Vladimir Prelovac

Income App Promo Video (and making of)

Vladimir — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:06:40 +0000

I am incredibly happy that the app that I grew to love and use so much is going to be released soon for the users of iOS and Android tablets.

It's the Income.io app that I already wrote about before. Today we released this promo video.

We had a lot of fun making it, so we released the "making off" video as well.

I am also happy that a four month period of intensive brainstorming and development is coming to an end. I am convinced that this will be the easiest to use financial app, tailor made for families.

What makes a startup successful

Vladimir — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:46:35 +0000

Inspiration for this post came from a tweet that Paul Graham left this morning:

The history of a startup in one graph. pic.twitter.com/ywxX11OV4s

Shown below is the image associated to the tweet.

Now this startup can be anything, it doesn't matter. It clearly shows success in terms of growing its revenue.

What I don't like and what immediately caught my eye is that the startup's history was represented with a chart of monthly revenue.

How about the positive impact it left on our society? Shouldn't that be the far more important metric?

What if that chart looked like this (Instagram could be an example, even Facebook).

Would this be something to brag about?

Isn't the true point of entrepreneurship going forward, instead of making money? I would prefer to be on board SpaceX, which is currently probably loosing money but it's second chart could look like this:

I can understand beginner entrepreneurs going with whatever makes money first, so that they can get to the stage to pick their projects. But for an entrepreneur of the Graham's caliber, partner at one of the most well known startup accelerators in he world, I would expect to see a different approach when promoting the values of a startup. World has seen enough photo sharing apps already.

Starting a startup in one morning

Vladimir — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:56:09 +0000

This is not what I am building, to be clear, I just need a pic

As I grow as an entrepreneur I inevitably learn, develop and change my view on the world.

During the past weekend I had a wonderful trip to the countryside with my family. As it usually happens, a new startup idea was born in my brain while my body was busy enjoying the nature, chasing my daughter around and providing food. But this time, instead of spending too much energy and money building it, I wanted to first test the concept and check if there is anyone out there who thought it was a good idea.

Here is the story how I created a startup this morning.

1. What is the idea?

My newest startup will provide a dashboard for tracking SaaS metrics like churn and growth. I have GDoc with everything I want to build here. Including API, visualizations, people I want to get in touch with and even pricing. I did all of that yesterday. I thought it all made sense so that's why I decided to take the next step(s) explained here.

2. Is this startup solving a problem?

Many startups end up building tools and dashboards internally to track their growth, churn and other metrics. Making data driven decisions is the only way for you and your investors to make good business decisions. In fact for my other startup, ManageWP, we built like 7 different dashboards and I know every other successful startup does the similar thing. So there is obviously a need for the product of this kind.

At least I know it is solving my problem, and I would be able to use the tool for any new startup I will be creating in the future. That's usually good enough reason for me to venture into something, even it fails as a commercial product on its own.

3. Does competition suck?

Yes. Well at least in my mind. Check them out:

http://www.bimeanalytics.com/

http://www.cyfe.com/

http://www.digmydata.com/

http://ducksboard.com/

http://www.gooddata.com/

Also having competitors is a sign of a healthy, developing market. Game on!

4. Do I have a decent name? Is the domain free?

I think I do. I decided to call it Churn Bee. It it a combination of one of the most important SaaS metrics (Churn) and one of the most hardworking animals (Bee) and I thought it sounds good. You tell me.

Luckily the domain is also free. ChurnBee.com is now mine and live, for only $24 for three years. Yeee. Just in case I also got saasdashboard.com, perhaps as a helper site later to drive traffic to the service.

5. Create a landing page to collect emails of people interested in what I am about to build

This was actually the most time consuming bit but I still did it in under a two hours. I did not want to build the page in HTML, as I know that nowadays there are services that do this.

I heard about launchrock before so what I do when I want to find what's out there is type in the keyword followed by "vs" in Google and then I usually get the best.

Couple of Quora and Blog articles later I decided to use KickOffLabs.

It's free for first 14 days, but they did collect my CC upfront which sucks. I never like that. It has a number of templates and I went for the simple one.

I don't want to make any mockups of the service or other images at this time, so I decided to keep the page minimal and text only. No logo at this time either, it's too early and I would probably change it later anyway.

I did use a hexagon tile in the background, just for a bit of bee spice.

Writing content for the page was easy as I have a very good vision for the product and who will use it.

I am not too worried that I do not have fancy graphics, because people who sign up for the graphics are probably not going to pay later. Those who sign up with the crappy look as it is are highly likely to convert.

