Company Name Bitrefill
Founders: Sergej Kotliar & others
Date founded: 2014
The location of the headquarters: Stockholm
Bitcoins held by the Treasury Undisclosed
No. of Employees 76
Website: https://www.bitrefill.com/
Public or private? You can also contact us by email.
As of 2014 Bitrefill Has been helping its users use their Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency to buy everything from giftcards to mobile phone topping ups to E-Sims.
After a decade of growth, one might believe that the leadership had figured out the formula for growing Bitrefill relatively easily. Sergej Kotliar is one of Bitrefill’s co-founders, and the CEO of the company. He says there are still challenges to overcome in order for Bitrefill to grow its user base.
“The main difficulty continuously in our company is finding customers,” Kotliar tells Bitcoin Magazine.
“It’s difficult because it’s still a niche. Especially people who use some kind of internet money in a wallet app on a regular basis is some small percentage or even a fractional percentage spread out across the world,” He added that he was referring to less than 10% of the world’s population that owns cryptoThen, even fewer who use it regularly.
“You need to figure out how to reach them.”
Kotliar’s team has learned that they haven’t reached all of the potential customers, but what is important to them are what works and what doesn’t work to sustain a bitcoin company.
Kotliar shared some lessons with me in our conversation.
You don’t have to believe all the hype
Kotliar asserts that one of biggest illusions within the Bitcoin and wider crypto space, is the belief that crypto enthusiast and user communities are much larger than what they really are. It is especially dangerous for crypto startup founders who are tempted to believe the hype about their business on social media.
“There is definitely a phenomenon where a startup launches, they get cheers on Twitter, they very quickly sort of manage to convey their message and their value proposition to that audience who might be inclined to use their thing and are able to convert them — and then they hit the wall,” Kotliar is a language that can be explained.
“The people that they acquired in that way are also very opinionated, which makes it difficult to go outside of that group. Companies get stuck because they become captured by their initial audience, which, in the best case scenario, are customers, but, in the mid scenario, are just fans — people on Twitter that don’t really need whatever the company is offering,” He added.
Kotliar is less concerned with what Bitrefill users have to say on social media, and more focused on offering the best customer service.
The site is constantly developing and adding new items, services and products that people can buy with Bitcoin and Crypto via the website. Bitrefill CardThis card is a digital debit card that lets you spend your crypto the same as traditional fiat cards.
Kotliar believes that his success is due to avoiding crypto echo rooms and focusing instead on the real needs of customers.
Lesson 2: Stay Alive — Without Requiring VC Funding
Bitrefill’s 10 year survival is due to its ability to stand on its two feet, and not relying on venture capital funds.
“There are companies that are default dead, and there are companies that are default alive,” He explained.
“This means if the current trajectory continues, is it going to be a dead company with no extra funding or is it going to be a live company? When you reach that ‘we’re default alive’ point, it lets you focus more on the things that matter and less on the things that will attract investment,” He added.
Kotliar continued to explain that “things that attract investment in our industry often are not necessarily the things that require customers,” The hype is more important than the company’s ability to meet certain standards.
Bitrefill’s ten-year success has come from focusing on things that really matter. This includes helping customers to spend crypto easily on gift certificates for virtually anything, as well as on other services.
Lesson 3: Learn to Swim and Ride the Waves
The secret to staying afloat as a Bitcoin company or cryptocurrency is to learn how to maintain a profitable business during downturns in the markets. Crypto companies can thrive and keep their doors wide open when the bull markets are in full force, but they will only survive if the bear markets come around.
“During a bull market, we grow very rapidly, and during the bear market, we manage to stay flat,” Kotliar explained.
“A lot of companies in our industry, in a bear market, will go under and fire people. We’re not like that, but it definitely takes a lot of swimming to remain in the same place,” Then he went on to say:
Bitrefill’s customers are spread across 180 countries, and this helps keep the service alive. New waves of adoption occur in various countries for different reasons at different times.
Kotliar: Bitrefill frequently experiences “regional waves” The adoption of children.
“There’s currently a wave going on in Argentina,” He said. He said. 30% tax on foreign transactions“Some Argentinians use Bitrefill for games, etc. to avoid paying the 30% tax.”
Learn to be where people are.
Kotliar says that, even though Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have grown in mainstream over the last 10 years Bitrefill’s been around, the company should still aim to provide a service to everyday people rather than only Bitcoin enthusiasts.
“The world doesn’t care,” Kotliar, about Bitcoin ideologie
“In the Bitcoin world, some parts of it care more about which features you don’t offer as opposed to which features you do offer, which is strange. Nobody would go to a store and be like, ‘Hey, you also sell this stuff!'” Kotliar was referring to the belief that Bitcoin fans have been upset that Bitrefill takes other cryptocurrencies.
Kotliar claims that most users are indifferent about what technology does and doesn’t do, as long as it serves the function they require.
“You seem to care about the Riverside [FM],” Kotliar was referring to my app that I had used to record our interview. “but I don’t know if you would go to a conference about it or get into an argument with someone over a feature that it has or maybe a feature that it should not have.”
Kotliar went on to say that Bitrefill uses different currencies for different reasons. Meeting the consumer’s needs is a key tenet in Kotliar’s strategy. The core strategy of Bitrefill is to get the product in the hands of those who would not otherwise seek it out. He says he hopes people will stumble on it. “doesn’t always happen by itself.”
“The big takeaway is that it’s not enough to be at the Bitcoin conference,” He said. “You need to be in where people are, especially the people that do not particularly care about Bitcoin.”
Lesson 5: Listen, Don’t Speak
Bitrefill has grown in part because it is receptive of feedback from its users.
“We get a lot of feedback, and we have all kinds of channels open,” said Kotliar. “I think that the main function of marketing is actually to listen more than to speak.”
Kotliar noted as well that the process also requires discretion.
“We try to listen in every channel, but then also try to figure out — to sift,” He explained that the company receives its fair share from those who push certain tokens.
“[We] find out what the real requests are, and if you get enough real requests, you get a sense that this is real,” Adding to this, he said that the company takes the suggestions it receives seriously.
What Next For Bitrefill?
Bitrefill’s mission hasn’t changed in 10 years. It’s still to serve customers best (while ignoring noise).
“We have a whole team now that’s working on adding gift cards,” said Kotliar, “and we’re still putting a lot of effort into the Bitrefill Card.”
Kotliar is of the opinion that Bitrefill should be banned. “the best in the world at everything Bitcoin payment related,” He and his team have been looking at adding stablecoin functionality to Lightning.
Bitrefill’s normal business continues.
“Our aim is to be the, you know, the one stop shop for everything day to day usage of cryptocurrency in the real world,” said Kotliar.
“That’s where we’re putting our attention.”
“This article is not financial advice.”
“Always do your own research before making any type of investment.”
“ItsDailyCrypto is not responsible for any activities you perform outside ItsDailyCrypto.”
Source: bitcoinmagazine.com
