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Anat Sever, Co-Founder Of Engageya.com On How To Drive Fresh, Engaged Users To Your Content

So we all know that content is king these days—it needs to be fresh, relevant and, of course, good. But, perhaps the most important key to content is its engagement with users, otherwise, just like any relationship, that user will wander. Engageya.com creates free widgets to help drive engaged users to your content. We caught up with co-founder Anat Sever to talk pregnant coding and little wins.

 

How’d you come up with the name for your company?

We searched for something that goes with Engage. We really believe in this term. It encapsulates almost everything we are try to convey in this venture. The basic meaning of “getting someone interested” is what we do.

 

The platform is, indeed, for publishers and bloggers, as well as networks – but the end user, the reader, is what really matters here.

 

 

We are looking to engage the reader in the content we offer – because it’s interesting & relevant. Not because it’s flashy or noisy.

 

This was always our “lighthouse” when building the product. Try to make the content websites less overwhelming to their readers – and find better monetization alternatives.

 

What’s the very first thing you do at work everyday?

  1. Make my morning tea
  2. The days I work from my home desk – I search for something sweet to accompany my tea in my kitchen. Sadly, I NEVER  find anything, because my kids finished all the goodies the evening before.
  3. Make a task list for the day. Since I have only 24 hours a day – and we do everything at the company, including remote managing our workers, tech support and further development on our servers and website (we started-off as developers), handle financial issues, business development and account management, meeting with potential investors, etc… – I try to prioritize my day. Sometimes it even works…

 

Remember the early days starting up? Maybe you can share one anecdote that describe the struggle you went through?

I have zillions. The struggle of being an entrepreneur is part of our DNA. Sometime I ask myself how would our life look like had we had a slightly different DNA, but that’s just day-dreaming.

 

Our previous venture, which, after numerous pivots turned out to be Engageya – started off when I got pregnant with my second son, 5 years ago. My husband & I were working as developers in companies at the time, and, at nights, built the platform.

 

When I was 9 months pregnant, and looking like an elephant, I took a pregnancy leave from my day job, since I could not go to work anymore. It was only 2 weeks before the due-date. I used these 2 weeks to code like crazy. When the due date arrived – the platform was not finished yet. I hoped my son would spare a couple of more days until the platform is ready, and giving birth would fit our venture’s schedule.

 

And he did–He gave me 14 more works days.

 

The day I finished coding and bug fixing  was the day the doctors told me we can’t wait for him to be naturally born anymore. That night Ben was born.

 

During the first 3 months of this life, I managed to breastfeed with one hand and continue bug fixing with the other.

 

After that started to get difficult…

 

 

How do you handle frustration? When/how was the last time you dealt with frustration?

We always truly believed that hard work, dedication, determination and strong belief in what you do can really make this happen.

 

We had to deal with disappointments and frustrations hundreds of times throughout the journey. Some bigger and some smaller. The good thing here, is that we help each other back up. Barak’s determination is extremely profound – he is as determined as a rock.

 

Nothing gets him down for more than a few minutes. Don’t ask me how…

 

I believe that from every disappointment  we get stronger and more focused for the next time. I usually take a small break, and spend some time with the kids. This always gets my perspectives in order.

 

What’s your office environment like? Is it the kind of place where everyone is bumpin’ away to house music or is it more traditional?

On the days working from home, the only music heard is SpongeBob playing on TV.

 

The MediaShakers – Engageya office days – it’s a great place to work at. Full of good vibes!

 

How do you picture your company in 5 years?

We aim to be a leader in the content recommendations solutions area, and provide valuable traffic sources as well as content advertisement solutions for bloggers, publishers and networks.

 

We will have offices in TLV and NYC, with great, talented & fun people around us, wonderful revenues and happy clients! Production wise, we will offer a wide range of content recommendation solutions for all platforms- web, mobile,etc…

 

How’d you fund this venture?

It started off with self funding, continued with some friends & family funding, and than we got some wonderful angels to partner with us.

 

 

Got any great bootstrapping tips for the lean startups out there?

It’s all about the little wins. A successful founder of another start-up once told us this, and we felt we really connected to it, and that it’s a great tip for bootstrappers and early-stagers:

 

You can’t get to the big wins immediately (unless you have several millions in the bank… And even then – it’ll take time).

 

So if you understand that making it to the top of the mountain, is actually winning the small battles one-by-one patiently – it’s what keeps you climbing. That’s what works for us.

 

What would you be doing if you had one year off and $500,000 to spend?

Invest in early-stage startups and in young music artists. Take a big break with the family, and travel around the world. And get some sleep.

 

 

 

 

Mobile App you’re in love with and why?

Draw Something & Song Pop. Gives me just the break I need during the work day.

 

iOS or Android?

Android

 

What’s the greatest thing about Engageya.com?

The great opportunity we are giving to all those bloggers out there to “unite forces” together, and create a vertical reader ecosystem which they can all benefit from.

 

I just love it.

 

Where can our readers reach out?

Always available on email.

 

Thanks, Anat! If you want to drive fresh, engaged users to your content, make sure to get your own Engagya widget. It’s free. I mean, you can’t beat that.

 

Photo Credits

Engageya.com

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