6. Add analytics

KickOffLabs supports Google Analytics so I went it and created a GA profile and added the code. I want to be able to see how many people visited it.

7. Host it on my domain

Branding is important from day one so next thing I did was move the landing page to my domain.

8. Spread the word

I will tweet and promote this on Facebook. I will ask couple of friends to share it. Will ask couple of LinkedIN connections for feedback. Engage on a few threads on Quora. I submitted the site to Betali.st and Feedmyapp.com for just a bit more traction.

I wrote this blog post. I added it to my Angel List profile.

9. What next?

If I get signups and initial positive feedback I will consider paying AdWords (for keywords like 'saas dashboard' or 'saas metrics') to get even more signups and also explore this potential channel for acquiring new customers in the future.

If I get more than 1,000 signups I will contact a couple of smart people in the market to join the startup as advisors. I know a lot about product development and metrics, but there are people who outclass my startups knowledge by far, especially investors.

And then I will actually start building this puppy, err bee.

10. Hoorah! I am done.

Just in time for the lunch!

That wasn't too hard. I spent $24 and about three hours of my time, including writing this post.

If it takes off as planned, I will write a follow up post on what happened next.

Update: Got 33 signups so far (day after), with about 10% conversion. Got positive comments from people who signed up, with tons of ideas and suggestions of what they'd like to see. So far it seems encouraging and that people actually need this. Going to wait a few more days and then launch an Adwords campaign.

Home budget app – Income.io

Vladimir — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:32:31 +0000

I am very happy to announce something we have been working on for the past three months. Family finances app Income.io is an iOS/Android app, with plans to create web and desktop versions as well. It is tailor made for families and very simple to use. Most of the time in these three months we were actually brainstorming features, what should go in and what should be left aside to keep the ease of use high.

I already started using the beta version on a recent trip and was very happy to learn the true cost of vacation compared to what I thought it would cost. I really hope other families will find this useful to raise their financial awareness.

Two Trello addons you should try

Vladimir — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:18:57 +0000

ManageWP in Trello

We use Trello in the ManageWP development extensively. If you don't know what is it all about, read how we use Trello to get an idea how powerful it is.

There are two Trello gems that I'd like to share. These are unofficial addons that provide an additional value to the already fantastic tool.

Trello Bookmarklet

If you are browsing a page and you just had an idea for your product, use the Trello Bookmarklet to turn this page into a Trello card on a predefined board and list with a single click .

This even works with emails in your Gmail. For example if you want to follow up on an email you just sent or somebody sent you an idea, Trello Bookmarklet with create a card with the email subject and the link to the exact email in your mailbox.

Printable Index Cards

Use the Trello card bookmarklet to create a printable A4 report containing your Trello cards which you can cut and use.

Index cards

If you want the job, show me the skills

Vladimir — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:15:55 +0000

I am surprised that a number of people applying for a development/design positions at my company still do not have an elementary idea of what should they put in their CV.

Here are a few tips:

If you are a programmer, please show me the link to your github profile. It will tell me more than all the courses and classes you have attended.
If you are an UI designer, please show me the link to your dribbble profile. It better be good too.
Under no circumstances, and I mean even if the sky is falling, do not, I repeat, do not write in your CV that you know how to use the Office package (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). We are in 2013 for God's sake and you are applying to work in an Internet startup.

Have you started using Bitcoin?

Vladimir — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:11:14 +0000

Bitcoin is a new digital currency and originates and functions thanks to the Internet.

The appeal of Bitcoin is that is a decentralized currency, "controlled" only by it's algorithm which is open source and available to everyone. Transactions are instant, the transaction fees are almost non-existent, and it is a universal currency. You can use your bitcoin in over 200 countries now, without the need to exchange currency twice.

A number of Internet companies started accepting Bitcoin, like WordPress.com or Reddit and we are considering the same at ManageWP.

What is also so amazing with Bitcoin is its growth both in value and in use. Bitcoin trades at around $45 now, but just two weeks ago it was trading at $30.

Source: coinbase.com

Predictions like this one have it that the target value of Bitcoin is $100,000 or even $1,000,000.

Is this a good moment to hop on the Bitcoin train as an investor? It is hard to tell. What is happening now with it looks a lot like an early day gold rush. Will it last? Well we live in a strange world, and I do not see why an Internet currency would not work.

