Execution of a startup: RocketMom and typical startups from Altair Digital

This is a unique case when it is necessary to "execute" not only "typical startupers", but also a startup that has so farNot yet.However, it’s better to do this right away than the patients find naive investors, tell them lies about a multimillion-dollar business unicorn in the future, collect money - and then say that “we’re sorry, we couldn’t do it.” Everything is in the best startup traditions - just look at how Alexey Antonov from SONM and Dmitry Dolgov from Bankex handed themselves over for investigation of the Rossiya24 channel. Therefore, we will have to open pre-emptive fire and warn investors:if I were youAltair Digital Team, nor to Konstantin Urvantsev and Alexei Irkov in particular, I would never give money.

Now that the audience spoiler has been merged, it's timeoutline the background and smoothly move on to the essence of the claims to the project, which is not there. And, I hope, will not appear. At least, performed by two Novosibirsk figures Irkov and Urvantsev.

Having graduated from the first cohort of Product School in 2018Arkady Moreinis, I couldn’t stop thinking about trying myself as a product manager. After all, I was already a designer, creative director and marketer—a change of profession is not particularly new for me. Well, accordingly, having finished with the case of Malkin and Mark.Space, I delved into studying what vacancies there are now for product managers. Well, I threw the CV under the rug everywhere where the company and its creators were not noticed in cryptocurrency / blockchain / infogypsy / fraud / scam / scum and other corporate crap. As you can imagine, my choice was sharply reduced, but nevertheless, among them was this ad on Geekjob.

I confess, I didn’t look in a hurry what exactly was written there. Otherwise, I would save myself time. On the other hand, you would not read this material. So the public benefit from this will still be.

You know, it's like with women - if she saysor writes in social networks that she is e6 @ nutty, then this is not coquetry. This is a fair warning that this is true. And if you deal with it, and even more so fall into bed, then only after thinking 150 times and taking all possible risks. And it is better not to do this at all and never. The same can be said about this text from patients from Altair Digital - this is a warning, meaning "we are looking for completely stupid enthusiastic idiots who will do all the work for us."

No, of course, the lower bar for a salary of 50 thousand. I am quite amused with the note “there are no restrictions on salaries and bonuses”, but then I drew attention to the word “mobile planetariums”, found the product not shameful and even useful - and I calmed down on this. Well, the structured presentation looked normal at a quick glance. And the details, if anything, will be clarified during the conversation. Well, they turned out.

When Alexey Irkov contacted meperson, and we agreed on the time of the call, I decided to re-read the text of the vacancy carefully again - and, damn it! - there are no planetariums. A certain startup RocketMom, about which the following was written:

"Our mission is to create a smart AI assistant formom, who will help her solve the routine tasks of the house. Now we are launching the first part of it and will sell an artificial intelligence system that monitors the work of the nanny and monitors the safety of the child while the parents are not at home."

Ok, artificial intelligence, then.Thank you for not having blockchain as a babysitter. But it still smelled like a “typical startup,” modern art, and Indians with AI backup dancers. Well, and the smell of divorced suckers, of course.

"This year I set a new ambitious goal for myself - to build a unicorn IT company from scratch in 3 years (with a billion-dollar revenue)".

It is strange that the authors of this project did not enter the ICO. Or maybe they just didn’t. But revenue in BILLION DOLLARS is Google's revenue in 2013. And here is a certain product to replace or control the nannies. Ambitious. I wonder if there is a billion in the US market due to the revolution in the baby market in the current situation? If these are not robots, which are actively developed by the Japanese, and which are still very far from replacing a person. Something not sure.

However, not only potential investors should be in the role of sucker.

"At the start, you will have $ 30K of investment dollars that you can use for marketing, hypothesis testing, problem interviews, attracting traffic, positioning and mining competitor cases."

It is interesting how 30 thousand dollars are combined for a start and a billion in 3 years. But further interesting:

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"EXPECTED RESULT:

For 3 months:

3 potential b2b / b2c client segments with 15-20 interviews per segment in the US market were interviewed.

Fifteen hypotheses on finding a paying segment and validating a product hypothesis for a segment were tested.

MRR Achieved - $ 30,000 (in money or contracts of intent)

For 6 months:

Another 30 product hypotheses, a search for a paying segment, and a product hypothesis validation for a segment were tested.

A b2b / b2c paying segment has been found, there are 50 presales based on the results of decision interviews.

The first version of the product was launched, the convergence of the unit economy was verified.

Feedback from early customers has been collected.

Reached MRR - $ 50,000

For 12 months:

Reached revenue for 12 months - $ 500,000.

If the hypothesis with RocketMom is confirmed, then sales are launched in other states.

Checked 1 hypothesis of an additional business model.

For 18 months:

Tested 2 more hypotheses of an additional business model.

