Ukrainian startup in New York has collected millions of users: learning from her experience

Learning online has been challenging for students, teachers and parents in the United States. A free platform offers to simplify some of the challenges facing American schools and students ClassTag... It was founded by Ukrainian Vlada Lotkina, a graduate of the prestigious Wharton Business School. Why she decided to leave a prestigious job in consulting and start her own business, as well as how to find a balance between family and a startup, she told in an interview Voice of America.

University Application on a

Vlada Lotkina is from Kharkov, Ukraine. She studied finance at the Karazin University, and after her sophomore year she began working part-time at the firm of her father, an entrepreneur. “Thanks to him, I had a great example of a constant search for new ideas and opportunities. He's the strictest boss I've ever had. Working with him, I learned to persuade. Because it is very difficult to convince your father that you have an idea and it deserves attention, ”Vlada admitted.

At 22, Vlada entered the MBA at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. This is one of the best business schools in America. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Warren Buffet studied there. “How is it possible to get there? I guess the combination of self-confidence, ambition and age helped me. In fact, at that moment I did not understand what it meant to go there. I didn’t understand how difficult it was, I didn’t want to know anything about these crazy contests, about the number of people applying for one place, ”shares Vlada.

Of course, a good level of English played a role in successful admission. “English is very important because you are competing with native speakers, they don’t care if you are a foreigner. You must know the language, know mathematics in English, - explains the Ukrainian. - And in general, to get into a top school, you need to get a high mark. Preparing for this is probably the most difficult moment in this admission. I even went to rest with volumes of textbooks. "

But studying for an MBA requires not only being smart and fluent in English, but also having good funding. Answering a question about funding, Vlada said: “Class schools themselves want great children. They have a budget to fund them. For example, at an Ivy League university or Harvard, and at some secondary university, tuition costs about the same for a foreigner. But these middle-class universities do not have huge funds that are able to give students grants for study. They often do not have such well-to-do graduates who then invest in the funds of their universities. "

"Dream work"

“I managed to get funding for about a third of the cost of training. And, of course, the parents helped. You can also take out loans for training, ”Vlada said.

As for the first place of work, the choice fell on the Boston Consulting Group. “Once at the university we passed the Boston Consulting Group (BGG) matrix. It talked about doing business. And I decided that this is the company I want to work for. "

The MBA became a stepping stone to the dream company. “I got there right away. And I realized that the smart one will not go up the hill - the smart one will bypass the mountain. The competition, say, in the New York or London office of this company is insanely high. And when I got there with all my ambitions, I realized that there are the same stars who came from different countries. And then I decided that it would be more correct for me to go to the Moscow office, there was no Kiev office yet, and then try to transfer, ”recalls Vlada.

On the subject: Know ours: four Russians who moved to New York for business share secrets of success

So, Vlada got to practice in the Moscow office between the first and second years of study. “This was probably the most interesting experience of my work in consulting, because that market is just developing, unlike America, and you, as a young consultant, are given much more independence,” she says. - I had a Ukrainian client, I traveled all over the world and it was an absolutely wonderful experience. In this practice, I received not only a very cool salary, but also excellent knowledge, and after that I was given the opportunity to choose. I said I wanted to transfer to New York. "

Of course, the pace of work in consulting was crazy. “I worked there for two years and I remember the last project - a huge mergers, acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry, on which I worked for probably six months. And I remember that every Friday our boss called us and said: "Colleagues, I'm so sorry, but, unfortunately, this weekend I have to work." And when he did it for five or six weekends in a row, I said, "Am I the only one who can hear this, or do we all understand this?" We could literally work until 10-12 pm and go somewhere at XNUMX am, ”she recalls.

First business partner

Consulting is viewed by many as a launching pad to the corporate world. Working in this area, people often do not see their children for a long time. “I got married and was expecting a child, and at that moment I understood that I did not intend to stay here any longer. And I just got an offer from a graduate of Wharton, he also worked in the same company, only in a different office. They set up their consulting group at the EMC technology company in Boston. It was actually a very similar job with a better work-life balance, I could work a lot from home, ”said Vlada.

In this company, Vlada worked for about four years. “It was a small startup within a huge corporation. I constantly had various ideas, but in order to go into entrepreneurship, prerequisites are needed: to have, say, a green card, a certain amount of funds. That is, you cannot, especially having a small child, jump into the pool. So it took me a little longer than I first thought. "

Then the understanding came that I wanted to open something of my own. “Somehow the moment came when my daughter here in New York went to school, and I began to receive various notifications for parents in the form of notes in my backpack, some pieces of paper on the school doors, calendars. Naturally, it is difficult to keep track of this, because most parents, despite their level of income, are busy at work. They are busy all the time, and if they have several children, then in general you can go crazy with all these pieces of paper, - says Vlada. “And I was interested in this problem, because I myself faced it and realized that it should not be so.”

