Launched in early 2000 as a community on the platform LiveJournal blogs, 500px became the one of the most popular places on the Internet to store photos and amateur professionals, with over 50 million images in its archives. Its history, however, has been a bumpy ride, which ended for her co-founder Oleg Gutsol last year, with him being ousted head of the role of management and the company itself.
Shortly after the news hit the media, Gutsol left Canada where he lived since 2000 after leaving Ukraine, and he spent a few months in the Dominican Republic.
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"In about four months, I could not work, could not do anything after what happened to 500px," says Gutsol. "But at some point, I got bored, and I realized I was wasting my time."
I met Gutsol at TNW Conference Europe in Amsterdam to see what lessons the entrepreneur has learned and this new project, it is up to these days.
Never an easy way
From the lecture by Gutsol at TNW Conference, it was easy to see that the whole history of 500px was about overcoming its founders various obstacles, lack of funding for a lack of motivation. Work on the Web site in Toronto, Canada, Gutsol conjunction with the second co-founder, Evgeny Tchebotarev, tried hard to attract local investors, but never succeeded.
"Evgeny had a little money, and spent it all. Then I had money, and we had that too," recalls Gutsol. "We drained our credit cards . I remember realize somewhere in 2011 that my net worth was about $ 300 "
Even now, after two rounds of funding of more than $ 9 million in venture capital, including Andreessen Horowitz, 500px has a single Canadian investor :. His own VP business development Dustin Plett.
another issue was the team, or rather find the right cultural fit.
"the most driven and energetic founders I met in Canada are actually immigrants," says Gutsol. "My approach is very different from typical Canadian. They are all very friendly, very nice, very relaxed, so when I started to tighten the screws, many people were shocked. "
Why people matter
The 500px to hiring issues were further amplified by the rapid growth of the company.
" My team has grown very quickly, " Gutsol note. "At some point, we opened an office in California, and I went to spend a few months there. When I returned to Toronto HQ and went into the kitchen, I saw some foreigners who have turned to new employees. And they do not know who I am, either. "
Some consequences of cutting corners in hiring went further than just not the recognition of your colleagues.
"once [Evgeny and I] came to the Toronto office to work on Sundays, and they found a half-destroyed by a party that we had no idea. We usually brainstorming sessions wine and cheese on Friday, and it seemed that some people have decided to stay in the office after "recalls Gutsol.
"Later, we watched the security camera images and saw beer casting used in flower pots, and other things like that. The next business day, we had to pull a few people right away. "
But the most devastating result of getting the wrong people on board came to Gutsol in March 2014, when the Board of Directors of the company decided to withdraw from the position of head of management.
"The council explained the decision of my ineffectiveness as CEO. In part, it is true, but under [the situation] was painted for the board as a crisis. "
person who, as Gutsol says," worked with the board to step into the role of Chief Executive Officer "was Andy Yang, then-COO 500px.
"[Hiring Yang] was a mistake. I understood when there was still time to rectify, but did nothing, "says Gutsol. "When you're growing rapidly, the stress level of battery and you begin to blow things up.
"I brought a few meetings but then he started to talk to council members behind my back. I literally waiting for the next meeting of the board to fire him, but he was faster to convince the board to fire me "
Asked about his side of the story, Yang provided TNW with this statement :.
Oleg is an extremely talented individual and his contributions as co-founder of 500px were significant and remain valuable today. regarding his departure, he was a time when many changes were made to the company Poise and the product of high growth is not beneficial to dwell on this point today 500px is doing well -... We are on the pace of have 10x revenue growth, continuing to innovate on our core products, and increased more than 50 team members who focus on enabling and rewarding visual creativity to our amazing community
I first met Oleg when I arrived in Canada in 2010 - I was a VC and covered 500px as an investment. I was impressed with him and 500px, and invited him to be a mentor to Extreme Startups, an accelerator I was running. After I passed the accelerator, I found myself looking for roles and reached out to Oleg.
Oleg I still consider a friend and wish him nothing but good things and success in his professional and personal projects.
The second co-founder, Tchebotarev, took the side of the board in the conflict, even if it was Gutsol who convinced him not to leave the company ago a few years when he wanted to frustration. At the end of the day, such a consensus on the board led to the departure of Gutsol 500px in September 2014, when he was shot by Andy Yang CEO.
What is the future
Seven months later, Gutsol still holds a minority interest in 500px, but is not involved in its operations in any way. But it is not idle :. With his girlfriend and some developers scattered across the world, the contractor working on a new project where he hopes to use the lessons learned over the last 10 years
Not surprisingly, most these lessons are on recruitment and human interaction.
"[Rapid growth] is a natural thing for a start, so we need to build a system that allows it. What is needed is something like an" indoctrination service "so that new employees would know and internalize your vision as founder "
another great idea is to build a distributed team -. Something that did not work for 500px.
"We [at 500px] tried to work remotely from the beginning," said Gutsol. "But it did not work, and at some point we said, screw it, we will not be try to do this anymore. So we had everyone in one place in order to work effectively.
"I think he was wrong. Now I am trying to build a distributed enterprise, because I think this is the future of work."
Although not disclose the record of the nature of his new company, Gutsol told TNW that the project is set to launch soon -. first in Canada and internationally
May 26, 2015, minor corrections were made to this article, adding a quote from Gutsol to clarify the situation around his withdrawal from the position Chief Executive Officer, and also to clarify the situation around possible departure of Gutsol society.