"Surround yourself with the right people" with Sasha Schriber

Sasha Schriber is CEO and founder of NANOS.AI, a machine learning startup based in Switzerland. Nanos turns the process of creating and placing online advertisements into a simple, automated, and transparent action by using machine learning. A former Walt Disney Imagineering cast member, she also founded and developed an innovation group within Disney Research in collaboration with the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). Background in math, finance, and law; 20+ patents in multimedia, previsualization, machine learning, and online marketing technologies, and publications at ACM IUI, IEEE InfoVis, IAAI, ICIDS.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I have a wide range of experience and I’ve changed my career multiple times. I went from studying physics and math furiously in high school and dreaming of formulas at bedtime to getting my first paid job as a sixteen-year-old selling kids’ underwear at a retail store. I became a manager of that store within roughly a year.

I’ve built several other companies, from B2B retail to restaurants, to telecom services and hardware equipment, at the same time studying for a Ph.D. At one point, I went full force on the creative as a freelance filmmaker and opera director. I picked up all kinds of filming gigs and worked for free on various film and opera sets. I did everything possible — from stage lights to camera and sound assistance to post-production sound design, from assisting a make-up artist to scriptwriting and editing. After all of that, I started my own production technology company and eventually crossed over to the corporate research side for six long years.  

What inspired you to start your business?

One of the main challenges in all of my previous businesses was - how do I find my customers, without paying an arm and a leg for it?

While running an innovation group at a large corporate research laboratory, I came up with the idea of Nanos. Marketing as an industry should be demystified, lowering the entry barrier into online visibility. Many processes related to marketing can be automated using machine learning. These concepts became the foundation for my current company - nanos.ai.  I was always driven by this romantic idea that anyone should be able to advertise online at a low cost. The flower shop owner next door should have the same chance to prosper as a big online flower franchise, even with the smallest marketing budgets. An international fashion brand should not block an independent shoemaker’s online visibility just because they have their own internal marketing army. Established companies and brands usually have marketing specialists, sales teams, and all kinds of governmental support. But as a small business owner, you are literally left alone when starting a new venture.

There is a strong need to lower the barriers of entry into online marketing. Small businesses are the economic drivers in most developed countries. But they risk missing the boat when competing with the bigger players in their fields when it comes to marketing. One of the most common issues for small businesses is awareness. As an example, you might have stumbled upon a nice store by chance in the basement floor of your office. You only knew about it because you walked by it every day. Sadly, by the time you finally consider paying them a visit, they may already be out of business, since not enough other people knew about their existence.

Marketing should be demystified. It's really not that complex, but very iterative. One has to experiment a lot to find out what works for each type of business, product, or service. There are so many parameters to keep in mind: the visuals, the story, the website, the timing, the budget, industry trends, competitors’ actions, and much more. If you don't have big budgets to experiment with, you are literally gambling with your money in hopes of reaching the desired results fast. This is why there is a need for a tool that caters to small business owners, making the knowledge that worked for other similar businesses available to them.

I strongly believe that everyone should be empowered to do their own marketing. Technology can make it accessible to anyone. That's why I created Nanos, a do-it-yourself, pay-as-you-go digital advertising tool. At Nanos, we, a dozen computer scientists and technology-generalists, have built a tool where anyone without marketing, design, technical background, or big marketing budgets can very quickly create, place and optimize online ads. We want to help people and businesses who lack technical, marketing, or design skills, and those who cannot learn marketing or simply don't want to. We can make a difference for entrepreneurs without big budgets to spend on marketing, or people who have already tried advertising alone or with agencies and failed. This is why we created Nanos.  

Where is your business based?

Nanos is based in Zurich, Switzerland. There are several reasons we chose Switzerland. First, it's about quality. Switzerland has very good tech schools and a pool of tech talent. It leads the Global Innovation Index, with the most patents per capita in the world. Also, Switzerland offers legal services tailored specifically to startups’ needs along with direct access to seed and Series A funding, governmental support, and competitive tax advantages.

