If you are thinking about launching your own tracker, be advised that in order to be successful such a venture requires a tiger, a dancing unicorn, a neon sign, and good skills in CS:GO.
Or, at least, we thought so, because all those things happened on our journey from creating a tool for one customer to being a market leader.
It’s the middle of summer, so instead of our regular content with tips, news, and analysis we thought it would be a good idea to share with you a couple of more light-hearted stories instead. Stories that make you laugh, giggle, or roll your eyes in embarrassment.
Here’s the said list:
Fact one: The one with a release that wasn’t supposed to happen
Voluum was never supposed to be released to the public. It started as an internal tool for Rob Gryn, who at that time was processing so much data that no Excel spreadsheet could hold it.
Also, Voluum was not originally intended to be called that way. The original name was Blitzcliq because of how fast it processes clicks. It looked like this:
We then moved from talking about how fast our product is to how big the volume of clicks it can handle. Hence the name. At one point, Rob was showing Voluum to his colleagues and they were convinced that what they see are mockups, as they couldn’t believe an ad tracker could handle so many clicks.
For all our short-term customers, here’s an example of how Voluum looked like circa 2014:
If you actually remember this design, please drop us a comment! Write one as well if you thought this was a screenshot of one of our competitor’s UI in 2020 🙂
Fact two: The one with pink unicorns
When we moved to the new office, we organized an office warmup party. Among us, there was also a dancing pink unicorn. Why? Because why wouldn’t you invite a pink dancing unicorn to your party if only you can?
We follow the “Work hard, play hard” principle. Good workers during the day, party animals during the night.
The pink-unicorn theme kind of stayed with us. It became our thing to the point when all the lovely gals from our company dressed in the pink-unicorn outfit to celebrate International Women’s Day. Don’t worry, it hasn’t affected our business operations. It made them more fun.
Work is always our number one priority. No matter if you are the pope or not, Voluums’ stability always comes first. And a little divine help doesn’t hurt. 🙂
Fact three: The one with the tiger
Believe us or not but working with a tiger is not an easy job. They are as fussy as most TV celebrities and almost equally dangerous to human health. On top of that, we know that tigers don’t belong in hotels, even the most luxurious ones. So, for one of our famous promo videos, we’ve decided to go with CGI.
If there is no visible difference between real and CGI, why put the tiger through all the stress? Jessica lives in the digital space only, but we love her anyway.
Fact four: The one where everybody shoots
I’ve already mentioned that we like to blow off some steam by partying. If the pressure is high, we also like to stage shootouts in our office.
In CS:GO. Using our office recreated as a map.
Bad emotions go out with a bang.
But we are not only about digital entertainment. We like to get sweaty and dirty too.
Or, whenever we want to work on our teamwork, we meet on a football field.
All this recharges our batteries and makes us better workers. The best ideas we had were conceived on a football field or in the gym, when our brains were oxygenated and adrenaline was flowing.
Fact five: The one where everybody left
We are not immune to everything that is going on in the world. Our office is a ghost town. We all moved to the work-from-home mode.
We don’t see this motivator.
But we still get shit done. Voluum is operating almost 100% on the work-from-home mode these days.
We live in various conditions with our loved ones, pets, and loud neighbours next door. Yet we all have space in our apartments dedicated to keep Voluum the number one tracker for all.
Fact six: The one where there are many Voluums
Unlike some trackers, Voluum is not just one app installed on a single server. We’re composed of multiple apps installed all over the world. On top of that add databases, queues and you got yourself a nice mesh that provides a reliable and fast service.
These green blocks? Those are just some of services that keep Voluum running. And don’t get me started on the number of backup systems.
Fact seven: The one where you could almost install Voluum from a floppy disk
Back in the day, when cloud-based trackers were not a common thing, our documentation had an article with Voluum installation guide. It started with:
“Insert Voluum installation disk into the drive A: and type install…”
We then followed with the explanation that with SaaS platforms you only need to provide your login credentials. But we were always curious if anyone had a one-second panic attack caused by the lack of the Voluum installation disk.
This is your modern-day software, operating on computers you can’t see, composed of services you never heard of.
But who cares when it does its job so well.
The story is more important than facts
There are many more stories that are probably better told in person. When you see us in conferences, ask us and you will hear them, and maybe after a long time, I will publish the second part of this article.
There won’t be a CTA button at the end. There will only be a photo of us, working from our homes to keep Voluum on the number one spot.
We hope you are all doing well and that you have all found something worthy to be working on when staying at home.
Keep calm, keep going, and work on it, while we do the same.
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