Hiring managers, have you ever felt like a candidate seemed too cold or disengaged during a phone interview? Here’s a little insight: they might just be Eastern European.

In countries like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, or Georgia, phone interviews aren’t a thing. The hiring process typically involves face-to-face meetings, Zoom calls, or even Telegram chats — yes, actual texting with recruiters.

This means phone interviews, with their emphasis on tone and spontaneity, can feel intimidating and even unnatural for candidates from Eastern Europe.

The Problem: Cultural Disconnect

In Eastern Europe, phone calls in professional contexts are usually brief and to the point. Small talk? Rare. Projecting warmth or building rapport over the phone? That’s not in the cultural playbook.

So, when an Eastern European candidate steps into a Western hiring process and is asked to impress over the phone, they might come across as stiff, overly formal, or even uninterested. But here’s the thing: this isn’t a reflection of their excitement for the role or their abilities. It’s simply a mismatch between cultural norms and hiring expectations.

How to Adapt as a Candidate:

If you’re new to phone interviews, here’s how to make them less daunting and more effective.

1. Practice Small Talk

In the U.S., phone interviews often start with a little chit-chat. This isn’t just filler — it’s a way to establish rapport.

Tip: Before your interview, practice a few light, friendly comments. For example:

• “Thanks for taking the time to chat today!”
• “How’s your day going so far?”

It may feel unnatural at first, but it helps set a positive tone.

2. Use Notes

One of the best parts of a phone interview is that no one can see you. Use this to your advantage! Write down key points about your experience, questions about the role, and even a script for common interview questions.

Example:

• “I saw in the job description that you’re looking for someone with experience in SaaS marketing. At [Company Name], I led a product launch that increased adoption by 30% — I’d love to bring that experience to your team.”

3. Work on Tone

Your voice is the star of a phone interview. Smiling while you talk can naturally make your tone sound more positive and engaging.

Practice Tip: Record yourself answering a few common interview questions and listen to the playback. Do you sound interested and confident? If not, tweak your tone and pacing until it feels natural and engaging.

Practice Tip: Use the ChatGPT mobile app to refine your tone. Ask it to simulate a phone interview by providing prompts like: “Pretend you’re a recruiter asking me about my experience in [your field].” Speak your answers aloud, then review the app’s feedback or use the typing option to compare how your tone matches your written response. It’s a low-pressure way to practice sounding natural and engaging.

4. Request a Zoom Interview

If phone interviews feel too stressful, don’t hesitate to ask for a video call. A simple, professional way to ask:

• “Would it be possible to do this over Zoom? I feel it’s a better way to connect and showcase my skills.”

Resources to Help You Adapt

• YouTube Channels: Search for ‘mock phone interviews’ to see how they’re structured.
• Apps: Use tools like Grammarly’s tone detector to practice sounding conversational.
• Practice Platforms: Websites like InterviewBuddy or Pramp allow you to practice with real people.

Tips for Recruiters

Let’s not leave this all on the candidates. Recruiters can take a few simple steps to bridge the cultural gap:

• Provide Structure: Share the format and topics ahead of time to reduce anxiety.
• Be Flexible: If the candidate requests a Zoom call or seems hesitant, consider adapting.

The Bottom Line

Cultural differences don’t make someone less talented or less enthusiastic — they just require a little understanding. Recruiters, by being mindful of these nuances, you can tap into incredible talent pools. And candidates, by embracing phone interview norms, you can open up doors to exciting opportunities.

Because no one should miss out on their dream job because of a phone call.

#CulturalDifferences #JobInterviews

Why Phone Interviews Can Be a Nightmare for Eastern European Candidates (And How to Fix It) was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

According to Chartbeat, media outlets publish over ninety thousand articles daily. In addition to this, there are millions of daily blog posts from around the world. Worldometer has a ticker you can check, how many posts were published today.

PR professionals always face the challenge to be heard through this roar. Even if you get your coverage in a Tier 1 media outlet, remember that your article is one out of hundreds. The Post alone, for example, publishes about 500 stories daily.

The rule

The main rule to follow when vying for customer attention: no content should be published on your blog or third party platforms, like US media outlets, without an existing plan on how to distribute the published content, so it will be actually seen by the target audience.

