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In this episode of The Sustainable Tech Podcast, I chat with Adilya Dragan, the inspiring CEO & Founder of StarLuv. StarLuv is an AI-powered marketplace that encourages people to buy and sell both new and pre-loved clothing. Adilya shares her journey of building a tech company from the ground up and discusses her mission to fight textile waste and fast fashion’s impact on our planet. Her passion for sustainability is contagious, and she offers deep insights into how AI can be a force for good. From her personal motivations to real-life challenges in the fashion industry, this conversation is full of valuable lessons for anyone interested in tech, sustainability, or making a positive impact. Whether you're a startup founder, a tech enthusiast, or someone passionate about the environment, you’re going to find this episode enlightening. Dive in to learn how StarLuv is making a difference!
LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adilya-dragan/
00:10 - Meet Adilya Dragan, CEO of StarLuv
01:00 - The Start of StarLuv's Journey
03:20 - Challenges in Building an AI-Powered Marketplace
05:15 - The Environmental Cost of Fast Fashion
07:40 - How AI Helps List and Sell Clothes Faster
10:05 - The Future of Sustainable Fashion
12:25 - Customer Discovery and Market Insights
15:00 - Encouraging Responsible Consumption
18:30 - The Role of Gen Z in Sustainable Fashion
21:50 - Building a Movement for Positive Impact
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What is The Sustainable Tech Podcast?
The Sustainable Tech Podcast explores the intersection of technology, sustainability, and impact. Hear stories from tech startups, software companies, non-profits, and small businesses using technology to drive environmental and social change. Each episode features entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and tech experts who share practical advice, success stories, and insights on building a sustainable future. Perfect for founders, tech enthusiasts, and sustainability advocates looking to stay ahead in the world of tech and impact-driven innovation. Subscribe now for inspiring conversations on the future of sustainable technology!
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Adilya: I truly enjoy
building a tech company.
I can see that I can make a difference.
I can see.
That flame in other people's eyes
when they hear what I do and that
they can join me to do the same.
Because right now there is a
whole generation of Gen Z's
who care about the planet.
They're ready for climate action.
It's really hard to be
sustainable on your own.
It's a lot easier when
you can join the movement.
Like my favorite example, would
you recycle if that wouldn't
been picked up from a curbside?
It's the volumes.
When it is picked up
biweekly from your curbside.
I mean, I can do that.
I can handle this.
I'm a mom of three.
I run the startup.
I still can do this because it's easy
for me and same for the clothing.
Thronmax MDrill One Pro & USB Video:
Hey folks.
And welcome to this latest
episode of the small tech podcast.
I'm Raph co-founder of EC, the digital
product studio, building technology
for a more sustainable future.
And today we have another wonderful guest.
I met her originally at Startupfest
a few weeks ago, or actually I guess
a couple of months at this point.
And I was just really struck by
how driven she seemed to be to.
Reduce textile waste and have a
positive impact on the fashion industry.
We are all about sustainability.
And environmental impact.
And I really connected with
her vision and her mission.
I feel like I learned a lot from her
about how to think about customer
discovery and really how to understand
the market that you're operating in.
I also really felt motivated and inspired
by her desire to create a better world,
, for herself, for her kids, for other
people, and for the environment and be
part of a movement that, that really
creates a better world for the future.
I really enjoyed the conversation
and I think you will too.
She is Adilya Dragan founder and CEO
of StarLuv, which is a marketplace
that is AI driven and helps people
buy and sell gently used clothing
and is on a mission to fight the fast
fashion garment to landfill pipeline.
Here's the interview.
Enjoy it.
Raphaël: Hey, Adilya, how are ya?
Adilya: Hi!
Raphaël: ready to, ready to talk?
Adilya: How was
your day?
Raphaël: Yeah, it's going all right.
I mean, it's just getting
started here in Vancouver.
Um, but I like to get up nice and early.
Get started.
Adilya: What's the time?
Is it in Vancouver?
Raphaël: It's, uh, it's
eight, 8:15 AM here.
Adilya: When I was
booking, I was surprised.
Why do you only have time starting midday?
