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“Building a startup is not an easy path": 5 tips for aspiring startups from the co-founders of 1FIT

In January, the seventh issue of Invest Dala, the first podcast about Kazakhstan's venture capital market in Kazakh, was released. The guests of the issue were Meir Adilzhanov and Askar Akshabayev, co-founders of 1FIT

Below are 5 basic tips from Meir and Askar for aspiring startups, which they shared in the new issue of Invest Dala.

The success of 1FIT is largely due to the unique system of interaction between the founders. By the way, the startup has 5 founders!

They are guided by several principles when making a decision. One of them is that if they discuss any issue, they don't leave it until they come to something unified. During discussions, no one should have the feeling inside that someone does not agree with any decision. 

In addition, each of the founders is responsible for their own direction and they do not interfere in each other's work.

“We decided at the time that Askar is a HUNDRED, Askar is responsible for technical things. If he had said that we would be writing in Python instead of Java now, no one should object to him. Python? Python! Even if it's the wrong decision. Or, for example, Murat is responsible for fundraising. If he says, "We're doing this," it means we're doing as he decides, because he's in the context, he knows better,” says Meyir.

They also divided communication into three "dimensions":

  • a workplace where everyone is responsible for their own field;
  • a joint-stock company where strategic issues are discussed;
  • friendly.
"When we came to these principles, we began to easily go through the stressful stages," says Meyir. 

This approach helps to avoid conflicts and preserve both business and friendship.

"It's better not to start a startup right after university. If there are strong startups, it's better to go work with them, see how they work, build their processes inside," advises Askar.

The founders of 1FIT spent years accumulating experience working on various projects before they achieved success.

The turning point in the company's history came when they started building a business based on analytics.

"We had a strong data team, and then we adopted the principle at 1FIT – to make any decision based on data. From that moment on, if someone has an idea, we don't do it until we substantiate it with data and facts," says Meyir.

This approach has helped the company optimize everything from pricing to its strategy for entering new markets.

"If you want to build a startup, it's not an easy, very difficult path, and you need to be ready to follow this path for about 10 years." Askar emphasizes.

The 1FIT story is not an instant success story. The team went through many failed projects and pivots before finding a working model.

"Don't just stay programmers, learn marketing, sales, and soft skills — it's all important to develop," advises Meyr. 

1FIT's experience shows that technical skills are not enough. Their first projects were technically strong, but did not achieve much success due to a lack of sales and marketing skills. It was only when the team gathered people with different competencies that real success appeared.

Listen to the full version of the issue with Meir Adilzhanov and Askar Akshabayev – Youtube, audio platforms.

Meir Adilzhanov, Chief New Markets Officer, co–founder of 1Fit, is responsible for the strategic expansion of the business into new markets. Under his leadership, 1Fit has successfully launched in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Askar Akshabayev, Chief Technical Officer, co–founder of 1Fit, is responsible for technical implementation and played a key role in the development of the platform.

Meir and Askar met while studying at KBTU in 2005, where they participated in programming Olympiads. Since 2009, we have been trying to launch various IT projects together. In 2018, together with Murat Alikhanov (CEO of 1FIT), Abzal Toremuratuly (CPO 1FIT) and Merei Baizhokin (CCO 1FIT), they created 1FIT, an application that currently operates in 6 countries and serves more than 100,000 active users.

Invest Dala Podcast is the first podcast about the venture capital market of Kazakhstan in the Kazakh language. Here we are honestly talking about venture investments and startups in our native language.

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