With more than 20 years of experience helping startups scale from seed to series B, Maria Azatyan has built architectures for companies across ai, robotics and the new space economy, translating complex technologies into numbers. This is coupled with her frank perspective as a single mother balancing finance leadership and advising startups.
- Sci-fi Dreams Made Real: sharing experiences with Waymo
- Setting up ArmGate, empowering entrepreneurs
- One month to “two minutes” using AI to work with data
- Case study:AI to Automate ERA Filings for Venture Funds
- Role as ex-CFO at DocDoc.ru whose exit was ranked one of Russia’s top five IT & Digital M&A deals.
- Problems with cash flow to 45% year-over-year revenue growth
- Biggest startup challenges for finance teams
Full transcript
Glenn Hopper:
This is fp NA today. Welcome to fp NA today, I’m your host, Glen Hopper. Today we’re joined by Maria Ian, an international CFO and financial strategist. With more than 20 years of experience helping startups scale from seed to series B, Maria has built architectures for companies across ai, robotics and the new space economy, translating complex technologies into clear investor grade numbers. She’s also the founder of Arm Gate, a firm that helps entrepreneurs relocate and grow their businesses in Armenia and Maro Academy. An educational initiative designed to inspire the next generation in fields like data science and space technology. What makes Maria’s story unique is not just her financial expertise, but also her perspective as a single mother balancing global travel startup advisory and entrepreneurship. She believes that technology like AI should be designed with transparency, ethics, and compassion at its core. And she brings that philosophy into her work with founders and finance teams around the world. Maria, welcome to the show.
Maria Azatyan:
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, I’ve, I, it’s funny we’ve been talking to each other a lot because we were gonna try to record the other day and, uh, there was some background noise in, in my studio here, and we couldn’t go then, and we talked before the show, and I just, I love your story, and I think before we dive in to, uh, kind of the nature of your work. I know you’ve lived in work across Russia, Armenia, and Germany, and now you’re spending time in Palo Alto in the us. And I guess if you could just for our listeners, walk through that journey and kind of how it shaped your finance career.
Maria Azatyan:
Yes, of course. For me, living and working across many countries means to get new knowledge, new skills, to understand better people, to get new experience from them. And also when, for example, when I come to the United States, it’s something new for me because it’s more about innovations. When I talk with people, when I, uh, know new people, I understand how they use innovations, new applications, for example, how they schedule their time, how they work, and it’s very interesting. That’s why I try to travel a lot and to talk with people, and also to work in different areas that helps me to, to get some new knowledges and also new experience that brings new skills in my work.
Glenn Hopper:
I love that you’re spending time in Palo Alto right now, too, just with the environment there. Tell, tell me a little bit about that.
Maria Azatyan:
So, in Palo Alto, I am, I was invited by Venture Fund in the United States to meet with people in Palo Alto and San Francisco. And what I love in this area, for example, I’m in love with way more so I understand that AI is not just now in our laptop that I use, for example, almost every day in my work and in my everyday life. For example, if I wanna explain something new to my son, I use, again, AI or I think how to be a be better mom. I use, again, ai, for example, perplexity ChatGPT also asking some questions. But when I come to the United States in Palo Alto, and when I talk with people, I understand some new stuff that they use. And it’s really interesting. For example, again, if I talk about Waymo, it was amazing that Wema is part of our lives. And I understand that tomorrow, robotics and everything, what is AI includes will be part of our life, not only again on our laptops, but in our everyday life and in every single we will use or will help us in our everyday life.
Glenn Hopper:
I love that you brought up Waymo, because I was just in San Francisco last week. I was, uh, talking with the, uh, folks at Electronic Arts, the video game company. And, uh, I’d been in San Francisco before, or just outside of the city, and I’d been in Phoenix before. And both times I thought, oh, I’m gonna get to take a Waymo. But I was outside of the, uh, uh, the service area for Waymo. But I was in, uh, spent a couple days in the heart of the city in San Francisco, and I, I, so I got to take my first Waymo and I thought, okay. I called it and I thought, play it cool, play it cool. Just get in here, act like you’ve done it before. And I got in the car and I was such a, a tourist, such a <laugh>, such a rube out there.