Because right now it's like
one o'clock in Newfoundland.
We have a bright sunny day.
Raphaël: Yeah, no, here, uh, here at
8am, and I already had one, uh, one
meeting before, before recording,
so.
Adilya: So, today we're meeting.
One shore to another shore,
east coast to the west
Raphaël: We are
Adilya: over
Raphaël: ocean to ocean,
coast to coast.
Adilya: ocean,
Raphaël: Yeah.
So I'd love to learn more about
you and about StarLuv and about
everything that you've been doing.
So I'll just dive right into it.
I'm curious how, what, situation in your
life, in your career led you to say, you
know what, I'm gonna start this platform.
I'm gonna create this
thing called StarLuv.
Also, maybe tell us a little bit
more about what actually is StarLuv?
Adilya: Well, Starluv is an AI powered
marketplace for clothing resale,
where environmentally conscious people
can buy and sell pre loved clothes.
But the original idea came to me 10 years
ago, I lived in New Orleans, Louisiana
at that time, and I had a newborn baby,
so I had my son, and I was
feeding him all the time.
He was hungry all the time, and
when you're feeding the baby,
you basically has nothing to do.
So I was crawling the feed,
then it was, it got boring.
Then I got into shopping
somehow to entertain myself.
And at that moment we
didn't have much money.
So it was, and I also wanted to be
sustainable, to give clothes another life.
So I was looking into secondhand clothes.
Raphaël: yeah,
I
Adilya: two platforms at a point,
and they were very successful.
And at the same time, I could see
logic problems, and they were so, I
got tired from them really quickly.
And my question was, how are they
so successful being this bad?
I can do better.
Raphaël: love it,
Adilya: I had another child,
then we moved to Canada.
I had another child.
And then, then COVID hit and during the
COVID, there were so many layoffs and
people, they moved to their houses from
the well lit offices to sometimes messy
houses and sometimes cluttered houses
and people were talking about depression.
And I had an idea, what if I can help
people to declutter their houses,
starting from their wardrobes and to
generate another stream of revenue because
like of the layoffs to help somehow.
And I thought if I can help at least one
person, then my mission will be complete.
So that's how I started StarLuv and
we basically started working on it.
Three years ago, like the development
and everything and I made a huge mistake.
I started with a product, like I started
building, okay, I know what I'm doing.
I'm going to build this platform.
It's going to be amazing.
Everyone is going to love it.
Raphaël: yep,
Adilya: two years later, I ran out
of money, I was devastated, and
then I went into the ecosystem and
I was told, Adilya, you know, boy,
you need to go and do the discovery,
the customer discovery interviews.
What is that?
Like do I need to go out there and to talk
to random people about what they like?
hahaha And moreover, it's, people lie.
if you ask them, like, do you like this?
They want to be polite.
They will say yes, and then you will
go and build what they say yes to,
and actually they didn't like it.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: So, I learned the hard
way how to learn and how to
find out what people actually
Raphaël: want.
Yeah.
Adilya: How do they solve
their current problem?
How can I make it better?
What can be done if they had
a magic wand and they can just
wave it and wow, magic happened.
They have a perfect product for
them that solves all their problems.
Yes, 10 years later, I
come here where I am.
Raphaël: Yep.
What, what was actually with, with
specifically like that, like, what
did you find was the most helpful?
Like, how do you get the right
information out of people?
Adilya: I was I'll give you an example.
You basically ask the why questions.
For example, What was your last purchase?
Raphaël: Okay.
Adilya: What was your last purchase?
Raphaël: Oh, me?
Okay.
Adilya: or any products.
Raphaël: like, are we
going through it right
now?
Like, so, okay.
Okay.
For me,
Adilya: go.
Go for it.
Raphaël: my last purchase,
any kind of purchase?
Adilya: Oh, maybe like business
related or any electronics,
basically like to do the job.
Raphaël: Okay, electronics.
I bought, this is a while
ago, but I bought a camera.
I have this camera that
I'm using right now.
Yeah, yeah.
Adilya: So why did you buy this camera?
What did you want it to achieve?
What kind of work did you want to do?
