When it’s midday for you, it’s midnight for me

How does a startup from different parts of the world work?

Is it possible to create a product, attract investment and be number one in the industry without ever meeting the rest of your team in person?

Our blockchain startup focuses on the niche market of intellectual property. The seed round has been completed, but at this stage the startup needs to spend carefully, so we strongly refused having an office, relocating, coworking, etc. How do you successfully develop a product and business, when there is a 6–8 hour difference between you and your technical director — we’ll tell you here. Keep reading :)

Do not believe anyone who promises “great success” quickly, easily and without screw ups. When creating SharpShark, we dreamed of spanning the whole world, finding the best specialists and making a product that society needs. Today we have specialists from Turkey, Argentina, Russia, and Ukraine, covering the whole world, the potential of the product are already visible, but there are difficulties with coordinating with specialists and development:

• This is a startup. We are in the maximum “danger zone”.
• Only online communication! This requires a qualitatively different approach to management.
• The product is complex and necessary, but new on the market. Copernicus was also right when he shouted that the Earth was spinning. He believed in his idea, but there is always a chance of failure, not finding a “common language” and hightailing it out of there.

We always knew that it was necessary to learn to be effective, to enhance skills and to work together on a common goal:

• We worked hard to learn how to work in different time zones. For each of us, our product is a priority. A result should only be expected only if each founder has a personal interest in the project.
• We are a female startup, and our natural discipline has played a role. To achieve this, we called each other every day. Even if you’re flying on an airplane, have a fever or are experiencing some personal troubles.
• We look at things realistically. Our customer research showed that the product is really needed in the industry. We are the first in the niche, and there has never been a case in history when the pioneers managed to avoid difficulties.

Days when we work around the clock on the project are normal. Brainstorm, identify weaknesses and improve mechanisms. Every day we solve problems, find and eliminate “jams”, and work on establishing processes, even the most complex.

We are ready to make mistakes, damn it, and share it with you! Mistakes lead to correct conclusions, correct conclusions lead to decisions, and decisions lead to success. At SharpShark, success is a house built on a foundation of mistakes and the testing of many hypotheses on the product, as well as development and management, so we chose to share our experience. There will be screw ups, but they can be seen as a springboard or an obstacle. We choose the first one!