HiveDesk is a time tracking software for managing work-from-home and remote teams.
It brings visibility and accountability to remote teams. Managers can see what employees are doing and how long they are working. HiveDesk ensures that remote employees get paid for the hours worked and demonstrate their productivity.
Below you will find a recent Q&A they conducted with The Startup Project.
Company/Product Q&A
What is the primary benefit that your product provides to its customers?
Our customers are companies with remote or work-form-home employees. Marketing agencies, software developers, outsourcing and ecommerce companies are some of the industries using HiveDesk.
Our customers get visibility into their hybrid team with automatic time tracking, screenshots, timesheets, activity reports, task tracking, and project cost.
Does your product have a freemium component to it?
We do offer a 14-day full-feature free trial to our users. You don’t need to enter credit card details to start your trial.
During the trial, you can create unlimited number of projects and tasks. You can also track unlimited number of hours and screenshots.
Company Structure and Systems Q&A
What type of legal structure did you choose for your business?
We’re organized as an LLC.
Did you use an attorney or a self-service system like LegalZoom to form your business?
Yes, we hired attorneys to organize our business..
What system do you use for tracking expenses, revenues and other financial information?
We’re currently using Chargebee and Stripe for billing our customers. We use Quickbooks for accounting.
Do you use a customer relationship system or similar software to track your potential customers? (Salesforce.com, Highrise, etc.)
We have just started using Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. Additionally, we use Intercom for in-app communication with our users.
What language is your software primarily written in?
The HiveDesk platform was originally written in PHP. The desktop application for tracking employee time was originally written in Java. We switched to Electron a couple of years ago for performance reasons.
We also have mobile apps for both Android and iPhone.
Do you primarily work on a Mac, PC, or Linux computer?
We use a mix of Windows and Mac computers depending on the role.
What type of smartphone operating system do you use?
Beam Tech develops for IOS and Android. I am using an Android phone as my personal right now.
Strategy/Marketing Q&A
How did you choose your branding and URL for your company?
We used the combination of Hive and Desk as it relates closely to our target customers – companies with remote employees.
Do you use Google AdWords to advertise your product?
We have been trying Google Ads for a few weeks. We have tried both search and display ads but settled for search ads for now. Search ads are great for targeting user intent by targeting the right keywords.
We have put in place a detailed tracking system to measure the performance of our ads and keywords.
Do you use Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter to get your message to potential customers?
We tried Facebook ads but it did not work out for us.
We do promote our content on social media be it Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Do you primarily sell to end consumers or businesses? (B2B or B2C)
Our target customers are small and medium businesses who employ remote or work-from-home employees.
Some of the industries where we see the most traction are:
- Digital marketing agencies
- Software development companies
- Ecommerce companies
- Companies that provide outsourced services like customer support, accounting and virtual assistants
- Small law firms
How did you get your first customer?
We got our initial customers through Google search. We were one of the first companies to enter the remote employee management market. We got decent press coverage that helped us build awareness and drove organic traffic to our site.
What is the number one quality you look for when hiring someone?
We look for self-starters who are willing to take responsibility for delivering results. Technical skills and experience are, of course, important for any role. But being in the technology industry, we look for people who are eager to learn new technology.
Since we are a globally distributed team, we look for people who can work independently and communicate well. We also look for team-players as we want all new hires to get along well with the rest of the team.
Did you seek outside funding from anyone for your business?
No- we’re bootstrapped and intend to remain so in the near future We love the freedom that comes with bootstrapping. We can make our decisions based on our preferences and what we believe is right for the company’s future.
Did you consider any business incubators or accelerators?
No.
Miscellaneous Q&A
If you could recommend one book for any entrepreneur to read, what would it be?
There are several books I love and it’s hard to pick one. I would say “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr. It gives you an excellent framework for tracking progress and managing your team.
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear is another book we love. It teaches you how to build new habits, one small step at a time.
Star Trek or Star Wars?
Mostly Star Wars, I would say.
Which website or reading material do you turn to when you need to take a break and relax?
TechCrunch and Product Hunt are two sites I love.
TechCrunch keeps you up to death with new technology startups. It’s also a good place to fins potential customers for HiveDesk.
Product Hunt is great resource for finding new product launches. It’s a place to find early technology and business trends, even before mainstream sites like TechCrunch pick them up.
If you could have a one hour discussion with another entrepreneur or business leader who would it be?
Probably with Zeb Evans, founder of ClickUp, a company in the similar space as HiveDesk, but much bigger. We admire him for building a unicorn in just four years in a highly competitive space.
What one piece of advice would you give to readers who are thinking about starting their own business?
Don’t over-think the solution. Starting is more important than getting everything right. You will get enough opportunities to adjust and pivot along the way. But if you wait to get everything right before starting, it will neve happen.
A big thanks to HiveDesk for taking the time to speak with us! Check out their website for more details about their company and their product – https://www.hivedesk.com/
