Customer — a startup for helping manage a business

Hasan Ahmuratov, city — Syrdarya, project manager at RedFox, founder of the client platform Xaridor, LinkedIn

How It All Began

The concept for this startup emerged in 2019–2020, during my tenure at a large manufacturing company from 2017 to 2020, where I advanced from a merchandiser to a supervisor. The startup idea was closely tied to the problems I observed in the market. The primary motivation for creating the project was the difficulty in handling calculations and the lack of solutions to these issues at the time. One of the main challenges was delays in delivering goods to certain clients, inventory sitting idle in warehouses, and, most importantly, none of the existing POS systems supported offline mode or offered solutions for tracking debts.

After studying existing POS systems on the market, I identified their shortcomings and developed a concept for how my project should operate. I then created an interface and presented it to several stores. Their positive feedback strengthened my confidence in the need to continue working on the project.

Target Audience

The primary audience for our project is small and medium-sized business owners. After studying the market, I realized that large retail chains already have POS systems, so I decided to focus on the needs of small businesses. Our product allows store owners to automate calculations, generate daily, monthly, and annual reports, manage debts, and conduct online sales.

Currently, five clients are already using our product. Full-scale sales have not yet launched; the product is operating in a test mode.

Incubation Programs

We began collaborating with Swift Launch, and their support has been extremely valuable. They assist us in attracting investments and developing marketing strategies to grow the project.

Challenges

In the early stages, I made the mistake of hiring young and inexperienced programmers. Over six months, they developed a program that could not handle the load, which somewhat dampened my enthusiasm. As a result, I temporarily paused work on the startup and took a job as a project manager at another company, where I met an experienced programmer. We started developing from scratch, and within three months, working two to three hours a day after our main jobs, we were able to create a product at the MVP level.

I recommend that entrepreneurs focus on building a strong team. With a good team, attracting investments becomes significantly easier. It is also important not to blindly follow others' advice—learn to make decisions independently and, above all, thoroughly study the market. Ensure that a real problem exists in the market, and if it does, find out why it has not been solved yet. Only then can you determine whether your startup is truly needed by the market.

In 2023, I joined REDFOX as a manager and gained significant experience in this field.

Plans

In the near future, we plan to attract investments and explore opportunities for collaboration with venture capital funds.

Additionally, we plan to launch an ecosystem and enter the markets of neighboring countries. In the coming days, I will focus on developing the project and do everything possible to accelerate its growth. My goal is to increase the number of clients to 40 by the end of the year.