EPISODE SUMMARY with MAROO
We’re so excited to have Alexey Nikityuk and Anja Winikka, co-founders of Maroo, a payment platform designed specifically for wedding professionals.
Today, they’re chatting with us about how you as a business owner can save money and streamline your payments so you can get them faster and easier.
Alexey and Anja of MAROO DARE YOU:
Start your own company. I think it’s really important to sit down with your values every so often and ask yourself, is this still the thing that I value the most in my life? Am I on the right track?
One of the things we didn’t talk about earlier, but it was really important to me. I wanted so badly to start a company and to be able to take risks, but I lived in New York city and we paid a lot in rent and to the nanny and my husband’s a high school teacher and we just couldn’t do it.
So before jumping into a riskier situation, we moved to the Midwest, we bought a house, we saved money. We did all these things because collectively as a family, we wanted that together.
I don’t think we would’ve gotten all the way over here to where we are today had we not sat down as a family first and as an individual and just thought about what are my values, what are the things I care about most?
And am I truly on the right track? Or am I kidding? So if you have big goals and you have big dreams, just make sure you’re setting yourself up for success, because what you do now has a large bearing on what your life is gonna be in one and a half, two years.
FAST FACTS ABOUT Alexey and Anja of MAROO:
What’s your favorite tool in business?
- Alexey: I like Notion. Notion is basically a way for documenting a lot of thoughts long term and pass it to the team.
- Anja: Internally because we’re a remote team, we use Slack we’re on it all day. Sometimes, we forget that a phone works as a phone because we huddle on Slack.
What’s your favorite snack:
- Alexey: For me, it’s Huel. It’s a healthy food and very quick. You just make it and it really helps to stay healthy but without the time that you need to spend cooking.
- Anja: Cold brew with an oat milk splash.
What’s your favorite pump up jam:
- Alexey: There is a song and I forgot who is the author, but it’s called “Moments Like This”. I usually like it when I walk and I’m listening to it because it really reminds me why we are doing everything that we’re doing?
- Anja: When I’m not on a video call and no one’s listening, I’ll get myself pumped up with a lot of Drake or Cardi B or some hip hop.
What is your favorite thing to do outside of your business?
- Alexey: I have kids, so kids take the rest of my time whenever I have it.
- Anja: In our free time my husband and I play a lot of music. My husband in particular. When I can I jump in and play with them, I play the violin.
What’s the best education you’ve learned from?
- Alexey: “Build” by Tony Fadell
- Anja: Simon Sinek “Start with Why”. Anything by Seth Godin. “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die”, It digs into how to get your message out. How to help people understand what it is that you’re really building uses a lot of metaphors and things that are easy to understand.
What is one daring leap you’ve taken in your business?
- Alexey: I think it’s obvious for me. It was starting a business in the middle of a pandemic. I had a very great job in a super fast-growing startup. I decided just to drop it and start something from scratch. That was something absolutely daring for me.
- Anja: The first daring leap I took was moving to New York from Kansas with the $500. But, looking back that actually wasn’t that risky. What’s risky is having a child and a husband and things to support and then deciding to leave behind the cushy corporate thing for something that is completely uncharted.
What is one thing you feel like the other person is really great at in your business?
- Alexey: Anja shines in interpersonal relationships. Like we brought up, we are aligned. It’s really cool how after working together she can tell my mood based on my answers on slack. She has a human skill or people skill. It’s it’s really good one.
- Anja: Alex is incredibly organized. I am in awe at all times of how many things and documents and things are out there and they’re just perfectly put. Also, Alex is relentless as far as work goes. If we’re looking for a product designer, if we’re looking for a tech person he’s on it 24 hours a day until he finds it and I think I’m okay at that, but Lexi’s extremely good at that. That’s why he’s our CEO.
SPECIAL OFFERS from MAROO
We are going to do a special code for anybody who’s listening to Dare to Develop.
And if you sign up using that link, we’re going to give everybody who signs up using that link $50. We’ll just pop that into your account and show you because for us, of course, moving money and putting money and sending money is very on-brand. So we could think of no other way than to show off our product than offering $50.
SPECIAL OFFER CODE: https://maroo.us/daretodevelop
Where can our listeners find you?
Dare to Develop Podcast Sponsor – Photovision
Don’t forget to head on over to photovisionprints.com to claim your free roll of their Signature Process + Scan service using the code DARETODEVELOP . Looking to continue your photography education further? Be sure to check out their full library of photography tips!
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