Raphaël: The other camera that
I was using was, frustrating me.
There were too many, like, issues with the
way that it was connecting to my machine
Adilya: so the issues were more
painful than the money you were
about to spend on a new camera.
And what did you want to do with your
camera?
Raphaël: Uh, with my old
camera or my new camera?
Adilya: Your new camera?
Raphaël: Oh, okay.
I wanted to record podcasts
and videos and stuff like that.
Yeah.
Adilya: Like why, um,
Raphaël: wait, are you asking
me why we're doing this podcast?
Um, yeah I wanted to do this
podcast, I've wanted to create
sort of content around how to build
tech products for, for a long time.
And I started doing some videos
about a year and a half, two years
ago and I feel like it was a good
way to tell the world what I can do.
And then eventually I realized it was a
good way to sort of connect with other
people also in this space and tell
stories about what we're all doing,
building uh, building tech products.
So, yeah, I guess that's why,
Adilya: Okay.
So you decided to switch the camera
because you wanted to build the product.
Can I make your life any, how better
so you can do your podcast better?
Any new tech you want to get
Raphaël: uh, if someone could at this
point, I think it's a pretty good setup.
If someone could make sure
that I never had a audio, audio
connection issues and stuff like
that again, that would be amazing.
. But yeah, other than that,
I think it's pretty good.
But if someone could build a platform or
tooling or hardware that like everyone
could just have like consistent high
quality video audio, that would be great.
I would love
Adilya: like a business model
Raphaël: It does.
All right.
All right.
Is it
Adilya: business opportunity, yeah,
Raphaël: for a pivot?
Totally.
Adilya: that was like a, mostly a joke,
but you felt the idea, you keep talking
to the people and try to find where
their pain is, what annoys them the most,
so it annoys them that much so they're
ready to switch to a different product.
They're ready to change their habit.
Raphaël: Yeah.
That makes, yeah, that
makes a lot of sense.
It's funny, like, yeah, it was just kind
of a fun exercise, but also, yeah, you
have me also thinking about, all right,
like, why and how does, does this podcast
come together and, and is there, now I'm
wondering, are there tools that could make
my life easier with, all of the recording?
Adilya: the days, people
only shopped in person.
They said, I want to go through the racks
because I want to feel the material.
I want to try it on.
But today they want to
save that time more.
They don't want to go to the mall.
They don't want to put that effort
actually going through the racks.
It's a lot easier just
to swipe everything.
When stuff is delivered to your door, you
can try it on and send it back in at your
house when you're in the perfect mood for
Raphaël: Yeah.
So with that, actually, I'm curious,
because I guess I'm not your target
customer because I love touching
the things before I buy them.
I occasionally, like actually this
shirt I bought without touching it,
but mostly I just love to be in a store
and like see the thing and hold it
Adilya: they're all different.
That's right.
Raphaël: yeah, I guess even,
like, the logistics of, like,
making online clothes work?
I guess you have that segment who wants
to just be able to see it, visualize it
and have access to it without the hassle
of going to see if you can find a store
that has the thing that you want in stock.
And is that part of
Adilya: yeah,
most of the, most of the retails
have online presence so you can
either order online or be in person.
Like I always order online and I check
the ingredients, what it's made of
so I kind of know how it will feel.
Raphaël: Oh, that makes sense.
Adilya: Yeah, I always
check their materials.
Raphaël: Do you find that it's like,
essentially on some level you're competing
with these massive retailers, right?
Or are you not?
I don't know.
Is that a thing that freaks you out?
Adilya: more, I'm trying to upend
the fashion industry market.
So right now, it's about 400, 000
in the fast fashion industry Market.
And that 20 percent is contributed
to the industrial water pollution.
They use synthetic fibers like
polyester, which is not biodegradable,
and it takes years to break down,
and they release toxic chemicals in
the process and people who work for
them, they live in poverty, and they
actually are surrounded with all those
toxins, and I feel this is not right.
I know we can do better, and I'm
encouraging people to give clothes
another, a second life, to upcycle,
I even have a challenge, how can you
restyle and upcycle, vintage garment?