Happy New Year 2013

Vladimir — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 11:10:56 +0000

I'd like to wish all readers of my blog a very Happy New Year, may it bring you success greater than in the previous one.

I have been very busy growing my own company - we are now at 40 employees, jump from 4 that we had just a year ago. It has been an amazing and unexpected ride.

Prelovac Media today creates web applications, mobile applications and games. So much has become from what basically has started as this blog.

The guys from Supersonic Parachute, our gaming division, made these cool drawings to mark the entrance to our new office.

Btw our new office is just phenomenal. I feel like on the deck of the starship Enterprise every time I enter.

Mobile and web apps

This is where ManageWP is made

To celebrate everything, we threw a big New Year's party and we had a blast! You check out the images on Facebook.

I really hope that we will manage to create brilliant new apps and games this year and impact more people lives in a good way.

Story about my first million

Vladimir — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:16:34 +0000

I wrote a story about the success behind ManageWP and how it all begun. It will be published as a multi-part series. Part I is online, and you can subscribe to ManageWP RSS feed to follow other parts. Hope you enjoy it.

Tortekolaci.com goes over the 10 million pageviews mark – ran as a family business

Vladimir — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:58:24 +0000

I am happy to announce that one of the online properties in the Prelovac Media network, the local cooking recipes site TorteKolaci.com has passed the mark of 10 million pageviews a month and continues to grow.

The site started just two years ago and is run by my brother and his wife as a small family business.

What makes is a great success is that both of them had no previous knowledge of Internet, marketing, SEO, WordPress or anything that would help them run a website. Not only the site has become one of the largest portals on the Balkans but with the huge number of genuine facebook fans (around 200,000 now!) is one of the largest online communities in this part of the world. Facebook also attributes nearly 2,500,000 pageviews every month.

This just proves that virtually anyone can run a successful Internet business if they are passionate about it.

I previously wrote about the site in this Facebook case-study.

Supersonic Parachute launches Starkey & Peggy – Great Adventure game

Vladimir — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 19:21:20 +0000

I am very happy to announce that our gaming studio, Supersonic Parachute, has launched it's first game and it has been approved in the App Store!

We set a challenging goal for our first game - create a game that our kids will love. We think that we achieved that goal and hope that you confirm that.

We released just the first 10 levels, we are working on 30 more!

Check out Starkey & Peggy in the App Store

Follow Supersonic Parachute on Facebook

Video Trailer

Description

Have fun playing with your children and let them discover a whole new world of fun and adventure.

Let your little ones choose the role of Starkey the dog or Peggy the cat and find their owners toys and everything else he lost all over the city. Explore fun scenes, enjoy the amazing gameplay this game has to offer in this hidden object adventure for kids between 4 and 8 years old.

Kids can change game difficulty too, based on their selection of Starkey or Peggy, as each of them helps kids find the lost items in a different way.

Game features:

- Stunningly beautiful scenes and animations your child will love

- Over 50 items to be found in 10 different scenes
- Choose your favorite character to play with
- Take photographs of animals and complete the photo album for even more fun
- Lots of awesome and animated items on every level
- Star-award system for each scene you complete

Check out Starkey & Peggy in the App Store

Follow Supersonic Parachute on Facebook

How to Create Artistic Monochromatic Photo in Photoshop

Vladimir — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:46:52 +0000

Editing photos in Photoshop is not what I usually do, but recently I needed to create a bunch of monochromatic (like black and white but "colorized") photos. My idea was to print them and create a photo album.

Here is what this post explains.

How to get this

from this

1. Crop

Most print photo formats exist in one of the fixed sizes like 15 x 10 cm and you need to make sure your photo will fit perfectly. This photo was bit wider so I had to use the "Rectangular Marque Tool" (M) to select the proper aspect ratio.

Just enter the aspect ratio you need (in my case it was 17.5x12.5 cm so I used 175x125), select the part of the image you think is the most important and then use Image -> Crop from the menu.

2. Black and white and Colorize

After that adjust the levels (or just use Auto Levels) with the Image -> Adjustments -> Levels (Ctrl-L) tool.

Time to convert the image to black and white and the easiest way to do this is to use Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation (Ctrl - U) tool and slide the Saturation to 0.

After that invoke the same tool again with Ctrl - U, check "Colorize" box and enter values 22 and 22 for Hue and Saturation. That is what I use to get this dynamic look. You can play with other values of Hue to get the desired result.

3. Apply Brush stroke filter

I discovered that Brush Stroke, particularly Angled Stroke, works great with these kind of images. You'll find it at Filters -> Brush Strokes -> Angled Strokes.

