Sergey Redkov is an entrepreneur from Novosibirsk, who is the creator of a unique SIM card without roaming. His invention was a real discovery for travelers around the world. However, few people know that the path to success was rather thorny, and investors and businessmen kept repeating to Sergey that the product he wants to create was impossible to launch. As you can see, nothing impossible does not exist.
Previous experience
Sergey has been engaged in entrepreneurial activities for a long time. He had his own pizza delivery company, then a business in the field of VoIP telephony. By the way, the last work had the greatest impact. Even then, in 2008, Sergey thought about releasing a mobile application for communication. Alas, while he thought, WhatsApp appeared. Actually, it was such a product that Redkov imagined, but he was ahead of him. Then he thought about how to provide such instant messengers with the Internet in all countries of the world without roaming. And he came up with the idea to create a single SIM card that can be used all over the world.
Unsuccessful attempts
In 2011, Sergey went to the London office of the mobile operator Vodafone with a proposal for cooperation. He was looking for a technology partner and naively believed that a startup would be interested in such a giant. Redkov made a presentation speech, but the managers advised him to go down to the pub in this ceremonial-outfit to the first floor and drink ale. The benefits of such a pastime will be greater than the offer of cooperation. The conversation was over.
The refusal of Sergei did not bother. “They did not want to consider an interesting project, which means I will implement it myself,” thought Redkov. Returning to his homeland, the man borrowed 350 thousand euros from a friend under rather stringent conditions. Then he went to India and agreed to work with a local mobile operator. Unfortunately, due to a lack of experience, Sergei bet on the wrong company. The cards were never issued, and Redkov was left without money. But you had to repay debts ...
Partner search
For a couple of years, a Russian entrepreneur was only looking for technology partners. It turned out that it is easier to find investors than a company that will issue these same SIM cards. The funny thing is that Sergei invested in a product, not even knowing how it would work in reality. So far, he was guided solely by guesses and assumptions, although he assured partners that the project was really cost-effective and profitable.
Launch of the project
In 2013, Sergei finally managed to agree on cooperation with a Swiss company. A pilot project has been launched. The first SIM cards worked poorly, constantly slowing down. Negative reviews began to appear on sites. Radkov tracked them and consulted with partners. Together they troubleshooted and tried to improve the product.
A couple of years later, Sergey released a mobile application for managing a SIM card. It was also quite complex and overloaded with unnecessary functions. As a result, it was decided to create an application for tracking balance, controlling expenses and replenishing a card.
Product Features
How does Sergey's unique product work? The fact is that Redkov has mobile partner operators in almost two hundred countries. They provide subscribers with coverage, but people do not pay them directly. Sergey buys traffic in large volumes and sets optimal tariffs.When a person arrives in another country, the application automatically finds local mobile operators and switches to one of them at the request of the tourist. The phone number does not change. A SIM card can be bought for ten euros.
Success
The project under the brand Drimsim was launched three years ago. By that time, the entrepreneur had invested 880 thousand euros in it. As of today, the amount of investment is 2.5 million euros. Real success came when the famous blogger and traveler Artemy Lebedev spoke about a unique SIM card in his blog. By the way, he himself admitted that he did not receive a dime for advertising - he simply could not fail to mention a quality product.
Sergey Redkov does not cooperate with Russian operators. He says that this makes no sense, because the card is most often used by Russian tourists who travel abroad.