0:08

Rabiah Coon (Host): This is More Than Work, the podcast reminding

0:10

you that your self worth is made up of more than your job title.

0:13

Each week, I'll talk to a guest about how they discovered that for themselves.

0:16

You'll hear about what they did, what they're doing and who they are.

0:20

I'm your host, Rabiah. I work in IT, perform standup comedy, write, volunteer and of course podcast.

0:27

Thank you for listening. Hello, and thanks for tuning into this episode of More Than Work.

0:36

I'm really excited to bring you this guest.

0:39

It was a privilege to talk to him. He is from Ukraine.

0:43

He fled his home in Kiev and is now safely in another city where he, along with a

0:48

bunch of other people in the tech space that he's worked with before, or, that are

0:53

friends of his, founded a charity that's benefiting the Ukrainian troops direct.

0:58

You'll see in the show notes that I have links to the organization

1:01

if you want to make a donation. You'll know where the money is going.

1:04

You'll hear from Andrew he's the guest. I really enjoyed talking to him.

1:09

He and his organization reached out to me to see if he could do the podcast.

1:14

And when I learned more about, um, he was, he was a perfect fit because he has

1:20

had his career in tech, but he's also now discovered like volunteering and charity

1:24

and, and made that part of his life. And it's really changed the meaning of work.

1:28

And he talks about how being in crisis has also affected as team.

1:32

I think this is something that will resonate with a lot of people,

1:36

even though the idea of being at war, isn't familiar to a lot of us.

1:40

Um, I just I've been so struck by the grace and the bravery of the people

1:46

that I've encountered from Ukraine. Just that have been in my life that I know from school and that

1:52

I had Veronika Didusenko on the podcast before and now Andrew.

1:57

So I really hope you enjoy this episode.

1:59

It's kind of a quick one for More Than Work, but it's really, to me, it was just

2:04

meaningful to get to speak with Andrew.

2:06

And I hope to meet him one day in person.

2:08

We've already talked about that. Like hopefully this will be done for them soon.

2:13

And, we will all be able to meet in person and help help them rebuild.

2:19

Um, there's not much more to say because it's just anything I say is

2:22

trite for, for what's going on, but I'm glad to share the message of this

2:27

organization and of Andrew's story.

2:31

Thank you again for listening and enjoy the episode.

2:42

All right, everybody today, my guest is Andrew Alexseyenko.

2:45

He's the co-founder at KOLO and co-founder at Storypoint and Partnerway.

2:49

And we're going to find out what all those things are. And this is really special episode.

2:53

I'm glad we're getting to share his story. So thanks for being on Andrew.

2:56

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah, thanks for having me, Rabiah. Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah, of course.

2:59

And where am I talking to you from? What's your location in the world?

3:02

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. So right now I'm located in Vinnytsia.

3:05

It's a small city in Ukraine.

3:07

It's about 200 kilometers from my native city.

3:11

It's Kiev. So basically I moved from Kiev around like three months ago because

3:18

of the war has started there.

3:20

So it's pretty safe here as, at least as, as it could be here.

3:25

Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah, well, that's, um, I mean, I, I just can't imagine how

3:28

difficult it is just to move your life.

3:30

And so you left a lot of things there, I imagine.

3:33

And then you just brought what you needed to with you, right?

3:36

Andrew Alexseyenko: I just like left everything.

3:38

Like I just had my backpack when the war started.

3:42

Uh, so on the second day, uh, we just went to train station.

3:49

And on, the train station, there was like trains going everywhere.

3:53

And, uh, we just like hopped on the first train.

3:56

And I, I didn't didn't know where this train is going.

4:00

So I just had a train to west Ukraine and, and, and this that's basically a story

4:05

how have I ended up in, in Vinnytsia. Rabiah Coon (Host): Wow.

4:09

Wow. Well, so we're going to talk more about, about all of that.

4:12

And I just want to say at the start, like, I'm very sorry for what you guys

4:15

are going through and Ukraine, and I'm, I'm really glad that you're taking

4:18

the time to share your story cause I think you have a great More Than Work

4:21

story, but also there's something that, again, we'll be able to offer

4:24

that people can do who are listening. So first of all, I'll just state, you're pretty young in my opinion,

4:30

compared to me, but you're already an entrepreneur .And you've been a

4:33

product manager, which I was a product manager a little while ago in my career.

4:37

Let's talk about your work as a product manager and also what Storypoint and

4:41

Partnerway your two companies are. Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah.

4:43

Sure. Basically I, uh, worked for as a product manager for five or six years.

4:49

I started my career in, um, in MarTech.

4:53

So I was working in conductor.

4:56

It's a company that is doing like search engine optimization for B2B companies.

5:02

We were acquired by WeWork. So it was free pretty interesting ride.

5:06

Uh, we were required just before WeWork were going to IPO and then they'll all

5:12

those articles about Adam Neumann and 47 billion valuation and all this, like

5:19

smoking weed on his plane and, and that.

5:23

The devaluation of, uh, WeWork is not going to be the same and it's

5:29

not going to have an IPO and you're internally on all this stuff.

5:35

So, and then the, afterwards, WeWork acquired our company, WeWork sold the

5:40

company back to founder of a Conductor and that's, that's also amazing story.

5:46

And now the folks in Conductor, uh, are driving company further by themselves.

5:53

And they think that they are doing even better right now.

5:57

And after that, I joined the company called aura.

6:02

So we were doing different VPN apps like hotspot shield, better

6:07

net, VPN 360, and basically the companies doing the security.

6:12

So I was mainly managing if you, a few products.

6:16

So, uh, we were doing like a lot of AB testing, a lot of launching

6:21

some features some new products.

6:23

So it was super interesting. Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah.

6:26

So you were doing all that and then what made you decide to found

6:29

your own companies after that? Andrew Alexseyenko: I thought that I need to have more responsibility

6:36

on my life and what I am doing.

6:39

Like the folks in companies, they, they did, they gave me a lot of

6:44

responsibilities inside, but still, uh, you know, th there were a lot

6:49

of freedom in what I was doing. But still, I, I wanted to have more impact and by more impact, you need

6:56

to have like more responsibility. If you're like managing like more people and you're managing more users in your

7:05

products, you're making more impact that, that you, you you've done before.

7:08

So I just like wanted to have like more responsibilities.

7:13

Rabiah Coon (Host): You founded a Storypoint first then? Or.

7:16

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I know Diana, which is my co-founder around like eight years now.

7:24

And we were brainstorming on different things, how to make our own company.

7:30

Several people who reached out to Diana and they wanted, uh,

7:36

us to make an apps for them.

7:38

So we decided that we can start with something to build

7:42

some products for our clients. So that's, that's how it started it.

7:45

So we decided that building products for other people, it's

7:48

also good and also makes impact.

7:52

Rabiah Coon (Host): I've done the same thing where I've been inside

7:54

a company, working for the company for the products of the company

7:57

on the website and the mobile app. And then I've been on the other side where I've been a consultant more recently and

8:05

doing, not really product management, more project management, but with the

8:08

knowledge, right, it's still there. And it does feel different.

8:11

You're feeling for me, the feeling of responsibility was a bit different, but

8:15

I still always feel very responsible. So how did that shift the perspective for you going from managing your

8:21

own products to really building products for other people?

8:25

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah, so firstly, you don't have, uh, your manager here.

8:32

Sure you have your clients that, that, that on the first place, but you

8:37

don't have like managers and that's how you need to be more responsible

8:43

and you need to have like some internal motivation to do something.

8:47

So, uh, so you would, you would know what.

8:52

You want to do everyday? Like when you're waking up, like, what is your goal for this day?

8:57

Like you everything just like starts from scratch.

9:01

I learned some discipline from, from this.

9:04

So I just want to have my daily routine in each morning, like to wake up, brush

9:12

my teeth, have some water, do some exercises and then starting the day.

9:19

And it helps me a lot to just start off the process.

9:23

Rabiah Coon (Host): So your routine sounds like you changed a little bit

9:25

managing yourself because you didn't have a manager, but then as far as even you

9:28

managing products, like for me, when I went from managing my own products for

9:33

a company I worked for, I would feel very possessive and very responsible

9:36

for outcome and the way that, like I was making the decisions, but with consulting,

9:42

what I found was I would almost just say, well, this is what we advise you

9:46

to do and if they didn't want to do it, they would have to just come back and

9:49

ask us to change something else because they didn't, they made a bad decision.

