Stanislav Dimitrov- Co-Founder Of Drive Password- Doubling The Security At Every Level

Stanislav Dimitrov is a young business professional, avid audio books listener and physical exercise enthusiast. He specializes in B2B Marketing and SME software consulting.

He is one of the founder’s of Drive Password, a project that has been developed for quite a while. They have been slowly developing it for more than a year. Drive Password encrypts all the data and stores it within the user’s Google Drive account. Easy to use, maximum security, and data control.

In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Stanislav says:

Don’t build before validating your idea. I had to learn it the hard way and didn’t follow the advice given to me. I beg you – don’t build before validating – you will lose time, money, and energy.

I will repeat it because it is that important – don’t build before validating. The other thing I would do is set impossible deadlines. The more time you give yourself to do something, the more time it will take. Don’t waste your time. It is the most limited resource we have.

Read on to know more about Stanislav Dimitrov and his journey.

Please tell me about your personal background, and what are you working on currently?

Stanislav Dimitrov: My name is Stanislav Dimitrov, and I’m one of the founders of Drive Password. My team (Kalin, Kamen, and Kaloyan) and I started Drive Password year and a half ago. Drive Password is a secret manager entirely based on Google Drive.

What motivated you to get started with your company?

Stanislav Dimitrov: Scratching our itch was the main drive for starting the company. We’ve been looking for a password and secret manager that can store everything directly in our Google Drive. We needed a password manager that stores everything within our control and not on an unknown server. The second big thing for us was the sharing feature. We needed a flexible password manager that allows us to collaborate and share access to various accounts quickly and efficiently. After failing to find such software, we decided to build it for ourselves and any other team which has those requirements in mind.

How have you attracted users and grown your company from the start?

Stanislav Dimitrov: The main driver for our initial users was Product Hunt (we finished second for our day). The PH audience liked the idea and the execution of Drive Password, which then inspired other tech reviewers to have a look and write about us. The start is always hard, slow, and painful, but we are pushing through.

What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue? What strategy worked best?

Stanislav Dimitrov: Drive Password has a typical SaaS business model that offers a free forever plan, a one for the single power user and team plan. On top of that, we offer 60 days (which is a rare thing) of a completely free trial. Unlike most startups, we offer 60 days to give enough time for the user to try and see if Drive Password can fit into their production methods. We want our users to be 100% sure that Drive Password is suitable for them and improves their productivity!

How much money (funding) have you raised in total so far? When was the recent funding round? (Additionally, any plan for the future?)

Stanislav Dimitrov: So far, we are bootstrapping the whole process. Funding is in our plans, but due to the recent events, we are monitoring how it will develop and how the market will react.

What are some marketing tips to help maximize the success of a product launch?

Stanislav Dimitrov: I would recommend entrepreneurs to stay away from “tips,” “hacks,” and other tricks that promise fast results. Overnight success is a lie, and entrepreneurs need to be grounded and know what is expecting them. Pain, struggle, failure, and hard work are guaranteed. To coop with that and launch successfully, every entrepreneur needs to be – persistent and analytical about each step.

Before launching – make sure to talk with the potential customers and users you believe will be interested in your product. Validate the idea. All you have to do is be open and ask. People on the Internet are beneficial, and you will get decent feedback.

Once the idea is validated, make sure to execute it flawlessly and get back to the people you talked about.

Other things to consider – polish the landing page, have a clean and comfortable to digest copy.

What is a good product launch checklist?

Stanislav Dimitrov: Spend a lot of time on the following steps:

• Validate the idea. Prepare a bomb landing page
• Build a mailing list (however small it might be)
• Prepare your PH launch. Don’t do it on the same day

What’s the hardest thing about product launches?

Stanislav Dimitrov: Everything. Starting from 0 without any traction is hard! However exciting it is to launch a product, keep in mind that no one is waiting for your launch, there are no people on queue like on iPhone launch day. For me, the hardest thing is to push after the initial spike of interest from the Product Hunt launch, for example. In the beginning, you have to grind and acquire 1 user at a time. But if you do it enough times, the snowball effect will take place eventually.

What are the most common mistakes founders make when they start a company? (or What should all first-time startup founders know before they start their business?)

Stanislav Dimitrov:

• Building without validating the idea. Don’t build anything before confirming that you have at least 1 person who is interested in buying what you are planning to build.
• Build MVP – no fancy features. Only the core features of the product are essential. After making the MVP – validate again and collect user feedback.
• Don’t get into the trap of building tons of features without knowing if anyone is interested in them.

What do most startups get wrong about marketing?

Stanislav Dimitrov: That marketing is something done separately from the product you are building and selling. Marketing is a mindset. Marketing should be built in the product. Never mind how good your copy is, how right the landing page is, or how well connected you are with journalists. If your product sucks, your marketing sucks as well.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And What advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing similar things like yours or in a similar direction?

Stanislav Dimitrov: Don’t build before validating your idea. I had to learn it the hard way and didn’t follow the advice given to me. I beg you – don’t build before validating – you will lose time, money, and energy.

What are the one or two things that you would do differently if you could go back to 10 years ago?

Stanislav Dimitrov: I will repeat it because it is that important – don’t build before validating. The other thing I would do is set impossible deadlines. The more time you give yourself to do something, the more time it will take. Don’t waste your time. It is the most limited resource we have.

You can follow Stanislav Dimitrov here.

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