"Listen to your customers" with Courtney Ruth

Photo credit: Lisa Woods: https://www.rapportgroup.co/

Courtney Ruth is one of the co-founders of KOYA Innovations, a company aiming to initiate moments of meaningful connection. She is also a samba admirer, marketing fanatic, and adventure enthusiast with a background in Psychology and Global Communications.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I was fortunate to grow up in an innovative household. My dad started his first company at our kitchen table. As such, I believed that entrepreneurship was a normal job title.

While I have always loved business, I set my sights on a degree in Psychology. Without furthering my education, my degree didn’t provide many viable career opportunities. To make ends meet, I took on any job that came my way and fell into marketing where I helped several entrepreneurs launch their businesses. Having my hands in other’s literal business is what steered me back into entrepreneurship.

In my mid-twenties, I helped the communication department at a global nonprofit. Traveling opened my eyes to a relational richness that I missed whenever I returned. The years I spent abroad gave me the necessary resilience to embark on my recent venture.

In 2018, I transitioned from the not-for-profit sector into tech and co-founded a startup with my family.
 
What inspired you to start your business?

As a family, we used to hide notes in each other’s bags before long trips. When I moved away, I began doing this with my friends as well. We would all get creative to extend love from afar. This is the origin of KOYA Innovations, Inc. We wanted to create a digital experience that replicates the feeling of in-person spontaneity.

Where is your business based?

The founding KOYA team resides in Austin, TX.

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

First, we created and filed a patent to protect our IP. We followed this up with a design sprint and development. The product has gone through several iterations and will continue to evolve.

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

Doing things that don’t scale. Although our app is free, it’s difficult to break through the noise to win a download. Having touchpoints with our customers has helped us raise awareness.

When our customers are happy and feel as though we provide a solution to their problem, they become our biggest ambassadors. It might not seem sexy to spend hours on Slack, LinkedIn, or other social sites, but it has led to incredible friendships and super fans.

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

As a geo-location app, we realized that staying safe at home makes using the KOYA app challenges. To help, we made it possible to schedule KOYAs using time-windows.

While making it possible to schedule a KOYA did help, COVID revealed a bigger issue. Social has distancing amplified the loneliness epidemic. Our recent pivot seeks to make KOYA more accessible. More on this later.

How do you stay focused?

I wake up early each morning to paint for an hour before work. It feels invigorating to have something small to look forward to. While I can’t change what is happening in the world, I can choose where I invest my time. This daily rhythm is grounding and helps me stay focused throughout the day.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

According to one of our users, “Zoom is good to reconnect, texts are fine for updates and cat videos, but KOYA actually makes me feel seen and loved and KNOWN by my people.” – Anna

KOYA isn’t a communication platform, like Zoom or FaceTime, or a payment platform, such as Venmo. Instead, we make it possible to send memorable moments and gifts that arrive at the right place and time.

The closest competition we have is friend CRM apps. Although, we straddle between intelligent message delivery and personal CRM. We aren’t trying to compete with existing technology. Instead, we are attempting to forge a new category.

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

Aside from doing things that don’t scale, we partner with like-minded businesses to help us grow. Our friends are incredible and often post on their social channels as well. We embody the definition of bootstrapped and rely on organic traffic.

As we continue to scale, I favor quality campaigns and steady growth over a big splash. It’s important that our product offers value and our marketing strategies focus on solutions overselling a product. This strategy also leads to the path of least resistance.

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

Listen to your customers. Let your customers inform the solutions instead of informing customers about your product. This means that you will conduct adequate market research before building your product.

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

My favorite book at the moment is “Play Bigger” by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney. This book explores the idea of becoming a category king. It pushes you to find and refine your niche until it can stand alone and dominate a new market.

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

I love Slack. It’s a helpful tool that enables me to communicate with my colleagues with ease. I consult other companies on the side and Slack also keeps me organized. The search bar is my favorite feature within Slack.
 
Who is your business role model? Why?

Bozoma Saint John is definitely my business role model. She if fiercely herself. I have a high value for authenticity and am inspired by her choice to show up in this world.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Aside from painting each morning, I make it a habit to read before bed. This is the surest way to wind me down before my head hits the pillow. I like having routines that bookend my day and provide a healthy balance between work and life.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

Earlier, I mentioned that pivot seeks to make KOYA more accessible. KOYA 2.0 is an approachable guide with thoughtful prompts, content from relational wellness and mental health experts, enriched profiles, and a platform to help people meaningfully show up for their loved ones.

Along with this, we are working on a new offering. I can’t go into detail, but this new feature will open up an unsaturated and highly personal marketplace.

How can our readers connect with you?

You can find me on LinkedIn and learn more about KOYA over at www.getkoya.com.