CallWith.Me: Interview With Luka Hajdin
In this week’s interview, we present you Luka Hajdin, pictured in the midle. One of the co-founders of CallWith.Me that we wrote about this monday. Founder, developer, dad, Luka is all of those things, but I’ll let him tell us more about himself and his product.
Firstly, tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, where are you now?
I finished computer science high school in Ljubljana, went to the university but never got the time to finish it. CallWith.Me team is from Slovenia, one Luka and two Gregors. Combined, we have lots of experience with software development and advertising.
How would you describe your work?
Agile, lean, that’s it. I wake up at 6:30, then I take my kids to the kindergarten and between 8 and 8:30 I am in the Httpool office, my current workplace. In the afternoon I work at CallWith.Me office. At 6 pm I come home and play with the kids and after 9 pm I continue working for CallWith.Me.
As a founder, how did you came across idea for CallWith.me?
Other people’s experiences and abandoned ideas inspired us to fix their mistakes. A friend of mine was working on his photo sharing app and he didn’t know how to monetize it, so I’ve spent some time using the app. I figured out that his users needed a way to communicate, because when they did, they used different channels for that, like Skype or something else.
My idea was to give them the option to communicate within the app and charge them for it. The next logical step was wondering where a lot of users have the same problem, and answer was: dating sites. Lots of users with requirement to communicate, to be anonymous and discrete:. Everything that we at CallWith.Me can enable them.
How are users responding to CallWith.Me?
We do not have a lot of end-users yet, but the site admins love us, because the integration job is so easy. End-users love the product because it simply works.
Any plans to upgrade service?
Sure, there are lots of possible applications. This year we have plans to integrate our service in dating sites from Hong Kong, India, Poland, Slovenia, and Russia. Next year we’ll start working on western markets including US. On the other hand, right now we are talking to various Telecom operators, as they are interested in using our technology for their users.
Can you tell us more about Slovenian startup scene?
Slovenian startup scene is growing and developing well. Initiatives like TSstartup or Hekovnik are really good. All initiatives like these are, because they organize mentorships and give entrepreneurs many opportunities to meet and showcase their talents.
What is your expirience with TSstartup?
TSstartup helped us put our product on the market faster. Weekly meetings and reports are good for any team, and you hear feedback from other people outside your team. Sometimes, this helps a lot. Both mentors Ales Špetič and Aleš Smokvina, with their experience on startup scene and critical opinions, gave us a lot of good tips and suggestions. But at the end, you realize that it is a competition, and there is only one winner based on personal opinions from committee people.
In the end, what advice would you give to someone who is starting in your profession?
Dream big, execute immediately, think, write, draw, discuss, play around, keep things neat, network, cowork. Google it and amazing things will happen!
