Sramana Mitra: What are some examples of non-paid customer acquisition?
Timur Khabirov: Some celebrity who makes their own content. Let’s talk about viral effect. The first one was BTS. I didn’t know about this band before, but they started using Prequel. When I woke up, we were on the top. The BTS group used Prequel during the Grammys. Twitter was crazy.
Sramana Mitra: That gave you a huge lift.
Timur Khabirov: Besides user acquisition, you’re creating the brand.
Sramana Mitra: For brand marketing, influencer marketing is a very effective channel. It has always been.
Timur Khabirov: It’s community. It’s society. I like the democracy in mobile businesses. You don’t have somebody in the middle.
Sramana Mitra: How did you finance the business?
Timur Khabirov: It was self-funded.
Sramana Mitra: How far along are you in revenue?
Timur Khabirov: $3 million a month. I’d like to increase that five times next year.
Sramana Mitra: Do you need financing to do that?
Timur Khabirov: It’s something we’ll think about.
Sramana Mitra: You don’t have to if you can afford.
Timur Khabirov: Maybe we’ll need the money. Also not only because of the money but because of the strategic partnerships.
Sramana Mitra: What kind of strategic partnerships?
Timur Khabirov: For example, Sequoia. They not only have money but the experience and connections.
Sramana Mitra: Tell me more about what strategic partnerships you think can accelerate your business. What are those companies that would make sense?
Timur Khabirov: We can provide some platform. Maybe a marketplace or publishing platform. We have a lot of experience with that. We need a strategic partner with experience. We need to monetize our products not only on B2C.
Sramana Mitra: Is Prequel now only an app or do you have a web version?
Timur Khabirov: We’re working on a desktop version. We’ll call it Prequel Studio for now. We’re going to put this on the market in the beginning of next year.
Sramana Mitra: Where would you price that?
Timur Khabirov: Maybe an annual subscription. Now we have our own tools. We’re going to share our tools with the creative community.
Sramana Mitra: For users who are paying $20, what is the equivalent on the desktop?
Timur Khabirov: That’s not for the end user. We have a creative community of professional designers. The professional editor can do this on our desktop.
Sramana Mitra: What about people who want to use it on the desktop?
Timur Khabirov: The phone is the number one priority.
Sramana Mitra: But you’ve already done that.
Timur Khabirov: I wouldn’t say we’ve done that. We’re expanding our product line.
Sramana Mitra: You need a desktop version that people can use. There is a whole community who are creating videos on desktop.
Timur Khabirov: That’s for them, and the iPad version as well.
Sramana Mitra: What about team? You’re self-funded. How many people are you?
Timur Khabirov: 200 people.
Sramana Mitra: Where are they located? Are you virtual?
Timur Khabirov: I don’t like virtual.
Sramana Mitra: Are your 200 people in New York?
Timur Khabirov: We have two locations in the US. Portugal and Montenegro. I like Montenegro. It’s less expensive. I hope we’ll open more offices next year in the US. One of the main priorities is China. It’s a huge market, but it’s very local.
Sramana Mitra: Wonderful story. Thank you for your time.
This segment is part 4 in the series : Bootstrapping to $3M a month: Prequel CEO Timur Khabirov
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