Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in training and education but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Vadim Savin, Founder of notJust Development, located in SC DE Tenerife, Canarias, Spain.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
notJust Development is an educational platform for full-stack mobile developers. We offer easy-to-follow project-based tutorials in a fun and interactive. Anyone can follow and build a real-world application like Instagram or TikTok in a matter of hours.
Tell us about yourself
I worked as a software engineer in all the environments possible: from small companies to startups to doing an internship at Amazon. I also worked as a Teacher Assistant at Saxion University, and that's where I realized that I love teaching this. I found it exciting to take a complex topic and explain it in simple words so that anyone could understand it. The best part about it is when you see the "ahaaa" moment on students' faces.
Back in 2019, I was still working as CTO at a fitness startup, and I decided to start publishing youtube tutorials. In the beginning, it was difficult. I was streaming to 2 viewers who happened to be in the same house as me. I was putting a lot of work into these videos, and when I saw no results, I started questioning the opportunity cost of your time. "Why am I wasting time here when there is so much work to do at the startup." In that period, I was treating it more as a hobby and was just testing the waters. I was trying to do videos that I thought would work with the algorithm, and that led me in the wrong direction. I was doing all kinds of videos: coding tutorials, remote working tips, startup content, day in a life, etc. The problem was that I didn't know who am I making content for.
To find the target audience, I asked myself:
What am I an expert at?
What are people looking for?
What is the thing I could do for fun without it feeling like work?
And even though I am passionate about startups, I was not an expert there. The topic that crossed all the checkboxes was coding. My coding tutorials were getting some traction compared to other types of content, and also this is something that I can talk about for hours. That's when I started the "Let's build X" live series, where we have built over 25 mobile applications like Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, etc.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
notJust.dev is my biggest accomplishment. It started as a side hobby two years ago and grew to a team of 6 people and a community of over 60.000 developers. What I am most proud of is the community of motivated developers that want to have an impact on the world using their coding skills. This year we organized three community events where developers around the world gathered together and built exciting projects. One of our hackathons was #CodeForUkraine, where our community came up with ideas and built projects that would help people from Ukraine.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
In the early stage, as a business owner, you have to wear a lot of caps at the same time. For a long period of time, I was a content creator, instructor, designer, youtube manager, marketer, finance, sales, and copywriter, etc., etc., etc. This is still a challenge for me, even though we already have a team of 6 people.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Everyone says to niche down for a reason. I started growing when I had clearly defined the target audience, and I started doing content only for them. There are so many areas I could expand in the coding niche, but I still choose to stay focused on Full-stack mobile development. Content is the new oil, and attention is the new currency. Start becoming present on the internet not only as a consumer but as a creator if you want to stay relevant in the next ten years.
And a very specific tip for digital businesses that worked for me very well: Start growing your email list ASAP, preferably from yesterday. The email list is the most valuable asset that you actually own, and nobody can take it away from you. Your Twitter, Instagram, or Youtube account can be deleted tomorrow for no reason. And you don't want to be in a position where you lose everything you worked for for the last years.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.notjust.dev/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vadik.savin.9/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vadimnotjustdev/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VadimNotJustDev
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vadimsavin/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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