The story of one failure: how I launched the cryptocurrency project, why it failed and what lessons I learned. Parts 4 and 5.

My ten-month experience in creating and developing a startup. I tell you what worked well and what didn’t.I show my own mistakes and hope to save readers from repeating them.

If you have not read the previous parts, then here is the first part, and here is the second and third parts.

Part 4. How to assemble a team
I decided to start a startup with developmentsocial network. I wanted to make an MVP and attract the first users-investors. Then get investment in the project and use this money to create Cerberus. Next, promote the car: attract managers, add projects. Now I understand that starting with the development of a social network was a strategic mistake. But at the time the idea seemed good.

In any case, I needed a team. There was no budget from the word at all. Therefore, I was looking for a STO cofounder for a share in the project. At first there were unsuccessful attempts: they did not agree with someone on the terms, they started a trial run with someone and parted in the process of work. In general, finding the right CTO proved to be a problem.

I heard a story that finding a good service station is more difficult than finding a wife. I haven't checked the second one. I agree with the first one.

In the end, I was lucky: we wrote to each other on the forum. St. Petersburg company OKTEND launched an internship program and needed a real project. The head of the company Aleksey Rezvov turned talented Padawans of programming into Jedi of his craft. I ran a startup without a budget. We went together like honey to parmesan. Therefore, we agreed to divide the future company in half and set to work.

At the first stage, we postponed legal issues: This saved the budget and time. From the side it is not obvious, but the decision is balanced. Everyone understood: sharing an unkilled bear is pointless. If the founders quarrel, the startup will die anyway. If the founders are able to agree, then you can wait a bit with lawyers. At least until the first users.

It’s not true that you cannot run a startup with an unfamiliar team. Sometimes it’s among strangers that excellent co-founders and wonderful employees are hiding.

So instead of one CTO, I got a squadbattle-worthy programmers. There were twelve people with me: two backend developers, two frontend, one each on blockchain, mobile, devops. Two experienced curators supervised the quality of development and helped with advice. CTO controlled the overall process. There was also an analyst who translated my requirements into technical tasks, and a project manager who coordinated the entire process.

In the course of work, the team shrank a little, and I took on the last two roles. They added to my core functionality: product and marketing management.

How to develop a social network
We worked remotely.The main part of the team was in Russia, several guys were from the CIS. Remote interaction created difficulties, but there were more advantages. The most important of them is the opportunity to work with motivated people, and not worry about geography. The Internet is truly a great thing, there is no doubt about it. However, difficulties awaited. There were a lot of us, and we were wearing vests. The matter smelled of managerial chaos.

However, Alexey’s experience affected it. He formed a clear and understandable structure of interaction. The team was divided into blocks, each block was responsible for its direction. The project manager, whom I soon replaced, oversaw the overall process. Three times a week we met at Discord for short meetings. They coordinated the direction of development. The meeting time was strict: 20-00 on Tuesday and Thursday, 17-00 on Saturday. Duration 20 minutes. These meetings kept the team in good shape and made it possible to quickly solve problems. Thus, twelve strangers after seven days showed the first results. And after five weeks they worked as a whole.

From software, we used a bunch of Google Drive + YouTrack + Telegram + GitHub. The motivation for the choice is their simplicity and free.

The team was added to a single chat, whichused until the end of the project. There was the main communication. Sometimes it went into personal correspondence or at short Discord conferences. There were no additional channels. And this turned out to be a good solution: all the information was stored in one place, it was easy to look for, no one was confused. Tasks were monitored through YouTrack, the code was uploaded to GitHub. And the rest of the data was kept on the cloud in Google.

The project policy was democracy. I set goals, the team chose solutions. I did not go into the technical process and completely relied on curators and developers. Periodically changed or canceled tasks, based on feedback. I worked with smart people and intuitively understood that smart people appreciate freedom of action and an adequate reaction to the outside world. Therefore, I carefully adhered to this approach, even during periods when the roof really went.

Initially, we laid down the development of MVPfour months. But they lingered a little and kept within five. Typically, project managers multiply the implementation period by three to get real numbers. I don’t even know: are they pessimists, or are we lucky. In any case, our delay was within the margin of error. So everything turned out okay here.

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You can read the full story immediately here.Or wait until I publish it on smartlab. I also remind you about my telegram channel, in which I publish my own articles about investments and project management. I wait to visit!