App Solutions & Mind Park
When we have started the development of an outsource business 1.5 years ago, our team have met some perplexity from our fellow colleagues. Saying, why do you need this, this is a complicated business, there is no income, no perspectives, a few managed to build a big business. You won’t succeed, stuff like that…
Such kinds of situations, actually, intrigue me, rather than worry. My parents brought me up with the spirit of sportsmanship, for what I consider myself very lucky, and therefore in any critical situation, I fight to change it in a way that I planned before. Now, after some time, I can tell that we have made the right decision because even for many IT companies there is no need to have the mobile developers on staff.
The first year, though, was difficult. We have experimented a lot – have used all the tricks of the trade and channels for bringing the new clients in. My first business was in the B2C sector, and we had little understanding of how B2B worked. I, naively, thought that we will get the traffic from all the digital channels that we had, and the clients will barge in themselves. However, that was not the case. We have generated a lot of leads, but not a lot of clients.
What it took, was the development of offline and networking skills and participation in the exhibitions. This is the classic example of what works in B2B. But honestly, we had no idea where should we develop. However, the intuition suggested, that we should focus on something, and as the result, we have decided to start from mobile app development. It is always more profitable to outsource the three-month development of the app to the professionals, us for example. ☺
In general, this niche is quite tricky, as well as any other in the outsourcing business, but we have adapted and are ready to move forward. We want to become the leaders here. Perhaps absorb or merge with some specialized Ukrainian outsourcers. In any case, we need to strengthen our positions against the Indians as much as we can. They are no match for us and this should be properly communicated to the target audience.
One of our competitive advantages is the direct connections with the start-ups. Most of our clients today, are the start-ups, and since we humbly consider us to be the smart investors, this is what gives us the edge. For example, we help with the development of mobile applications for our Ukrainian portfolio companies/start-ups, which is helpful for both of us. In the long term, everyone will gain from such cooperation.
Getting back to our results, what I want to say is that after 1.5 years, our efforts have not gone unnoticed. Right now we suffer from an overabundance of the clients and thus rapidly expand. There is a certain “growth trap” involved, but I think we will manage since these are the problems that are pleasant to solve. It is way harder when there are no sales. Besides, that is the same problem my first B2C business has faced. Demand exceeded supply.
This year we plan to visit the great number of conferences in Europe, while the USA is booked for the next year.
But we do not want to stop at what has been achieved, we want to build the systematic sales in outsourcing in Ukraine. We are already doing admirably, despite being young, but we have created the unique things that already work. Thankfully, the start-ups keep us occupied with interesting and unique stuff and tech. Can’t blow the covers right now, but one day we will talk about that 🙂
Our next step is entering the Enterprise market, though. We have the needed background and are now accumulating the portfolio, connections, and resources. At his moment, we are orbiting around energy and telecom sphere. There are some contracts with the companies from this spheres that are almost finalized. But, as this is business, our vector of the development might change.
I hope that by continuing what we do now, we will increase our client base drastically and become the company with 1k+ employees. This is our goal for the next three years.
I will gladly hear any suggestions on absorbing/merging from the companies, and tech specialists are recommended to monitor our job openings since we expand rapidly. Everyone who needs help with the development of iOS/Android apps is also welcome!