Not all PR agencies will promote your published content — as their goal is to publish the content and not necessarily make it seen. So, it’s your internal marketing task to think of a strategy for promoting a post or interview.

Once you have an article published, you can utilize the following tools or techniques:

1. Promote published content on Facebook ads with highly specific targeting. Smart targeting is the key to success here, you have to be very smart about the audience on whom you are promoting your content, be it text or video. According to HubSpot, Facebook algorithms actually track how their audience interacts with your content, how many seconds they’ve spent on it, and downgrade your ad if the audience doesn’t like it.
2. Promote published content on content discovery networks as Redd.it, HackerNews, Digg, Pinterest, etc. You name yours for your vertical market. Redd.it, for example, has passed Twitter as the number 3 social networking site in the Top 10 Social Networking Sites by Market Share of Visits.
3. Promote your content via influencer outreach. Ask if your content can be included in newsletters, retweeted or shared on Facebook. Use BuzzSumo for influencer discovery as not all influencers are created equal. Alexandra Tachalova at Digital Olympus has a series of articles on how to treat influencers better.
4. Reuse your content and get it published by your partners, smaller niche blogs, or blogs and media in other languages. If your initial publication is successful enough, smaller blogs will reach out to you to ask for republication, if not — reach out to them yourself.
5. Use your own existing distribution channel (if they exist): newsletter, social media accounts, even mention the article in your next video on your YouTube channel.

A big plus for the all work mentioned above — journalists and bloggers who write articles about you love when their content is promoted. So, basically by doing this, you are helping to build a stronger relationship with journalists.

Content And News Distribution Strategies to Weave Into Your Startup PR Efforts was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Maria (Marsha) Podolyak, Product Marketing Manager for Startups on the AI Watch. Do More with Less.

LinkedIn | Twitter

The application of artificial intelligence in marketing has reshaped how marketing teams and founders collaborate. As a Product Marketing Manager (PMM) working directly with a startup founder, you often navigate tight schedules and the need for sharp communication to translate ideas into impactful strategies. This is where AI tools step in — not to replace human insight but to enhance productivity and alignment.

Turning Founder Insights into Market-Ready Strategies

Founders are typically brimming with visionary ideas but often lack the time to document or organize them. During brainstorming sessions, meetings, or casual conversations, many valuable insights can be lost in the shuffle. Here’s where Otter.ai steps in:

• Record Everything: Otter.ai automatically transcribes audio from calls, meetings, or even voice memos. Whether it’s a quick sync meeting or an impromptu discussion, this tool ensures no detail is missed.
• Accurate Transcripts: The tool converts spoken words into text with high accuracy, saving hours that would otherwise be spent taking manual notes.

So, What’s the Workflow?

1️⃣ Founder Sync Calls:

• Record brainstorming sessions using Otter.ai to capture every detail.
• Dump transcripts into ChatGPT or Claude.

Use AI prompts like:

• “Summarize key messaging angles.”
• “Draft a positioning document.”
• “Highlight customer pain points and benefits.”

Tasks that once took hours are now completed in minutes.

2️⃣ Leveraging Founder Content (Podcasts, Talks):

• Upload interviews, webinars, or podcast audio files into Otter.ai.
• Dump transcripts into ChatGPT or Claude.

Use AI prompts to extract insights:

• “Identify recurring themes.”
• “Suggest unique positioning from this discussion.”
• “Create social media ideas from these insights.”

Why Does This Work?

AI is fundamentally changing how marketing operates, particularly in making founder-PMM collaboration more efficient. Founders are full of customer insights. AI tools allow PMMs to refine this vision into actionable plans, drastically reducing the need for excessive meetings.

It’s the AI Marketing Assistant Era

AI isn’t just a tool — it’s an AI marketing assistant that:

• Automates repetitive tasks.
• Uncovers patterns in customer behavior.
• Scales up content production.

Moving Forward

Start small. Use AI for one task at a time — whether analyzing customer pain points or automating social posts. These tools enable marketers to do more with less while ensuring the human touch remains central.

So, how will AI impact marketing? It’s about amplifying our potential while enabling us to focus on what we do best: connecting with customers authentically.

💡 What are your favorite AI hacks? Let’s share ideas!

