Qela App Revenue (2025)

[00:00] Guys, tomorrow launched an app called qela app, which is helping a very large democratic volunteer group in Ukraine raise hundreds of thousands of dollars per month to support the cause in Ukraine. She says, wow, if this is working so well in Ukraine, I want to take this prototype and create a version to sell to Western nonprofits or nonprofits in Europe. And so she's looking to take this to market at $350 per month with her three co [00:22] founders. We will see what happens next so far fueled by a $50,000 loan from a friend and a $50,000 investment and a $10,000 grant as well. Hey, folks, my guest today is Tamara Tajinska. She's building an app called qela, which is and she's doing this because she's a communication strategist and manager from Kyiv, Ukraine. In the past decade, she's been working on various projects from healthcare and politics to education and culture, both in the private and [00:48] public sector. Qela is supporters motivation management app. So take your volunteers, take your supporters, how do you engage them? That's what she's working on. Tamara, you ready to take us to the top? [00:58] >> Yeah. Okay, [01:00] great. Maybe tell us a story right now of a company that's using you to manage their volunteers, their supporters. [01:09] >> Actually, the story of qela app began before full Russian invasion in Ukraine. And before that, it was just standalone solution for one Ukrainian liberal movement. And it was like our prototype. And just before the invasion, we decided to turn this standalone solution into SaaS solution for every democratic community in the world. Unfortunately, the worst posed a bit our work, but we just, you know, pull our thirst together and continue to work. And I'm happy to announce [01:45] >> that we are going to launch The US and European market very soon. And what it is about? It is about the revolutionary way to communicate. Leaders and supporters should communicate differently. And the main point is to share the power with supporters, to see them not only like, you know, like your employees, but as your co decision makers, as your shareholders, and so on. This is their main [02:19] So, to be clear, is this for companies that want to empower employees or this is for organizations that want to empower volunteers and supporters? [02:28] >> It could be both, but mostly and first of all, it's for organizations that want to empower their supporters and volunteers, donors and so [02:36] >> on. [02:37] Okay, so can you maybe name two or three organizations that pay you today? [02:41] >> Actually, it's Ukrainian organization and we are it's not a big of them. So it's it's it I cannot say it's some some movement like democratic acts in Ukraine and some students organization, but it's not like we are launching the market fully. We [03:01] So are you tomorrow? Are you pre revenue? It's okay if you are. Are you pre revenue today? [03:04] >> Yeah. Yeah. Pre revenue. Yeah. We have some mean, we have some tractions, but it's not like a full market presence. [03:11] So what is traction? How do you define traction today? [03:15] >> Actually, we got some, actually the prototype was used for three years. So, it has some results. We saw how much the number of volunteers and supporters increased. For instance, for that organization, it was six times increasing from 2,000 to 12,000 users of the app. And the donation increased, their donation increased and just like from $18,000 to $40,000 per month. So we saw how it worked And after that we got some grants for developing and after that [03:56] How much? [03:58] >> It was €10,000. And after that we raised some like friends and family investment. It was about $100,000 So it allowed us to develop the solution. And now we are like trying to, because in due to the martial law in Ukraine, the political activities in Ukraine stop. So, we cannot just sell it fully in Ukrainian market because it's forbidden to [04:32] >> the rally are forbidden and so on. So we have to focus on the market outside of Ukraine and [04:41] >> then Understood. [04:42] To When you raise the $100,000 what percent of the company did you sell? [04:49] >> It was not like some of them it's like [04:57] >> my friend, we have some specific like [05:04] >> agreements on it. It was not like for sharing some some some [05:09] Tamara, what's the incentive? How did you get this your friend doesn't give you money for free, do they? [05:15] >> It's No, he wants It's it's it is a loan. [05:20] Oh, okay. [05:21] >> Yeah, it will be like, it's a loan we will [05:26] So you still own, you still own a 100% of the company then? [05:30] >> No. Another part of this 100 was for 5%. $50,000 was sold for 5%. [05:41] Okay. And 50 ks was a loan? [05:43] >> Yeah. [05:44] I see. Okay. So then you own 95 percent, the other investor owns 5% and that's the cap table today? [05:51] >> No, I have a co founder. I have a couple of co founders. The major co founder, he is a tech guy. He provides all the infrastructure for the development and all the team and [06:01] >> so on. [06:02] How many co founders do you have? [06:04] >> I have three co founders. Okay. Actually, one of them the tech guy, another one is one of the author of the idea of qela app. And the other one is one of the investor. [06:19] Oh, what's going on there, YouTube? Good to see you guys. Now imagine this, you love watching these interviews with SaaS founders, but imagine if we took all of the valuation data out from over 2,807 interviews I've done manually. Saves you a lot of time. Well, we've done this. We've built it into the beautiful interface inside of Founderpath. Check this