Pinterest blew up the social media scene last year, but as of February of this year, 80% of Pinterest users are women. It’s definitely still seen as a chick’s site but two dudes from Vancouver have set out to create Pinterest’s boyfriend: Dudepins.
KillerStartups sat down with co-founders Colin Brown and Kamil Szybalski to find out a little bit more about their fledgling startup.
How’d you come up with the name for your company?
Dudepins is a site that shares male oriented content. It took a while of cruising for available domains and brainstorming ideas, etc, but we felt “dude” represented male oriented [content] well and “pins” represented sharing content. There was some concern initially regarding being too “Dude-ish,” but that concern has been long alleviated; Dudepins will stand.
How many people did you start the company with and how many people work for you now?
Two [Colin Brown and Kamil Szybalski] and two, although we do work with some contractors to help us along.
Who or what inspires YOU? Role models? Quotes? Running? Video games? Snack food? Give us the deets, dude!
I (Colin, co-founder) am inspired by the passion of others, which is why I love the startup culture. It is a highly concentrated demographic of passionate people. There is always something to learn and a problem to solve. Your day never looks the same and success is directly related to your decisions and execution.
I (Kamil, co-founder) am inspired by challenges and driven by stress and results. I cannot see myself working outside of the startup environment and all that that entails: it’s who I am and the primary reason for waking up in the morning. I sleep because my body tells me to.
How’d you fund this venture? VC? Self-funding? Crowd-funded? Where’d you get the money, man?
For Dudepins, we took the hammer to the piggy bank. This is a self-funded venture.
What was the biggest mistake you made with this or a past company? Anything you would change?
Mistakes happen every day and are a vital part of a company’s growth. You learn more with every failure then you do with success. One thing Colin learned the hard [way] from a previous company is to stay the course through bad times and not try to turn the business on its head to react to the market.
Kamil is learning to always remain patient: problems will come, people will surprise you, but the result is always what you make it. It’s important to understand that your actions resonate through those around you, so always think hard before you speak or act.
Do you consider yourself successful now? If not, what’s it gonna take to make you feel successful?
This is an extremely hard question to answer because you need a solid definition of success. Do we enjoy what we do? Yes. Can we pay rent? Yes. Is Dudepins growing? Yes. So I would say we are off to the right start, although we are an ambitious team. That said, both of us have lofty goals that involve a much higher level of success than where we are at now.
Web App or site you couldn’t live without and why:
Colin loves project management sites. [He] uses a variety for different things on a daily basis with the top three being Pivotal, Trello, and Paprika.
Kamil is a big social media, marketing type; he is a fan of socialbro and grooveshark.
Mobile App you’re in love with:
There’s a ton, but Kamil just took a glare at his phone and saw: a) instagram, because pictures are timeless, b) echofon, for its simplicity, c) flash light, because you never know when you need some light, and d) oldify, to stay motivated.
Dogs or cats?
Colin grew up with dogs and would consider himself a dog guy. Kamil had an incredible German Shepherd, his name was Buddy, who just passed away, so he is definitely a dog guy.
iOS or Android?
[Colin is] still on a Blackberry…. Kamil is on iPhone. I think there is a problem in the simple fact that I said “I am still on,” like I need to make an excuse to use a Blackberry.
Anything else we should know about what makes you and your company so special?
We really want our users to feel part of a community, which is why we put major emphasis on customer service. We are always available to field questions via Twitter, Facebook or email. The times we aren’t available is when we are sleeping (which isn’t much) or when other biological needs occur…
Check out how to use Dudepins in this video:
