Navigating the landscape of research - a conversation with Sandra Idjoski

Sandra Idjoski, the CEO, and founder of Collabwriting, is a dynamic entrepreneur driven by a passion for marketing, entrepreneurship, and social economy. With a rich background as the CCO at Teodesk, an innovative IT company specializing in resolving business inefficiencies within the Telco industry, and a successful exit, Sandra's expertise set them apart and facilitated market expansion.

Collabwriting, Sandra's brainchild, is a startup focused on revolutionizing content creation for marketers and creators. The company simplifies the intricate processes of research and teamwork, providing a streamlined approach to content development.

Now, let's delve into Sandra's insights and experiences in this interview.

What motivated you to start Collabwriting, and how do you envision the startup making a significant impact in the content creation space?

The initial spark for starting Collabwriting was an issue I faced every day when it came to organizing my research and the research being done by my marketing team.

We had so many tools to track how content was doing after it was produced, but very little to curate what was going into it.

We believe optimizing this first step will make all the difference in how knowledgeable, spot-on, and relevant the content being produced is.

Content creation tools are abundant in the market. What challenges do you foresee Collabwriting addressing, and how does it distinguish itself from existing solutions?

We’re optimizing a part of the workflow that isn’t often thought to be the focus of marketers - research. However, that’s where everything starts.

To create an effective marketing strategy we have to know our audience, our competition, the channels, and general current trends well. This is where we see Collabwriting fitting in. It creates a space where collaboration and research seamlessly coexist making it the perfect knowledge hub.

For us, the current content creation tools aren’t a direct competitor. We’re the step that happens before they come to the stage, providing a more knowledgeable start to the whole creation process.

Collabwriting emphasizes simplifying research processes. How does the platform enhance collaboration among content marketers and creators during the research phase?

Collabwriting makes it easy to highlight, share, and collaborate on any written content found online.

Our browser extension never takes you out of your research flow and it enables you to add your findings to different topics on the go. Comments can be attached directly to the key insights, tying in the personal knowledge of each user to the newly found information.

We already have integrations with LinkedIn and X (Twitter), while our plans that involve audio and video content will make collaborating around these sources a one-step process.

Since the launch of Collabwriting, what feedback have you received from users, and how has it influenced the platform's development and features?

Even before the official launch, we started interviewing industry experts and early testers to see where Collabwriting fits in with their workflow and have kept that door of communication open.

A year and a half after the launch, this approach has shaped Collabwriting in many ways. Some of the best feature suggestions came from user interviews - drag and drop of snippets to Google Docs, for example, is one that is already live and quickly became a user favorite.

On the other hand, it’s also helped shape our vision and the way we communicate about the product. While we initially saw ourselves primarily as a research tool, many users had mentioned that they saw Collabwriting as their central place for knowledge.

As we developed our vision further, creating a centralized place for connecting found knowledge to individual insights from any source became our primary goal.

As Collabwriting grows, what strategies are in place for scaling the platform, both in terms of user base and functionality?

So far our growth has been primarily organic with us leveraging content marketing, product launching platforms, and PR opportunities.

While we plan to keep these tactics in our toolbox, the next year will also entail testing and scaling performance marketing and launching our affiliate program.

When it comes to functionalities, many updates are coming in the next 2 years. We’ll be expanding on the scope of content that can be collected through Collabwriting, our early AI functionalities will be upgraded and integrated throughout the app and we’ll more strongly be tapping into knowledge management.

How does Collabwriting adapt to emerging trends and technologies?

We’ve already started integrating AI into Collabwriting and have plans on how we can impact the way knowledge management is managed in a collaborative, dynamic way.

Our team is constantly looking at ways both our product and mission can stay relevant and the previously mentioned user insights are what we believe is keeping us on the right track.

Can you share a notable challenge faced and the valuable lessons learned from overcoming it?

One of our challenges early on was securing early-stage funding, while also keeping the structure of a company suitable for future financing. Our solution was securing grants and keeping the operations as lean as possible.

It helped us become innovative and creative, not just with our solution, but also with our communication and ways we acquired users. While not all of it was scalable, it helped us be more aware of how and where we were spending money and what the most effective channels were. It helped us prioritize our time and this is one of the key skills we see will benefit us in the next chapter of developing Collabwriting.

Building a successful startup involves cultivating a strong team culture. How do you foster innovation and collaboration within the Collabwriting team to drive continuous improvement? Do you have an ESOP program in place?

We have an ESOP program in place, but I don’t believe that monetary gain plays a key role in the early stages of building a team.

If we want to foster innovation and collaboration in a startup, the team needs to feel like the goals being achieved are theirs too. The founders need to be someone employees respect and want to see succeed.

There are many places an amazing professional can find a job, but a startup's edge is that, when it’s good, can give purpose and a joint vision.

Why investors should support you in your growth plans?

The biggest reason I believe is that I’m not just a solo founder with an idea. We’re a team of people who have worked together, iterated, and built a solution that people love using, and that have a joint vision of what it can become.

We already have a commitment from VCs with great track records like Smok Ventures, Underline Ventures, Credo Ventures, Startup Wise Guys, Fiedler Capital & Fortech Investments, as well as a few great angels that will help us grow.

We’re in the early days of this journey, but we’re fully committed and ready to create another regional success story.

Explore the opportunity on SeedBlink.