#AIImpactOnMarketing #AIMarketingAssistant #ProductMarketing #DoMoreWithLess

How AI Tools Transform Founder and Product Marketing Manager Interactions was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

He’s a list of Web3 technical, product, and marketing jobs job boards. This post is being updated — if you want to add a website, please, send me a message or tweet @marysam

Cryptojobslist.com

Latest Crypto Jobs, Web3 Jobs and Blockchain Jobs in the leading tech companies.

Crypto.Jobs

https://crypto.jobs/

The website has a very convenient filter by location or ‘remote anywhere’, you can also follow jobs on Twitter https://twitter.com/GetCryptoJobs

Crypto-Careers.com

https://www.crypto-careers.com

CryptoCurrencyJobs.co

Cryptocurrency Jobs and Blockchain Jobs

RemoteinCrypto.com Newsletter

RemoteInCrypto | Alexander (Crypto Careers) | Substack

Useweb3.xyz

Web3, Blockchain and Crypto jobs · useWeb3.xyz

‘Decentralized jobs’ filter at Indeed.com

Decentralized Jobs, Employment | Indeed.com

Decentralized financial market jobs at DeFi Jobs

DeFi Jobs - Building the Future of Finance

Cosmos Network jobs only

Projects

Pallet

Jobs for Women in Blockchain https://wib.pallet.com/jobs

Telegram

Blockchain Headhunter

https://t.me/blockchain_headhunter

Bonus. LinkedIn blockchain and Web3 groups

Software & Technology: Metaverse | Web 3.0 | Blockchain | Managers | Sales | Human Resources

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1976445/

Banking & Finance Jobs, Investment, Accounting, Venture Capital, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Fintech, NFT, Auditor

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2257038/

Metaverse Careers: Web3, Blockchain, Human Resources, HR, Finance, Sales, Technology & Management

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2881314/

You can also find jobs in blockchain and crypto on Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and Reddit. Send me a message on Telegram @marysams if you have favorite communities, subtasks, or educational programs. I will update the list!

10 Job Boards and Telegram Channels To Start A Career In Blockchain, Web3 was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It is not easy to enter the blockchain employee market, even if you have worked in SaaS or cloud companies for many years.

My background is in product marketing with tech startups (or Web2 companies) for 10+ years, and I began working in blockchain in 2022: blockchain is not something I have easy access to.

In this article, I’ll explain why you should join and how!

Let’s begin with the ‘why’. Companies in the Web3 sector are attracting more and more funding. Statista estimates that blockchain startups raised 2.6 billion dollars in venture capital just in the first quarter of 2021 over the entire year of 2020. This funding surge will lead to more blockchain jobs.

Now let’s move on to the ‘how’.

1. Consensys Academy

https://consensys.net/academy/

As of March 2022, Consensys is a blockchain market unicorn valued at 7 billion dollars. They are doing a great job guiding new people into the market by providing two different educational programs.

• Blockchain Online Bootcamp for Software Engineers
• Blockchain Essentials for all others, which is $99 only

The essentials module covers everything from the history of chains and concepts to technical foundations and use-cases.

2. Andreessen Horowitz Crypto Startup School

https://a16z.com/crypto-startup-school/

Andreessen Horowitz Crypto Fund III invests in crypto companies and protocols at any stage of development, asset type, and geography that have the potential to impact millions of people.

The crypto course was held back in 2020 and targeted entrepreneurs willing to build new dApps, crypto companies, or blockchain dev tools. Follow the link above, and you’ll find 15 videos covering everything blockchain and entrepreneurship in the sector.

3. Introduction to Blockchain Technologies by INSEAD on Coursera

https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-blockchain-technologies

Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott are the authors of the four-course Specialization. You will learn what blockchain technology is, how it works, and why it’s revolutionary. You will learn about various categories of crypto assets. You will explore how blockchain disrupts financial services and business models, allowing organizations to create and manage value in new ways.

The course is $79 a month.

4. Real college blockchain and fintech courses from the University of California, Berkley, or the University of Hong Kong at EDx

https://www.edx.org/learn/blockchain

The University of Berkley, California, blockchain course comes with a professional certificate. You will learn to synthesize your blockchain solutions and gain an in-depth understanding of the specific mechanics of Bitcoin. You will understand Bitcoin’s real-life applications. And learn how to attack and destroy Bitcoin, Ethereum, smart contracts and dApps, and alternatives to Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. The authors and tutors are Rustie Lin, Mengyi (Gloria) Wang, Nadir Akhtar.