Some people, they like vintage, some
do not, and they, I saw beautiful
examples how they transferred some
outdated outfit to a super fashion.
And fashion isn't bad.
The bad is that, it's not sustainable
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: So I like to look
pretty, I like to look stylish.
I don't have to, like, wear
everyday same clothes and be boring.
It's not
about that.
It's about wearing items, actually.
Raphaël: So one of the things, like when
we first, so we met at Startupfest a
few weeks ago or like a couple months
ago at this point, and I was just really
excited to talk to you because you have
this like impact driven, like vibe about
you like you seem really committed to,
Adilya: you know, you know why
Raphaël: well, why?
Adilya: to it?
Because right now in Chile in Chile
desert, there is a mountain of apparel
waste that is now visible from space.
Raphaël: obscene.
Adilya: The waste of clothes is
comparable to the size of the city
Raphaël: That's, that's disturbing.
Adilya: yeah, we are talking to you and
out there in South America there is such
a mountain it's growing because every
year 90 million tons of apparel end up
in the landfill and that this number is
projected to double over the next five
years if we don't make a difference,
and I'm building a movement to stop that
I'm on a mission to fight the waste and
I encourage responsible consumption.
And at Starluv, people can resell items
and here I want to dive to the persona.
Raphaël: Okay.
Adilya: Because we're all drops in the
ocean, we all make decisions, and this led
to a bigger, right now, to a massive waste
every time when you think, okay, this is
a t shirt, and I want to sell it, but do
I want to spend time listing the item?
What do I put in that description?
Okay, maybe I'm too lazy.
I can't just throw it away.
Nobody will know.
That's fine.
But And at StarLuv, we decided,
okay, we're going to step in
here and put our AI to work.
And we asked for the picture.
So if you can take a picture of this
T shirt and upload to the website,
we will analyze it and we'll generate
the title and the detailed description
and pick up the category and the
color and the size and the brand
so you don't have to do the job.
So you provide the picture
and we do the rest.
So it is five times faster to live
on StarLuv than on anywhere else.
Raphaël: Awesome.
Adilya: And actually, a little
sneak peek, eBay will be using
this technology in the future.
I know they're developing this
already and we already have it.
Raphaël: Aha.
So wait, are you going to be like, are
you selling this to eBay or is eBay,
Adilya: No, eBay is
trying to build the same
Raphaël: okay.
That's yeah, actually, do
you want to talk about that?
How do you feel about that?
Adilya: I feel very proud.
I'm very proud of my team because
they're very knowledgeable.
They're great engineers they're leaders
in AI and they're simply amazing.
They also are passionate
about stopping the
Raphaël: waste.
Yeah.
Adilya: and they, they do start off not
for the money, but for the bigger idea and
the impact that we all can bring together
yeah.
Raphaël: I love it.
Adilya: Yeah, especially I'm proud that
we did it a year ago already by using
it while eBay only thinking about it.
Raphaël: Yeah.
That's
Adilya: That's also validates my idea,
Raphaël: yeah.
That's really cool.
Um, actually, do you want to talk a
little bit about like, how, like, what,
what's it like to build an AI like
that, an AI AI driven system like that?
Adilya: I can feel limitless
because I can do whatever I want.
It's all in my mind if I can
expand it and to look further
like what actually bothers people.
And moreover, I can see that in the future
we'll have AI built in almost everything
because it's really does the job really
well and it does it better day by day.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: And why not to use the
technology to simplify our lives and
focus on what's more important to us.
For example, like back to the clothes,
if I wanna sell like say 30 outfits,
so I did the declutering, I have
a pile of clothes 30 items, so to
list them on StarLuv it will take 20
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: but on our competitors it
will take two and a half hours.
I would use those two hours just
to read with my kids, to dance with
them, to sing, to eat, to take a walk.
walk And I can see that if we
can Keep saving our time and
do what actually brings us joy.
By the way, yesterday I was a judge
at the pitch competition, and one of
the guys, he started his speech with.
Do you know Warren Buffet and
the amount of money that he has?
Also, did you know that
he is 93 years old?
Would you exchange his money to your life?
