there is a need to run. Otherwise the train will go.

Nikita Kasyanov, founder of the online store 3D Tribe We once recommended to watch, as most people do, and to do things differently, because the majority is always wrong. We use this, for example, in respect of advertising costs. As soon as they begin to grow, we are reviewing our marketing and looking for new moves and strategies. For example, you can just buy clicks — most of them do, wasting large budgets. Instead, we created a YouTube channel and a podcast series, a helpful overview videos and tutorials for our theme — 3D printers, 3D printing and 3D technology. It turned out useful and interesting for users, and the traffic is ensured by our target audience. We don't pay for "empty" clicks, engage the interested public, when it comes to us already loyal customer — because he sees everything first and foremost made for him. We share with him all our experiences.

Alexey Fedoseev, founder of the service social studies 1WorldOnline a advice from investors and mentors were contradictory. For example, some said that priority should be income, others that the increase in the number of users. And in the second case, it is advised to give the product for free. But we listened to the advice of a mentor Lily schirman. It is recommended to go with our platform partners ' websites and vote through the widgets there, and not to develop and promote their own online site. We have been actively doing this at the end of 2013 and in early 2014 went off. Another valuable advice is given to our mentor in new York Greg Kahn. He said he should go to the publishers in personal meetings, rather than trying to meet them at conferences. The Council Lily helped us to enter the market, and the advice Greg — to increase sales through the most promising channel. And in both cases they just tossed us some good tips, but also helped with materials, training, and even with the implementation of ideas.

Ilya Semin, founder of the Analytics service for online marketing Datanyze Once I asked a mentor for advice about my next idea, and he asked me why I mind. He said, "it doesn't Matter what I think about it, no matter what you think your parents or friends about it, don't even ask them. It is important that you think your potential buyers. You just have to call ten potential customers and ask them, after the tenth call, everything will fall into place." When I created Datanyze, I did so. The product I built on customer feedback, and now it brings me income.

Alex Aylarov, co-founder of service online telephony Zingaya Mentor Esther Dyson, who would later become our investor, was advised not to try to enter the US market, as this needs quite a lot of money. We still tried, but then I realized that she was absolutely right.

Ivan Semenov, the founder and developer of mobile applications Reactive Phone One of the most important tips I received was: "don't spend it all at once, first try with a small amount". This advice was very important for me because at that time we just made a new product — a mobile app — and hoped to quickly sell it to all users. Decided to run the ads in the subway, estimated weekly audience and potential profit. The amount was large, and as a result, we launched the minimum possible package advertising, purchases were rare. As it turned out, offline is very poorly converted to online. Saved a decent amount of money.

Alexei Dunayev, founder of the service decrypting texts TranscribeMe Here are some important tips that gave me and which I now give.

— Create a picture of the future that you want to achieve and tell others about him. Don't keep your idea to yourself. There is a very big chance that you will receive valuable advice and will be able to use them to develop their idea further.

— Hire slow, fire fast. There's a difference between hard decisions and bad decisions, and dismissal of a person who is unable to cope, is from the category of the latter. Unpleasant decisions usually easy, so cope with them and make the necessary calls.

— When hiring people to work, remember that the best hiring the best, hire the mediocre good. Take in the command only the best, create for them an environment that will help them succeed, support them and help to focus on what they do best.

Aynur Abdulnasyrov, the founder of the LinguaLeo Mentors for me were Dmitry Repin, Egor Rudi, Igor ryabenky, partners of Runa Capital. The most useful tip: to prepare for a marathon, not relying on a short distance. It helped, as we often underestimate the time and effort to achieve results. So it was with us with product development and the growth of users took more time. What I wanted to do for three years, took more than four and a half and will require some time.

Source: theoryandpractice.ru