Katya is a mother and an entrepreneur. She is one of the two female CEOs of 3veta – the go-to solution for paid online meetings.
As a professional, she has built solid expertise in finance, budgeting and sales, while working in Pharma and FMCG for multinational companies.
After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in International Economics, Management and Finance from Bocconi University in Italy, she pursued a Master’s in Financial Management in the same university. She graduated both degrees at the top of her class.
Katya is a master organizer, analytical thinker, head of responsibility and structured fun.
Mariya is the other CEO, as well as the head of product and design at 3veta.
Mariya also graduated with a bachelor’s degree in International Economics, Management and Finance from Bocconi University. After that, she worked in Management & Technology Consulting for a boutique firm, building solid expertise in strategy, technology implementation, and project management.
She is a master of presentations with a burning passion for product design and all things creative.
What is 3veta all about?
Mariya:
The idea of 3veta was born at the beginning of the pandemic of 2020. Many people were struggling to cope with the sudden shift, especially those who relied heavily on in-person interaction with their customers.
- Their problems varied, but we knew there must be a common thread.
- A lawyer was held on the phone without getting any payment.
- A psychologist was unable to track their bank payments.
- A dance instructor was streaming on Facebook, but their efforts were lost in the feed.
All of them tried solving these challenges one way or another. However, what they really wanted was a hassle-free and easy way to solve all their issues – from keeping their identity, meeting their clients online, and managing their clients and payments – without having to integrate a hundred different systems.
Katya:
It just seemed overly complicated, time-consuming, and expensive.
That’s what we wanted to change. 3veta is an end-to-end solution that allows you to create a website, host video meetings, and get paid, all on your own platform (with your own branding), in just a few amazingly simple steps. No integrations, no explanations.
3veta is literally plug-and-play for service providers.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
Katya:
We both came from entrepreneurial families, so starting a business has always been in the back of our minds.
I was on maternity leave from my job in finance for a large pharmaceutical company and actively thinking of business opportunities when Mariya and her husband came to me with the idea.
We decided to give it some thought and if it still seemed like a good idea in a week – so we could just start working on it!
Mariya:
I had just quit my job with no plan, other than a clear goal that by the end of the year, I would start a business.
Then the pandemic hit and suddenly people were facing all these new problems. Our friends were sharing their struggles and solving their problems seemed like a natural direction to go to.
My experience is in consulting and more specifically in using technology to solve business problems, so it was a perfect fit.
I always enjoyed the creative and problem-solving part of my job tremendously, so to put my skills into practice on to something I was passionate about was and still is extremely rewarding.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from it?
Katya:
We aren’t afraid to make mistakes, which makes us a lot more open to explore ideas, try new things and learn.
For example, when landing our first customers, we cold-mailed hundreds of people. First, we had to identify these people, then get their contact details, and come up with a tailored message for each one.
Obviously, this was very time-consuming and not extremely successful – after all, the average response rate to cold-email campaigns is just 1%!
However, we gained a lot of insight into our potential clients. By doing this extensive research, we figured out which features to focus on next, reworked our value proposition, and this defined the direction of our product for the months to follow.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
Mariya:
To be honest, this year, I fully realized the importance of my health. To function on the high levels of concentration and productivity that being an entrepreneur demands, one must have high levels of energy and be in an overall good mental and health condition.
I think lots of people, not just entrepreneurs, who work hard towards a goal can neglect their health, by sacrificing sleep and spending way too much time in front of the computer. But if you are not in great condition, it is hard to do great things. This year, the one thing that I do daily has been pretty simple – walking 10,000 steps and taking my vitamins.
Just taking better care of my body has increased my focus and productivity greatly, and that has had a profound effect on my work and helped me grow as an entrepreneur.
What was your first business idea, and what did you do with it?
Katya:
A few years ago, while planning for my wedding, I had the idea of opening a wedding planner business. Even though I had a wedding planner, I felt like I was doing most of the work, as I was always keeping tabs on everything, sourcing different vendors myself.
I am naturally a highly organized person and a meticulous planner, so I currently put these skills into organizing structured fun for the team. 😊
Mariya:
Creating an online gift guide. I am particularly good at picking gifts for people and enjoy the process quite much, so I toyed with this idea for a while. However, it will stay in the backlog, for now, limiting the benefits of my excellent gift-picking to family and friends.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Mariya:
Before diving into this business, when I thought about “marketing”, I mostly imagined ads. Turns out ads are very expensive, especially if you don’t know what you are doing.
So, we had to experiment and figure out other ways to bring people in to try our product. We tried many different things – from funny social media campaigns using our dog to cold-calling and messaging professionals on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is one of the most natural channels for us to find new customers because our product is tailored for professionals and this is where they usually hang out.
If you only had $1,000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
Katya:
Speaking about products – we would spend it on a pretotype of a product.
Simply create a landing page with literally no functionality, drive-traffic to it, and see if people are interested in the value proposition (basically if they sign-up). Unfortunately, this is the most you can do with $1,000 and a software product.
Otherwise, I would encourage anyone to become a part of the passion economy – turn your passion into a source of income. If you want to write – do that on 3veta, Fiverr, Substack, Udemy – these are all places where you can start with literally $0 and start making a living.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Mariya:
My advice would be – have processes in place. Without processes and good documentation, it is very easy to get lost, hard to onboard new people, and a challenge to grow the business.
Processes and documentation might be boring and not very start-up-y. However, they can be extremely useful tools when used right.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
Katya:
Get the most important work done first. Prioritize and start with what will have the most impact on the business. Then focus on the next priority and repeat the process.
In other words – if you have two priorities that are N1 priority, then you have no N1 priority. Prioritizing is about postponing less important problems.
And tackle the elephant in the room. Each business will face a problem or a big question that must be addressed – tackle these head on and don’t let them loom over you or the team for too long.
What is your favorite quote?
Katya:
That’s a tough one, but a running joke is this one:
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
It can’t really be attributed to anyone as it has contextual roots in the Bible, but Uncle Ben from Spider-Man popularized it 🙂
How is running a company different than what you thought it would be?
Mariya:
Katya’s choice of quote sums it up quite well. The real challenge when it comes to running a business is that at the end of the day – you are the person responsible for either its success or its failure.
This means, you no longer have the luxury of collective responsibility nor the freedom to point at someone else when a mistake is made. The responsibility lies with you as the leader of this business.
How can readers get in touch with you?
Katya:
To reach our team, our website would be the right place: https://3veta.com – If you need me specifically, feel free to drop me an email at katya@threeveta.com.
Mariya:
I also regularly check my inbox for messages coming through my personal website which I created through 3veta – masha.3veta.com. Feel free to check it out and send me a message there!
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