Mari Joller: A global Estonian is taking over the world ‘snack by snack’
An exchange year in high school in the United States took Mari Joller, entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Snackable, on a rollercoaster that shows no sign of slowing down.
Initially, Mari had planned to study law in Tartu, but when she had to choose between re-taking her law exams and studying Chinese and other exciting things in the United States, it was not even a question.
Mari believes that people have a fairly accurate understanding of the United States today, because we see and hear of it in our everyday lives, on social media, and on the internet in general. Of course, we need to keep in mind that the US, like any other foreign country, has its own culture and customs, and no two countries are the same. The best way to understand these differences is to go there and experience it for yourself.
According to Mari, this applies to travelling or moving to and working in another country. For Estonian companies with their sights set on the United States, the experienced entrepreneur recommends visiting the country first to get an accurate overview of the culture, consumer behaviour and trends, and potential clientele. Mari stresses the importance of taking advantage of the local network. There are many Estonians living in the US, many of whom are entrepreneurs, investors, or active in similar fields. Meeting them is the best way to get detailed information on how business is done there. Jumping into the unknown, for example by opening a US office for your company from a distance, is extremely risky.
As mentioned, there is a sizeable community of Estonians in the United States. A large number of Estonian companies, such as Pipedrive, have already expanded there, and in general, the undisputed forte of Estonians in the tech sector has an extremely positive reputation there. According to Mari, people in the US think highly of Estonia and are interested in our remarkable achievements in technology, start-ups, and the digital world. The strong digital platform should therefore be used skilfully. According to Mari, there is also potential for Estonian applied arts and design. The American consumer is very interested in Nordic brands and Estonian companies have a good chance of succeeding there.
Almost everyone thinks they have too little time to do the things they want. The company of Mari called Snackable is working to solve this problem while also contributing to the image of Estonia as a technological flagship. The more the world goes digital, the more content is produced. This, in turn, increases the amount of information to navigate, making it harder to find useful information. Why waste time listening to a 45-minute podcast if we are only interested in five minutes of it? Using artificial intelligence, Snackable lets you extract just what you need from your audio and video content. It also helps users to find highlights in videos and allows them to share these highlights with others.
Mari has always been interested in technology, more specifically artificial intelligence, and improving the daily lives of people. One of her missions is to make the information and wisdom of the world accessible and understandable to the wider public. Her previous project, Scarlet, a smart secretary service, also aimed to simplify the everyday use of a smartphone.
The future of her current company, Snackable, seems to be bright. Currently only available in English, the service is constantly evolving thanks to customer feedback. Her teams in Tallinn and New York contribute to its development on a daily basis. The ambitious start-up is expanding, and Mari believes that every company and organisation will need Snackable in the near future.
You can find out more about Snackable and get in touch via their website https://www.snackable.ai/.
