the kontest diary : #mystartupstory

The Kontest diary#mystartupstory

kontest

This is Jacinthe BussonShe is a former Art Director

and today Kontest COO

This is Sylvain WeberHe is a former developer,

HTML5 specialist and today, Kontest CEO

July 2007At first, they create tKaap (DareYa in English), a flashmobs and urban challenges platform

Feb. 2008Sylvain leaves Dailymotion to work full time on tKaap

Meanwhile, Jacinthe joins Deezer as an Art Director

March - Jan. 2008tKaap rises with hundreds of challenges every month

Feb. 2009 - Feb. 2010Jacinthe and Sylvain create the company that runs tKaap

They are on all fronts: TV, newspapers, blogs, etc.

Unfortunately tKaap is missing a business model

So they come up with a new idea: Kontest, a platform that helps brands to

create multichannel contest apps.

Jan. 2010Jacinthe leaves her job at Deezer to work full time on Kontest

March 2010 - May 2010As seed fundraising fails, they decide to start without external capital (aka Bootstrapping)

June - Sept. 2010Remember these big companies that started in a garage?

Kontest starts with 3 interns working in their 18m² living room

They launch the first private beta

Oct. 2010As more people are being involved in the project, the office is relocated to Milestone Factory (20m²)

Meanwhile, Sylvain joins Google as a HTML5 Specialist

Kontest V1 is launchedThe first customers love it!

May 2011They need a bigger office so they relocate to Pépinnière Paris Soleillet : 33m²

August 2011Sylvain leaves Google to work full time at Kontest

Sept. 2011They hire their first employees

Nov. 2011Kontest V1.5 is launched (fully HTML5)

Jim Rocket, Kontest awesome mascot, is born!

Kontest V2.0 is released in September 2012

They throw a big party to celebrate!

Feb. 2013They moved for the 5th time: 83m²

A new website is released in March 2013

Today, Kontest turns 3and this is only the beginning

www.kontestapp.com

Thank you!