How UBERization of Technology can raise a quality of providing service

Last two weeks Mike has been traveling to Yerevan, Armenia. 

First of all, Mike would like to share some historical and tech industry related information about Armenia as a brand maker.

For those who have never heard about Armenia (it's AR-ME-NIA, not Romania, not Albania, it's ARMENIA) - it is a mountainous landlocked country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia with own huge cultural and historical heritage. Also, Armenia is a first country in the world who adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301.

As from product/brand creating perspective you probably know a lot of Armenians by origin, but more famously as representatives of other countries, like:

1. Andre Agassi - Tennis player (USA)

2. Garry Kasparov - Chess Player (Russia)

3. Charles Aznavour - Singer (France)

4. Alexis Ohanian - Entrepreneur (USA) 

In a few words it's a really interesting country that's full of discovered and undiscovered (yet) talents and amazing people.

As a part of a tech world (small yet, but still growing) Armenia is involved in tech with startups as well as tech leaders (Cisco, Oracle, VMware, Microsoft)

Mike was amazed by startup guys, who passionately promote their own ideas and beliefs.They try to make positive changes or as someone said about Alexis Ohanian, "Make the world a bit less suck."

There are several very successful startups like: 

Teamable.me - Next Generation recruitment platform, using B2B SaaS model, and

PicsArt.com - Last Year was named as an official partner of Google, during the Google IO 2015

There are more, but Mike will inform you about them next time, so be patient and you will get a cookie :)

A particular startup Mike wants to share about is called ggTaxi, which is an Armenian based startup, that's doing doing pretty much like Uber, but with taking into consideration national, cultural and economical aspects. If Uber is giving a chance to everyone to make extra money by driving their own vehicles, ggTaxi is using service of professional taxi drivers, who want to join the company in order to drive a cab under an umbrella of the company.

And here ggTaxi is solving more important problems than just giving an ability to drive and earn money:
1. ggTaxi is creating a competition among taxi drivers, who are forced to constantly improve the quality of the provided service. (clean cabs, faster services, no noisy music, etc)
And it's not about the price, because ggTaxi has the same prices as any other cab in Yerevan and generally, it's cheap.

2. Second, ggTaxi is against tips, which became an integrated part of our society in USA. It's ridiculous when you see on your bill options to tip 12% 15% or 18%. Why? why? why? Tips should be my natural will for good service, not an obligatory part. Back to ggTaxi driver insisted to give back 300 Armenian drams, which is less than dollar. Still money for Armenian reality but another perception of mindset change.

3. Last, but not least, ggTaxi has direct line of customer support, and they are glad to hear your concerns,  feedback and improvement requests.


In other words startup is a social influencer.

Teamable.me next time...

Startup suggestions from Mike

Yesterday Mike thought about a few things: What are the main mistakes done by startups and how to prevent them?

1. Right amount of co-founders

One founder can't really handle everything. It's better to have 2 more fellas who will help you with all ideas and will definitely be the first guys who will criticize your crazy ideas in order to place them to the right pace. Here is some examples for you: Facebook - 5 founders, Google - 2 founders, WhatsApp - 2 founders, Reddit - 2 founders, Microsoft - 2 founders, Apple - 2 founders.

From another perspective too many founders can have different visions/opinions about "how it should work" or "who is the boss". Usually, startups with such problems die fast.

2. Startup is not a hobby

You should have 200% commitment if you want to be a startup. Mike was watching Shark Tank and he continuously noticed that entrepreneurs are failing to understand that you can't get investment if you are not committed to things you do or believe. Most likely Kevin O'Leary and Mark Cuban will ask you how much time you spend on your business, and if you tell them 2 hours every morning YOU ARE OUT, because it's your hobby, not your life...

3. Raise RIGHT amount of money

Raising less than you need –You might run out of money fast without being able to push to the market to the best of your potential.

Raising more than you need – is risky because it might make you feel like a star, so you might forget to deliver everything you should. Plus, you might have couple of more rounds to raise, so the more money you raised in the beginning – the more you would need to raise later. For some companies it is lethal. Last but not least to mention is the more money you raised the more dependencies and pressure from investors you will have.

4. Listen to your customers

This is a key factor for your success. Don't listen to your investors, I mean, take their opinion into consideration, but never take it as a 100% path to success. They financed your idea and vision, not vice versa.

HOWEVER, do listen to your customers. Listen and hear them (See Mike's Blog Here). Do A/B testing, ask for surveys, and organize target group discussions (even if you need to spend time and money). Starbucks gift cards are always handy here. :)

5. Team, Team, Team

Right team is like a unicorn-almost difficult to achieve. Please, spend time and hire right people-teamable work and spirit are vital factors of your young company.

It's easy to give suggestions (you are probably thinking) but Mike had all these flaws during his career in 5 different startups... He is learning with you, so no judgement, and just a few suggestions from a friend.