If you are in the start up world, you may already have heard that successful projects are the ones that start with people’s and businesses’ problems and needs. In the same time, young teams trigger their pro-activity around ideas. That’s where pivot appears and those who leave their plan ‘A’ to create something that works before run out their resources are the ones that reach level 2.
pCloud is a cloud storage service that has been launched in October 2013. In six months they have traction of 600, 000 users. I invited their marketing girl Lyubomira to reveal details around how their achieved their most important milestones.
Hello Lyubomira, you are the marketing specialist for pCloud. Could you explain more what exactly is it? Who do you serve and how?
Lyubomira with THE cloud
A: pCloud is a cloud storage that can help you manage all your files – photos, videos, business documents, etc. We have the mission to become not only a product, but a full service that people use all the time to their advantage. We work hard to go beyond just storage. Available on any device – mobile (iOS and Android. Windows phone is currently in development) or desktop (Windows, Mac and Linux ), it gives the opportunity to work on files and interact with important data, collaborate with coworkers or friends and family, anywhere in the world. Sharing, receiving and managing files and folders in one place – a benefit that can simplify both work processes and lifestyle.
Sounds awesome! What marketing channels have you used to reach your customer segments?
A: For about six months, we have 600,000 users that are using the service and we are proud that most of our user base is actually organic. We did a strong market research and came to the conclusion that traditional marketing channels may not be our best option. Of course, we use social media for advertising, but we are more concentrated in collaboration with other services and participation in tech events. We are also preparing an encouraging program for students.
Octane Rally Team, driver Anton Titov, CTO of pCloud
We all know about Dropbox. Could you explain the main differences between pCloud, Dropbox and the rest of the big players in this industry?
A: One of the main differences is that pCloud does not have speed limit or file size limit. To my knowledge all of the other cloud services do. With this service you can upload and share whole HD videos, or raw photos, or Photoshop layered documents, folders with projects and so on.
One of my favorite possibilities of pCloud is the ability to upload an entire folder. I find this really useful both for work and personal needs.
Another distinguish feature of our start up is the Upload link. You can create a folder, generate an upload link to it and send it to your friends/co workers so they can upload files directly to that folder even if they don’t have an account.
And one more thing – pCloud Sync. We have multiple folder sync which allows the users to select a number of folders to sync between the cloud and a PC.
pCloud is the first and only cloud storage service that uses Bitcoins payments.
How many people manage pCloud? What’s the difference between your team and any other start up team?
A: I think the greatest difference between pCloud and other startups is that our team is small (about 20 people), but everyone of them has previous experience in the field. The leading people behind the project have a history of successfully realized similar projects; developers with strong background on web hosting projects, such as leading hosting company in Bulgaria; file sharing service, ranked #3 in Alexa.com for more than 2 years; experienced marketing team, consisting of dedicated professionals with a strong vision for the future and young talents with strong passion for innovations and proficiency.
Part of pCloud’s team rocking on Webbit 2014
Who are pCloud’s target audiences? Could you share more detail’s about uses and which are the most used features up to now?
A: Our target is the modern dynamic person, who wants everything under their fingertips and needs optimal solutions for personal and business needs – working from home for a company, based halfway around the world, or browsing pictures from last nights’ party and sharing them with friends; listening to music while making the annual tax calculations and sending them to the accountant. Full access to all the needed files and a service that provides both work and entertainment solutions.
So far the most used pCloud feature is the download link, which is completely natural – people share files with friends. Hopefully in a short amount of time people will explore the other options – the newest one is the audio player, which I, personally adore. I upload music from my computer, using pCloud Sync and then listen to it on my device, create playlists according to my mood and so on. I even use the player during workouts.
What are pCloud’s next steps?
A: Currently we are working on pCloud Business plans that will allow complete work collaboration. We are cooking up a business solution that is designed to cut company’s costs on personal servers purchase and maintenance. It will also allow companies to have full and secured collaboration work on files and folders. The service will have everything a business needs – administrator roles, users, divided to teams with a Head of Team to manage them, detailed activity logs, option for setting different access types, etc.
We are also working on Client Side Encryption, thus making our service even more secure for our users.
As I said, our team is enthusiastic and creative, we are constantly working on a way to provide a better service.
Thank you for sharing, Lyubomira!