Revenues for 18 months - $ 2,000,000.

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Firstly, it was wildly interesting where these came fromfigures about segments and interviews. It all looked as if the authors of the project did not have the slightest understanding of what they were going to do and were going to point their fingers at the sky. That is, using someone else’s hands to test everything that comes to mind (“30 more product hypotheses”). And how to fit the test of those same 30 product hypotheses into 3 months, while obtaining adequate statistics and conclusions is also extremely interesting.

Secondly, it was wildly interesting how you can switch from revenue of $ 2 million in 1.5 years to revenue of $ 1 BILLION in another 1.5 years. It is likely that the plan was as in the picture.

Thirdly, it was not clear how it was possibleConduct 45-60 interviews with mothers in the USA in the first 3 months, without being directly in the USA and, among other things, without carefully observing them. Monitoring forums, Facebook groups, correspondence and Skype calls are one thing. But watching it live is different. It all looked like ridiculous statistic wankering without understanding one’s own target audience. Well, understanding should have been provided, presumably, by the hired sucker for the position of product manager.

And fourthly, it was not clear how the projectintends to move to the USA in February, if even initial interviews with the entire pool of candidates for one of the key project posts have not yet been completed in January. But there you still have to open a legal entity, rent an office, hire staff on the spot, organize work visas, etc. etc.

In general, upon closer inspection, it smelled like shit...typical startupers who were late to the hype around crypto, but don’t mind repeating the fate of WeWork. All that remained was to quickly google what was already known about Irkov and Co.

year 2014. Mobile planetariums. Profit is not amazing. To a billion dollars is very far.

2017 Mobile planetariums are being sold at residual prices, the death of the old version of the business. Pivot to VR screening.

2017We tried to sell the franchise, but it didn’t work out logically. If they had tried to do this in 2019, they might have ended up getting whipped by Andrei Kovalev with his “Vain Man.” Also pay attention to the phrase "We earn less than in better times, when planetariums were in mass demand…".

2019 With the filing of the IIDF (well, we know what it is "professional organization" and won’t give bad advice) again began to download the franchise theme. Pay attention to the volume of the receipt - and compare this with the coveted billion of RocketMom's future revenue.

In general, I had something to ask Alexei Irkov for an interview, and I asked these questions. As a result, it turned out that:

The idea of ​​a startup was born from the fact that his wifeI got tired of looking for a qualified nanny and controlling after hiring. Well, then the vaitishnik Irkov ran to decide. True, failing to determine what exactly he is going to solve - the hiring problem or the control problem.

CA is not defined at all. Neither by type of family (single mothers / large families, etc.), but by psychotypes, nor even by the level of income per person. Moreover, segmentation was not done according to the type of children with whom the target nanny or mother will be busy. Will it be babies, toddlers, schoolchildren or older teens? Will it be a nanny or governess? In short, everything should come up with a product for a salary, and Irkov and Urvantsev will nod their heads approvingly.

Irkov singled out already 2 pains of potential clientsfrom the “Castdeva” he conducted: “the child is crying for some reason” and “it is necessary to check what the nanny does before and during the time when the child is crying”. Very informative, Alexey, nowhere else to go. Combined with the uncertainty of Central Asia, this looks like a ringing void in the heads of future owners of a billion revenue.

There is no product even in the bud. Actually, it is supposed to test a set of promises and take an advance payment from the Americans, and then Ikrov’s partner Urvantsev will gash artificial intelligence. Because he can. And then there you can go for investment.

The criteria and principles of AI, too,naturally not. Simply put, even the founders do not yet understand what he will do. What kind of AI assistant and what kind of routine tasks - Irkov could not explain in any way. Beauty!

To the question "How are you then different from startups, cryptans and Star Citizen?" I heard an incoherent set of words andassurances that anything is possible and that founders love challenges. Well, the product should love them too. Hmm, even scammers from the Blockchain Foundation would be more convincing.

"Billion Revenue" was written because"Valuation of a billion" - it's kind of foolish. Any non-start-ups, you see, spoil the reputation of these startups, inflating capitalization, while not getting out of losses. Therefore, Irkov sets the goal of precisely a billion REVENUE. To type honestly.

At the same time, in the job description, Alexey promises the following: "I will be your leader and mentor. And I’m ready to turn on and help you for 10-15 hours a week". Thanks, it's better not to help.

In total, there is a “typical brain startup”as he is. Don’t give money to patients from Altair Digital, don’t invite them to meetups, don’t invite them to pitches - it’s better to let them cut the planetarium franchise. This is both more useful and safer for the investment community. I recommend that patients themselves read this article about Russian business.

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Original post: https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/592d3ad87ddde88dbd5af2da/kazn-startapa-rocketmom-i-tipichnye-startapery-iz-altair-digital-5e1da6a504af1f00b174e6f0

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