Interview with founders of iOS App Random, which is backed by co-founder of Skype
Founder2be conducted an interview with Marko Anderson and Jarno Koponen, co-founders of Random, an exciting Helsinki-based startup that is reinventing how we surf the web. Random is backed by Janus Friis (co-founder of Skype) and they recently launched their iOS App globally. We asked them to share their story of how they got started, where they are today, and what they have planned next.
Who are the co-founder(s) and what is everyone's role?
Jarno and myself were the original co-founders. We are both product people â we are inspired by creating new user experiences. Jarno's background is in design and the humanities, and my background is in product management and software business. We were responsible for the initial vision and product concept and funding. But we knew we couldn't go very far on our own because to make the vision a reality, we needed to build very complex and innovative artificial intelligence that hadn't been built before. So from very early, we put a lot of energy into finding the best possible data scientists and software people to join the team.
Due to the complexity of the technology we needed to build, we knew we had to be very selective and only work with world-class software developers. It wasn't easy, but we were persistent and patient and eventually connected with great people that shared a common vision and were a perfect fit. We are now seven people in total and no one has left since joining. Everyone is important and most have been with us since the very early days. In that sense, we view everyone as cofounder because we couldn't be where we are are without them.
What area are you working on or what is the problem are you solving?
Random is an app for finding the unexpected. The web is overflowing with wonderful things, but the whole discovery experience has become stale and repetitive. Its pretty absurd that while the possibilities available to us on the web are ever-expanding, the current tools we use actually narrow our experience and lead us to same old places.
Random wants to inspire curiosity and allow people to explore the web more independently and anonymously. The app has a fresh interface that allows you to choose from a selection of topics and go as deep as you want into associated content. The playful combination of relevancy and serendipity offers you positive surprises. It never shows you the same thing twice. And its machine learning algorithms adapt to your interests and patterns over time so it gets better the more you use it.
I was presenting my Masters thesis at Aalto University Media Lab and Marko happened to be in the audience. The topic of my thesis work was 'personal future simulation system'. I was exploring how our personal digital data could be used to create new predictive experiences and use cases.
I was working at Nokia at the time, focusing on predictive analytics of smartphone data. I was really excited about how all this emerging mobile data could be used to make predictions and recommendations that would benefit people in new ways. Even though we hadn't met, we were essentially exploring the same ideas in very different contexts.
How did you come up with the idea for Random?
Marko approached me when I got off-stage after my Media Lab presentation and we had a really long and deep conversation right then and there. It was immediately clear we both had a deep passion around the same topic so we agreed to meet again a couple days later. We just started bouncing ideas and getting to know each other over the next month or so. As we were discussing and sketching out possibilities, the actual product concept started to emerge and became more clear. It also became clear how our skills would compliment each other. So when we had the concept for the first prototype detailed out, we just decided we had to figure out a way to make it happen.
When did you start working on your startup and what were the most difficult first steps?
I had just given my notice to quit Nokia because I needed a change - but I had no concrete plans of what I was going to do next. Jarno was in a similar mindset after just finishing at Media Lab. After we discussed for about a month and the energy felt good, we set a date (about 1 month ahead) when we would both 'officially' decide if this was just an interesting conversation or if we were going to fully commit to doing this together. I think that was a very important step as it gave us time to step-back and evaluate personal factors and other opportunities. Full commitment is so important, especially in the beginning, that we wanted to make it as clear as possible if we were committed to going "all-in", or not. So we actually founded the company about 3 months after meeting. The fact that we didn't know each other very well was probably the biggest risk in the beginning. Cofounding a company with someone is like a marriage and making that kind of commitment with someone you don't know very well is a big decision. But you have to trust your instincts with people and its worked out very well for us.
Everything was difficult in the beginning. We had no money and we lacked the software capabilities we needed. We pretty much got laughed out of every meeting we had in our early days. The vision and product concept were very ambitious and experimental and not many people were able to fully grasp it. And those that understood it thought that it was impossible.
We managed to scrape together the first protoype, start building a great team, and eventually did a real funding round. But nothing was easy. That's the thing with startups, its up to entrepreneurs to pursue something they really believe in, and then just find a way to will it into existence. Nothing worthwhile comes easy â and that was certainly the case for us.Â
What have you been doing since and what are the steps you have been taking? (hiring, funding, teamâŚ)
We have been totally focused on trying to build the best possible user experience. Our seed round allowed us grow the team and give us the runway to continuously iterate the app experience and underlying technology. But we have been careful to keep everything very lean in order to preserve runway, and also because we think focus is so important for early-stage startups â constraints help propel the creative process.
What is the current status and your plans for the rest of 2014?
We recently launched our iOS app in the App Store globally. The response has been amazing. We couldn't be happier about how much people are enjoying it. Also, we've got a lot of great feedback and suggestions and we're working hard to continually make improvements. We're also planning to launch the app on other platforms later this year. Overall, we've had a lot interest from investors and potential partners, and we're growing the team so we can go faster and do more.
Anything else you want to share with our readers?
I really want to encourage everyone to try out the app, leave a review in the App Store, and contact us directly if you have any feedback. We really think there is a need for a fresh approach to web browsing that combines relevancy and serendipity. And we really want to hear what you think.
As far as founding your own startup, I would just encourage you to pursue something that is really meaningful for you. Founding a startup is never easy and the only way to persevere through the toughest times is your belief in the importance of what your are doing. Then its just a matter of working hard, building a great team, trusting your instincts, and just never giving up.