Like, no,
Raphaël: yep,
Adilya: no,
Raphaël: yeah, yeah,
Adilya: but you keep your money.
I'm good.
So time is the most important,
value that we have I believe?
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: Yeah.
Raphaël: I agree.
Adilya: we can't save it
Raphaël: Yep.
Adilya: Yeah, that's how I feel about it.
Like I technically saving other
people's lives in the area.
Raphaël: That makes a lot of sense to me.
I like that way of thinking.
It's funny, like, when you were asking
about the camera I feel like one of
the things that comes, the, the actual
issue, Is the time wasted, right?
Like I was thinking about, you
know, I have to fiddle like with my
other camera and I have to use this
software that always like breaks down
or doesn't work properly and it gets
fiddly and then I'm just wasting time.
I've lost an hour trying to like, and
yeah, those, it's weird how sometimes
those efficiency gains tend to be like
framed in a very sort of, you know,
financial terms or in productivity terms.
But when it comes down to it, like
it's a human who's gaining that
time it's a person who can, yeah.
Like go play with their kids or yeah.
Adilya: Yeah and people will say that
the product will fly if it saves the
time or, and saves the money and,
or the risk stuff three components,
better if
all three, but it's super
Raphaël: rare
yeah is it your first time
building stuff in tech?
Yeah.
Adilya: Yeah.
I was talking to my husband, he
calls me over optimistic person.
Raphaël: Yeah,
Adilya: Because to start from this
complicated tech product, you can be
over ambitious or truly believe in the
outcome, was the case, is still the case.
But I truly enjoy building a tech company.
I can see that I can make a difference.
I can see.
That flame in other people's eyes
when they hear what I do and that
they can join me to do the same.
Because right now there is a
whole generation of Gen Z's
who care about the planet.
They're ready for climate action.
It's really hard to be
sustainable on your own.
It's a lot easier when
you can join the movement.
Like my favorite example, would
you recycle if that wouldn't
been picked up from a curbside?
Raphaël: yeah,
Adilya: You don't have to answer this
question, but sometimes it's like
easier to put it in the trash rather to
collect the recycle and then to spend
your time to drive somewhere to the
dump and to bring your recyclables.
Some people will do that still but
it's the volumes.
When it is picked up
biweekly from your curbside.
I mean, I can do that.
I can handle this.
I'm a mom of three.
I run the startup.
I still can do this because it's easy
for me and same for the clothing.
Raphaël: huh.
Adilya: If it's easy for you,
you might opt it in and do
that.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: Yeah.
Raphaël: that makes, yeah,
that makes sense to me.
I'm curious.
When you first decided, okay, I'm going
to actually go in and build this platform,
and I'm going to build a tech product.
What was the most surprising thing?
What was the thing that you're like,
oh this is something I have to do now
if I'm going to build a tech platform.
Adilya: Um, that was never the
question, but I remember how I started.
I think the most difficult thing
was to file the incorporation.
Raphaël: Okay.
Yeah.
Adilya: It took me 30 minutes.
30 minutes to fill out the
form and to get the documents,
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: get the papers done.
And it took me, I was really
nervous when I opened that
website to fill out everything.
I mean, I swear that
was the hardest thing.
Yeah.
Raphaël: Yep.
Adilya: And I also wanted to add something
about the Gen Zs, how truly care they are.
They recently finished schools,
they're late teens, early twenties,
and they've been taught at school
to now care about the planet.
And I can see that also in my son,
even though he's younger, he's 10.
Let's say we take a hike, take a trail.
And if he can see garbage on
the trail, he will pick it up.
Like for me, that's yuki.
I mean, like, if I'm not wearing gloves,
I would just, maybe not the best of me,
but I will walk by, but he doesn't care.
He will pick it up and
put it, in the trash can.
I'm very proud of him because
like, and this is amazing.
And I love it that it
is taught at schools.
So I believe in the future.
Like we have a bright future.
Raphaël: Yeah, I agree.
I feel like you can sort of feel
the shift in thinking and it is
really encouraging and I feel like
I still have moments sometimes where
I'm like, oh what are we doing?
But then you see like this shift
and it feels like, okay, no,
like we can get through this.
