The Story of Stick
Back to 2017, when Kam and I started Stickeroid, we knew pretty well, that we could build something big for the market. We saw a massive opportunity to create a cloud-based platform that would help developers and companies to integrate all technical stack for sending stickers and graphics content via API.
It was an idea that was formed against the background of rapid growth of the entire sector of cloud platforms and companies such as Twilio, Bandwidth, and VoxImplant, where I worked before on VP position. It seems easy at the first look, but it takes so much time to make the platform stable for a lot requests around the world.
We knew the CPaaS movement and the communication market revolution were waves that would provide strong tailwinds to spur our growth. That said, we never expected we would get this far this fast.
This is how our main page looked like after the launch of the first stable version. No extra parts, only search type form with the button and simplistic UX/UI elements on a little bit “snapchattty” color of the background.
Сlassic, isn’t it?
The first version of our platform had serious drawbacks, but the overall technological breakthrough allowed us to grow very quickly. The context for requests played a huge role in the growth of the first versions, so all efforts were devoted to improving the API, ML-dataset and search algorithms.
Most users knew our platform as a supplier (gate) of stickers to products such as Freshchat, Hike, Slack, Google Slides, Google Docs, Lomics, etc., which provided us with organic growth and brand awareness.
Stick Your Digital Life
Despite the fact that during the year of its existence, our platform managed to achieve significant results (become the # 1 social application for Slack, # 2 extension for presentations and even break into the top of the most interesting API in the field of ML), but we never wanted to stop.
Many traditions have remained unchanged since the early days. As before, this is a big goal for us to create a useful and relevant product for users, and not just the tool for sending “PNG images” through clouds.
Today, I’m thrilled to share some new things
Stick is still a PaaS platform that combines micro landing options for a fast way of communication between two sides along with a review system based on machine learning filters. In the US, many people like to call us Yelp for Everything and we are glad that people compare us to the largest company that successfully published on the IPO / NASDAQ: YELP
Our main goal is to simplify the interaction between people and make the fast-growing market for services through Instagram, TikTok, and Kwai more transparent, understandable and secure. Almost every Internet user at least once made some purchase of services or goods on Instagram and, at the same time, disappointed. These are the problems that our platform solves.
What do we provide to everyone?
1 — Micro-landing page especially for all your accounts
Instagram, Youtube, Kwai, Tik Tok, Picsart, Twitter, Snapchat or any other service. All this does not matter to us, because Today, 99% of users can provide any things and services through completely different social networks. A single account allows you to really confirm that it is you, exactly you, not unverified person.
2 — Social capital
We are confident that communication is the most important aspect of the interaction between people. Communication with an online store, a specialist from the company and even a blogger should be simple and accessible in one tap. How can you offer your idea to someone if you don’t even have a contact and a way to contact someone who might be interested in it? We are trying to solve this huge market problem.
3 — Statistics
We spent hundreds of hours developing to make the statistics understandable for everyone. Everything is clear and simple, no wrong filters and no hidden things.
4 — Real reviews from real people
Our team really does not understand why in 2019 people draw conclusions from reviews that were written by someone for money. Is this fair? We are sure not! Our platform analyzes the author’s profile and assigns him a rating. Additional moderation system allows us to filter spam and fake reviews.
5 — Rating, Search, and Smart Feed. All are powered by ML.
Our team understood the importance of these elements, so we spent huge resources to do this. Keep track of what is happening around you and other pages, without advertising and spam. All the most important is always in front of you and is available at any time. The feed allows you to quickly respond to reviews and analyze the situation, which will definitely increase the loyalty of subscribers.
Keep learning
Founding a company will challenge you in ways you never knew you could be challenged. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. You have to find meaning in that struggle, and in addition to the mission, the best way to find meaning is to learn. You will constantly be forced to reinvent your company and to reinvent yourself.
But through it all, the reward is humbling. You’ll wake up each day with a driving sense of purpose that makes you excited for the day’s tasks, however stressful or tedious they may be. I’m so proud of our incredible team for the long hours they continue to put in to help the people who have grown to rely on our marketplace. But the truth is, we’re just getting started. There’s a lot more work to do, more learnings to gather, and more change to create. I’m grateful to those who believed in us since day one as well as those of you who are new to our journey. Like us, soon you’ll see that the future is local.
Best,
CEO and Co-Founder
