Meet the Writer: HackerNoon's Contributor Marianna Alshina, Chief Business Development Officer

Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

Hi, my name is Marianna Alshina and I am an experienced startup founder, currently CBDO at Know Your Dosh. I’m really into research, stats, and numbers telling stories of people. There’s a whole world to explore and I’m on it.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

My latest top story was about finding female co-founders and I did an interview with Jane Fisher who shed light on this topic with some interesting insights!

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

Although it’s not the main area of interest, exploring what it means to be a female founder today is certainly a part of my founder and personal journies. There are unique challenges for me as a person as well as challenges for a wider society to overcome. If I could add my 2 cents and provide an interesting insight or look at this from a different angle, I’d be totally proud of myself.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

Wake up at 5 am, make coffee… Just kidding! I am quite chaotic and inspiration-driven. Once I’m set on a topic of personal interest I can finish a draft in one go, then review it the next day and submit. Sometimes a piece is just way too big or requires weeks of research, for those I only have one word - commitment.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

I tend to have tunnel vision in my main job, so I do enjoy the switch to writing and reflecting on my past experiences and the future of the industry. The challenging part is to find interesting perspectives to look at things. There are many smart and talented authors out there and sometimes I might read some mind-blowing research or take and feel like I should’ve been the one who came up with that idea.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

Building another successful startup would be a dream come true. I have also started mentoring other people who build early-stage startups and would love to do more of it.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

Haagen-Dazs ice cream every day when it goes on sale for a week. It’s a bucket-a-day thing.

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

I am diving deeper and deeper into fiber arts and crafts and this rabbit hole is infinite.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

Something to do with AI, startup strategy, or female founders!

What’s your opinion on HackerNoon as a platform for writers?

It’s a great place with a big community and welcoming authors. I’d say it’s also a great place to start writing - put together the first article and send it, it’s very validating to see it published and getting the views.

Being chosen to be a headliner story is the next level of validation though and gives more energy to keep going. Sure, you could probably start writing on Medium much easier, but to me content curation is important.

Thanks for taking the time to join our “Meet the Writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Thank you for building this platform and I look forward to connecting more with the community.