"Closing the Gap Between Developers & Customers," Wanelo >> Deena Varshavskaya [COMMERCISM 2014]

The First 1 Million Users.

@siberianfruit

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It all started in Siberia…

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The search for meaning.

THE PROBLEM: Commerce is so ‘90s.

SHOPPING > ?

NEWS!

VIDEO " "!

PHOTOS !

JOBS " "!

IMAGES "!

>!

>!

>!

>!

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Milestone 1:!the first users

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2010: Nobody Cares

Remove all the things!Remove all the things!

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• 30,000 monthly uniques!!!

• Close the agency.

• Move to San Francisco!

2011: Big changes.

Milestone 2:!First funding

THE PLAGUE: single, female, non technical founder with no team.

40 rejections later…

rejection #28

40 rejections later…

Milestone 3:!The team

The fateful intro…

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First engineers. First t-shirts.

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Ohai Sean.

I’m currently 17…

First office

Milestone 4:!The big relaunch

To rebuild or not to rebuild?

The Pros: !!• Old platform is bloated and painful to maintain!• Too easy to break!• Team wants a clean slate!• Best tools, technologies!• Major productivity gains

To rebuild or not to rebuild?

The Cons: !!• The odds are against us!• Freezing development!• New, unproven team!• Full rebuild is non agile/iterative!• Will take longer than you think!• Too many moving pieces • May hurt what’s working

We go for it anyway.

Challenges2 months later…

Challenges

How we did it

1. The right people !!!• Builders and get-shit-done-ers.!• Pragmatic!• Non religious about tech!• Move fast!• Team over rockstars

How we did it

2. Militant focus !!!• Know what’s important!• Is it possible to launch without this feature? !• Saying no is fun

How we did it

3. Work smart !!• Agile tools: Pivotal Tracker, Trello, Campfire!• Pair programming!• Test driven development!• Design in code!• Let people do their jobs

How we did it

4. Be authentic !• Find a meaningful problem you love!• Question everything!• Express yourself

Milestone 5:!Wanelo for iPhone

The first 4 reviews. EVER.

November 2012:!1 million users

2006 The idea !Sep 2010 First users on Wanelo.com !Jan-Mar 2012 New funding, team !June 2012 Wanelo 2.0 (the big relaunch!) !Aug 2012 Wanelo for iPhone !

Nov 2012 1 million registered users

Timeline

HAPPY ADVENTURING.

@siberianfruit

"Closing the Gap Between Developers & Customers," Wanelo >> Deena Varshavskaya [COMMERCISM 2014]

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