out. I'll show you how you can access this in a second. But you log in, you connect [06:42] your Stripe account, you see your valuation real time. You can see what it changed over the past eighty eight days and even set goals for valuation this year. Now the secret evaluation is there's many different ways to value a SaaS business. So the reason you're gonna see three or four different valuations inside of your Founderpath dashboard, this is all free by the way, is because depending on who's doing the buying of your SaaS company, you're gonna [07:06] get a different valuation. A VC is gonna pay a different valuation, Private equity firm is different. If you're gonna do a minority sale, that's different. And if you sell the whole business, that's a different valuation. You can see all those when I hover over here, right? So the teal is what a VC would pay. Yellow is what private equity And red is if you sold the whole thing outright. Now what's cool about this is this is [07:28] not built off random data. Again, you guys hear these interviews on YouTube. All these datas are built from real time valuation data points founder share with us on the show. So traction 1,200,000 seed round 3.7 raise. They sold 22% of their business. Go in here and filter by the event. Maybe you only wanna see companies that have sold the whole business. Well, here are a bunch that have been acquired the valuation and the multiple. Maybe you're [07:54] going out right now and you're raising your seed round. We'll go in here and look at all this recent seed deals that went down, what they raised, what valuation they raised at and what percent that they sold. There's never been a larger dataset of SaaS valuations than what you can get now inside of Founderpath. And we're thrilled to bring it to you. All right, we're gonna go back to the YouTube video here in a second. But [08:16] if you wanna check this tool out, if you wanna jump in and sign up, you can check it out for free to get your valuation at this link. This link, founderpath.com/products/valuations. Or if you go to founderpath.com and hover over products, click on get your valuation here, and go ahead and sign up to give it a whirl. Again, all that valuation data live right inside the platform. I hope to see you there. Alright. Let's jump back into [08:42] the interview. Did you guys just split equity evenly at the start or did you guys have to debate that a little bit? [08:49] >> No, we didn't split evenly because it was like, we understood what's impact of each of us. [09:00] So you kept more, right? [09:02] >> I kept more. [09:05] That's the way to do it. Okay, very cool. So I guess my question is everyone listening right now is rooting for you. They want this to succeed, but in order for you to build a sustainable application, once the grant money and the $50,000 sort of runs out, you've got to figure out a way to make money on this thing. It sounds like you've added a lot of value to this group that's increased donations. They have thousands [09:26] of supporters on your platform. Why haven't you asked them to pay yet? [09:33] >> You know, in Ukraine, you know, volunteering in Ukraine now is saving our country actually. So it's our like social mission. So, we are ready to provide our service for free for some organization if it's like meets our values and it's very, very crucial for, for instance, for surviving our country because volunteering in Ukraine now, now this organization that used our prototype, they are raising like almost $200,000 per month and they've spent this money for supplying Ukrainian [10:09] >> army. Anything that needs tactical medicine and so on and so on. So, I believe that some organization all over the world are more like, can afford us more than Ukrainian organization these days. [10:27] So which country are you going to get your first paying customer from? [10:31] >> I'm looking to, I'm looking for US customers. I'm actually, we are looking for some probably non profitable organizations who are organized some human rights or climate crisis response or some student self government organization. Because I believe that our app allows to again, just build very strong community, very loyal community and a big community and, [11:06] >> like teach people to be involved and to keep interest in and retain this interest for very, very long time. [11:13] Because we [11:14] >> believe we see the problem that a lot of volunteers just quit this volunteering job and they lose interest. [11:21] But Tamara, how do you convince a US based nonprofit to use your application? Right, like are you going to fly over here and store knock? I mean, are you going to get that first customer? [11:31] >> First of all, I'm going to, we already part of Allianzio Democracy Foundation fellowship at the Fighters for Democracy, so we have some public PR and we have some visibility for, like, for fight for democracy, this is the first one. The second one, I know that a lot of non profits use CRM system, task managers, but they don't work as we do. They just don't communicate with supporters on our way. So, I believe we will improve and [12:11] >> we will just try to attract clients. [12:16] I mean tomorrow, I guess just to be really specific, everybody wants to shine a spotlight obviously on what's happening in Ukraine right now. It's a great time for you to use Western media to promote qela app for free, right? I imagine a headline in the Wall Street Journal, the secret app Ukrainian volunteer organizations are using to raise $2,400,000 annually. And then it's a backlink to qela app, right? Why aren't we seeing that kind of press coming [12:40] out? [12:44] >> The