Alongside our amazing students, Sage Corps’ programming is powered by game-changing startups — high-impact entrepreneurs tackling real problems and building real solutions. They host our students and help them through their career development. For our fourth Startup Spotlight, we interviewed Pour My Beer’s Senior Marketing Manager, Tana Rulkova.
Q. Please tell me a little bit about yourself!
I was born and raised in the Czech Republic but lived in the U.S. for the past ten years. I focused on becoming a digital marketing ninja while studying at Bellevue College. While in college, I worked as a bartender, event manager, and even quality assurance tester at Microsoft. I am now the Senior Marketing Manager for PourMyBeer. I have gained a lot of knowledge and experience from working in a startup.
Q. What does success look like for your company?
We want to help our customers succeed – increase their beverage sales and increase their customers’ loyalty. Our beverage wall is such a fun and unique experience, so we hope it makes people want to come back to our customers’ establishments.
Q. What are some hardships that you’ve faced? How did you overcome them?
Due to the pandemic, we had to tweak our messaging. Since the hospitality industry was affected immensely by COVID-19, we had to identify the pain points of our customers and market our product in a different way. We highlighted the fact that our self-pour technology can eliminate the staffing challenges and business inefficiencies. We also presented multiple reasons why our self-pour beverage walls will be a good addition to our customer’s establishment.
Q. What motivates you everyday?
Knowing that we have an awesome product that truly helps operators to boost their sales and simplify operations while keeping the cost low.
Q. Can you share how your experience with Sage Corps has been so far?
It’s been excellent so far. We have had several interns from Sage Corps and I have had a great experience with every single one of them.
Q. What qualities do you look for in your interns?
We want someone who is independent, is not afraid to speak up, and is eager to learn. We want our interns to bring in new ideas and suggest ways to improve our product.
Q. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned during your professional journey?
Focus on the key areas that are really making a difference for your marketing efforts rather than trying to do it all but just partially. Also, never stop testing new things; you never know what can be your next big thing.
