One more video from LeWeb for the Christmas holidays. We had a chat with Tõnu Runnel in LeWeb, just after his startup competition pitch. He is one of the founders of Edicy, an Estonian startup, creating a web service to more easily build and design websites. The demo Tõnu gave on stage made the product look extremely cool and easy to use. They have also nicely attracted traction online, so it’s not just us who think they have a shot at making it.
Tõnu has also given us invites to share with our readers so the first to ten to leave a comment on why Edicy could have a shot at making it or in contrast – why they won’t (with constructive criticism) will get a code in the e-mail on Sunday, the 28th of December.
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I think the the product itself is not that important in Edicy’s case. Most of the success probably comes from good PR and effective traditional marketing tactics. For example Kotisivukone (or Moogo as it is outside Finland, eg. http://www.moogo.se/) has mainly succeeded because of good marketing tactics. Succeeding with small businesses is not so much about having the best product, but 1) having enough features, 2) being somewhat simple to use and 3) executing effective traditional marketing tactics. I think the finnish Passeli is a great example of how to get the hearts and minds of small businesses. Small businesses tend to choose local products with local representatives so having a good partner strategy and enough local visibility might be the key things.
I do like Edicy’s focus about also building features that support the work of a local web designer since the adoption of those local web designers and advertising agencies is an important way to success.
And yes, invite is appreciated. :)
Of course they’ll make it – market needs a all-in-one full featured site builder even my granny could use.
@Kaarel: Will your granny pay 6 or 10 euros per month for the publishing framework?
Are there enough customers who want to pay for the pro version?
In my opinion, the best chances for Edicy to really make it is via partnerships.
Cheers guys, I’ll be sending premium codes for you in a minute to the e-mail addresses you used in the comments. You can use those codes to sign up to Edicy at edicy.com.
The best way is to make web design like fashion design so people do not only pay you money every month, but the actual design changes with the seasons. I mean not radically, but there is always something on the unconscious of the user after every quarter that personally makes them feel that another phase is entering into their life. Like an eternal return. (Ofcourse it is not an ideal utopia like that but similar). Remember edicy is offering dreams – reality is for people who can think theoritcally/intellectually/intuitively, but people who like practical things only need, want and ask for/choose instinctual dreams.
I mean, did not myspace and the way people love to customize their sites already show that sites that would make a traditionally grid design based graphic artist puke generate addiction in the mob mentality. And basically, making things a little bit more standards compliant and prettier, but that is what
Also, more Importantly – people understand this! Edicy is going in the wrong direction – ordinary people are spending more of their time online, the web page is becoming increasingly important on many layers,
I actually had a young lad tell me in September that if I do not play computer games on a personal level then I do not have a life. It used to be the other way around – playing computer games too much showed that you have no life – now it is that If you do NOT play computer games/online games/virtual reality then you are a loser.
See the difference? Edicy can refocus on that frequency, test raising their prices (always a good idea up to a point) and work less. The goal is to have your company and your staff escape and transcend sitting in front of the computer screen – and make the lives of those people, majority of the population, who have choosen to sit in front of the computer screens better. Your customers want to and are going to be more computer (or mobile phones that are computers) based – make the right conclusion and do not fail.
On a final note – edicy really needs to find its own niche. A niche market is what has propelled basically every tool to success. In example – myspace originally had the niche market of musicians and actors/actresses and then grew beyond that. This is what edicy needs to do. I noticed you have popularity in China – hire a couple of people from Estonia that can speak Chinese and have learned it in Tallinn University and make them your represantives. Just one guy who seeks to understand what your chinese customers want and how to make it better would be fine. Understand your customers. Understand…