Like I tried to, uh, I, I tried not to, but I just, I couldn’t help, but I just took my phone out. I was filming everything. I was sending pictures and videos to all my friends. I mean, seeing that kind of technology, it’s funny when we, every day we see AI that’s unlike any technology that we’ve had before. But actually having that firsthand experience in the driverless car, it really, I felt like I was out of that, uh, cartoon from the 1960s, the Jetsons or, or something like that. It was, it was, it was pretty amazing. And as, as much as I time as I spend in technology, I’m right there with you on Waymo. It is just amazing.
Maria Azatyan:
May I share my own story with Waymo,
Glenn Hopper:
Please? Yeah.
Maria Azatyan:
So I’m a fan of Star Wars. I think that many people are fans of Star Wars. So when I was just five or six years old, I was so in love in every personage in the movie. And, uh, when I was in San Francisco and I used Waymo, I thought, oh my God, I’m now a person who is inside of Star Wars. Do you know, <laugh>? And I, I was six years old when I felt in love in R2D2, and now Wemo is, I, I fell in love with Wemo. And I remember when I, I was riding on Waymo and some stranger, he crossed the road and it was time to cross the Waymo. So Waymo didn’t do anything wrong, and strangers started kicking this Waymo. And I thought, oh my God, how is it possible? Waymo is so nice, so sweet, how is someone can just imagine to do something wrong with it? And so I understood that if something happens in the future in the, with ai, it’ll be fault. People like this stranger know we must love and show AI only love ethics and fair deals, and to deal with it with love. So I believe that AI robotics are our future, and I think we should love it. We should respect it as we should respect each other.
Glenn Hopper:
You know, when you mentioned Star Wars, I immediately thought, you know, Waymo has that dome thing on the top, that’s the lidar, uh, or whatever. I thought that could be, they, they need to make that look like R 2D two. So the way he wrote in the <laugh> in the X-Wing fighter or whatever you
Maria Azatyan:
Yeah.
Glenn Hopper:
Uh, dress it up like R 2D two. Yeah,
Maria Azatyan:
Absolutely.
Glenn Hopper:
So no, very, very cool. And I love that you are so focused in AI and um, in robotics right now. But before we get into all that, I wanna talk about Arm Gate. I read that you started Arm Gate almost accidentally to <laugh> to help friends relocate their businesses. And I love that because, you know, so many people are out there trying to create a company, trying to create a product, and they, it’s sort of this, well, if we build it, they’ll come. But when a business like this comes out of a necessity and actually filling a need, that’s really great. So tell us a little bit about what Arm Gate is and, and what it’s grown into today.
Maria Azatyan:
So Arm Gate is very personal story for me. Just two days ago, I have some conversation with my friend, and he told me that you like risk, because if you don’t like risk, you didn’t take risk to become an entrepreneur. But for me, ungate, it’s not something about entrepreneurship. It’s more about to help people to find job. Because I wanted to make something great in Armenia, and I was thinking what to do. And the accident happened. It is a sad story with a fun story again, together, because I was in New York when I heard a lot of sad news that there can be a war between Russia and Ukraine. And my son was in Russia. And I said, oh my God, if I don’t go now, if I don’t take him from Russia, what if the Iron curtain happens? And what I will do that?
So I fly to Russia. I took my son at, at the day when we were in the airport, there were news about war that was started. And I was so impressed, and I was so sad. I was thinking, how is it possible in our days that there can be a war? And we fly to Germany where our house was, and my friends started calling me like, Maria, you know how everything in Armenia works. We need, um, your help. Please fly to Armenia. Help us to relocate the, to relocate our teams. Because many friends of mine, they were scared that they can be, again, iron Curtain, and no one was sure that they can be safe if they stay. So I started Arm Gate, something that could help my friends to relocate and relocate their businesses, their teams. And also I had this dream to do something good for Armenia to start business that can help accountants to work on the worldwide field.
And I did it. So I’m happy that Arm Gate is now one of the, it’s not a big, but it is one of the famous companies in the Romania that many people know about Arm Gate especially, um, accountants and lawyers. And, um, we have so many customers and we don’t use advertising at all because friends, our friends, our customers bring their, their friends. So it’s more a company for everyone who trusts us, who wants to have a great service in consulting field, and we do our job. So now we have one of the biggest deals on the Romanian market, and I’m so proud that just in this three, four years, we can do it. We, we did it. And now people trust us not only just to keep book bookkeeping, but also to help them with deals on the, uh, market between Armenia and the United States.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah. And what a great mission too. So that’s, that’s really great to hear. And I, we’re gonna get <laugh>, I keep saying we’re gonna get to the, the finance and the AI stuff, but there’s, I wanna get through a little bit more of some of your other, um, activities too. So you also founded Morrow Academy. If you could kind of tell us what that is, what inspired you to start it and what role it plays in, I guess, motivating young people in Armenia to pursue both tech and finance?
