Startup Story: a project that helps scale up Wi-Fi

Welcome to the next edition of Startup Story where we talk about the most interesting projects. Today we want to introduce you to the Tasnet project and its founder - Marat Muslimov.

How did the idea to create the project come about?

Marat is 30 years old, he works as a CEO of Innovation Technologies. The idea of ​​a startup, says the specialist, created out of necessity.

“In 2018, the law of the Ministry of ICT was adopted to provide free Wi-Fi only when the user's identity is identified. At that time, there was no product in Uzbekistan that could meet these requirements, and we decided to create one.”

There are currently 7 people on the project team:

• technical director - responsible for all processes related to the development and installation of new outlets;

• 2 developers - responsible for the development and maintenance of the software;

• 2 technical support specialists- they are responsible for installing and maintaining the operability of the Wi-Fi distributing equipment itself;

• project-manager - responsible for promoting the product, finding new customers and improving the product;

• customer’s support manager - is responsible for communication with customers, collects feedback about the product, solves customer problems.

How does the project help society?

The goal of the Tasnet project is to provide businesses and organizations with services for user authorization and identification, analytics and monitoring of guest Wi-Fi networks, and marketing tools. For the population, this is a convenient and easy way to get free Internet.

According to Marat, Tasnet helps business owners scale their existing free Wi-Fi network and get the most out of it:

• collect a database of customers who used the establishment's Wi-Fi network;

• conduct analytics;

• show their ads and special offers when authorized by an audience that is already their client, opens up the possibility of additional sales for business owners;

• display advertisements for the selected target audience in other locations of the Tasnet network.

“Guests, in turn, get convenient free access to the network using authorization methods such as SMS, callback, Telegram, etc.”

Were there any difficulties while working on the project?

As the startup admits, in the process of launching the project, the team faced some difficulties.

“In general, I can’t say that we had great difficulties at the time of the creation of the project. Perhaps only the lack of understanding of business owners about what distribution of free Wi-Fi can provide them, the collection and analytics of a database of visitors, and their reluctance to try new ways of communication to attract customers.

How do you plan to develop a startup?

The guest of the column says that the project was financed at the expense of its own funds.

“Now we want to develop the quality and quantity of free Wi-Fi in the country, and bring Tasnet to international markets. Our goal is to become not only a service for authorization in Wi-Fi networks, but also one of the most powerful marketing tools, as well as a major channel for lead generation.”

Marat encourages young startup founders to learn a lot and achieve their goals.

“I wish everyone to learn to set the exact goals and achieve them, regardless of mistakes and failures. I will say more: mistakes are perhaps the best thing that meets on the path to success, because it is thanks to them that you continue to grow and develop. And remember: you can look at other startups, but you can’t imitate them. You must be unique!”