Getquantify is real-time online collaboration application for small businesses. Organize your tasks into projects and keep your team up to date.
We had the opportunity to interview the “one-man show” brilliant entrepreneur Mr. ‘Roman Leinwather‘; Founder of the Czech Republic (Prague)-based start-up “http://www.GetQuantify.com” regarding his Company.
“GetQuantify.com” is a real-time online collaboration application for small businesses.
Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. Leinwather regarding his start-up “GetQuantify.com”;
1. What is it exactly that you do and what “GetQuantify” is all about?
Getquantify is real-time online collaboration application for small businesses.
Organize your tasks into projects and keep your team up to date with our 3-way notification system. Track time you spent on your tasks, create reports to analyze, invoice.
View your tasks in all tasks view, calendar or project view, which ever suits you best to be the most productive.
2. When has “GetQuantify” been founded? And what stage is “GetQuantify” currently at?
I have started Getquantify in the year 2010 as a simple todo application which has involved into a robust projet management software.
Getquantify is going to become the virtual office so there is plenty of new features I am planning to build it.
The biggest challenge is to bring tons of new features while keeping the interface clear at the same time.
3. What is “GetQuantify”’s business model and how does it work?
The application has single price plan. It cost USD 29 a month. There are no limits. You can create as many projects, tasks, collaborators as you need.
I dont want to tweak your workflow, removing all the limits out of the way allows you to focus on what is the most important, your work.
4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?
I am the only member of the team so far. I design, code, take care of server as well as marketing.
5. What, exactly, makes you different from existing options, what will make your product and/or service stand out in the marketplace? In other words what’s unique about you and what’s new about what you make?
Getquantify is trying to bring simple but powerful interface which does not stay in your way and allows you to be very productive.
The goal is to put together set of features which solves most of your daily routines so you do not need to work in 5 different apps. to get things done. Having the app. in 8 languages (and more to come) also helps a lot.
6. What is your growth like? And what milestones has “GetQuantify” achieved so far?
Since I released the second version of the app. it has started to get the right traction and companies from around the globe are using the app. to be more productive. The app. is has been profitable pretty much since day one.
The goal is to make the app. my full time activity with next 2 years so I could progress 100times faster.
7. Who are your competitors? And what is “GetQuantify”’s competitive advantage over them?
There are literally hundreds of collaboration applications out there and each of them is trying to do things little bit differently. Applications like Basecamp, Flow, Pivotal Tracker are very popular.
I am trying to bring other aspects of business into the app time-tracking, invoicing, stats and lot more… to make it not only about the collaboration but really making it your virtual office.
8. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?
At the beginning I have decided to build the app. withe modern technologies and frameworks which I had to learn first.
The biggest problem I experienced was when I had to change the name of the app. because of the trade-mark issues but it all worked-out pretty well at the end.
9. What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?
Luckily online collaboration application has been here for while so people are pretty familiar with this concept of applications.
The usage of this kind of application is pretty much down to peoples work discipline. Some people try to use such an app. but many times it is not the app. why they stop using it, they simple just loose the focus and are not willing to continue with their projects, whatever the software is.
The situation with companies is lot different as the individual team members do not have that much choice once the company start using such an app. and they are kind of forced to create the habits of daily visiting the app. and working in its environment.
10. Why are you going to succeed?
I think there is plenty of space for business applications out there as everyone of us has different routines and different ways of doing things. Its only about presenting the user with all the possible options so he/she can decide which app. to use.
I believe that there are plenty of people who will find the application very useful and will help them to be more productive as its already helping me and my existing customers.
11. If “GetQuantify” succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
As I have said before. My goal is to make the app. the virtual office. I am not planning to start any other applications.
I will be adding features which will make the everyday life of workers easier. Everything we use to do with paper can be now streamline inside application like this one and that is where my focus is.
12. Why did you choose this idea and concept to build “GetQuantify” based on?
I am running tiny creative study in the heart of Europe, Prague. I have to deal with tons of projects every day and needed to tool which would allow me to be more productive. As designer and developer I am fortunate to be able to create a tool which suits me best. Hope that other people will find it as useful as I do.