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

I was working for a big research organization. One day, the language teacher the company employed, Tim, showed me a stack of old-fashioned white business cards. They had imprinted florals and his name on them, and he told me to share them with people that might be interested in language courses. He spoke seven languages and was a highly skilled language teacher. I was slightly taken aback by the business cards and questioned why he didn’t just have a website. We made him a website and a month later he came to me again with the business cards. When I asked him about the website, he shook his phone and said, “yes, but no one has called me!”

This made me think. Tim was not a digital native. I’d dare say that he was born with a remote control in his hands, but not a smartphone. I was convinced that he didn’t have the online advertising skills or knowledge to promote his new site on a regular basis. This idea sparked something in me, so I asked a colleague where she would advertise Tim’s website. She happened to be reading Google Adwords, a 700-page book. Right then and there, I started reading it too. I was inspired by all the opportunities I saw for automation. “Imagine if we could build a technology that automated everything from this book,” I thought. There was no way Tim could ever successfully accomplish placing an ad campaign through this complicated avenue!

I thought the idea was brilliant. I went back to my desk and drew a few low-fidelity frames of what would later become Nanos. I met with a software engineer friend and asked if it was possible to call up Google and Facebook APIs to get this through in the first place. After some testing, he confirmed we could. With a little money, my own free time, and a couple of intrigued friends, we investigated the romantic idea that anyone should be able to advertise online.

After much testing and prototype after prototype, we finally reached our goal. Today, anyone can place an ad about their business or service in less than ten minutes, starting from as little as five dollars, and without any advertising knowledge.

Few years have passed since that day Tim inspired me to create Nanos.  

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

It’s definitely been a combination of paid media and social media. Paid advertising and social media content are two sides of the same coin. Nowadays, both are equally important in growing a business.

One thing is for sure if your company is not online, it doesn’t exist. If anyone is interested in what your company is doing, they will first go to your website. Then they will check your company’s social media channels. How many followers and how interesting your content is might influence the decision of a prospective client and whether or not they purchase your product or service.

With paid media, you are more or less in control of who will see your ad. As a stand-alone effort, it can become quite expensive if you are to compete with others in your field for that same audience. When it comes to social media, you’ll never fully know who ends up seeing your posts, and you can’t easily influence how many people will see it. This is why both are important.  

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

At Nanos, we aimed to build technology that automates as many digital marketing processes as possible. But it was not easy from the start. For instance, there was not much tech talent available. Machine learning and AI as sciences were not as established then as they are now. Only in the last 2 years, it has become "sexy" to be a machine learning engineer or a computer scientist. So many students now follow the trend and switch from another science, for instance, physics or biology. We see this a lot because having a machine learning degree means having a much higher salary nowadays.

Another challenge was that there also was not as much data available, and computer power and cloud services were still very expensive when we were just starting out. But what was driving me was the knowledge of how many people could benefit from our AI. So slowly, step by step, we were able to hire the best tech talent from ETH Zurich (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), as well as find cost-efficient solutions to keep our machine learning models running. 

How do you stay focused?

On one hand, I make sure that I live a healthy, balanced life. This includes personal and family time along with work. The ability to stay focused and in control requires balance.

On the other hand, I like to work with a system that I learned working with Pixar animators. It’s the art of  “in-betweening”. It’s used internally when they want a smooth transition from one keyframe of an animation sequence to another. If a bunny needs to cross the room, an animator starts by defining several important keyframes for its movement. He draws the first keyframe where the bunny starts, then a second keyframe where the bunny reaches the middle of the room, and then the third keyframe where it stops at the door.

Once the perfect keyframes are found, the rest, or “in-between” frames, can be created faster, or even delegated to others. I look at any business decision, large or small, in a similar way. This system also helps me stay focused on things that need to be done. Instead of making big, bold moves, I set up keyframes along the path and move from one to another consistently. Then I use the process of in-betweening ,  slowly transitioning from one keyframe to another. 

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Nanos is the only do-it-yourself, pay-as-you-go digital advertising tool for non-experts. It’s a powerful tool that gives small business owners and entrepreneurs who don’t have marketing knowledge or resources the ability to profit from digital advertising. You choose your budget according to what you can invest in. There aren’t any hidden fees or contracts.

