NEZABERETE

My duties and responsibilities: idea generation, vision, product strategy, product and team management.

• Assembled three teams - software development, sales, marketing, 13 members in total.
• Created a vision and prepared app prototypes and user stories.
• Managed team to build and release the platform and mobile apps in 6 months.
• Developed and tested go-to market strategies and user acquisition tactics

The street-paid parking was in its way of implementation across Moscow in those days.
It was a very painful period for car owners and drivers – your' car could be removed from the street at any time regardless of the presence or absence of road signs. The city had implemented a predator's practice and gave a green light to its subsidiary division – to remove cars as many as possible. There were many cases when this division's personnel put temporary signs overnight and towed all cars because they decided it. This practice, combined with obligations to pay fines and fees for towing and parking time at special parking areas, has raised an enormous hate against the parking division. Their information services worked awful – you may spend hours on the phone trying to find your car.
Just imagine – you parked your car in the same spot every day for months, and one day, you didn't find it at the place you parked it. Fear, panic, and adrenaline came into your veins, and your blood pressure went up. First idea – your car is been stolen. You called the police, the insurance company, and the parking call center. You had been in a queue for 20-30 minutes to hear where they moved your car, if the vehicle information already were populated in their system. If not, you have had to wait and repeat the call. These parking areas had been established in the least convenient areas with low availability of transport. The drivers might spend 1.5-2 hours to reach these locations. You'll need to sign some papers, pay fines and fees, and get your car back, but if you were just a driver but not the owner of the car – you need to come with the owner or provide a proper power of attorney or insurance for that car with your name on it.

One day, in October 2015, Leonid phoned me and said his BMW had been taken by "crocodiles" again - let's create something that can help to avoid such drastic moments and awful feelings. We brainstormed and came up with the idea of "Nezaberete" ("You won't take it"). The second name was "Gde Tachka" ("Where is the car")
The idea in brief – to monitor a car position change, not only at horizontal axis, but vertical also and notify the owner via app, by phone and SMS – was similar to the satellite car alarm but should be far less expensive, user friendly, and simple to use.

We needed to find a smart and cheap tracking device that could be installed in the car. After checking possible options, we decided to use OBD devices, which can be connected to cars of various manufacturers. Ruptela and Teltonika stayed on the list after the tests; trackers from other suppliers were ruled out for several reasons, but mostly due to the absence of desired functionality. Their devices had GPS and GSM, could read car signals and events, measured acceleration, and were affordable—around 100 Euro per unit.

The platform, a mobile app for iOS and Android, was developed in the next 6 months. Everything worked as designed and we’ve met all our expectations – users got notified via the app – push messages, vibration, and sound, via phone call – just in 10 seconds after car wheels lifted into the air.

We tried various go-to-market ideas. First, we'd planned and made a promo campaign for one month in June, with well-known bloggers on YouTube, Facebook, and VK , spent around 10k USD and landed 25K unique user visits to our site.

After testing different packaging, pricing, and offers, we figured out two main bottlenecks: the fear of self-installation of ODB devices and low trust in the new brand and product.

We have received over 30 partnership requests, prompting us to concentrate on attracting partners in auto repairs, car washes, tire repairs, and similar services. Over a period of 2 months, we actively sought out and met with potential partners. After assessing the results and feedback, we found that most potential B2B partners hesitated to promote our service due to a lack of brand recognition and trust.

Leonid and I held contrasting views on several crucial matters at this stage:

• Promotion—Leonid believed that marketing was unnecessary and was hesitant to spend money on advertising and PR, while I thought that the project would have minimal chances of success without effectively engaging the end user.

• Participation in startup accelerators—We received approval from an accelerator, which required Leonid and me to participate jointly, but Leonid was uninterested in the program.

• External investment: Leonid did not want to engage in fundraising and generally did not favor the idea of external investment.

This situation had reached an impasse - promoting the project required investment in marketing and PR, but there needed to be a way to make such investments. Later this month, Leonid and I eventually agreed to go our separate ways, and I exited from the project. This was a difficult decision, as I believed the project had significant potential, not only as a service for protection against theft and towing but also as a service for car monitoring and diagnosis.

Tools and services:
Amazon AWS infrastructure for backend services
PickPoint Geocoding services
Jira Development process management
Voximplant Phone apps services
Basecamp Backoffice, marketing team task management
Ecwid - engine for on-line store