The values I typically use are Direction balance around 30 (feel free to change), Stroke Length 3, and Sharpness between 2 and 4.

This enhances the edges, gives the image a cool look and irons any noise coming from the low resolution of the shot.

4. Add "nostalgia" effect

This is the dark outline that gives the image that cool, worn kind of look.

Steps:

Select -> All

Select -> Modify -> Border. Use a value of around 50 px (depends on the size of the picture, the larger the resolution the more pixels you need).

Select -> Modify -> Feather. Use a value of around 30.

Image -> Adjustments -> Curves. Click on the line in the middle and drag it to the bottom.

And that's it.

Just for comparison here is the same photo made with just Black and White tool and the one that went through the whole process so you can decide which do you like better.

What industry badly needs a clever redesign?

Vladimir — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:31:08 +0000

The article was inspired by this thread on Quora and here is one of the clever answers given to kick it off.

Refrigerators

Fridges have had the same design since the 1940s. Cram all your perishable foods into a cold box and hope you remember to eat it before it gets furry.

Energy Waste: 4th largest consumer of energy in households using 7.3% of US household consumption

Bad UI: Open a large door to search for ingredients as cold air escapes

Inefficient Storage: Depth of fridge is useless when you can’t see what’s behind the first row. Accessing food in the back is a pain since food in the front is blocking it.

Mystery Box: Food considered fresh until discovered as spoiled

Waste Producer: The EPA estimated that Americans generate roughly 34MM tons of food waste per year

Don't you agree these are all obvious issues and yet nobody came up with a solution yet?

Thing is, I see examples of bad product design almost everywhere I look. From objects used everyday (car, phone, ...) to specific products and services in my industry (IT).

The end result of sloppy design is wasted time, energy, resources. Which is not a smart thing to have given that we are having less and less time, energy and resources.

So I am seeing this more and more as my new personal goal to produce sane, well thought of, user interfaces to products I create. The next one I will do, will probably be email.

Resisting smartphones

Vladimir — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:31:36 +0000

I have many friends who grew really addicted to their "smart" devices. When we'd go out for a drink, the common ritual occurs - check in with FourSquare, then tweet if it's a particularly nice place, check their email, and maybe take a photo and post it on Facebook - and that's even before the drinks arrived. Checking email/tweets/status update routine would then extend during the conversation, in 5-10 minute intervals.

Interestingly, I never had a smart phone. For me the ultimate thing to look in any phone has been it's battery life. That easily removed any smart phones from a list of desirable phones as far as I am concerned. Give me a 10+ day battery life and that gets me excited.

Not being "plugged into" the email throughout the day really allows me to enjoy the rest of my day, time that I am supposed not to be working.

Does the business suffer? I still did not have a situation when the fate of the business would depend on me having the access to email at that very moment. There have been few urgencies throughout the years that needed my immediate response but I usually had Internet near by. If there is no Internet near by then having an email app on the phone wouldn't help either.

I still do spend a lot of time with email but I like to devote time to it in bigger chunks, allocating time to email in the morning, during the day and in the evening. That allows me to get more things done as I am focused on only handling email.

And I am still definitely addicted to Internet. Need to receive my regular daily dose every day. But at least I am lucky that it does not extend throughout the whole day.

Could you do without Email, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, News apps on your phone? If not, how is it improving your life? Shoot in the comments.

Wandering around … USA

Vladimir — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:56:44 +0000

I have just returned from my first trip to the USA and I have to say that is was exciting, unpredictable and plain delightful!

Starting off with Virginia Beach, where we have recently opened our ManageWP US office. Most amazing stretch of beach that must be around 5 km long, if not longer.

Amazing Virginia beach

The "crew" was soon to visit USS Wisconsin, an Iowa class battleship, the kind they don't make any more.

Crew reports for duty

Visiting the Oceana Naval Air base gave me the wonderful opportunity not only to see F/A-18s taking off from the runway few meters away from me but also to take a picture with one of the most beautiful aircraft of all time - the Grumman F14-D Tomcat.

Me and F14 always had a special connection

Moving to Boston, I got to enjoy a Red Sox baseball game on the famous Fenway park, now turning 100 years old.

Enjoying a Red Sox game on the Fenway park

Maybe best for the last, Boston proved to be an amazing all round experience and a city I am definitely looking forward getting back to.

Beautiful Boston

Looking forward to travelling to the USA again, especially getting an excuse to visit the West coast.