It’s a tool that gives any business the marketing superpower it needs to grow online.

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

Recursive Marketing plus social media content is the strategy I decided on when starting Nanos. Recursive marketing means we have been advertising ourselves through our own tool - nanos.ai. We would place ad campaigns about us worldwide and attract visitors to our website. Additionally - we produced a lot of videos and articles about who we are, what we have built, and why are we doing this.

From the very beginning, I had a vision of where I wanted to go with Nanos and how it should look in terms of features and innovation. It was important for me to create an environment where my team could prosper in order to create amazing technology. It was also important that through social media content our customers saw and experienced this innovative culture. It is also about letting our own customers advocate for us. 

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

Surround yourself with the right people. The “right people” are those who share the same principles as you but come from different backgrounds. They have skills, expertise, and personalities different from your own. They also have their own established networks.

If I were to give anyone advice, it would be to spend as much time with these people as you can. Perhaps by making a contribution to someone else’s idea, participating in work-in-progress concept development, or joining a strong team that is about to really take off. With the right people, you gain the right network and expertise in your domain. Once you find your people, give it all you can.

To me, this is important because no one builds anything alone. Working on something with others means integrating different strengths and perspectives.

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

My favourite book is “Just Kids” by Patty Smith. It’s a fiction book but could serve as a manual on how to create great commercial art and a personal commercial brand. For apps, I like tracking apps - for monthly expenses, ski runs, periods, and others. For blogs, I like to read the New York Times. They always offer fresh and different perspectives. To me, it’s a great example of true professional journalism. 

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

Since I work remotely and my team is international and based on different timezones, I value tools that enable me to create a good work system. That’s why my most used tools are Google calendar and Hangouts. They’re also simple and easy to use.  

Who is your business role model? Why?

I wouldn’t say I have a business role model. Rather than having a business role model or relying on someone's acceptance and opinion, I think it’s important to listen to your intuition and rely on your own competence. In my life, I’ve heard “no” and “you can’t do it” many times from family members, close friends, colleagues, bosses, mentors and others. But, with time, I learned that we should not rely on others’ acceptance of our business ideas. I value criticism from experts and many people inspire me, but first and foremost, I rely on my intuition and make sure that I use all the inputs to succeed.  

How do you balance work and life?

Well, Nanos has been a remote company since its existence. We value flexibility and independent working. In that sense, I have options in planning my day. I always include exercise and personal time in my daily routine.

One thing that helps me balance work and life is a very simple system called the Three-Legged Strategy. These legs are your professional life, your private affairs, and your hobbies. Your professional life is your whole work environment. When I say your private life or family, I’m referring to all the humans that are present in your life outside of work and those with who you interact the most. If you feel perfectly fine without any strong ties to your family or friends, that’s fine too. As long as you’ve found your balance and you’re not subconsciously or consciously seeking to change it. When it comes to your hobbies, here I’m talking about activities that inspire and motivate you personally to take action or learn. As with family and work, your hobbies might also change from time to time, but they should not be directly related to your professional endeavors or family members. A hobby is something that you truly do for yourself.

For me, maintaining a balance between these three well-functioning, supportive legs keeps my life balanced, but also helps me avoid stress or getting caught off guard by surprises.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

For me now, it’s exercising. I’ve had many hobbies over the years. I was into art, meditation, and other things, but going to the gym or exercising outside really works best and helps me let it all out. This year has been very peculiar, and while we couldn’t go on living the routines we had before, I found it even more important to keep exercising at home. Since time outside has been limited, I created my own small home gym so that I can still release that extra energy.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

We are currently working on Nanos Pro and are set to launch it in the next six months. It’s a version of Nanos for marketing professionals that will allow them to launch multi-platform campaigns from one single place. It will also allow marketers to improve campaign performance with a configurable AI that optimises the ads every hour.  

How can our readers connect with you?

You can find me on social media or write me an email ask.sasha@nanos.ai

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