9:52

So did you find anything for you?

9:54

Like your relationship with products changed when you owned them versus you

9:58

were just helping people put theirs out.

10:00

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. Um, so, um, for me, personal and not a lot of things changed

10:06

on the decision making side. I always try to make the decisions that will impact the user

10:13

itself, not the decision maker.

10:16

For example, if you want to if you know that the user flows that we are proposing

10:21

is better and we do some user testing with users and they like it more and

10:27

we have the data, uh, that support it.

10:30

So that we are sharing to our clients and we are trying to make the decisions

10:35

that will be better for the end user.

10:38

Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I think that people forget the end users sometimes

10:42

when they're making decisions.

10:44

So they think, well, this is my idea though, it's good. It's like, well, yeah, but the users won't understand it, you know?

10:49

Andrew Alexseyenko: yeah. Rabiah Coon (Host): So it's funny. So Storypoint, that's where you're building apps and products for people.

10:54

And then what about Partnerway? How did you come up with that and what is Partnerway?

10:58

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. So Partnerway is, uh, the companies that, uh, is a reseller.

11:03

So we are a partner of Google, And Zendesk and Asana in Eastern Europe.

11:08

So we are helping companies to do better and digitalize their businesses.

11:15

So a lot of businesses in Ukraine, there are not so high digitally as others.

11:21

So for example, a lot of Agro businesses in Ukraine, for example, they don't

11:27

use the latest technology and we are onboarding those people and learning how

11:32

they can use and get most out of the team collaborations and are learning how to

11:39

work with like project management tools like us on that customer support that

11:44

they can automate the process of their customer experience, understand taking

11:49

like just by phone calls, they can do it online on their websites and so on.

11:55

Rabiah Coon (Host): Cool. You're doing all these things and then just like that

11:58

your, your country is at war.

12:00

I mean, just to put it really bluntly. And so that caused you to change directions a little bit too, right?

12:05

And you found a, um, KOLO project.

12:08

So what is it? Andrew Alexseyenko: As the war started in, in Ukraine, I just like, want to

12:13

share like my story and I think like a lot of people are feeling similar.

12:18

I was sleeping with when the war started.

12:21

Everybody was like calling me...

12:23

The war started at it's like it's 6:00 AM.

12:26

And, uh, I, I was sleeping till, uh, nine or 10.

12:31

I don't know. And I I'm just like sleeping very good and nothing can can woke me up.

12:38

So even the war. When you're waking up the first thing is like shock and you don't know what to do.

12:45

And most of the people I know they, they were like scared, like they

12:49

were evacuating and that's it.

12:52

So during like the first one or two day, like I was almost, uh, uh, do

12:58

nothing, uh, in terms of productivity.

13:01

I was just like evacuating as my friend and families we're doing.

13:07

Uh, and the second day you're realizing that you need to do

13:10

something and you need to help. So what we created with my friends my friend like Bohdan Kit, and my other

13:18

friend from Netherlands, Martijn Verbove.

13:21

We chatted that we need to create some website and help our, uh,

13:27

trusted organizations to collect more donations to help army with vests.

13:33

At that point we understood that a lot of people were willing to fight, but

13:39

they just didn't have any equipment. Do you want to fight for a country where they don't have access to even

13:45

military equipment of the shortage?

13:48

So we decided that we need to change and we created a website called Help

13:53

Ukraine Win where are we make a list of all this like trustable organizations.

13:59

And we launched it on product hunt.

14:02

We made it on the first place.

14:05

We had a lot of traffic on this website.

14:08

During the first few weeks we had half of million people have used it, our web site.

14:13

Fortunately, we don't know the amount of the donations that were

14:17

made because we were collecting donations to other organizations.

14:21

Uh, and what we found that during the first weeks, uh, those

14:26

organizations there were overwhelmed. All those organizations grew by 100% in the amount of,

14:34

uh, their money at that flow. So they just like, couldn't keep up this operations.

14:39

At that time we uh decided that we want to merge with a KOLO.

14:47

So we, we, we collected all those donations on the website.

14:51

It was around, uh, 60,000 euros.

14:55

Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah. So was KOLO existing before.

14:58

Andrew Alexseyenko: No, no, no. KOLO wasn't existed before. So KOLO in parallel, like on, when we were launching this, the, um,

15:04

group of like product managers like me, they created this organizations.

15:10

It's the same ideas that we need to help the, uh, the army.

15:15

So it's, it's also like my friends and, uh, that they're working

15:20

in, in big companies, like Wise.

15:22

Like Tumblr. Like bolt and others.

15:25

So it's like, Pavlo Pedenko, Tolik Kozlovskyi, Anton Diatlov, Bodhan Kit...

15:33

And some other Eastern European names that you probably won't pronounced, but,

15:39

Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah. How has your perspective changed when now you're managing this kind of

15:45

organization versus your other ones?

15:49

Like, is there any difference in how it makes you feel or how your focus

15:55

in your life has shifted a little bit? Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah, sure.

15:57

A lot of things changed. Now in KOLO there are 50 or 70 team members.

16:04

Um, and, uh, most of the people that are doing it, part-time not like full-time

16:10

and they're having like their daily jobs.

16:12

The difference that it's it's fully volunteer activity and people are just,

16:19

uh, uh, doing it because they, they want to do so I see that on the work sometimes

16:28

people just sport because of the money or just because they need to, and you see

16:35

this difference because so many people like brought together and, and they're

16:42

not like bringing together because of the morning money or some, uh, other

16:47

incentives they are bringing because they don't want to help other people.

16:51

So, uh, The environment is a little bit different.

16:55

And then do you see some, so much passion from those people and so I

17:00

think that the culture is different. Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah.

17:04

Yeah. It's one, it's one purpose. That makes sense.

17:07

I mean, sometimes you end up with a purpose at work that makes sense

17:10

for someone, but not for someone else, but you're just doing your job,

17:13

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. Yeah. Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah. One thing in IT...

17:18

I mean, and another jobs too, but I know very distinctly in IT, you'll

17:21

send up having "emergencies" come up like everyone panics and the client's

17:26

really mad and oh, we have an emergency.

17:28

You have to fix this now. And usually what happens in my experience as you go through these like crazy

17:34

times, and then everyone will do stuff. And then at the end, someone always says, well, we're not curing cancer.

17:38

We need to calm down. Or we're not saving lives. We need to calm down.

17:41

Cause it's just our way of dismissing the fact that people were

17:44

probably acting inappropriately. And really making something more than what something was.

17:50

But in your case now you are working somewhere where you guys

17:54

are actually trying to save lives. And do you think that this will shift your perspective later on?

17:59

I mean, hopefully you guys get through this sooner than later and can start

18:04

rebuilding, but then you'll have your job again, your regular day jobs.

18:07

Do you feel like any shift in your perspective already, or do

18:10

you think it will in the future? Andrew Alexseyenko: yeah.

18:13

I think everyone has shifted in their daily lives life's perspective

18:19

and their life values here.

18:22

I think before the world, a lot of people were focusing on like small things

18:26

that not matter so much, uh, they were like upset about the daily situation.

18:32

They don't have some stuff in their homes.

18:36

They can buy and afford some uh, some physical things, but right now

18:40

they understood how life is important and the it shift their perspective.

18:46

For me personally like if the war ends, hopefully soon, I won't stop volunteering.

18:51

Like the main goal of KOLO is to help saves lives in army.

18:58

So, because of like, we are buying this like vests and helmets and

19:02

other protections, and drones, After we can finish the war we

19:07

need to rebuild the country. Like a lot of like homes are destroyed, a lot of other

19:12

constructions are destroyed. So you need to take also responsibility for that.

19:17

And I think that I would rebuild the country.

19:21

So, as for me personally, uh we transitioned, uh, two companies,

19:28

Partnerway and Storypoint to non-profit organization.

19:32

So before the war ends, we don't make any profit to, uh, the founders.

19:38

We are giving this money to other volunteering activities.

