Flatsourcing Redesign Process – Part 2

So we’ve been working hard on the redesign for Flatsourcing.com and really thinking about what are goals are with the site. It is going to be a Wordpress-based platform, but it needs to function as more than just a blog. We asked ourselves what we are trying to accomplish with the site (I know, a rarity that we actually think about our goals before plunging headlong into design, I should have been doing this years ago):

  1. First and foremost, we are soliciting business for Flatsourcing, so we need to both communicate what we do, and enable visitors to the site to easily contact us.
  2. We are communicating both our skills, but more importantly, demisifying and personalizing outsourcing. We want to use social media (twitter, video, profiles on LinkedIn & Facebook) to enable clients and potential clients to really get to know our team in Kazan. We need to put a face on the business over there, and bridge the cultural, time, and geographical distances to bring our team as close as we can to our clients.
  3. We want to make sure that our current clients have the tools they need to work with us. They will have an (eventually private) area to login to with access to all the tools we use. Basecamp for project management, Freshbooks for invoicing, Skype for voice chat, and Adobe Acrobat Connect for video conferencing.
  4. We want to communicate our expertise in our field. We’ll do this through the blog, so that the site is a living breathing expression of what Flatsourcing is, not just a corporate presence placeholder.

So, with those goals in mind, we drew up mockups for the design of the site on both sides, New Orleans & Kazan. I’ve included the pictures below. Are we on the right track? What would you like to see from us on Flatsourcing.com?

flatsourcing 009 flatsourcing 008 flatsourcing 007 fs wireframe mockuup

Draper Fisher Jurvetson to Invest in Russia

VentureBeat reports that Draper Fisher Jurvetson is heading to Russia:

Besides Russia, the fund, called DFJ-VTB Aurora, will invest in the neighboring Commonwealth of Independent States, including Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine (home of another DFJ fund), and others. The fund plans to invest between $2 million and $16 million per company.

Initially, DFJ is not contributing directly to the fund. But, by helping pick companies, it will have the opportunity to co-invest in them down the line. Half of the money will come from the Russian government and twenty percent from the European Bank of Development and Reconstruction.

Thousands of highly-educated engineers and scientists in the region have the skill, talent and motivation to build big companies, said DFJ’s managing director in Russia, Don Wood, in an interview with VentureBeat — they just haven’t had the resources or role models to do so, he says.

This is great to see VC getting on board with the technology opportunities in Russia. Oleg, are you ready to start putting a business plan together for Flatsourcing?

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