The course is $198 a month.

5. Research and analytics ‘Blockchain Letter’ by Pantera Capital

https://panteracapital.com/blockchain-letter/

The newsletter includes analytics, retrospective, forecasts, and the history of the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets. I find this very post of significant importance to understanding more about the future of blockchain.

6. Data, research, and analytics by Messari

https://messari.io/research/grid-view

Messari Pro is a one-stop-shop for all your crypto data and research needs. Get up-to-speed on new projects and find hidden market opportunities.

Messari provides free analytics to the public and paid research for $29.99 a month.

7. Newsletters: mostly news and opinions

If you’re a professional, you’ll want to subscribe to cryptocurrency, digital assets, chain news, and market newsletters. Check out this list!

Week in Ethereum

EthHub

The Block

Axios Crypto by Brady Dale

The Defiant

Weekly Recap by Messari

8. Podcasts: mostly opinions and news discussions

If you’re driving a car or flying, you can listen to podcasts.

Bankless

Unchained

Next with Novo

9. Media outlets

Cointelegraph.com

Coindesk.com

TheBlockCrypto.com

Decrypt.com

10. YouTube bloggers

https://www.youtube.com/c/CoinBureau

My colleagues recommended subscribing to CoinBureau.

You can also find information about blockchain and crypto on Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and Reddit. Send me a message on Telegram @marysams if you have favorite communities, subtasks, or educational programs. I will update the list!

10 Resources to Help You Break Into the Blockchain and Crypto Jobs Market was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Every year, millions of people take a stab at their dream venture. In fact, only 10% of startups succeed. Those 10% that got lucky aren’t lucky forever as everything can change in a blink of an eye. Out of many responsibilities that the startup owner takes up, marketing and PR are two tricky brothers that must be watched 24/7 to stay on top of your game. In this article, I am going to talk about PR opportunities and how to use your startup’s PR and marketing resources at 100%.

In general, PR opportunity is anything that can tell an engaging and positive story about your company and your products through mass media.

It may vary from events and philanthropy to launching a new product design or hiring a new CMO — creativity is a key. But remember: whatever you choose to do must be interesting, catchy, approachable. In a fast-paced era of social media and digital, journalists and PR professionals will prefer stories that create buzz.

In other words, your startup has to offer unique and relevant material that will make journalists excited. However, there are some golden rules to this:

• News is only news when it is timely: do not postpone sending your press release or an event invitation to PR agencies or journalists, they simply won’t look at it if it’s late or happened 5 months ago
• News should involve money, investments, donations, profits, losses — anything that revolves around these themes
• News agencies prioritize events that can generate views: word your proposals accordingly, try to look for a secret hook in your story, something outstanding

Now, let’s compare. What is more likely to become a great PR opportunity: a mere existence of your business or a ground-breaking research the company had done for the industry?

All in all, quality marketing requires quality planning. Especially if you are running a startup, planning part will most likely be your prime responsibility.

When searching for role-models in planning and generating PR opportunities, I recommend looking at big FMCG brands. Specifics of their industry create a crazy combo when products must renew, change and improve at a very fast pace while prior R&D and production takes a while. As a result, good planning is inevitable. Recently, I had a chance to speak with a few professionals in the FMCG sector, below is what they recommended for startups.

Come prepared

Bring a ready-to-use list of what your business have done, changed, launched or achieved to your first meeting with a PR specialist. An exterior PR specialist can only enhance what already exists and works well within your company. If you have any upcoming events, product launches or any type of consumer/industry research with interesting results — all that is a great PR opportunity to put yourself out there.

Chances are that right stories will make it to the right publications.

It’s important to understand that if you have nothing to talk about — a PR specialist has no information to work with. Then your story becomes boring and carries little to no value to both publications and your potential customers/partners/investors. Stories lacking engaging and valuable content often end up in less respected publications or in media that won’t reach your desired public.

It’s important to understand that if you have nothing to talk about — a PR specialist has no information to work with.

