Qtap — a startup that helps create websites in just a few seconds

Madat Karimov, 29 years old, city — Almaty, founder of the Qtap startup, @iamadat

About myself

I have always been close to IT: I created websites to order and helped optimize them. Previously, I was engaged in offline business, where I felt the need for websites to promote these businesses. After 12 years of entrepreneurship, my partner and I created a platform where anyone can create a website for their company in just a few seconds.

About creating the startup

I wrote my first lines of code in November-December 2021, and in February 2022, I proposed to a friend to become a co-founder of the startup with me. Thus, we created a social network for websites with personalized customization solutions. Our dream was to make acquiring for individuals, B2B transfers like in Kaspi, from a physical card to a physical card, but only in the format of e-commerce. The value of the transfer is not the transfer itself, but the ability to pay for services, content, and send donations.

In August 2022, we had our first MVP: we ourselves created several accounts, started moving our physical businesses online, which was interesting. And in March 2023, we opened official registration, and on the first day of launch, 1200 new active profiles appeared.

Target audience

Currently, the platform is used by 20,000 users: 60% of traffic is from Kazakhstan, 40% from Central Asian countries. We are proud that almost all million-blogger influencers from Kazakhstan use our platform. Also, our users are creators, influencers, and representatives of small and medium-sized businesses.

Our platform provides opportunities for users to create websites both for themselves and for their businesses.

About the team

We gathered the first people into the team in February 2023. At the time of passing the acceleration program, the team began to grow, and today we are 11 people. We have five girls and six guys working. Each of our members strengthens the team. To each employee, we give a Swiss Army knife, on which the logo and the serial number of the person in the team are engraved. This is a tribute to the fact that the first 15-20 people are versatile, like this Swiss Army knife, which has 19 functions.

Accelerators, funding

Initially, we invested our own savings and funds from the sale of real estate into the platform.

Then we got into Digital Bridge Almaty, where I met a venture investor, one of our advisors, the very first person who believed in the startup from outside — this is Bakht Niyazov. I managed to interest him.

In March this year, we passed the MOST Incubator acceleration program, where out of 30 projects, we became one of the best. From our recent news, with an evaluation of $3,000,000, we have $480,000.

Plans for 2023

We plan to scale the startup across Central Asia and North America. In the summer of 2024, we want to enter the US market.

We also plan to increase the team and spending on marketing. Until now, we did not spend on marketing, but now we want to fully enter the market.

Advice for startups:

— believe in your final goal

— break down a large goal into smaller sub-goals and achieve them

— take risks

— bring things to completion.