19:42

Sometimes it's to KOLO. Sometimes is to, um, other people impacted by war uh, like refugees and other things.

19:51

So I think that we will make some, some project like that in the future.

19:57

I'm thinking about, um, several ways how we can do this.

20:00

We can do some percentage. So for example, we can gather companies that will make, uh, 1% or 5% of their

20:09

income, and that would, would, would be directly to some restructure fund.

20:17

And we'll make some impact with this volunteering project.

20:20

I'm willing to invest that for my company.

20:23

So I don't know how others, but I think that is an interest in this.

20:27

Rabiah Coon (Host): Hmm. Yeah. And did you, I guess before this, did you volunteer?

20:31

I mean, for me, service is a big, it's a core value of mine.

20:34

A hundred percent I've spent, I've spent quite a bit of time, not enough

20:38

time, in my opinion, but quite a bit volunteering and doing service.

20:42

And I don't know where that came from. Personally, it just, it's just been part of me since I was a kid.

20:48

Did you have that in you before? Or is this something that's new that you're experiencing now?

20:54

Andrew Alexseyenko: Well, uh, I, I did some volunteering duties.

20:56

Is this just studentship uh, when I was studying in university,

21:01

uh, we were organizing, uh, TED events, like that conferences,

21:06

local ones in Kiev, and others. So I think during my life.

21:11

I just like had to volunteering now and then, uh, a little bit, uh, around that.

21:17

Like back then, we were more interested in learning.

21:23

So because of we were interested in education, it made this educational

21:28

conferences to share as ideas to, to, to, to do something.

21:32

Now we shifted our perspective and they think like right now we m ostly want to

21:38

help people to survive, to end this war.

21:41

And then I think that we will have different values, but you have

21:46

different values during your lives. But steely of this volunteering part is there so.

21:51

Rabiah Coon (Host): Cool. Yeah, no, that's great. And, I think it's really cool that you've you looked kind of rationally at what

21:58

needs to be done and you started doing it.

22:01

One thing with KOLO too, it's you guys are all

22:03

tech people. So it's kind of a lot of nonprofit organizations, at least from my

22:08

experience, they're created for the cause that they're working for.

22:12

And they're working on programming for that. And then the tech all came in as a secondary option.

22:16

And so you'll see kind of bad implementation and stuff, but you

22:19

guys are starting from scratch as tech people with the cause but

22:23

the tech people for the cause. And so you've got a little bit different of a website.

22:28

Since you weren't in fundraising before, how did you go about architecting?

22:32

What you wanted to display on the site and the transaction flow and everything?

22:35

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. Yeah, sure. First like almost all the co-founders.

22:39

They are like product managers in the past, uh, and, and very

22:43

experienced product managers. So our main goal is like to, to bring tech to the military and tech to volunteering.

22:52

So what, what we are doing is uh, we created a subscription.

22:56

Um, probably it's the first war subscriptions that exists, uh, and,

23:03

uh, so how it looks like it's, it's, it's, uh, around like $6 per day, which

23:10

is $200 per month to support, uh, the army and all those funds are, going.

23:18

We, firstly, we don't have any salaries in NGO.

23:22

So like there are a lot of NGO, like, uh, the Red Cross and other

23:28

organizations as a paying sellers, but one kind of the percent of the donations

23:32

are going directly to the needs.

23:35

That's one difference sources that we are having.

23:38

When we just like launch to subscription, we had, uh, around one, 1000 to

23:43

people who subscribed in three days.

23:46

Uh, yeah, mostly from Ukraine because of.

23:49

In in, in Ukrainian. It's, it's such a good example of how people collaborate and going

23:57

together and want to help and giving their donations and, and,

24:01

and support to these organizations.

24:05

And right now we also launched this subscription, not only internally

24:09

to Ukrainian, but also externally.

24:12

So anyone can subscribe.

24:14

We have, uh, the reports on our website, where this money goes

24:19

and so everyone can see it.

24:22

And right now it helps us to do plan activity.

24:25

And we know that we can buy some vests in then as next months or some other things

24:33

like night visions or thermal imagers.

