A lot of apps such as Lift have been making headlines lately, trying to help us stay on top of our personal goals, helping us monitor our productivity or our progress toward fulfilling our dreams. What about our unproductive or self-destructive selves? Anyone interested in paying attention to those? YesterdayMe focuses on only one habit – drinking.
The startup’s aim is clear: to help track the variety and the quantity of individual alcoholic consumption–which can be shared with friends if they’re willing to be truthful to one another. YesterdayMe (as in, “Who was that me yesterday?”) helps people calculate if their customary intake falls within safe limits set by the World Health Organization. YesterdayMe startup founder Vladimir V. Tuporshin stepped off his bicycle somewhere in Russia to tell KillerStartups more about his project.
How’d you come up with the name for your company?
1312 was my room number on campus at Moscow State University when I was a student. Our startup name is YesterdayMe. I just liked that name from the first moment it came to mind. I got the domain instantly and started working.
What’s the very first thing you do at work everyday?
Make coffee and check email. Probably what most people do.
How many people did you start the company with and how many people work for you now?
I started alone. Now there are two people on the team: me and my friend who’s working on coding.
Remember the early days starting up? Maybe you can share one anecdote that describes the struggle you went through?
Sorry, can’t remember anything suitable–launching was fun, not a struggle.
How do you handle frustration? When/how was the last time you dealt with frustration?
Frustration comes from time to time, and I think I just got more thick-skinned to it. The most important thing to do is to respond quickly. For example, if you have a problem with a server, move all other deals to the side no matter what you [are working on] and solve the problem.
A couple of weeks ago, I was on a bicycle tour from Moscow to Saint Petersburg (about a 450 mile ride), and our server was down. I had to stop, search for a stable Internet connection, phone my partner, and finally we got everything back up and running.
What’s your office environment like?
YesterdayMe was raised in the home office.
How do you picture your company in 5 years?
I don’t want it to be a large company–it would be much better to setup an office on the attic/roof of some historic building in Moscow, or Lisbon maybe (just like this city).
Who or what inspires YOU?
Sports, traveling, math, creating new products and seeing people use them. Some time ago, I found myself liking to do anything that I had never done before.
How’d you fund this venture? VC? Self-funding? Crowd-funded? Where’d you get the money, man?
Self-funded. Besides YesterdayMe, I work at WebAsyst (www.webasyst.net, www.shop-script.com), and invest my earning into YesterdayMe. We also have a iOS app, Pocket Lists, which brings in some money we can live on.
Got any great bootstrapping tips for the lean startups out there?
Make it for yourself and for your friends. If your friends like and admire what you do, it is a very good sign to get it to other people as well.
What would you be doing if you had one year off and $500,000 to spend (and you couldn’t spend it on your current startup / projects)?
I would start a new project — a computer game.
Do you consider yourself a successful entrepreneur right now? If not, what’s it gonna take to make you feel successful?
Not yet, just don’t feel that it is near to success at all. A lot of things to be done — maybe then I will feel different.
Website you couldn’t live without and why?
I’m not highly addicted to any websites. When I’m traveling, I forget about my online activity. I think I could live without it, if I had to.
Mobile App you’re in love with and why?
I love the productivity app that I created with my friend. The app name is Pocket Lists.
Dogs or cats?
A cat. Her name is Klaxa (in Russian it stands for “stain”). You can see her in [this] picture of my work place:
She is beautiful! iOS or Android?
iOS.
Number 1 country you’ve always wanted to visit but haven’t yet?
Chile.
What’s the greatest thing about your company/website/idea?
We are trying to make WOW websites and apps. Not just good and useful, but worth admiring, controversial in some way, but innovative.
Where can our readers get a hold of you?
Photo Credits
Courtesy of startup founder and YesterdayMe.
