Price2Spy

Misha Krunic's journey to Price2Spy began long before 2011. In 1996, fresh out of a Software Engineering degree, he took a job at Serbia's first ISP and began building websites during the country's post-war recovery. His first profitable venture was a Red Star Belgrade fan site that attracted thousands of nostalgic Serbian expats abroad. When fans started asking where to buy official merchandise, he spotted an opportunity and built his first online store—then a second (YU Sport Shop) to avoid political tensions between Serbian and Yugoslav nationalist supporters. By 2005, after living in Holland for six years, he returned to Serbia and scaled the operation to five e-commerce stores, all targeting Serbs living abroad.

In 2008, Misha founded TakoLako, one of Serbia's first all-around e-commerce platforms selling electronics, sports equipment, and fashion. By 2010, the company employed 10 people and was growing quickly. But growth brought a new problem: competitors were undercutting their prices constantly. Misha's reaction was straightforward—he asked each category manager to monitor competitor prices manually using Excel spreadsheets. After just three weeks, his entire team revolted. The task was so tedious and time-consuming that managers begged him to find another way. "That's when the bell rang," Misha recalls. "This is something that should be automated."

Misha assembled a small team of four engineers (including his future CTO) to build a simple price-monitoring tool for TakoLako's internal use. The project took about three months—fast because they were already experienced in building web applications in Java for outsourcing clients. Within six months of using the tool internally, TakoLako saw a 32% increase in sales. Misha knew he'd stumbled onto something bigger.

In spring 2011, Price2Spy was born. Naming the tool proved surprisingly tricky. Misha knew the name had to be SEO-friendly (containing the word "price"), but most simple names were already taken. He settled on "Price2Spy" because internally they kept saying the tool let retailers "spy on competitors." The name was catchy but risky—the word "spy" has negative connotations to English speakers that Misha, as a non-native speaker, hadn't fully appreciated. In hindsight, he believes the name helped them win the market quickly but hurt enterprise sales efforts.

Pricing was equally deliberate. Starting at $19.95/month for monitoring up to 100 URLs, Misha intentionally kept prices low so small retailers could afford entry-level access. He structured the model so that monitoring more URLs lowered the per-URL price, encouraging growth. Looking back nine years later, he admitted: "Nowadays, we believe we should have started with higher prices."

Price2Spy launched in April 2011. The first trial customers arrived in May, and the first payment hit in August 2011—a moment that "made me so happy," Misha recalled. His marketing strategy had three pillars:

**Google Ads**: He started with a moderate budget but quickly noticed huge numbers of clicks from countries where conversion was low (India, Indonesia, Malaysia). He split campaigns into two buckets: "West" (high budget) and "East" (low budget).

**Content Marketing**: Misha blogged about lessons from his own e-commerce experience—posts like "Is it worth offering 'free shipping' deals?" attracted online retailers who discovered the tool through organic search. This SEO-first approach became the company's most effective channel.

**Transparency About Capabilities**: Misha published the list of websites Price2Spy could monitor. He reasoned that if they could monitor thousands of sites, why not publicize it? The logic was that announcing they monitored a specific website also proved they were confident that site wouldn't block their traffic. This aggressive positioning worked well for SMBs but raised eyebrows with enterprise prospects.

Online marketing was devastatingly effective for attracting small and medium-sized businesses. Google Ads and SEO-driven content brought consistent, affordable customer acquisition. However, these channels flopped with enterprise clients who expected different sales experiences. In 2015, Misha began attending trade shows and conferences as sponsors or attendees. The results were inconsistent: strong in industries where Price2Spy was already well-known, but weak in new verticals. He eventually deprioritized conferences and double-downed on what was working—online marketing—while carefully selecting only high-relevance events.

Misha's relationship with Price2Spy transformed in 2015. Until then, it was a side project generating "side income." Most development resources were allocated to WEBCentric's outsourcing clients; Price2Spy got spare cycles. In 2013, he hired the first dedicated account manager, signaling the business was viable. But 2015 was the inflection point:

First, Misha received an unsolicited offer to sell TakoLako. The e-commerce business was stagnating and draining resources from the far more profitable Price2Spy. He negotiated a good price and sold the company, then spun off the remaining e-commerce operations into a new entity with a trusted CEO.

Second, Price2Spy's largest outsourcing client hit financial trouble and cut the contract—a painful blow but a blessing in disguise. Six of WEBCentric's most experienced developers were suddenly available. By then, Price2Spy was earning enough to retain all six full-time. "From that moment on, Price2Spy got our absolute focus," Misha said. Today, Price2Spy accounts for 93% of the company's income.

Price2Spy now serves 650 clients across retail and manufacturing, employs 104 full-time staff, and generates $155,000/month in recurring revenue. The company has been profitable since day one and has sustained 25-30% annual growth for the past three years. Misha has explicitly rejected the pressure to grow faster at the expense of personal life—a philosophy shared by his leadership team.

Beyond Price2Spy, Misha launched JustLikeAPI in 2018, a service for capturing product reviews and social media comments via API. It competes internally for development resources but he views this creative tension as healthy for both projects.

Looking ahead, Misha's goals are sustainable growth, expansion into enterprise clients, international sales presence (US, Western Europe, possibly Far East), and continuous innovation. He's also implemented a profit-sharing schema for key employees to distribute pressure and build long-term loyalty.

The biggest remaining challenge remains his Serbian location—an advantage for cost but a disadvantage for enterprise credibility. Misha has acknowledged that a Western business partner focused on sales and marketing would unlock that segment. His proudest achievement, however, is building a strong technical team in rural Serbia, an economically depressed region where Price2Spy is "the only IT office in 30 km radius."