Many companies are formed first; their products are created later. With Prime Circa, it's the reverse.
The Tablet Era
April 2010, the first-generation iPad was released and it changed everything, especially for me.
February 2010, I was laid off from WRT after a company's downtime. Just one year before that, I was laid off from GSR after the company changed its ownership. I don't know if it was just my luck or it was the economy but I grew less depending on corporate America and more on myself. So I started learning Objective C and Cocoa for iOS development.
iPad 1 Unboxing
April 3th, 2010, 8:00am US Central Time, I was very excited when a UPS guy knocked on my door delivering one of the very first iPads in the US. Now, I could test my code on a real device after playing with simulators in the last 2 months.
Back then, the iPad was all about content consumption and none about content creation. Even Apple focused 100% on entertainment and 0% on productivity. However, looking at the big touchable tablet screen, I couldn't help but thinking about handwriting on it.
Looking at the big touchable tablet screen, I couldn't help but thinking about handwriting on it.
SIDE STORY: 4+1 Reasons Why Pen And Paper Are Still Better Than An iPad by Viet Tran on May 26th, 2010.
Notes Plus
15 months after its first launch, Notes Plus made its first million dolars.
I spent 3 months writing an app to capture touches on the iPad screen and turn them to handwriting. I wanted it to be a suplement of the Apple's built-in Notes app - thus the name: Notes Plus. After some rudimentary UI touch-ups, I released the first version of Notes Plus on June 1st, 2010.
Notes Plus Version 1.0
Although Notes Plus version 1.0 packed some decent features such as mixing both handwriting and typed text (as text boxes back then), automatic palm rejection, close-up writing mode (it was called Zoom-Write then), organizations of multiple notebooks and pages, and exporting to Goolge Docs, its user experience wasn't good. User would spend most of their time switching between handwriting / typing / erasing. When users lay down their palms, they would accidentally touch the navigation buttons in the bottom. Deletion of notebooks and pages was final; there was no way to recover. When using in landscape, it looked exactly like Apple's Notes app. The handwriting looked like chicken scratch and the logo looked horrible.
So after making $500 a day the first several days after launched (there weren't much competition back then), it was soon forgotten after version 1.2 on July 2010. So I decided to spend the next three months to rewrite the entire app for version 2.0, having user experience in mind as my first priority.
Notes Plus Top 4 Paid iPad App
October 2, 2010, Notes Plus version 2.0 was released getting rid of edit-mode switcher. With selection and deletion gestures, all modes are blended in together naturally. I also added some nice features such as audio recording, shape detection, auto-advance in close-up writing mode, and ability to restore deleted notebooks and pages. With some minimal marketing effort, little that I knew, Notes Plus climbed to top 4 of Paid iPad Apps on October 25, 2013, even passed Apple's own popular productivity app: Pages.
September 1, 2011, 15 months after its first launch, Notes Plus made its first million dolars, after Apple's 30% commision.
It was a good idea then to start filing for a company.
Prime Circa, Inc.
In English, Prime Circa means absolutely nothing.
Many independent developers tried hard to make their one-person company sound big. I would rather spend time on improving my product. Thanks to the Apple's app eco-system, one person can make a software and sell it for millions without wasting any time on company administrative stuff. I had been using my name, Viet Tran, as the publisher of Notes Plus since day one. Doing this brought me two benefits. First, I didn't have to do much. Just put in my social security number, my bank account information and Apple transfered sale revenue to my bank every month. Isn't it wonderful? Second, using my name was a way to tell my users that I stood behind my product, not hid behind any company curtain. Many users liked that.
After making a million dollar with Notes Plus, I decided to file for a company for three reasons. First, it's easier and cleaner for tax filing. Second, it protects me from liabilities. Third, I can hire people if I need to. So on September 3rd, 2010, I went to a local lawyer office in Minnesota and filed for Prime Circa, Inc., doing business as an assumed name Viet Tran.
On September 3rd, 2010, I went to a local lawyer office in Minnesota and filed for Prime Circa, Inc.
What's up with the name? What does Prime Circa mean?
I have known and read about many fascinating stories about startup naming. The startups eventually failed but the founders couldn't stop talking about how they brilliantly came up with the names. For me, it's the company who made the name successful, reputable, and popular, not the otherway around. So instead of wasting time thinking about a brilliant name, I went for a name that means absolutely nothing in English and challenge myself to make it successful, reputable, and popular. Prime Circa is generic enough so that it doesn't tight myself to just do software development. Prime Circa is unique enough to stand apart. Prime Circa is good enough for me.
Sustainability
I wanted Prime Circa to last, even more so than to make big profit.
Apple encourages developers to create simple apps those do only one small task. Users switch quickly between different apps to do different tasks. Such an app is like a mini software with minimal development effort comparing to websites or desktop software. This model is very attractive because it yields a huge profit margin. I could have made Notes Plus to do just handwriting (and be best at it) and then spent my effort in building other apps like Calendar Plus or Calculator Plus. I could be hugely profitable.
