Hashtago is a SaaS tool to launch and manage cross-platform marketing campaigns for brands.
Start-Ups.Co interviewed Mr. ‘Kostiantyn Riabov’; Growth Head of the Ukraine (Kyiv)-based start-up “Hashtago”.
“Hashtago” allows users to get rewards for using hashtags in posts and enables brands to make their marketing campaigns go viral.
Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. ‘Riabov’ regarding his internet start-up company “Hashtago”
1. What is it exactly that you do and what “Hashtago” is all about?
Hashtago is a SaaS tool to launch and manage cross-platform marketing campaigns for brands. These campaigns are centered around hashtags, For users – Hashtago is a possibility to get rewards for using hashtags in posts. Brands create landing pages on Hashtago and choose campaign’s hashtag. Then spread the word over their social networks to tell their fans new promotion is launched. Users start participating by registering in a few clicks on our landing page. Then we trace campaign’s progress and provide brands with this information wherever and whenever user uses campaign’s hashtag.
2. When has “Hashtago” been founded? And what stage is “Hashtago” currently at?
Hashtago was founded on August 2013 in Ukraine. We have already closed seed stage and received $200k so we are not looking for investors right now. In a month we are launching our beta version of the “landing” tool to allow brands create landings for their cross-platform hashtag marketing campaigns. Then we will focus on dashboard for users to show them all current brands campaigns in one place.
3. What is “Hashtago”‘s business model and how does it work?
Since we are in a beta stage we have not yet proven our business model. Right now it is – subscription model for brands. With a small monthly fee (we are considering the exact amount so far) brands will be able to create marketing campaigns and get analytics. For users – it is completely free. Then when we have a dashboard for users developed (where he/she will be able to choose between current brands’ campaigns) we will introduce a service to be featured on the dashboard so brand will get more attention from users.
4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?
Since startup community in Ukraine is small enough, we met by being introduced by common friends and colleagues. There are five main members in Hashtago team.
Andrew Litvin – CEO. He is responsible for new business and team management.
Andrew Volovyk is CTO. He is responsible for all software part of Hashtago. Front end programming and UI/UX.
Artem Pochepetsky – is CMO. He is head of marketing, developing and implementing marketing strategies and tactics of Hashtago.
Kostya Alexeev – is Developer. He is responsible for back end programming.
And finally me, Kostya Ryabov – I’m Growth Head, responsible for user base growth and users retention.
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?
I know it sound odd, but today nobody offers this kind of service. Our competitors either concentrate on hashtags analytics (which we will do too) or on social media automation tools which mainly focus on Facebook tabs creation or tools for easy promotions/sweepstakes inside Facebook. We offer to go beyond all platforms (social media communities or website) and launch cross-platform campaigns through landing tool on Hashtago website. Since users will use campaign’s hashtag and wherever users use it – we can track it and provide brand with understandable analytics: campaign’s reach and virality. Whether user uses campaign’s hashtag on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google + whatever.
6. What is your growth like? And what milestones has “Hashtago” achieved so far?
We have 500+ registrations to get notified when we launch our beta tool. We’ve been covered on all major beta sites so far. We will be doing massive PR when we have a landing to register on. Because right now our newsbreak is mainly the fact that we’ve closed seed stage with $200k and in the process of launching beta tool.
7. Who are your competitors? And what is “Hashtago”‘s competitive advantage over them?
There are two types of competitors Hashtago has: Competitors which provide hashtags analytics services. 2. Social media marketing platforms automation tools (SaaS SM platforms). Top 3 competitors which provide hashtags analytics services:
https://www.hashtracking.com, http://tagboard.com, http://hashtagify.me
Top 3 competitors which provide social media marketing automation tools: http://www.curalate.com, http://www.offerpop.com, http://www.votigo.com.
There are no tools to launch cross-platform marketing campaigns around #hashtags.
8. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?
Right now there two main obstacles: 1. We are developing landing tool and want it to have a nice look on all browsers and all screen dimensions. 2. The next thing is that we want this landing tool to look fantastic so we are developing a range of restrictions for instance for logo upload and background upload so nothing can make our landing tool look bad even for those not profound users who can use it.
9. What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?
Why hashtags? This is the main question. The deal is that hashtag is the only one generic metric across all social media platforms, so we use it as a tool to get cross-platform marketing campaign data. But since in Ukraine Twitter and hashtags are not widespread – we are facing some problems with understanding it.
10. Why are you going to succeed?
Because we work hard, believe in our idea, but most important – because we really solve pain for brands with this cross-platform marketing thing. Having worked in advertising agencies I know how hard it is for brands to manage all their advertising campaigns across all social media networks. So if there was a tool they would be happy. There will be!
11. If “Hashtago” succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
Our natural expansion is into the analytics area. We want to knock-out all competitors in hashtags analytics. Second thing is to become new distant advertising solution for brands. When we not only provide landing tool but develop all necessary visuals, mechanics and guides for all online promotions.
