Entrepreneurs are sometimes in a hurry to launch their startup on the market and forget to make sure that the product works well, quickly, clearly and according to the plan. Or they do it not carefully enough and quickly. As a result, users get an unpleasant experience and eventually the business closes. Therefore, it is very important to test your ideas, check them in several stages. And we want to share our experience – how we checked our IT startup Golden Gate, what we encountered and how we resolved the issues.
Golden Gate’s first experience in professional cycling
On August 12-13, 2023, during the war in Ukraine, cycling competitions were held in the bike park of the Plai ski resort, organized by the company “Vysota" – a large official dealer of the Canadian company Norco Bicycles, a manufacturer of bicycles. All cyclists of Ukraine who are involved in downhill (descent from the mountain at high speed with obstacles) were invited. We offered the organizers to measure the athletes’ results with the system we developed, which we wanted to test at professional competitions for a long time. Usually, time monitoring is done manually by a person using a timer on a mobile phone. This gives a completely inaccurate result and allows for the possibility of its tampering. Therefore, everyone is interested in a different system of measurements during competitions in cycling, motocross and alpine skiing. Two years ago we started working on this product and this year we reached large-scale testing. It was a chance to show our system, its capabilities.
Professional cyclists from all over Ukraine came to the competition - Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Kharkiv, etc. Among the 70+ participants were both amateurs and sports stars, for example, Yehor Pryymachek – champion of Ukraine in indoor and downhill, performed in Austria at the UCI.
What problems did you encounter "in the field"?
As a cool small business during the war, at first we did everything on our own. During six months, several tests were conducted, data were collected, problems were identified, and they were resolved. Thus, the system has already undergone five revisions. Before these cycling competitions, all tests were conducted with 2-3 cyclists and never with 70 people in real tests. Therefore, they encountered problems on the spot, which had to be solved promptly:
1. When the start takes place in the scorching sun, its rays burn through a stream of infrared laser light, which records the athlete's start. Although this fixation works perfectly in the shade, that is why the organizers made the start in a dark place. This can now be solved by using a much more powerful laser that will pierce the sun's rays.
2. We did not take into account the organizational point that for the performance of the athletes, a schedule of their start with an indication of the time for each of the seventy athletes is necessary. We had to quickly decide where to get and how to present this information. In three hours, we pulled it out of the system, downloaded it to Excel and printed it out.
3. The organizer printed plastic numbers from low-quality plastic and they crumbled. As a result, some cyclists arrived at the finish line without number plates. And since the electronic chip is glued to the number plate, it is impossible to record the result. And although this purely mechanical nuance does not apply to our system, it depended on whether we would be able to qualitatively test it and demonstrate its operation. So we pasted 100 numbers with reinforced tape until the 12th night to add strength to the numbers.
The main thing is that we managed to quickly solve all problems on the spot and successfully show the product and its capabilities. The system works very well and measures everything clearly to thousandths of milliseconds. After the event, the director of the Plai resort invited us to digitize future similar competitions in motocross and downhill skiing. Because our IT startup in Ukraine solves many issues and makes the competition much easier.
The future of the Ukrainian startup project: where Golden Gate is going
We understand how important it is to develop business in Ukraine during the war. And we have big plans to improve and implement our product. In the near future, we plan to work out all the shortcomings that were discovered during the competition. And also bring the product to autonomous operation without failures. So that one, maximum two people come to the place, assemble, install and start it there – and then it works practically without human intervention.
The next step is to run the system in several competitions in order to be absolutely sure of its successful and clear operation. And then we will create another direction of our business – "Digitization of competitions". We will rent it to those who need high-quality organization and presentation of results.
And in the future, we have serious ideas about the stationary installation of such equipment in the bike park. Then we will not have to go there all the time, and the resort will be able to independently organize competitions among athletes or anyone who wants to. At the moment, the automation of the bike park is the maximum task for us.
We have a good understanding of how to launch an IT startup and business in Ukraine even during the war. Not only through our own experience, but also through product launches for many of our customers. The Golden Team knows all the nuances of this process, the correct sequence of steps, what to consider and what cannot be done without in order to achieve the customer's business goals. So we can help you too to keep your business going during the war and keep your big ideas coming no matter what.
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