In conversation with Oleh & Yaroslav, Co-founders of TheRebl
Oleh Stasula
Co-founder, TheRebl
Yaroslav Voloshyn
Co-founder, TheRebl
About us
“Over last several years I built several big projects in different areas. Early on I started as an Android developer, but eventually switched to iOS and stayed there for quite a while. I have never liked limiting myself, especially in terms of technology, so I have worked with
different backend and web fronted stack too. I co-founded startups in past myself and there was no time when I would work on less than two projects at a time. I think my brain was just designed to be a tech geek and I’ve always been close to it. And I enjoy it only more each day!”
Oleh
“From an early age in school, I fall in love with technologies and already in first ages in university software development became my passion. I started my journey as a mobile software developer at a local outsourcing company. In the next few years, I was working in product-oriented companies. I had a chance to be a part of a successful hardware startup LaMetric and to see how product grows from idea to the finished device at Amazon. Later I was working at the giant sales-tool Pipedrive. Such kind of background gave me a possibility to understand what challenges products are facing.”
Yaroslav
Your Business Journey so far
We were friends and colleagues, also we shared common passion towards building
amazing products. We started the journey of building an agency after realizing that we
could bring much more value to the world. So we collaborated with other startup
founders and already built awesome products together and we continue. From our side
we bring extensive expertise in development, design and usability.
How do you help your clients grow and achieve their goals?
It’s often very easy to be excited about the idea, the opportunities, technology, etc. Most
of young founders tend to do it and miss critical aspect. Which is focus on the problem
and then on solution. We repeat to remind ourselves and our customers about it. I think it’s
the key for making a product that can meet product market fit. And that is the top goal
after all, right?” – Oleh
First of all, I need to say that our main clients are startups and everything depends on
what stage did they start working with us. I’ll describe the most common case for us it’s
when clients are on the early stage of development and everything they have is an idea.
So we start a collaboration with long meetings and idea discussion where we try to
understand the future product as deeply as we can. Then we make a UX and begin with
small prototypes. Each week iteratively improve the product until we make a stable and
good looking MVP. – Yaroslav
Experience from 0 to first 10 clients and further growth
Beginning was tough. Sales was not something we did much before. But now it was
necessity. We started slowly, reaching to our network and doing mostly small projects,
maintenance, fixes. After several months of practise, cold calls, meetings and estimates we
signed the first bigger project. Then another. We started building up the portfolio and got
references from completed projects. There is a lot to learn and improve, but it’s not as
unknown as it used to be. We add up to the skills, confidence and company size as we
grow.
Keeping pace with changing technology and remain competitive?
“We follow the latest trends and implement best practise early on. I think our background
helps with this a lot. Not just in adopting or understanding the new tech, but also in
contributing to it.” – Oleh
“That’s really difficult to keep the same pace with technologies, the only way is to keep
learning and improve your skills every day. No other ways to do it in my opinion.” – Yaroslav
Top hurdles faced for business growth
“Finding own niche – there is simply too much to choose from. We try to follow our interest
in certain areas, e.g. finance, social, intelligence, but took us some time to get to this point.
Also keeping the balance is always a challenge. We should manage expectations,
understand the market and choose the right amount of technology. As we grow we try to
be extra careful with the receipt for each product.” – Oleh
“Well, the main problem is to keep the same level of quality and productivity when you
scaling your business, as on each stage you need to re-adjust almost all business
processes.” – Yaroslav
Core specialties and offerings to your clients
“We focus on delightful mobile first experience for consumers of the products we work on.
We do full a cycle development needed to achieve it, including user interface design,
mobile (iOS & Android) development and backend (Firebase, Node.js, python, Go),
depending on the stage and complexity.
Customers grant us a lot of trust and we return it in close collaboration, efficient
development and the best value for money proposition they could ever find. Our flexible
pricing and excellent outcome quality are what they appreciate the most.” – Oleh
“Our main expertise is making mobile products and we have a process that leads our
client from the idea to the end finished product, including development, UI and UX
design.” – Yaroslav
Key to motivation
“Happy customers and the results are the best motivation. Getting productive time does
not have to be hard, I take just enough time to rest.” – Oleh
“I have a simple answer on it. I love that I do. It’s my hobby, so it super simple to keep
myself motivated and productive.” – Yaroslav
Book Recommendations
I try to read as much I can, so I probably could make a long list of top books. Here is a
shortened version of it:
- 12 Rules for life” by Jordan Peterson
- Homo Deus” by Yuval Noah Harari
- Factfulness” by Hans Rosling”
Oleh
The book that I would recommend every product maker is
Sprint by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky and Braden Kowit. This book could give you a clearer understanding of how to outline the main value of your product and verify the idea in one week. As a result, it can save you time and resources.
Additionally, one more book that I like is Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Amazing
advices and facts about financial independence are described there.”
Yaroslav
Advice to Product Makers
“Find an important problem that needs a solution. Best if it’s not only your own problem.
Design, build, test, throw away (or not) and constantly repeat. That worked for us, and for
many others. Will eventually work for you :)” – Oleh
“Don’t try to build a whole product at once. Start from MVP that represents the main value
and only after that continuously expand a product with new features.” – Yaroslav
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