Therefore, she conducted an online survey among parents in her daughter's class. As it turned out, one of the parents in this class was a wonderful programmer and entrepreneur. He already had several companies. “I decided that this is exactly the partner with whom I want to work,” said the Ukrainian.

Startup registration

The startup was officially registered in 2015. “For a long time my partner worked in it full-time, and I - on weekends or at the beginning of work, because for many years I get up very early, at 4 in the morning, so it allowed me to work and do a startup in parallel. In 2018, I quit and focused on a startup, ”recalls Vlada.

By this time, Vlada and her husband had managed to prepare a "financial pillow". “Until the moment I left work, I felt that I could contribute to the family's budget, I had enough reserves to allow myself to focus on a startup for 12 months,” says the Ukrainian. "And at that time we already had a profit from a startup."

For about three years, Vlada had to work hard combining business with raising a small child. “It takes a long time and difficult to attract the first investments. Because if it was difficult to join Wharton, then raising the first venture capital investments is even more difficult. But you have to have faith and work as if everything had already happened. "

On the subject: Burger & Lobster: how immigrants from Russia opened a trendy restaurant in New York

As for the money that had to be invested in business development, Vlada noted that she was lucky with this. After all, not long before she left the company, she was bought. “It was a huge deal and all my shares were converted into cash. Therefore, I managed to finance a startup and actually bring it to profit with these funds and investments from friends and relatives, ”explained the Ukrainian.

Investment search

And when the funds began to run out and it was necessary to attract investments, the following happened: “I suddenly saw on LinkedIn that my friend became an investor in one fund, and I wrote to her. She asked if it would be interesting for her to join. She said yes. This is actually the most difficult thing - to get the first money from the first person who takes this responsibility. And then we got into the accelerator of startups Newark Venture Partners, where they come when they already have 20-30 thousand dollars in monthly revenue. And then everything went and went, different people, funds, investors began to join. "

Today Vlada's company employs about 60 people. “We have a large group of developers in Kiev, we have a large group in the Philippines that is responsible for technical support. That is, we always worked remotely, the processes were restored, so the pandemic and lockdown did not affect us in any way. "

Startup benefits and business mission

The main advantages of the startup created by Lotkina are the ability for parents to communicate with teachers, eliminate language barriers, save time, and integrate the platform into school technologies. The latter is especially important in a pandemic. “Today schools are virtual or work on a mixed model, lessons are conducted both virtually and in person. Therefore, now we have integrated with Google Classroom, which is used by most American schools, ”explained the Ukrainian.

She continued, “We also came up with a great ClassTag Rewards program that teachers love. Much to my surprise, teachers in the United States, as well as in Ukraine, earn little and spend hundreds of dollars out of their pockets every year on various materials, stationery, and books for their class. And we came up with a system where we allow brands to sponsor these classes on our platform, they can advertise themselves to parents and teachers. We take a portion of the revenue from this advertising, and teachers receive monthly "coins" based on how the teacher and how the parents interact. "

Vlada noted that this mission is really important for her business. “We're still a small company, but growing fast, and we can make a very important contribution,” she said. - In general, we do not deal with, say, educational issues, we have no assessment, the work itself. We aim to enable parents, teachers and schools to be partners in the education and life of the child, this is about communication. "

The service is free for teachers and parents.

Profit and its sources

The company gets its profit from two sources. The first is the brands that are advertised on the platform. “It's very cool for brands. Because they care more and more about their image, about the context in which their brands and ads are shown. Here they have a unique opportunity to be not just advertisers, but sponsors of classes, help education and teachers, ”explains Vlada.

The company also launched an e-commerce service. The entrepreneur explained: “You can buy a package of goods, for example, when children go to school. It is a relatively free service for users. But for school departments there is an extended paid functionality, for example, analytics for all schools and classes, administrative control. "

“Now we have more than three million users in 25 thousand schools, mainly in America,” said Vlada.

The pandemic has had a positive impact on business, she added. “Our traffic has grown five times in one day. Not only the intensity of use has grown, but also the style. The teacher could post a photo and ask, “How is your morning? Send your photos, - said the Ukrainian. - They played virtual games, the teachers checked whether the student came to the virtual lesson. The platform has taken on a completely new meaning. "

Summing up, Vlada noted that she has a wonderful job and team. “It motivates me. But it seems to me that there is no balance. It's just that every specific day or every specific moment you need to think about what is most important now, and where you need to run. So today, when I have a big team, I can go home in the afternoon to do homework with my child. And, of course, we must not forget about ourselves. I still can't do it, but I'm trying very hard. "