"Do work that you care about" with Katie Girogadze

Entrepreneur, photographer, blogger, jewelry designer—Ketevan (Katie) Girogadze is taking the social media world by storm teaching her loyal followers how to take incredible photos and travel in style. Katie shares the story that led to the development of her hugely popular and breakthrough photography app KATIE ONE.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I was born in 1993 in a rural mining town in the Republic of Georgia (located next to Russia and Turkey in the Caucasus region) and was orphaned at 12 years old. Thanks to constant hard work, dedication, and a strong desire to succeed, I got a chance to enroll and graduate with honors from a top French business school. After graduating, I started my career in a social media management position at L’Oréal. Since I was responsible for the social media strategy of a L’Oreal brand, I spent a lot of time doing research on Instagram which I eventually turned into a side hustle. Two years later I left my job to work on my fashion and lifestyle blog full time.

What inspired you to start your business?

I used to see Instagram posts and photographs that were so poorly executed and I would think to myself “I can do way better than that!!” That’s how I began developing the KATIE ONE App as a reaction to all the poorly designed photo apps on the market and the fact that photo maps weren’t even a feature. These were improvements and upgrades that we needed so much for improved content creation.

Where is your business based?

We are a content creation and digital software company based in Paris, France.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

Initially, I had spent months researching online to see if there were a photo map and editing app all in one. There wasn’t. I thought “This is crazy!” Such a massive industry and there is not a single solution out there to help users like me save time and guarantee to find the best photo locations around the world. I realized there was definitely an opportunity to create something to help people. I started to work on it right away and the first thing I did was look for people with a technical background who could collaborate on building the app.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

For me, it’s content creation for multiple social media platforms (Instagram and TikTok) and partnering with influencers for content creation and promotion.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

There are significant challenges caused by the pandemic and the situation the world is in right now. We haven’t overcome these challenges yet, but we’ve introduced new solutions. For example, since most people cannot travel right now and they can’t enjoy the interactive map to the fullest, we introduced educational guides and programs to teach photography and stay creative even while being at home.

How do you stay focused?

Minimizing multitasking and training my brain to stay focused!

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We are highly focused on providing solutions for our customers. We saw the gap in the market and created a product that fully satisfies our customers’ needs. With the KATIE ONE App, our users have the best solution for photo and video content creation.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

So far, influencer marketing!

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Do work that you care about. There’s no doubt that running a business takes a lot of time. Steve Jobs noted that the only way to be satisfied in your life is to do work that you truly believe in.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

The KATIE ONE App for photo and video editing! I use it daily for my content creation! Lifehacker is one of my favorite blogs because it mixes technology, productivity, and life hacks. My favorite book is usually the one I happen to be reading. At the moment, I’m rereading “Amok” by Stefan Zweig.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I can’t live without Gmail or messenger apps like Telegram and WhatsApp (the best and the fastest way to get in touch with our employees). And I would be lost without Adobe Creative Cloud apps that I use on a daily basis for content creation. They have the best software for creators.

Who is your business role model? Why?

Charlotte Tilbury is one of my business role models because she has done an incredible job of building an e-commerce empire. She has worked so hard to build her social media following and business by insightfully recognizing a gap in the market (that also happened to be one of her own needs) and fulfilling it by successfully bringing that product to market.

How do you balance work and life?

This is challenging. My Instagram feed was the start of everything for me, and it has developed into an online blog, complete with Instagram stories (which is basically an additional platform in itself these days) and TikTok videos. As soon as I channel a little more energy into one social platform, the others fall behind. I try not to take on too much work and delegate as much as possible so I can focus only on things that are really important and enjoy the weekend and free time as well.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Taking a day off! That’s what I’m doing today. It doesn’t necessarily mean going on vacation or traveling for me. I am just going to veg out and allow myself to calm down and center myself.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We recently hit a milestone of 150,000 users of my editing app, KATIE ONE, only a few months after its launch. We are extremely happy that we were able to reach that huge number even in the middle of the pandemic. Currently, we are working hard to introduce new, exciting features in the app over the next few months! We are also working on introducing new fall and holiday collections for my jewellery line.

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"Do work that you care about" with Katie Girogadze

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