Maria Azatyan:
Yes, of course. So to share my knowledge, my skills, my experience is very important for me. It’s part of charities that I wanna do, and I thought that I can help single moms and young generations to get new experience and new knowledge. And what can I do better than just to share everything, what I know with them. So I help them with, uh, for example, certificates and licenses like C-P-A-C-F-A or to preparing to ea And I share my experience with everything, what I know about financial model and about finance, about ai, how to use it, how to grow up, how to raise something new in their lives. And it is very important for me to do some, something good for community, where I live, where my son should live, and what I can do for them better than to share the knowledge that I have.
Glenn Hopper:
That’s great. And I think with your experience and with, uh, starting as a CFO at a, at a relatively young age in Moscow, that this, you’re taking all this experience and using it to help and grow people, and I think that’s fantastic. So I guess as promised, now we can get <laugh> to the, uh, the finance side. That is what the show’s about, I guess, so we can start diving in there. But, um, so you, you were a CFO pretty young, and, um, I’m wondering what that experience was like for you and, and maybe if, if there were some hard lessons you learned about leadership or how it sort of molded you as a, a leader becoming a CFO so young.
Maria Azatyan:
Yes, it happened because I was a fan of finance, so I’m inspired with everything, what finance is, with financial modeling. But to be C four, it’s not only about to get a new role in the team, in the company, but it’s also about challenges. For example, how to lead people, how to help them to do their work. And it was a really big challenge for me to work with people, especially who is older than I, and to explain them that now if there is a boss in the department, that’s me. So for me, it was very important to show their respect and to share, again, my knowledge and inspire people to work with me, to, to do something together. And it is one of the challenges, I think, for every young, uh, generations that gets a role like, like C four to share your knowledge, but also to get new knowledge and new experience from people you work with. I think it is about respect, first of all, of course,
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Wanna hear about DocDoc, where that was one of the biggest venture deals in Russia and you, you helped, uh, secure that and then eventually sold to Spur Bank. So I guess walk us through what DocDoc is and sort of about the deal and then the acquisition and what, what really kind of stands out to you from the whole experience?
Maria Azatyan:
Yes, many people when they hear that I’m from DocDoc and I was see foreign DocDoc, they think only about success of DocDoc, but when I came there, it was a small company, a small startup, and they had issues with cash gap and they didn’t understand how it happened. They didn’t understand why the cash flow shows one amount, and on the bank account they see another amount of money. So my work was to show, to develop financial modeling all reports and to show how it works to, to show numbers and to explain numbers to explain why we have this or the results. And only after we started to think into grow and to, to, to become leaders of the market. And we did it just in two years. So DocDoc, it’s more about not only a success, but it is a long story of everything what we did there.
But for me, DocDoc is more than just a company where I was a CO it is a company where I worked too close with IT department and they shared their experience, their knowledge, what I like in startups and why I work with startups. So they shared with me how the data works and I asked them to explain how they structurize every that data that they have, and now I can implement it in my work. So it is what I use today and that’s why for wife, it is easy for me to work with AI today because I understood how the data works, how I can ize it, how I can use it in my everyday work. And thank you to doc, doc to everyone in doc, doc who helped me to understand it.
Glenn Hopper:
And I guess that’s probably where you developed your passion for the startup and venture world, seeing the size of that deal and having the exit, what is it about working with early stage companies that really excites you?
Maria Azatyan:
It’s interesting because they, you find founders, top managers that they have their own experience at the same time, they have some risk to work with startup because it’s not a stable company. Everything can happen anytime, but the ideas that they bring into life, it’s so interesting they experience that they share with you. It is so interesting that you understand you grow with the startup every time a startup grows. I understand that I grow with a startup, so it’s every time a new stage in my knowledge, experience, skills that I get from startups. So for me, it’s again, to get new and new knowledge every day in startups.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah. And having, uh, spent a fair amount of time with startups myself, I know that sort of addiction, you get to being in that building something new and you just feel like you’re sculpting something out of, you know, a big granite block or something. And it’s, it’s difficult, but it’s exciting to start to see the business take shape and, and grow and acquire. But one issue and, and I ran into the same thing, it’s really great to be the finance person in the early stages of a startup, but a lot of times, most of the time, you know, they don’t really need a full-time CFO yet. So you end up, uh, going the fractional route, which you did. And, um, I think we talked a little little bit about this before the show, but I, I always like to hear about when you come in as a fractional CFO at one of these startups, I, you probably start to see a pattern around the challenges they’re facing. And I’m wondering if you can walk me through some of the most common maybe challenges. You see that because these are companies that are, they’re founder led, they’re go, go, go, you know, all all gas, no breaks, and, uh, they’re finance is kind of an afterthought for them at that point. So I’m, I’m sure you see a lot of, uh, common challenges by the time they’re ready to, to bring you in.