Plan ahead

Another tip that your startup can learn from FMCG brands is planning ahead. Given the dynamics of FMCG brands that involve extensive R&D, production and distribution, it might take as long as three years from a product’s initial idea to its full implementation. For example, many makeup brands have annual plans of new products’ launching or existing products’ remake/improvement (new packaging, recipe formula, etc.). The managers say that it does not only help them feel more confident about their success, but it also communicates a smart message to various stakeholders. New launches and upgrades tell that the brand has money and, therefore, is demanded by consumers.

Planning ahead is effective because it creates an action plan and makes every step of the process rather expected. It can also give you just enough time to come up with a tentative schedule of associated PR opportunities: promos, events, featured articles. This way, you will be able to contact journalists and PR agencies in a timely manner and create valuable and impacting content.

Collaborate

Projects done with PR and news agencies may lead you to collaborations with bloggers and other local or national celebrities. Logic here is simple: if your potential consumers like celebrity X and the celebrity likes your brand, your products have high chances of being noticed and purchased. Do not hesitate to advertise your product through such channels yet be aware they can be quite fragile. To keep bloggers on your side, make sure their interactions with your product are consistent. Otherwise, you will be soon forgotten. Big clothing, car or makeup brands are particularly good with that.

Wrapping up, here’s my final advice. If a three-year plan seems undoable, start with a 6-month strategy. Try to establish consistent long-term relationships with PR and news agencies that will go beyond just one-time publication. Also, take care of your business and your external PR specialist by drafting your five PR opportunities right now. It can be any event or a fact that will exemplify your startups’ worth and achievements. Ask yourself: can I see an article about this and that in a newspaper, in someone’s blog?

Also, take care of your business and your external PR specialist by drafting your five PR opportunities right now.

You are in top 10% survived startups for a reason, take ownership of your chance to succeed.

Follow me on Twitter twitter.com/@marysam

How To Do Public Relations For A Startup? was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Do you know how many international companies attempt to enter the US market but fail every year?

The U.S. Labor Department keeps track of how many new jobs come from businesses that are less than a year old, about 3 million came from startups in 2016, and more than a $3.5 trillion annual direct investment. Many businesses arrive with ambitious plans to penetrate the new market. However, a good majority will have to leave in a year or two after failing to succeed and produce meaningful results.

As an immigrant and a marketing consultant for startups working mostly with founders from outside the US, I can say that the main problem here is the inability to read and adapt to the needs and features of the American market. But it could be 100% avoidable, should businesses have the right tools to monitor the market and develop proper strategies.

No market is identical to another

First thing everyone needs to understand before even bringing their product to a new country is that no market is identical to another. Many companies believe they can enter new markets by following the same playbook that made their business profitable domestically. Truth is, there is no guarantee the target audience will even remain the same in the US, let alone the tactics. In my experience, it often happens with startups entering the US market that they start as a B2B or an enterprise solution back home but turn into a small check cloud service for SMB or even a B2C solution.

Make your life easier — join an accelerator

To not be taken aback by your business possible transformations in the US, join an accelerator. At the moment, there are over 400 of them in the United States — all willing to help your business grow. Participating in the accelerator will familiarize one with the local market, business culture and traditions. It will walk a startup through the unknown and make sure it is ready to set sail independently with a range of useful tools from networking with partners and investors to pitching to consumers. Still getting into the US accelerators is not easy, they get around 500 to 5000 applications for each batch.

All in all, it is a perfect solution for startups who know little to nothing about the American market as well as for those who learn best within short periods of time (the average duration of the acceleration program is three months).

Ask yourself who exactly your clients are and what is your clientele size

Once essentials are under the belt, ask yourself who exactly your clients are and what is your clientele size. Failure to focus on the right audience will result in unclear tactics, lost outreach, imperfect messaging and other marketing missteps that cost money and put your future sales under scrutiny.

In order to avoid what I call marketing illusions — an erroneous understanding of one’s target market and competitors, there are three steps you can take to be prepared for your first sale: 1- define your market, 2- identify your competitors and 3- tune your sales strategy based on your market and competitors features. Let’s go in more detail from here:

Define your Target Market

Over the years, I have been specializing in marketing consulting for numerous IT-startups and realized that the US market is highly transparent. There are indeed plenty of websites as obvious as census.gov that possess an enormous amount of data on any market niche. Sometimes, you just need time and a skillful programmer with experience in analytics who will be able to organize huge inflows of data to make sense of what kind of market and target audience you are dealing with.

