6 Questions - The Startup Interview
January 12, 2009
In our ongoing series of Startup profiles, we interviewed Abe Crystal, the Chief Research and Strategy Officer of Ruzuku, a self-improvement website that is getting ready to launch.
1) What is your 30 second elevator pitch?
Abe Crystal: Ruzuku helps people achieve their dreams, by setting clear and challenging goals, recording their progress, and working together with other people.
2) Describe the planning leading up to your launch?
Abe Crystal: We follow an agile design and development model, based on rapid iteration and continuous user feedback. We have conducted numerous rounds of usability testing with paper, Visio, and HTML prototypes to refine the core interfaces. We look forward to gathering even more extensive user feedback once the application is live. We see “launch” as part of the process of iterative design.
3) What market need do you fill?
Abe Crystal: People fail at self-improvement.
- 99% of respondents in a national survey sought to improve their lives in some way, but only 21% had any kind of plan to achieve their resolutions.
- 40% of people that set New Year’s resolutions report having failed after only one month, 60% after six months, and 81% after two years (Norcross & Vangarelli, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).
4) What is your and your team’s background?
Abe Crystal: Rick Cecil is our Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He has 10 years of experience creating engaging experiences for the mobile, e-commerce, and non-profit industries. He has worked at all stages of product lifecycle, from strategy and conceptualization to design and development and has managed multi-disciplinary teams.
Abe Crystal, Ph.D., is our Chief Research and Strategy Officer (CRSO). Abe earned his doctorate in Information Science from UNC-Chapel Hill, where his research focused on field studies of personal information management and personal productivity.
Abe and Rick have collaborated for over three years. The idea for Ruzuku emerged as we began talking about trying to help improve each other’s personal productivity. We soon realized that our efforts to be “productivity partners” would be far more powerful if extended to a community of self-improvers and supported by services and tools. We chose the name Ruzuku — which means “to support” or “to bestow blessing” or “to build structure” in Swahili—to represent this vision.
5) How are you funded and what is your revenue model?
Abe Crystal: Funding: Personal savings plus friends and family funding. Revenue model: We’re focusing on building a great product and active user community first. Building an active, engaged community of individuals and professionals focused on self-improvement will provide several opportunities for growing Ruzuku as a business. First, we could provide highly relevant ads and e-commerce affiliate links targeted to users’ goals, interests, and self-defined rewards. Second, we could charge professionals (coaches, consultants, etc.) fees to build niche communities for people interested in their services and information products. Third, we could offer branded online experiences to strategic partners (self-improvement authors, companies, etc.) that integrate deeply into Ruzuku.
6) What is the importance of being based in NC?
Abe Crystal: I’ve lived in Carrboro for almost 5 years… it’s the best place I’ve ever lived. The quality of life and the vibrant community here are valuable support for the sometimes lonely job of being a “team of one” (I’m our only full-time employee here in NC).