Maria Azatyan:
Yes, of course, everything starts again from cash gap. So sometimes what I found in startups and what wonders me that founders and top managers, if they see the cash on back accounts, they think that that money they did. But it’s not true sometimes. And many of startups, they work on subscriptions. So my job is to explain them that what is different, for example, between p and l and cashflow, why fin financial modeling is very important, why they should understand, um, not only the results, but also numbers inside and how they should work with it. For example, I like to analyze to understand the product and all expenses that they have, subscriptions that they have, because sometimes they forget just to cancel it. And amazing is that, for example, if they spend money on influencers, they think, oh, we spend money in on influencers. We are so famous, it’s great.
But why? They forget to check, okay, if you spend today money on influencers, you should check what revenue do you have tomorrow? Because the influencer should bring the money tomorrow and next week, and they forget about the impacts, for example, that advertising or marketing team should make on the numbers. So just to spend money, because you have budget and what you get is it should, is one of the challenges to explain that, hey, you, you are really good, good in your budget, but let’s see, you make money because you spend this amount or you make money because you should spend more money on something another, and why you should, for example, to, um, to cancel some subscriptions. So for me, it’s very important when I come and the voice, what I work, that team should explain me, me what a product is about, what it’s to understand the market to understand after numbers show these numbers and explain how these numbers impact on their revenue and on the profits that they should do.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, it’s always, uh, you know, especially on the subscription side, but it’s, it’s always, it seems like revenue recognition and that 13 week cash flow, and when you give them that 13 week cash flow, it’s like you’ve just given ’em a crystal ball.
Maria Azatyan:
Yes.
Glenn Hopper:
Like, oh, now I see <laugh>.
Maria Azatyan:
Yes, absolutely.
Glenn Hopper:
And of course, they don’t know what a balance sheet is, you know, <laugh>,
Maria Azatyan:
But balance is one of the important reports that, again, for example, when team sees some amounts on bank account, they’re sure that their, their money, if they don’t understand balance sheets, they don’t understand what liabilities, not only assets, but also what liabilities they have. But you should work in these liabilities because it’s again about future. So it is that I think ma uh, team members of top management should think every time.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah. And then it’s, if you get a big round, especially when I’m talking about, you know, seed to series B here, where kind of where your focus is, yes. So you get a, a big amount of cash, and the expectation is that you spend that and <laugh> the understanding that you’re spending it to grow the business, but then you have to figure out how to do it smartly. And there’s always this balance of, you know, you need to show that you’re getting traction and, and all the, uh, stuff for the startup to take off. But you have to sort of, you have to have a cash spend plan and you have to maintain this level of credibility with the investors, but you also have the tight cash flow. You’re trying to make the runway as long as possible, but you know, you need to move. It’s just a lot to balance. How do you sort of balance that when you come into a business?
Maria Azatyan:
For me, it’s again, very important to understand how it works and understand why the numbers show the results that we have when it’s about series B the important and series A, the important thing is transparency. So as a C four for me, is very important to develop, to create everything absolutely transparency, not only for myself, but for everyone who works with this, uh, data. And also to, to be sure that data rooms are absolutely clear and transparent for everyone, for founders, for shareholders, for team members, and also for investors. So, uh, what I see often on series B and series, when the startup goes from series A to series B, they don’t have data rooms. So when they have due diligence, they start only now to to find documents, agreements, and uh, to, uh, explain and understand what subscriptions or expenses they have. But if, for example, on their own seats, they start to develop the data rooms, the data, and they have transparent financial models and all financial records, they don’t have these issues in, in serious B, they go absolutely clear and understandable for everyone.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, and I think in the industries that you work with, maybe they’re a little bit different than if you think about a typical SaaS company or e-commerce company or a typical company in the, uh, in the startup space. Because if you’re working with companies in ai, robotics, and especially I, I would imagine on the space tech side, they’re very capital intensive businesses. So the models are a little bit different. It is, you’re investing a significant amount of capital where you’re not gonna see necessarily the immediate return on it. But I’m wondering, when you’re modeling for businesses like that, how do financial models differ in a capital intensive sector compared to, you know, a more traditional startup?