As an alternative, use Lead411 or ZoomInfo. These two are great B2B products where you can manually search companies with your own criteria, by market niches and categories. For a fee, you can extract data too.

And as I already mentioned, the US market will most likely be different from the one at home. That is why I also recommend creating customer development questionnaires/interviews and talk to potential clients via Linkedin or at trade shows. These activities will aid in developing your product’s market fit and ensure your product is surely solving the clients’ problems. However, do not expect that people will be participating in these “focus groups” for free: like for any marketing project, you will have to put off some budget. Gift card compensation will do its job too.

Another tip, use Upwork to find people that fit your target audience. It is a website for freelancers who you can hire to complete customer development sessions.

Define Your Competitors

A rule of thumb when looking for competitors — they do not always exist as a solution similar to yours. For example, many taxi companies could not perhaps see Uber or Gett as a threat because these startups came up with a different medium rather than traditional calling. And if you are working in IT industry, you must check competitors in an “offline” zone too just to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Crunchbase.com

Crunchbase is a valuable startup database and startup analysis tool to look for competitors. In other words it is like a barometer of the tech industry and its major players that also allows you to track investors, companies, and people.

Builtwith.com and Datanyze.com

These two companies scan websites and gather software usage data. They analyze CMS, marketing automation software, Web security, Web analytics and more to then display graphs and tables to support your marketing and sales decisions and help you better understand your competitors’ tactics.

HGData

If your startup works with backened software, HGData might come in handy too. It is similar to Builtwith and Datanyze but for server solutions.

Complete Your First Sale

After you defined your target market and competitors, there is only one thing to do: go and sell. Frankly, selling itself is not that tricky unlike finding the right medium and message for the sale to occur. In general, the US market loves intros and more importantly double opt-in intros. That means that a potential customer who you want to approach needs to say YES for the intro to happen either through replying to you on the street or putting their email for subscription.

However, if it is not the case, do cold approaching in person or online (Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook), just remember to have your sales kit at hand. The sales pitch, a product presentation, a list of product’s benefits that translate into client’s measurable results — all this, even if presented cold, might interest and convince the client to make a deal with you.

Another good habit to develop when you start selling in the US for the first time is regular follow ups. They show that you truly care about your product and your customer; and even if they are not buying, negative or neutral feedback is always a way to fix your market message.

Crave for more? Here are 9 steps to successfully bring you startup to the US! If you have any questions ping me on Twitter @marysam.

Understanding The American Market And Making The First Sales was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Если вы проследите истории крупных американских проектов, таких как Apple, Facebook, Google, — то обратите внимание, что либо первые пользователи были студенты или продукция продвигалась среди школьников.

1. Например, Apple в начале 90-х предоставила скидку американским школам на покупку макинтошей в классы, чтобы соревноваться с лидером (на тот момент) на рынке персональных компьютеров IBM. Зачем? Логично, что они хотели приучить молодое поколение к интерфейсам и устройствам их производства. Дети выросли и уже самостоятельно стали покупать привычные для них ноутбуки.
2. Из американских кампусов выросли не только Facebook и Google. В 70-е годы стартовал и позднее был куплен компанией FedEx стартап Kinko’s. Основатели создали сеть офисов с услугами печати, сканирования документов для студентов США.
3. Известно и то, что Tinder собрал свои первые 15 000 регистраций именно на кампусе. Основательница приложения буквально ходила на встречи женских клубов и регистрировала студенток вручную.
4. Но больше всего меня удивила история сосачек Chupa Chups. В начале 2000-х никто в США не знал о таком продукте. В университет Бостона приезжали большие грузовозы и раздавали коробки сосачек бесплатно.

Уверена, если вы поговорите с людьми, которые учились в вузах США, вы соберёте сотни примеров компаний и продуктов, которые начинали свою историю на кампусах.

Из моего опыта — в прошлом году Wall Street Journal начал публично распространять свою CMS для медиа компаний. Куда они пошли первым делом делать первые внедрения? В студенческие газеты!

Так что же упускают российские стартапы? У россиян нет представления об американских кампусах. Например, на кампусе University of Florida живет 50 000 студентов. И это сообщество очень сильно отличается от любого российского вуза. Территория самого кампуса является неотьемлемой частью жизни американского студента: это закрытая и плотно переплетённая система связей.