Yeah.
Adilya: Yeah.
A hundred percent.
Raphaël: Yeah um how old is your eldest?
Adilya: My odyssey is 10.
I have three, have five,
seven and 10 year old boys.
Raphaël: All right.
Cool.
Um,
Adilya: So I'm also a, otherwise like
I'm founder and CEO of a startup.
I'm also a hockey mom, a soccer mom,
like a driver, a cooker, a psychologist.
Raphaël: Yeah.
So you need those extra
hours that you get back using
StarLuv
Adilya: Oh yes.
A hundred percent.
And yeah, I'll take it.
I'll take any minute I will have.
And kids are growing.
My oldest one, he doesn't want to spend
as much time as he wanted earlier.
So, right.
My middle son, who is seven, if I
want to give him a hug in public,
he'll like hold on mom, at home.
It's like,
Raphaël: That's, that's so
funny.
Adilya: still can't hug you outside.
So this is, I wanna spend as much time as
possible to them because they're growing
and one day there will be last time.
Then when they crawl into my bed at
night because there was a nightmare, or
one day they'll like, leave my house.
I'm gonna cry here.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: But I would really,
I think the time that we have
is the, has the most value.
Raphaël: What's a single piece of advice
that you would give yourself if you had
to go back to when you started Starluv?
What's the, the main thing you would say?
Hey, keep track of this or, I don't know.
Adilya: would say don't listen
to anyone, trust your gut,
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: and go for it, be fearless,
because nobody knows that you're
in fear, not nobody, but nobody
thinks that you're in fear, and
life is too short not to do stuff.
And just start early because you
can fail early and start over again.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: You can learn faster
if you start doing stuff.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: Yeah because I remember
when I had thoughts about StarLuv 10
years ago, I thought I am too young.
Nobody will listen to me.
Raphaël: Okay.
Adilya: That was, I mean,
I was young I was 24,
Raphaël: hmm.
Adilya: but.
I would, if I started when I was 24, then
where would I be today?
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: and Yeah.
I would definitely start earlier.
Because some people think
they won't have any support.
This is not true.
There are lots of support.
There are ecosystems in like
every city, in every province.
There are lots of funds available.
There is a lot of different programs
available to get to learn you for free.
And other entrepreneurs for a little
bit down further down the road, they
are happy to provide you with coaching,
like with the business coaching, which
is very important and sometimes it's a
lot easier to ask a coach or a mentor
and to save you time and nerves,
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: not, not to overthink, just to
go talk out and sometimes the problem
looks big, but it's actually teeny tiny.
Raphaël: Yep.
That makes sense.
Actually with that, so you moved to
Newfoundland, how many years ago you said?
Six, years?
Adilya: Six, yes.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Um, how do you find the ecosystem there?
Is there anything that you think?
Um, or not just generally how do you
find the ecosystem, but are there things
that you think would have been difficult
to do if you were not in Newfoundland?
Like this particular community was
really helpful in serving a particular
need, or how does it compare to
other, like, being in louisiana.
Adilya: I would compare that not
to Louisiana, but to Toronto.
In Newfoundland, there is a
small community and people, they
are very kind at their hearts.
They are very supportive, not
only in business, but overall.
They always will come up
together to solve one problem.
And when it comes to the
business perspective.
I would call the ecosystem
young, and it's very diverse.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: This shows that, um,
the climate is very supportive.
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: I can feel like I'm
like fish in the ocean here.
Know that I can go and talk to more
experienced guys, or talk to the Genesys
Center And I'll get the feedback and
I'll get the support or they'll help
solve my problem or give some advice that
actually will help me to push through,
Raphaël: Awesome.
Adilya: even like counting
like those Montreal Startupfest
Raphaël: Yeah.
Adilya: I'm bootstrapping Starluv
and, I didn't have enough funds to
actually travel to the conferences.
Then I, Spoke about that and they said,
Hey, the department of IET, which is
innovation, energy, and technology,
they have that fund that they will give
you money for the conferences and the
travels and hotels, everything, if it
will help to your business to develop.
And that was exactly the case.
Yeah,
Raphaël: That's so cool.