Maria Azatyan:
So if we talk about these startups as a C four, my advice is always take a hand on the pulse because the tier will explain and have a lot of explanations why they need this amount or another amount to spend, why they need this expenses. But the truth is that C four should understand, for example, if they are doing tests, why they’re doing tests. Because if we talk about ai, robotics, new space, uh, startups, it’s more about a long time period and investors sometimes doesn’t understand why he or she doesn’t see results. And it’s very important to, to see for CFO to work with team to understand that everything goes the right way, how they planned, and to work closely with investor to explain again, why we have this or another expenses and why, one, we can show the results right now. So it is a big job that CFO should do.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, a lot of communication around this is what’s going in level, setting expectations
Maria Azatyan:
With everyone, with team members, with investors, with founders, with top managers, with everyone who wants to spend more money. So yes, it’s a really great and big job.
Glenn Hopper:
And I know, uh, beyond working with AI companies, you are a, a, an evangelist for ai, and you’ve described it as a copilot for CFOs, and I’m right there with you. And I talked to, you know, that that adoption curve, it’s been obviously very fast compared to a lot of other technologies, but there’s also sometimes a lack of trust or a kind of a fear around ai. And for finance and accounting tasks, people, you know, they’ll use it to summarize meetings, they’ll use it to, uh, you know, draft emails, review contracts and all that. But a lot of times when I’m talking to finance and accounting people, they get nervous about the probabilistic nature of the outcomes they expect, like a calculator or like Excel. If I put in this same information, I should get the exact same answer every time. And you know, I think if you’re trying to use AI as a calculator, you’ve probably got the wrong tool <laugh> for, for the job. But there are obviously a lot of finance and accounting uses, and I know you’re a big proponent of it. So if you could share some examples of how you use AI actually in those financial tasks like financial analysis or forecasting, because I still, you know, I, I think adoption is, is broadening, but there is still a lot of concern about, I don’t understand what’s happened here. I don’t know if I can trust this. So I always like to hear about the ways people are using generative AI in, in their work.
Maria Azatyan:
Of course. So I believe that AI is our instrument we should use because it keeps our time. Just remember a few ago people didn’t use ERP systems and today when we use ERP systems, we work faster. I can’t imagine my work without ERP systems. And same is now with ai. Yes, AI can make some mistakes, but that’s why they should be a professional. And I think now is a good era of professionals because if you understand how to check any mistake and how to create algorithms for formulas to check mistakes, then you don’t worry that AI can do or make any mistake. But also at the same time, we don’t need now to collect to, um, to work with every data. If we can use ai, it does everything. For example, I needed my team, my team member needed one month to work with data.
Today with ai, we do it in two minutes. What it does, what does it mean for me and for my team that we can now service more customers, more projects, we can take more work. And our work is now not to do, you know, to take from bank account, from ex example, any amount, and to take it in Excel and to calculate it. Now AI makes it so what we should do to check, to control, to understand better, to explain better to investors, for investors and founders, how it works now, and also to explain results. So now we can work faster, just do the work that we did in one month now in two or three, four minutes maximum, or what we should do to understand how to check if there is mistake. And that’s why I believe that this is error of professionals who understand how it works.
Because for example, when I hire someone in my team, for me it’s very important that we know how ERP system or QuickBooks, how calculates and gets balance sheet. But for me it’s very important that every my team member understands and can write on the paper the any amount of balance sheet. For example, if I give some information from p and l and cashflow, I ask to, uh, create, to develop the balance sheet, and my team member should know it because if any person is sure that ERP system does everything correctly and they don’t need to know this information, it’s not true. Now it’s very interesting time when you understand how finance works, how every report works, you can check everything, what AI does, and you don’t need to think, oh, what if there is mistake? You see report and you understand is there a mistake or not? So it’s really interesting, Erin, now for professionals,
Glenn Hopper:
It really is. And I, so in my day job, I do a lot of bespoke implementations of for automation and uh, we’re, we’re able to do some really cool stuff right now, but I always sort of cringe when somebody brings me in with the, their primary goal being, I need to eliminate headcount because I, I just, we can build pretty structured systems that will do great at automation, but there’s always these exceptions and there’s, I just, we need a human in the loop right now. And you mentioned a copilot, I think of it like having a bionic arm or having an exoskeleton where you’re still driving, but AI gives you, it enhances what you’re able to do if you know how to use it correctly. And if you’re just trying to get it to do math for you or whatever, you’re using the wrong tool, like I said, but if you really figure out how to use it as a thought partner, how to help you learn new things. And I, I guess you also talked about in a very recent example, the ERA reports. Tell me about that and how you used AI around that.