Студенческие сообщества — это как раз первые 13% рынка, инноваторов и early adopters, скоцентрированных в одной географии. Более того, американские студенты — социально активные. Здесь хорошо будут работать механики вирусного маркетинга и маркетинга слухов. Важно и то, что это платежеспособная аудитория, так как в среднем студенты из благополучных семей.

Какие же шаги можно предпринять сейчас, чтобы выйти на рынок американских студентов?

• В случае если ваш продукт может быть использован студентами, адаптировать и продукт, и цену под эту аудиторию.
• Найти выходы на общественные организации студентов на кампусе (student associations).
• Не исключать вариант работы с администрацией университета, с факультетами (departments).
• Приехать на кампус и узнать, как помимо личного общения получают информацию студенты (газеты, столовые, заведения). Продумать кампанию по распространению информации о продукте.

Как-то так.

Американские вузы — отличное место продвижения технологических стартапов was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Setting up GoBe2

In the manual, it was recommended to fully charge the wearable, but it had some preliminary charge, and I was anxious to try it out, so I started the set up right away.

Even though, you can set it up as a standalone device, I do recommend downloading the app, just makes it easier and you can start tracking your health activities.

Once I had the app, the set up and syncing was pretty straightforward except for a small inconvenience — the firmware took a bit of time to update and it looked like the connection between the device and my phone was lost couple of times. After restarting the syncing, it picked up where it dropped off, so it finished quick after that.

The app

The data can be read either from the wearable itself or from the phone app by Healbe. App provides a bit more details and also very importantly, historical tracking.

The data being monitored

The data that are being monitored and tracked are below (unless specifically called out, data are seen on both, device and phone app):

• Heart rate
• Calorie balance

Device just shows the balance

App breaks out caloric intake vs calories burnt and final balance

• Number of steps that day and distance walked
• Hydration level

Really cool feature — device vibrates when your hydration level is low, so you are reminded to drink more water

It actually does buzz you when you drink beer in a bar with a “Drink” message. Which means not to drink more beer, but to drink water :)

• Stress level — app only (I am guessing based on heart rate, pretty good to know over the course of the day since the app is tracking)
• Blood pressure function is in beta phase and only visible on the phone app
• Recommended hours of sleep based on day’s activity — app only (more on that later)

Device can be set to vibrate and wake you up based time window that you can set and the most appropriate phase of the sleep you are in (I have not tried that feature). You can also set up manual alarm for a specific time.

• The device also tells time and % charged

• One more alert that the device does via vibration is “Emotion”, I have no clue what it is supposed to mean, as for example, my “stress level” was low those times…

The device buzzed me with the “Emotion” message when the Excel file was slow and I wanted to through my laptop into the wall. I guess, it asked me not to jump to conclusions that easily

I really have to call out again how I like hydration level alert. I obviously knew that it’s good for me before, but probably was not drink enough or as regularly as needed. Drinking water regularly and keeping hydration level on good level all day, noticeably improved my quality of sleep.

Going back to sleep tracking, and I guess it deals with personal preference — I don’t like to wear and jewelry, watch, or wearable when I go to sleep, so the sleep tracking and smart alarm is not for me. However, the device thinks that I did not sleep at all and next day recommends that I sleep 12 hours to catch up on sleep. I wish there was either a manual input of how many hours I slept, or some sort of “sleep time mode” on the app.

Overall, it has a feel of a well made product, which it is. The original strap is rubber and feels pretty nice, it has a very generous length and holes for the buckle , so you can easily adjust it for a small or large wrist. The body of the device is pretty large (3cm x 5cm), so it will look a bit bulky on a smaller wrist, I wish it was a bit smaller, like Fitbit bracelets. The side that touches the wrist has a metal plate. It says, it’s waterproof and have taken showers wearing Healbe, but I have not swam in it yet.

The battery life is good for 2–3 days and the recharging takes less than an hour. Charger is included and it has a micro USB plug input. The charger is about the same size as the device without the wristband, so it won’t take too much space if you travel with it.

Overall, I am very happy with Healbe GoBe2 and will continue to use it. It’s a device that does not spread itself thin on bunch of functions, but the ones it does, it does them very well.