24:37

Rabiah Coon (Host): Nice. That's cool. Yeah. And smart to just kind of productize the idea of donating one thing

24:44

that I've thought a lot about and I think a lot of people have.

24:48

A lot of people who are external to this, I think have good intentions.

24:52

They want to help. I had an experience recently where you know, everyone's saying they want to

24:56

help and they're doing the hashtag, you know, for Ukraine and everything.

25:01

But then when asked to do an action, it's hard to get them to actually do it.

25:05

And one area I can see that I know too is like in an IT recruiting and businesses.

25:11

And how have you seen a shift in how you're experiencing working with

25:17

businesses outside of Ukraine and just kind of people they're getting

25:21

displaced from their homes, but also possibly their jobs if companies

25:24

aren't surviving and things like that. So have you seen any thing there?

25:28

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah, so from what we saw, uh, during the first few weeks

25:35

a lot of companies that were working in local market, they were forced to fire

25:40

people in tech and other industries.

25:44

Like for me, as I'm working in tech, it's more related to, to, to me.

25:49

As an example, we have a company called Rozetka.

25:53

It's a small Amazon here in Ukraine.

25:56

Like the biggest e-commerce. So their revenues in first two weeks say dropped from four billions dollars

26:04

of revenues per month to 23 million.

26:08

They fired some part of employees and the same things with other local

26:14

companies because of the market is shrinked so they needed to fire people.

26:18

And we are seeing that there are a lot of great people, uh here in Ukraine.

26:24

Um, because for men is not allowed to leave the country.

26:28

So, uh, they they're staying here.

26:31

And what we are seeing that from, from trends within the industries

26:35

that companies are not willing to hire in Ukraine because of the risks.

26:40

And a lot of people don't have just like jobs and that's impacting

26:44

like the GDP of the country.

26:46

And they can't find a new job. So it we be created some kind of the platform for people to sign up and then

26:54

we we are searching for the clients who are willing to, to hire those

26:59

people and that's also our impact in, in, in the economy and helping those,

27:05

uh, people who, who can't leave the country, but they still have jobs.

27:11

Like usually we don't have a lot of problems with hiring, uh, Ukrainians who

27:16

are in Europe or in US or other countries.

27:19

But there's still the huge problem of hiring within the country and

27:24

those people are in safe locations. So like, it's in, in Lviv, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsi as I am like,

27:32

I'm, I'm sitting in the office. It's quite safe here, but they still can't have a job so that's also our

27:39

project that that we want to develop.

27:43

Rabiah Coon (Host): Great. Well, I mean, Andrew, I really respect what you're doing and

27:47

the insights you're bringing into helping your country in this way.

27:51

I mean, there's different ways to do it. You could, you know, strap on a vest and go or do things

27:56

this way using your strengths. So. Good, good job on that.

27:59

I mean, it's, it sounds trite to say it's almost embarrassing,

28:02

but, um, yeah, it's just really, especially to talk to you about that.

28:07

Do you have any like advice or mantra that you want to share with people,

28:12

which is something I ask every guest. Andrew Alexseyenko: In terms of mantra, I don't know, like, I just

28:16

think like making some impact.

28:18

I don't know, like it could be some local impact or just to, uh, global, uh,

28:23

something that, that gives you energy. For me, this volunteering activity gives me energy.

28:29

, I don't have any mantra specific. I just like want to advise people like, just do what you love, uh,

28:37

make other people's lives better. Rabiah Coon (Host): yeah.

28:41

Good. Okay.

28:46

So I have these set of questions that are kind of silly.

28:49

They're called the fun five that, I mean that I'm going to ask you.

28:53

So the first one, what is the oldest t-shirt you have and still wear?

28:57

Andrew Alexseyenko: well, a good question. I can tell about a hoodie.

29:02

It's around like eight years and I love it.

29:07

Um, they, the hoodie has type of, uh, "don't give a fuck about

29:12

weather" and, and it has a story.

29:15

Like about eight years ago, I was an intern in a marketing

29:20

agency called ambulance. And I was running my first half-marathon and it was like minus 11

29:29

because it was just like three days before the new year.

29:32

It was like new year marathon and we make this t-shirts for all the people

29:38

in the company who are running that day.

