A blogpost I wrote for work|i|o some time ago that will never be published there because of it’s length and style.
Hello World
I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Luca and I love to write.
Who the fuck are you and why should I even care?
In most cases I will be the first person to talk to about anything related to work|i|o. No matter if you want to know something about our past, if you are interested in a partnership, if you want to work for us, if you want an interview with Bruno, if you have any problem with the service or anything else. I am the one you can reach 18/7 and jumps up at night if you got something important that can’t wait until tomorrow (Please note that I am located in Europe at the moment which means there is a time difference of -9 hours (west coast) to -6 hours (east coast)). You still can reach the rest of the team but if you want a fast answer I am your best choice. If I am not able to help you instantly, I am connected to the rest of the team most of the time and know whom to forward the request to. Am I Bruno’s personal assistant? Sometimes. I like to have all information flow through me and know what is going on.
But that’s not all I do. The blog, the twitter account, facebook, google+, quora and what else will follow is managed by me. I won’t be the one who writes ALL the content as I think in many cases it’s better to have the affected person to talk for themselves. My job is to make sure that they do. I will nag Bruno to write about the bigger vision, ask the developers to explain how a new feature works or interview a customer on how they use the service.
The third field, besides handling communications and talking myself, will be the integration of communicative features into the services. I think about viral effects and how to mesh them into the product. How should we connect users to each other, where should we have social sharing integrated and how, which APIs are useful for us? Here I work closely together with Bruno who is responsible for the product itself and the company.
Lastly I keep an eye on stats. I am thinking about which metrics are useful for us and how to measure them. I am playing around with funnels and help to measure different landings pages. I pay attention to the growth of the different social media channels, sign ups, retention and how sharing features are used.
Why did you join work|i|o?
In summer 2010, after blogging that I have no clue what to do in the next years, I received a facebook message from a guy called Bruno Haid. He said he got something that could be interesting for me. Only three short sentences and he didn’t even care about proper punctuation. But he did mention «startup, rethinking work and international». I had some offers from marketing agencies but didn’t feel like working for the causes of other people who didn’t really respect me as though I would only cost them money. After asking some people if they knew Bruno and if he is one of the good ones, I replied that we could meet. Thanks Andreas for standing up for him.
It was a warm evening when we met at the restaurant ‘Immervoll’ in Vienna and he had some raspberries with him which he asked to be stored in the kitchens refrigerator. We than sat outside and talked mostly about me. I instantly liked him. I can’t really say why. He has an open, understanding, no-bullshit nature. He asked me stuff I would only tell my therapist and answered him without questioning it. After we both felt comfortable he told me about that idea of his. A startup that would change how we all work. Back then it was a loose vision. But I liked it.
He asked if I would like to join. I said that I didn’’t know how I could be of any use. My self esteem back than resembled that of a little gollum. He told me that I already added value by providing feedback on his idea and believed that I could play an important role. He recounted some stuff from his first startup and that he thought that they hadn’t done enough marketing and stuff in the beginning. Also he wanted someone with good knowledge about social media. We started the same way as my relationship. Let’s try it and see how it develops. Last summer I moved in with my girlfriend. It looks like work|i|o will go into the same direction.
What’s your background?
I am addicted to new things. Maybe it started with the constant change of my local focus of my life. I went to kindergarten in the village I grew up. While everybody else went to elementary school in the same village my parents thought the one in the next village was better as they had a strong Montessori influence. While all others beside me and my best friend went to the local school I went to a humanistic high school in the next major city. After that most of my classmates went to the local university while I went to the one in the federal capital of Austria. Last summer I moved another 800 kilometers to move in with my girlfriend and we think about moving into a bigger city.
I started blogging at 16. In the beginning about my personal life later about all the stuff I found interesting. Mostly internet related. I loved and still love to test new services and wrote about them on the blog. Over time I became one of the better known bloggers in Austria. After moving to Vienna I was part of an initiative to support Bloggers in Austria and we held some events and tried to generate awareness for blogs. At some point I set up and customized blogs for clients of an angency and wrote concepts how the clients could use social media. Then I became a speaker at some conferences and held talks about the topic at companies and the university. After some appearances on national television a friend of mine made me a shirt which said «Social Media Superstar» and we had a great laugh about it. Not everyone thought it was funny and I attracted some haters but they were quiet most of the time as I was well respected in the blogging community.
In 2009 some students occupied the University of Vienna and I was interested what was happening. So I went there and tweeted about it. I was disgusted by the loud music, the smoke and the drunken students. But over time and after hearing people explain their intentions and seeing that the party people were only one part of the occupation I sympathized with them. I set up a livestream which had over 500k views and built the first website. Later I held talks about it and wrote an article for a book on how other movements could learn from what we did there. The book is CC licensed and anyone can read the articles online for free or buy the book. It’s in German though.
I think I know a bit about how to use social media. I also have some insights in journalism as it was the topic I studied and got in touch with some professionals. From time to time I write articles for newspapers and magazines.
As part of the Viennese web scene I came in contact with some startups but can’t say that I really know how they work, what’s important and stuff like that. These are things I learnt over the last year and still do.
My biggest issue is English. I understand everything as long as there isn’t some crude dialect involved but I sometimes reach limits when I try to express myself. I know that I make some bad grammar mistakes and my vocabulary isn’t the best. A real problem if you want to be represent an international startup. But I keep trying. (You are welcome to correct me on any channel. I am thankful for that as it helps me to improve.)
Next steps
I am fascinated by most startups and learn new stuff every day. work|i|o is one of the best things in my life and I am thankful for the trust Bruno has in me.
Over the next weeks and months I want to provide you with more insights on what work|i|o is, how it works and how it will improve your life. We will also cover surrounding topics like smart sourcing and the future of work.
If you have any questions just write a comment, send a mail or head over to quora where we try to answer questions related to work|i|o.
I am most active on Twitter and Quora. If you understand German you can also take a look at my blog or Facebook.
Photo: Tony Gigov