How I Tested A Fitness Tracker Watch Not For Workout And Weight loss was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Мы вьехали на территорию штата Нью-Мексико. Первый пункт в нашем путешествии — национальный парк Уайт-Сэндс или Белые пески.

Вы едете по стандартному пейзажу, а потом — оп! и внезапно появляются белые барханы. Ранее здесь было озеро, но потом оно высохло, и остался лишь белоснежный песок.

Песок очень мелкий, белый. Я видела семьи, которые катаются с барханов на ледянках (серьёзно). На территории парка есть дороги для машин и пешеходные тропы, места для пикника и туалеты.

Майский GQ провёл фотосьемку Брэда Питта именно здесь! Вот известный мужчина приземляется на белый песок.

А вот я!

Мы не задерживаемся долго в национальном парке: у нас плотный график на день в Нью-Мексико. Впереди — горы и город Клаудкрофт, подьем на фуникулёре в Альбукерке, фисташковая ферма и поиск станции NASA, которая слушает инопланетные сообщения, а также Санта Фе.

Мы едем на север и поднимаемся в горы. На пути останавливаемся на смотровой площадке Mexican Canyon Railroad Trestle. Здесь –прекрасный вид на долину, где-то там внизу остались пески Уайт Сэндс.

В этом месте находится бывший железнодорожный мост. Когда-то тут заготавливали древесину и перевозили на составах вниз в долину.

На фотографии видно, что в горах уже лежит снег, но на улице тепло, хотя мы путешествовали во второй половине ноября. Погода была отличная.

Клаудкрофт — это отдых в горах. В городе висят обьявления об аренде cabins (так в США называют загородные дома в горах и лесу), а также указатели для горнолыжников. Мы едем обедать в заведение с очень хорошими отзывами на Yelp, Mad Jack’s Mountaintop Barbeque. Мы познакомились с хозяином и поели вкуснейший pulled pork или томлёную свинину. В заведении висит огромная меловая доска, возможно, там ещё висит запись о нашем посещении :)

Не знаю, подают ли в России pulled pork, но в США это очень распространенное блюдо. Мясо готовится медленно при низких температурах и подаётся в гамбургере или с хлебом и соусом барбекю.

Pulled pork is a method of cooking pork where what would otherwise be a tough cut of meat is cooked slowly at low temperatures, allowing the meat to become tender enough so that it can be “pulled”, or easily broken into individual pieces.

Мы отправляемся дальше на фисташковую ферму, Pistachio Tree Ranch Country, чтобы сфотографироваться и поесть вкусного мороженого.

И дальше в горы, подьем на фуникулёре!

Рядом с городом Альбукерке мы отправляемся на горнолыжный курорт Sandia Peak. Здесь снимали эпизоды из фильма Terminator Salvation.

Наверху мы прогулялись по смотровой площадке и зашли в ресторан High Finance Restaurant! Далее, спуск на трамвайчике и Санта Фе.

Санта Фе — отличный город для любителей интересной архитектуры и истории. К этому же списку городов я отношу Новый Орлеан (Луизиана), Чарльстон (Южная Каролина), Саванну (Джорджия), Александрию (Вирджиния).

Санта Фе — это такой памятник индейской культуре и жизни. В городе очень много магазинов с традиционными индейскими товарами, музеев и арт-галерей.

Где мы останавливались в Санта Фе? Мне очень понравился мотель Guadalupe Inn. Он находится в центре города, интерьеры, конечно, — в традиционных индейских тональностях. Хорошо и по-домашнему.

А вечером мы отправились смотреть американский футбол в пивную Box Car.

Ну и вишенка на торте — радио обсерватория Very Large Array! Обязательно посетите это место в Нью-Мексико. Здесь принимают сигналы из космоса. Да и место космическое!

Лучше подгадать так, чтобы приехать к обсерватории к закату. В этот момент тарелки начинают двигаться, да и закат здесь прекрасен.

Ну вот и всё! Дальше мы пересечём Аризону и отправимся к Гранд Каньону, штат Невада.

• 5000 километров. Национальный парк Биг Бенд и граница с Мексикой
• 5 штатов и 5000 километров дороги. Поездка по Луизиане и Техасу

Нью Мексико, национальный парк Уайт Сэндс и Санта Фе was originally published in Maria Podolyak Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.