Every day, a 90-year-old nana opens Marco Polo and records a weather report. She's sitting outside. It's sunny, and that's just about the whole message. Some of her grandkids reply and some don't. It's not the point. Her family gets to see her face and know she's alive and well. Our guest this week is Vlada Bortnik, who co-founded Marco Polo. In Soviet Ukraine, Vlada was a leader in her classroom. She was a kid who stood up for the bullied new girl. Aged 11, she landed in Kansas, and the roles reversed: she was in a new country, with wild curly hair and a name nobody could pronounce. What hurt most wasn't the teasing. It was that this time, nobody stood up for her. Vlada set out to build the thing she didn't have: a place where people feel seen. On Marco Polo, you can't interrupt. You talk, they watch when they can, and both of you feel heard in a way even video calls can't manage. Vlada's fully remote employees say they feel closer to each other than when they sat in neighboring cubicles. And when Vlada's team matched total strangers into groups, they became friends. Some even planned vacations together or flew to each other's weddings. Meanwhile, at the Chamber, Aaron savors a last family weekend before dropping his son at college, complete with birthday cake for his 15-year-old dog. Charlotte paddleboards her slowest crossing ever to a dock rock concert. 00:00 Welcome and Weekend Recap 05:33 Seattle's Play Problem 12:26 Meet Vlada: Ukraine, Kansas, and Being Bullied 17:04 Engineering, Art, Building Things Together 21:03 Building Marco Polo 30:37 Founder Burnout and Separating Self from Company 40:33 --- The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection. Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship. Connect with Us www.chamberofconnection.org Vlada Bortnik, Co-Founder and CEO, Marco Polo Vlada was born in Ukraine and came to Kansas at age 11. She went from classroom leader to bullied new kid without an ally. It an experience that shaped everything she's built since. She double-majored in computer engineering and art at Northwestern. She was the first student her counselor had ever seen combine the two. Then she spent five years at Microsoft, where she met her husband Michał. Together they founded Joya Communications in 2012 and dug into happiness research. Then came Marco Polo, the video messaging app that helps millions of people feel close by letting them talk face to face without interruption. This year she launched Marco Polo Circles to help people make friends, not just keep them. Her rule for showing up, on the app and off: messy hair, we don't care. Learn more: www.marcopolo.me Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
