Today we hear from Vlada Bortnik, Founder and COO of Marco Polo. Vlada tells us about her journey, including being born in Ukraine, immigrating to the United States in 1990, and landing a job with Microsoft after college. We then hear about Marco Polo, which is a free smartphone app that allows for face-to-face conversations despite how hectic one’s life may be. Kathy has been using Marco Polo to stay in contact with family for months and talks about how enjoyable it is. Vlada and her husband came up with the idea for the app while they were pregnant with their second child, so Vlada brings us through how the app went from being an idea to being a reality. She says that being a parent is a cornerstone of her business. Vlada states that her vision for Marco Polo is to bring people closer together and shares heartwarming stories about how the app is doing that. We then hear about how other social media is not ideal for seeing the real lives of loved ones. To finish the episode, Vlada talks about the most important thing to keep in mind when staying in touch with the people we care about the most.

Sponsors:

https://www.deuter.com 

https://www.siccups.com/ 

Links:

https://marcopolo.me/