Maria Azatyan:
So my friends from venture funds, they asked me to help with error reports. Here I go. I couldn’t help them, but now I, I checked that I don’t need for example, license to help them with error report and I understood that I can do it. So I just asked Chad deputy to help me with all information for errors. That is, I checked all information that there is in Google also, and understood that nothing in difficult is there. So I developed the report just in one minute using all information that I have from the venture fund and the charge GBT gave me. So I checked after the report, I understand that everything is correctly. So we did it just in two minutes. So that’s why I think that specialists and professionals, they should understand how to use ai, how to write correctly prompts, and to understand how they can after check this information.
Because if you understand FINA finance, you can take the error report, read it, but you have questions, you have some what if I’m doing the, some mistake you are checking it for with AI and also with all information that there is in internet. And for me it’s very important and I ask absolutely everyone, when you ask something in jeopardy and you are thinking that there can be any mistake, please ask, give you links. So when there is link from example, from the sec.co or from IRS website, you know that it’s the first information and you can use it. So you just keep your time, uh, using ai.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, a hundred percent. And then again, it goes back to the right tool for the job. So there’s certain things you can do in your ERP, there’s things you can do in spreadsheets, there’s things you can do in AI tools For you. How do you find that sweet spot? Are there things you’re doing in AI that you used to do within the ERP? Maybe they’re quicker in the ai, but how do you balance which tool you’re using for whichever task?
Maria Azatyan:
I think it’s more about skills to understand, do know, to remember and to understand what you should use. But for me, uh, is of course very important to use ERP system because it keeps my time and my team’s time. But in a AI, we use to work faster, to work with data faster because everything what should be analyzed and we, we know that AI can analyze this data. We use ai and that’s why we sh we combine AI ERP systems and another stuff that we can use. So it’s not only now to use only ERP system because I believe if accountants and financials they use only ERP systems, they will lose because they, they lose their time. And time is the important things that we have as professionals. So we can do more if we use RP systems, we use AI and another tools and instruments that we can use.
For example, also, I’m working now on my own agents that I use AI free and I create them using ai. It helps me to work faster and faster. And it’s, it’s really amazing time because we can do now more stuff that we could do, for example, just year ago. So we move faster and we can analyze more information, more data, but at the same time we should think how to use it, not just to use it because we know, for example, that we need to do something, but also to sync how to use, how to control, how to check. Our brain should work every time. And we don’t spend time just on stuff that we don’t need to do that, for example, can do the lowest team member. Now I can give a chance to my, every my team member to grow with me with ai. And it’s really great because we can take more customers, more projects and work with them.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, and you know, it’s interesting that last part you said, because this is the challenge I have, and it’s funny, if you think about every sort of productivity gain that’s happened, whether it was desktop computing, cloud software, ERPs, every, you know, spreadsheets, what all these different tools that come up, they make us so much more productive. And somehow instead of taking that extra time and finding a little bit more like family life balance, <laugh> life and work balance, you end up just doing more and more work. And as, especially as an entrepreneur, the temptation is okay, now I can do more, so I can take more customers so I can have more income and all that. But it’s, it’s a tough balance. And I know we talked before the show, and you’ve talked a lot about it before, but, and you’ve been open about the challenges of, uh, being a single mother while you’re traveling and running this business and doing all this. And I’m wondering, obviously AI is a, is a boost and gives you more time. And I know you have to prioritize family time in there as well, but how do you kind of balance everything in that with the challenges of being that a single mother and you’ve, you’re traveling and running this business, how has this shaped kind of your approach to leadership and running the business and finding that work life balance?