13. What have you learned so far from launching your idea?
I have learned that bringing the application in front of the people who might be interested in using it is really hard. There is way too many information on the internet these days and its not easy at all to promote your application even if it was the best one out there.
This is the area where I need to do better job. There are plenty of people out there who could clearly benefit from Getquantify, but they just simple no idea it exists.
14. Six months from now, what’s going to be your biggest problem?
Hmm, I do not see these process as full of problems. I really enjoy working on this project. As I said in the previous question, the hardest part is to promote the app. and that is what I am going to do more in the upcoming months.
15. What’s the benefit for the customer/user?
The biggest benefit is that when using Getquantify as a software which covers your flow, you are always up to day. Your projects and tasks are nicely organized, prioritized so you know exactly what is the most important thing you need to be working on right now.
You are notified about changes in real time. There is no need to try to put pieces of information together from various emails you got from your team members. Its all in Getquantify and you can get it anytime from anywhere.
16. How did customers/users find out about you?
I try to promote the application as much as I can in various sources. I make interviews, I ask sites to make reviews, comparisons. I am also active on social networks. Sending promo emails. Being featured on design galleries helps as well.
17. Who are your current customers/users? Who are your target customers/users?
My current customers belong to my target group. They are mainly small companies with 3 to 10 users working on about 20 projects in average.
I am customer of my product myself and my numbers pretty much numbers of other Getquantify customers so its lot easier for me to understand them when I am just one of them.
18. Where do new customers/users come from and what makes new customers/users try you?
The new customers pretty much comes from my activities mentioned in point 16. I think people are quite aware of various collaboration application out there and they keep on trying the new one so they find the one which suits them best.
19. What do your customers/users say about your product and/or service?
Most of my customers like how the application works and feels. They like the structure and they think that individual sections are logically built so they do not have hard time understanding how it suppose to work. The app. does not stand in a way but rather the opposite, it helps them to do things faster.
20. How are you going to scale?
Scaling is a problem which only appears when the number of your customers comes into hundred thousands. I do not provide free plan so the only users of the app. are companies who pay for it.
I am realistic and I think that the number of paying Getquantify customers will not go into those numbers where I would need to start thinking about scaling issues. But if it would ever go there, the income from all the paying customers would allow me to fix these issues very quickly, bringing more resources in place…
21. What’s the biggest missing feature? The one thing customers/users keep asking for?
I have recently built quite a few features customers kept on requesting so I do not have at the moment anything major but I am working on invoicing feature which I hope will be very useful to my customers. Data imports and synchronization with other services interests me a lot as well.
22. Are you going to internationalize? And if yes how are you planning to expand your start-up’s operations accordingly?
Getquantify is already available in 8 languages which covers lot of potential customer base.
The languages are mainly European and American but I am thinking about bringing few Asian languages as well as the grow of the internet in Asia is huge these days.
23. How big do you think you can get? Why? And how you are planning to achieve your goals?
I think Getquantify can get into few thousands of customers. This is not big number in terms of the current internet bubble talks but its provides very healthy business and that is all what I care about.
The goal is to find the right companies who will love the product and will help them in various different ways. The goal is not just abstract big number for me….
24. Are you looking to hire a new workforce? And if yes, what job vacancies do you currently offer and where can potential applicants contact you at?
I am not looking to hire new workforce at the moment but as the application grows I might need help in various areas, mainly marketing and server maintenance.
25. Are you looking for partnership opportunities or funding from Venture Capitals (VC) or other funding sources? Or your business is self-sustainable? And if the first option applies where can potential partners / investors contact you at?
I am not looking for outside funding. My goal is to build company from the inside out, so based on the product income and grow it from there.
I would like to build long term business based on good relationships with my customers and not to build a startup which I would sell.
26. What advice do you have for fresh entrepreneurs?
My only advice is “Start now”. There is only so much you get from reading, studying and talking about startups. The real experience only comes from the execution. You do not need to know it all. I did not know half of the web languages I am using now in Getquantify.