When the iPad was released, Apple brought everything it created for the iPhone to the iPad. Nothing was changed. While that made it much easier for end users, I think it was wrong to think of iPad apps the same as iPhone apps. iPhone apps are utilities where users open, do some quick task and then close. It's hard to stay on an iPhone app for a long time, even when reading news. On the other hand, iPad apps are productivity apps where users can stay on for a long time, even for 4 or 6 hours, just like with computers. iPad apps are more like desktop software, while iPhone apps are mobile apps. Users will soon be tired of switching between apps. I don't think simple apps could stay competitive on iPads.
I wanted Notes Plus to be feature rich. I wanted users to be able to record audio while taking notes. I wanted them to import documents and annotate. I wanted them to browse the web while taking notes and paste web information onto their notes. I wanted them to make a simple number calculations right inside their notes. I wanted users to stay within Notes Plus in their entire note-taking sessions. Looking back on how Microsoft Word killed its competitors by being feature rich during its early days, I wanted to be like that.
Instead of moving on to building other apps to make big profits, I decided to stay with Notes Plus and make it competitive to last for a long time. I wanted Prime Circa to last, even more so than to make big profit. Building a full-featured productivity suite required much more effort than one person can handle. I need a team.
Profitability
I wanted Prime Circa team to be small and highly efficient.
Mordern technology startups worry less about being profitable and more about being popular. They operate mainly on investment money. I don't want to take outside investment; I want to stay self efficient. To hire a developer at my level in the US, a company would have to pay $150K a year with all the benefits and overheads. I would need 3-4 developers on Notes Plus. To stay profitable, there was no way I could hire developers in the US. Luckly, I had experience building an oversea team in Vietnam back in 1999, where I single-handedly built a 30-engineer development house for a US company. So I turned to Vietnam for help.
I believe a me-too coder would do more harm than good. I also believe productivity degrades exponentially as more people are working on the same problem. To maintain profitability, I wanted to keep the Prime Circa team small and highly efficient. First, I only hire developers who are better than I am. Second, I sliced up Notes Plus into small modules, each independently developed by only one developer. We discuss problems and solutions via Skype. We review each other codes by Github's flow. We keep track of works using WordPress's ticket system. We are extremely efficient.
The Team
Prime Circa team members are special, so special that they want to work for a small and unknown company like Prime Circa.
Most tech workers in Vietnam want to work for big and well-known company where they could find comfort, social status, and stability. Most tech companies are doing outsourcing works and tech workers don't know if their works would mean anything. They are usually proud of the name of the company they work for, but not the project that they are on. While there are many talented developers in Vietnam, it's very difficult to convince them to work for a small and almost non-present company like Prime Circa.
Instead of convincing "cubicle" workers to work for Prime Circa, I went looking for those who already wanted to break out of corporate environment. I went looking for those who were tired of nine-to-five everyday-the-same work in big companies. I went looking for those who wanted their works to mean something, who wanted to put their names beside a world-known product. I went looking for those who wanted to have something of their own. I went looking for enterpreneurs.
Prime Circa's March 30th, 2011 Job Post on VietnamWorks.com
It was a good surprise that there are many outstanding enterpreneur-minded individuals in Vietnam. In less than a month after our first job posting on March 30th, 2011, I received almost 100 resumes. Most of the candidates have worked on a published iOS app in the Apple's App Store. On May 12th, 2011, we hired our first developer, Xung Le. Xung is still with us today although he already has a dozen of dictionary apps on both iOS and Android with more than a million active users.
Prime Circa team members are all passionate and outstanding on what they do. We are proud to have a very thorough recruitment process that involves 5 rounds on average and takes about 5-6 weeks. All developer candidates have to do a difficult code challenge. Since I only want to hire those who are better than me, I pick problems that would take me 2-3 weeks to solve and challenge the candidates to do it in 1 week. Then we judge on not only the solution but also how the candidate came up with the solution and also his code structure. We hire less than 5 out of 100 developer candidates.
I am very proud of our small team. Prime Circa team members are special, so special that they want to work for a small and unknown company like Prime Circa. It's been almost 3 years since we have the team and noboby has left Prime Circa looking for a "better" opportunity.
The Culture
Without a culture, Prime Circa team members are just a group of freelancers who know each others only via project updates.
Prime Circa team members don't come to an office to work. Instead, they work remotely on the "cloud". Without a culture, they are just a group of freelancers who know each others only via project updates. Having a culture is as important as reason for being in Prime Circa. After all, why should they sacrifice their social status for being in such a small team like Prime Circa.
Prime Circa culture is to be different, not for the sake of being different but to always challenge conventional methods. We don't do things only because others are doing it. We always start by asking "why". This is how we innovate. In fact, we are different just by joining Prime Circa. Why should we come to a physical office an act like we are working while we could produce a better result by staying anywhere we want? Why should we be in a big team while a small team can still make amazing products and our works are well recognized?
Prime Circa culture is to love challenges. By questioning conventional methods, we are always ready to walk on an unpaved road. We don't accept the impossibles just because others said so. We keep pushing our limits. Prime Circa culture is to take risks, to be out of our comfort zones, to live the uncertainty, and ultimately, to learn from life experience.
Prime Circa culture is to be human. While being all that agressive about about challenges, we stay being a human, we stay being sane. We believe in good common sense. We believe in being logical. We know when to give up. We maintain a work-life balance. As much as we love our works, we love our lives even more - that's the human part of it.