difference between the prototype that this organization are using and the our actual product, there is a difference, we add something. So, I want to be like fair, I like to be honest that they are, it's like much more, we are providing that much more solution, much more features in our solution. So it didn't come to my mind to use this [13:13] >> a pitch. [13:14] Well, I found you. I mean, look, I'm gonna do everything we can to promote the heck out of you, but I wanna see you even do more. And I just feel like this is such a great story. And I understand why you don't wanna charge Ukrainian organizations for your software, but I also know you'll be out of business at some point if you can't figure out a way to generate revenue that isn't grant money or loans, [13:31] right? And so I wanna see you succeed and sell around the world. [13:34] >> Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support. Of course, of course. I think this is like very unusual situation. I never wanted to be like non profit business, yeah. We are for profit, we want to make money and we, but we want to like to create a win win situation. So we want to leave the solution will be affordable for every community. [13:58] So what's your pricing gonna be? What are gonna launch at? [14:01] >> It will be like, it will depend on the number of users up to 100 users. It will be free just to touch the ground and just how it works Up to from 100 up to 1,000 users, it will cost like $350. So it's not like that much. [14:22] And [14:25] >> after 1,000 up to 2,050 it will be like $7.50 and after that I believe it will be some customized [14:35] Got it. Then how many folks are using, like how many unique organizations are using the tool today even if they're free? [14:44] >> To be honest now, this tool, nobody, because it's like, we are testing it, the new version, the prototypes. [14:51] Tamara, how many folks are using a prototype? [14:52] >> I'm trying to give you some credit right? You have a massive organization in Ukraine using Now you to raise hundreds of [14:58] >> it's just one organization. [15:00] Okay. Got it. So you've got the one organization that you're powering with the prototype. You're getting the new version together to launch in the West and maybe in Europe to get your first paying customers at hopefully $350 a month. [15:10] >> Yeah. [15:11] All right. On that note, let's wrap up here with The Famous Five Tomorrow. Number one, what's your favorite book? [15:16] >> Oh, it's hard to say. [15:25] >> I can say what I'm reading now. Right. I am reading now the Masters of Scale. This is a book about like startups. [15:34] Of course. [15:35] >> Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying? [15:40] Say again, please? [15:41] >> Is there a CEO you're following or studying? [15:46] >> Actually, I'm [15:51] You can pass. Yeah. Okay, number three. What's your favorite online tool for building qela app? [15:58] >> Actually, are using now Microsoft Azure tool. This is our platform that we are using for building. [16:06] >> Understood. [16:07] Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night? [16:11] >> How many hours I sleep? [16:12] Yes. [16:16] >> It depends on sirens alert in Kyiv actually. Are [16:20] you in Kyiv right now? [16:22] >> Yes, yes. [16:23] Can we see out your window? Do you have a view? Can you move I the [16:27] >> have a very nice view from my window. [16:29] Oh, interesting. So are you like West, north, south, East of Kyiv? [16:33] >> It's South Of Kyiv and you can see the stripe on my window which prevents it from crashing from the heat wave if it occurs. [16:45] Oh, interesting. [16:46] >> So I prefer to sleep eight hours per night. [16:51] Got it. Yeah. Alright. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids? [16:56] >> Single, no kids, but I have a very nice dog. [16:59] Oh, that's great. Okay. And can I ask how old you are? [17:02] >> I'm almost 40. [17:04] Okay, so 39 years young. Something, last question. Something you wish you knew when you were 20. [17:11] >> Secondly, wish [17:12] Something you wish you knew when you were 20 years old. [17:19] >> That I will be so brave. That I will be so brave. Yeah, yeah. I know it's that's it for me. [17:25] Guys tomorrow launched an app called qela app, which is helping a very large democratic volunteer group in Ukraine raise hundreds of thousands of dollars per month to support the cause in Ukraine. She says, wow, if this is working so well in Ukraine, I wanna take this prototype and create a version to sell to Western nonprofits or nonprofits in Europe. And so she's looking to take this to market at $3.50 per month with her three co founders. [17:48] We will see what happens next so far fueled by a $50,000 loan from a friend and a $50,000 investment and a $10,000 grant as well. Tamara, thank you for taking us to the top. [17:59] >> Thanks for having me. [18:01] One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM Central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers, they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday 1PM [18:26] Central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. We release them here on YouTube every day at 2PM Central. To make sure you don't miss any of that, make sure you click the subscribe button below here on YouTube, the big red button and then click the little bell notification to make sure you get notifications when we do go live. I wouldn't want you to miss breaking news in the SaaS world, whether it's an acquisition, a big [18:49] fundraise, a big sale, a big profitability statement or something else. 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