I had no idea there
were programs like that.
That's yeah, that's awesome
Adilya: And moreover, there are some
programs to support women entrepreneurs.
There is a Leveling It Up program
and they are paying for my education.
Let's say I need to do the marketing.
And as a founder and CEO, I
want to know the basics in every
Raphaël: mm hmm.
Adilya: I don't just hire a person
that who is smarter than me.
I want to know something as well.
So right now Leveling It Up is
paying for my education at the
university, so I learned the marketing
so later on, I can make right
decisions with the professional.
Raphaël: That's awesome.
That's
super cool.
Adilya: It is awesome.
And
Canada is the best.
Raphaël: I'm happy to hear that.
Nice cool.
Well, that's been 32 minutes already.
So I would like to ask you, since
this is the small tech podcast, do
you have a small tech product or
company that you'd like to plug?
Adilya: Actually, yes when we moved
to Newfoundland we have a beautiful
house, but unfortunately the bill for
that house, the electric bill during
the winter months was very high.
We paid maybe 500 for the heating
and I've heard that there are
some smart thermostats that can
reduce your bills reduce your
electricity usage and the bills.
So , their name is Misa.
I ordered five thermostats from them and
actually they saved me so I spent 500 on
the thermostats and I had my money back.
For that season, because they saved me 500
over the season, like the winter season,
that was really awesome, especially
to find out later when I received a
message from them, they wanted to do a
discovery, a customer discovery interview
to find out that they are located in St.
John's, like where I
Raphaël: That's so cool.
Adilya: Yeah.
And later I found out that they
were in the Genesys Incubator.
That is exactly where I am right now.
And I'm sitting in the
building with them right now.
So right now they're on the floor
four, I'm on the floor three.
So they're in the same building.
Raphaël: That's so cool.
Adilya: Yeah.
And to know that they were able to build
a hardware company within this ecosystem
and they are driving this ecosystem,
they are supporting other entrepreneurs
to thrive, this is so amazing.
Raphaël: That's
awesome.
Adilya: Check them out.
Raphaël: Yep.
Adilya: Yeah.
Raphaël: Sweet.
Yeah.
We'll put their we'll put their
link in the show notes, as long
as well as Starluv, obviously.
Um, but Yeah.
Adilya, this was really
fun chatting with you.
I loved learning about your journey.
I loved learning about all of
these things that you've that
you've shared with me today.
Yeah, it was really cool.
Adilya: pleasure to talk
to you and to share.
Raphaël: Awesome.
Thank you.
See ya.
Adilya: Thank you.
Bye.
Thronmax MDrill One Pro & USB Video-1:
Folks that was my interview
with Adilya Dragan.
Founder and CEO of StarLuv.
I had so much fun chatting with
her, it was really inspiring.
I love the way she thinks about
her impact, uh, the way she
conceives of her product and how
it supports the people who use it.
Uh, I really enjoyed learning about
how she thinks about technology.
It was just a really great conversation.
I hope you learned as
much from it as I did.
And you should go check out the website.
It is awesome.
It is.
starluv.ca S T A R L U V dot CA.
Maybe you'll find your
next awesome garment there.
there's a lot of cool stuff.
We will also put the
link in the show notes.
So it's nice and easy to get to.
If you enjoyed the podcast and
you are not yet subscribed, please
head over to smalltechpodcast.com.
Go find links to all of your
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Everything is there.
So if you want to subscribe and support
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We're a small team every little bit helps.
If you can leave a review,
that would be awesome as well.
We'd love to hear your feedback.
We'd also love to have you on the podcast.
If you are building something in the tech
space, if you're having a positive impact
on the world, we want to interview you.
Well, I want to interview you.
So, shoot me a message all
of the details are available
smalltechpodcast.com.
And if you are building some tech
and you need some support, if you are
launching something and you've never
built any tech before, and you just kind
of want some advice, shoot me a message.
Or head over to goec.io.
We'll be more than happy to help you out
or collaborate with you on something.
In the meantime, we all want
to do good in the world.
So go out there and build something.
Good folks.
I will see you in the next one.
See ya.