Szczecinbiznes.pl: How does it happen that a small Szczecin company becomes one of the most innovative companies in Poland?

Łukasz Miler: I was very surprised by the nomination. Maybe because I always take a humble approach to what I do. Especially that I still have the feeling that we are only at the beginning of our road. On the other hand I need to say that in terms of the Polish market we are doing innovative stuff, totally new even for our colleagues. Some of them are new even in the USA where it all begins. I’m talking about the latest trends such us gamification - a term coined only five months ago - whose mechanisms we will be using and applying in the project we are currently working on. The key point is to catch the latest Western trends and use them to make better and more interesting work than others. With the Internet and digital distribution there are actually no barriers. Working right here we may still be innovative and do things that will amuse people in the USA. This is what turns me on the most - inventing new and interesting stuff.

What do you do?

In April this year, we launched Picco, a company which was established after transformation of Vivio. In June we got half a million dollars from an investor and right now we are doing first projects. Several days ago our iphone application - Game Box Plus - came out. It had already been approved by Apple and could be bought at Appstore. We are also waiting for the start of the ipad application. Generally, we prepare software and platform applications which inspire us. We carry out our own ideas. We don’t deal with subcontracting.

Picco is not your first company? What has been your way in the business?

Since 2003, for 2,5 year I worked at the Byss Interactive Agency. At that time I gave up studies at the Szczecin University of Technology. I was an animator, designer, project manager. I soon started to deal with clients such as Peugeot and Calsberg. After some time though I realized that I no longer made any progress and I started to think of something that would be my own. I was also inspired by a book by Donald Trump that somebody gave me at that time. I had my own contacts, also in the USA, where I used to work with several media houses. When I left the agency I had a lot of orders. Then with two friends we established Capricom Interactive. We managed to get it going really well - our first client was the German BMW. We also worked for the publisher of Tomb Rider, Sony Pictures and Lipton. In 2009 I met guys from Gamelion and we thought we could do something together and expand our business in the USA. We established Vivio and for a year we carried out joint projects, mainly for large distributors of social games, e.g. Facebook. Later I decided that I would prefer to do my own products and that was the right time. This is how Picco came into being.

How did you win the investor that spent half a million dollars for Picco?

I met the investor totally by chance when we were moving offices. At that time I was talking with several interested parties. We also had two very serious offers. This was when I met my current partner - an American businessman coming from Szczecin. He deals mainly with real property, but also looks for new investment areas. His offer turned out to be the best.

Is it difficult to find a good investor?

It certainly is difficult to acquire capital, because e.g. investment funds no longer want to invest only in ideas. It is better to have a specific product, preferably one that has already done well in the market.

How do you earn money on developing such products?

When it comes to applications, we have a lot of faith in the freemium model. The game is free but additional possibilities can be bought in microtransactions. We used it also in our latest iphone application. Another source of profit is advertisement. Of course, the most difficult part is to win users and here a lot of promotion is necessary. We use various channels: media, Internet, forums, etc. There are a lot of developers who create interesting games but they forget about marketing.

When are we talking about success and how much can you earn?

Within two days after the start of the application we had 2 thousand downloads, with no promotion. Within a month we should get first measurable results about the progress of the applications. However, if we maintain the level, within a month we will have 60 thousand downloads which is not a bad result after all. Of course, there are applications with 15 million downloads, one dollar each. It is a huge success. If we promote our application well, we can think of getting half a million a month. I’m not saying it’s easy, but right now we are doing our best to maximise our chances.

What direction will your company take?
The most important direction are digital distribution, i.e. software, the freemium model and the equipment whose technology inspires us. At the moment we are still a sort of an idea incubator. The company tries many things. In some time we may pursue one designated path. The main products will surely be designated for Facebook. We are also working on a very interesting design of group buying models, but designated for digital products in the web.

How many employees do you have and how does you company work?
Right now Picco employs 10 persons and there will be 2-3 new ones at the beginning of the new year. They include mainly programmers, but we also have a graphic department. In future we will be expanding the production division for specific projects and maybe also the internal marketing division. As far as the work system and atmosphere are concerned, they are definitely anti-corporate. Our work hours are flexible and the atmosphere is relaxed. But we put a lot of emphasis on the results and we are not the right place for people who have problems with self-discipline. There’s no control here because what counts is the effects and we want people to be self-motivated. We are trying to create an image of a friendly company. We surely have a lot of fun doing what we do, but we have set our standards high.
 
Is it difficult to find good experts in Szczecin?

It is difficult to find people who would specialize in what we do, because there are no specialists yet. Of course, each new university graduate needs to learn new things. But nowadays, students do many things on their own, for their own purposes. When it comes to abilities and standards, I am proud of  our programmers who represent the top world class.

By Paulina Łątka