29:41

So it's, it's, it's a guy that have, uh, uh, great stories that, that,

29:45

that this connected to this hoodie. Rabiah Coon (Host): Yeah.

29:49

Oh man. That's crazy. It's hard enough to run.

29:52

Well, I can't run, but just at all, but then in that kind of weather.

29:55

Oh my gosh. Okay. So are you familiar with the movie Groundhog's Day?

29:59

Have you seen that? Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. Yeah. It's one of my favorite movies of my childhood.

30:04

Rabiah Coon (Host): All right. Good. I just wanted to make sure. So, if everyday was like Groundhog's Day, which should kind of might seem like

30:10

that for you right now, I don't know. Um, what song would you have your alarm clock set to play every morning?

30:15

Andrew Alexseyenko: So, uh, in, in this situation, I, I would, I would pick right

30:19

now that John Lennon song "Imagine".

30:23

Rabiah Coon (Host): Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a, that's a good song then it makes sense for

30:27

what you're going through now. Um, okay.

30:30

Coffee or tea or neither Andrew Alexseyenko: Well, I love coffee.

30:34

I just like drinking coffee everyday. And addicted to it.

30:41

Rabiah Coon (Host): Do you like it any specific way or just black or?

30:44

Andrew Alexseyenko: Um, I like cappuccino, flat white, uh, alternative

30:49

as well, like all kinds of coffees.

30:52

Rabiah Coon (Host): nice. Okay, cool. And can you think of something that just makes you like laugh already

30:56

cry or something that did recently where you were just cracking

31:00

Andrew Alexseyenko: well, uh, it's a good question.

31:02

Good question. I just like met my friend that, uh, I haven't seen like for three

31:07

months and, uh, we were just like, laughing together after not

31:13

seeing like four for three months. That was a situation where I laughed a lot.

31:18

Rabiah Coon (Host): Nice. That's cool. Yeah. And it must've been nice to see him.

31:21

Okay, so last one, who inspires you right now?

31:26

Andrew Alexseyenko: Well, uh, it's, it's, it's tough to say, uh, I would

31:31

say I'm more inspired by technology.

31:34

And I think that the technology will, it's making our lives better.

31:39

So I, I think that those people who derives the most out of

31:43

technology, they inspiring me.

31:45

So, uh, I like Andrew Ng.

31:49

He's a lecturer in, uh, he's co-founder of Coursera.

31:54

And he's making a lot of education in machine learning and all this stuff.

31:59

So I think that their machine learning will you'll do you'll benefit a lot.

32:04

Rabiah Coon (Host): Nice. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely a way to use it for good and ways it's

32:07

improved our lives significantly. All right.

32:10

And so how do you want people to look you up?

32:12

So maybe they want to look you up Andrew and talk to you,

32:14

or they want to look up KOLO. Where do you want them to go?

32:17

And I'll put all the links in the show notes and more.

32:20

Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah. Cool. So, um, we have a website kolo u a dot com (koloua.com) where everyone can go

32:27

and, and, and can look around about our information and donate if they want.

32:35

I have my social media so if anyone has any questions or want to help

32:41

they can reach out to me there. And the yeah we have a websites of my companies if anyone is interested.

32:48

Rabiah Coon (Host): Okay, cool. And I'll put everything in the show notes. Well, Andrew, it was really a pleasure talking to you today so

32:53

thanks for taking the time to share what you've been doing and also

32:56

just what's going on, where you are. Andrew Alexseyenko: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

33:01

Rabiah Coon (Host): Thanks for listening. You can learn more about the guest and what was talked about in the show notes.

33:05

Joe Maffia created the music you're listening to.

33:07

You can find him on Spotify at Joe M A F F I A.

33:12

Rob Metke does all the design for which I am so grateful.

33:15

You can find him online by searching Rob M E T K E.

33:20

Please leave review. If you'd like to show and get in touch if you have feedback or guest ideas.

33:24

The pod is on all the social channels at at more than word pod

33:27

(@morethanworkpod) or at rabiah comedy (@rabiahcomedy) on TikTok.

33:30

And the website is more than work pod dot com (morethanworkpod.com).

33:33

While being kind to others, don't forget to be kind to yourself.