Qysh Me means How To?
Posted on: December 5, 2016 - In: Startup
Qysh Me is the pioneering Albanian educational website that is driven by the belief that every journey begins with a single question – “How To?” The website was established in 2011 as a side project by two co-workers, Korab Osmanaj and myself, during a time when we were working an early morning shift. During our lunch breaks, we would engage in conversations and brainstorm ideas to stay awake.
Over time, our side project evolved into the comprehensive educational platform that Qysh Me is today.
Our family and friends would frequently call us for help with their computer problems, especially in the evenings when we were already exhausted from waking up early in the morning.
During one of these conversations, we realized that we were answering the same types of questions over and over, such as “How do I fix ___?” It was then that we had the idea to compile all of these simple solutions in written form and just send them links, rather than having to explain the same information over the phone repeatedly. This is where the idea for Qysh Me was born.
We came up with the name “Qysh Me,” which is the Albanian equivalent of “How To.” Coincidentally, the “.me” domain extension had just become available to the public, and we were able to secure the domain “Qysh.Me.”
Our journey began in a coffee shop, where we set up our laptops and installed WordPress. We chose the most suitable theme at the time and created one of the first layouts for the website in the middle of 2011.
The picture down below is from early 2013 after the interview on national TV with Koha Vision.
Soon after we received some media attention, we began building our team. Initially, we all worked on a voluntary basis and were dedicated to the project every day. The first person to join our team was Fisnik Sylka, whom we met on Facebook after he reached out to us with a recommendation for optimization. He quickly began helping us with daily tasks and we all learned a lot from each other during that time. Fisnik became fascinated with SEO and eventually became our SEO Manager. Today, he is a highly regarded SEO Strategist and works with clients globally.
Fisnik introduced us to his friend Dardan Hasku, who joined our team as the Social Media Manager. Today, Dardan runs his own successful Social Media Agency, Piar Creations, which is considered one of the top agencies in Kosovo.
After two years of working on the Qysh Me project, we decided to officially incorporate it as a startup and brought on Uranik Begu as a Marketing Specialist. In May 2013, Qysh Me became an official company, as reflected in our business certificate. This marked a significant milestone in our journey.
This is the preview of our 2014 design that we crafted carefully
I found this picture on my Facebook that shows the team working on this at the time. Starting from left Valon (Me) Fisnik Sylka, Faton Selishta and Arianit Fazliu (Kutia) and Korab Osmanaj (with glasses)
And our IOS and Android app back in 2015 was created by Zombie Soup, special thanks to Celik Nimani, Agon Avdimetaj, and Dorjan Berishaj.
As the first Albanian website focused on Education we got a decent following on our Facebook page fb.com/QyshMe about 100.000 Likes by January 2016 and many followers on twitter.com/QyshMe and Instagram.com/QyshMe.
This platform dedicated to providing helpful information and resources to answer questions and solve problems in the Albanian language. Despite starting as a side project, the team’s hard work and determination helped turn Qysh.Me into a successful company with a dedicated team of experts in their respective fields.