12. Why did you choose this idea and concept to build “Hashtago” based on?
Because this idea is new and fresh. Because “hashtags are new url” as mentioned on Techcrunch. Because several months ago Facebook introduced hashtags, so now hashtags are really a widespread tool. Because we can solve brand managers and digital managers’ problems with managing cross-platform marketing campaigns.
13. What have you learned so far from launching your idea?
That it is essential to keep focus on one main thing. Thant it is crucial to communicate one main feature about your service to the public, since we are living in information-overloaded world. That it is very important to keep team motivated and happy to keep working hard. But most important that end users are interested in our service – they want to be rewarded for using hashtags in their posts.
14. Six months from now, what’s going to be your biggest problem?
We have a two-side story. B2B service for brands and B2C service for end-users to get rewarded for using hashtags in their posts. So brands are interested when we have enough registered users to boost their online marketing camoaigns and users are interested when we have enough brands registered so they can choose between different current campaigns to take part into. We mast preserve this balance constantly growing our user-base and brands registration.
15. What’s the benefit for the customer/user?
End user will have his profile or as we call it – a dashboard. There he/she will be able to filter current brands’ campaigns and choose in which to participate. Since Twitter is widespread in USA – a lot of users use hashtags heavily so if brands gave them an option to get rewarded for using branded hashtags in their posts they would be happy and would not miss this opportunity.
16. How did customers / users find out about you?
Right now our first clients are another startups which get acquainted with us on startups events. Our first users are these startups’ fans. Then our growth strategy is to get published on main tech resources like Mashable, Techcrunch, etc. We are in the process of negotiation with several major brands with lots of fans – when we launch landings for these brands we will get lots of registrations from end-users.
17. Who are your current customers / users? Who are your target customers / users?
We have several customer profiles: 1. Advertising agencies – digital managers who will use the tool for their clients. 2. Brand managers in big brands who will use this service to try something new at lest. 3. Startups who need more coverage so they will use our service cause we can boost their online marketing campaigns by activating our registered users – hashtags addicts.
18. Where do new customers / users come from and what makes new customers/users try you?
New customers will come from startup events. The more startups we have as registered brands – the bigger is our user-base. The more registered users we have – the more interested big brands become. Another channel is online publications on niche tech websites. As I’ve mentioned previously we will start our PR when we have beta launched. We also have inbound marketing strategy to get attention through our blog which is in the process of development. We will cover digital marketing topics with a focus on hashtags usage. We will produce unique infographics and presentations to be widely spread on Slideshare, Pinterest, Instagram.
19. What do your customers / users say about your product and/or service?
Most of users like the idea. Because they already use hashtags heavily including branded hashtags, they would love to be rewarded for using branded hashtags in their posts. Our main challenge here is to separate our service from common prize hunters, that’s why we will give brands advises before they choose their reward system.
20. How are you going to scale?
Landing tool, analytics and core basic features will be available for brands with free account but with some limitations (number of participants, lack of analytics) so brands will order paid accounts. With subscription based service it’s easy to scale. Users will register and bring their friends to participate.
21. What’s the biggest missing feature? The one thing customers/users keep asking for?
Right now we are in the process of launching beta so there no features that users or brands ask for. As a lean startup we are developing our MVP product which is landing tool for brands, brands profile with hashtags analytics included. After first brands register and give us feedback we will list all possible new features and prioritize them not to spend time developing unwanted features.
22. Are you going to internationalize? And if yes how are you planning to expand your start-up’s operations accordingly?
Our customers (paying clients) can be located anywhere. We are not limited by territory. We are looking into USA market as our general source of clients and profit. That’s why our CEO are registering representation agency in USA right now. Anyway hashtags are widespread and we are – a solely internet service without any kind of delivery involved which gives us a possibility to internationalize.
23. How big do you think you can get? Why? And how you are planning to achieve your goals?
Of course we want to be really big. I mean really. And It depends on both: interest from public, meaning end-users, hashtags addicts etc. And brands which will see users’ anticipation and will start using our service. The deal is that today’s SMM is dead the way big brands use it. It’s expensive and time consuming. And we want to give businesses a possibility to launch their marketing campaigns beyond all social networks in a few easy steps. Our prior negotiations with brands show their interest.
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?
In next few months we will hire one junior designer because right now all design functions are covered by our CTO who deals with these functions pretty great as you can see from our website, but he has no time for this. Plus we will need to produce regular infographics and presentations as part of our SMM strategy. Then we will need one account managers to deal with our first clients. Right now we want to build a system when we contact clients by email only. All applicants are friends of friends and so one. Word-of-mouth.
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?
We have already closed seed stage and received $200k so we are not looking for funding right now. We are concentrated on beta launch, users attraction and retention. When we show great results we will consider applying for next rounds of funding. But it will be not before the first quarter of 2014. So now all efforts are concentrated on product itself.
26. What advice do you have for fresh entrepreneurs?
Stay hungry, stay foolish )) Work hard and believe in your idea because you will find lots of people not giving a damn and this is normal. Just stay motivated and work hard.
27. Finally, do you have any other comments that you would like to add?
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