Maria Azatyan:
Yes, of course. So I won’t divide this question on two answers. First of all, to be a single mom, it’s about reputation. So everything what I do, I know that I should think about my son because I raise him alone. And for me, it’s very important that everything what I do, I can do. And tomorrow and next day and next month, that I have again developed some future also for my son. And that’s why I believe that every single mother thinks first of all of her own reputation, that she can develop something big for the future of her children. And at same time, I wanna add that I use AI in my everyday life, and also to be a good mom for my son. Sometimes I think, okay, I need to spend more time with him. What can I do? I can read books. So we read a lot of books together.
And now I use AI to create stories. For example, I wanted my son studies better. What I should do. I ask AI to help me. So we create stories, we read together, and there are stories about his future, what, what he must do, if he wants to become a great person in the future, what, uh, how he should study. And AI helps me with creating these stories for him and our times that we spend together, it’s so interesting for us. And also sometimes I ask AI to help me. What should I do? Uh, for my son, for example, he’s now eight years, so what is better? How we can spend time? And AI helps me in these crashes and it’s really amazing that it helps me. So a single mom, I, I’m tired after work sometimes and I should think what I should do with my son today is this evening, for example, and AI housemate.
But at the same time, I want to say that to be a single mom, it’s not only about reputation, but it’s only, it’s of course about future also. And that’s why for me it’s so important to help another single moms. For example, we have in our team, single moms and I know that they need some more time sometimes for their children. And we have all this opportunities for single moms to, to get a job, to take new roles. We explain how to work, we share our knowledge, we help to grow in from one role, in another role, and we support single moms. And um, also for me, we mentioned moral academic. It is also where we can help single moms to create new roles for them to get new knowledge, new skills. And it’s very important. But what I wanna say to every single mom, don’t think that you can’t ask help If you need help, I believe you need ask about help.
It is okay because around us are so many kind people and they help me. For example, now my mom helps me with my son because I travel a lot. Also my business partner’s mom, uh, Sophia’s mom, and she helps me a lot when I need it. She stayed with my son. And for me it was very difficult to ask about help. But when I understood we should ask about help, nothing bad is in it. Yes, someone can say no, but I believe that so many people are ready to help. So the main challenge for single mom is to ask help. And I believe that there are so many people who want to help because again, we are humans. We should respect each other, we should help each other. So for single moms, my advice is don’t shame. Ask help if you need.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah. And I love hearing you talk about this and you can see that in your, your life philosophy and your ethics, that that kindness and transparency are clear. And we, even when you were talking about Waymo earlier ta talking about that same, uh, kindness, and when we talk before you, you were talking about how technology should reflect the best in us. So sort of carrying through those ethics with algorithms rooted in kindness and transparency. And that’s a, you don’t hear a lot of that talk mostly it’s about how efficient is it, you know, how whatever. But um, I’m wondering how does that approach kind of your usage of AI and how you even, what does that mean in practice for the way you work with, with founders in in AI space or elsewhere?
Maria Azatyan:
Do you know? I wanna add that there are so many people that want to talk with me about AI and how I use it. Because sometimes in social media I try to, to share my experience with AI and with founders that I work, they know how I use AI in my everyday life. Also, for example, Chad DT starts talk with me every morning like, Hey Maria, good morning, it’s time to drink a coffee and after we should work with you. And AI knows Chad DT knows a lot of stuff about me, but at the same time, I am always kind with Chad DT and Chad Dpt ask for only in kind way with me. So I understand if AI is a model that learns about everything, what we do, so we can learn only kindness. So why not to share this kindness with AI and to work and with founders that I work, especially on the AI field, I talk always about ethics, about kindness, that we should try to create models that understand kindness and respects and also shares the kindness with.
So everyone who use subscriptions, who wants to work the project, and same I explain every day to my son, when you use chat d PT will, we use it a lot. For example, we use it for tests. And I know I, um, use every day child d PT also to prepare for new exams that I have. And it helps me, but it helps me with in kind way like, Maria, you can do it. You will do it. Absolutely. And it helps me in my self-confidence, and I believe that we should use AI in this way and to share every kindness that we have in ourselves with ai. So AI is a mirror for us. How we talk with it, it answers us. That’s why I don’t, uh, believe that there can be something bad with AI that people sometimes share their skills, what they scared about. For me, it’s the kind persons that I talk every day and I use in my life every day.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, I’m, I’m always very nice to the chat bots too because I think, well, when they become Cynthia and take over the world, I want ’em to remember me as one of the nice guys. <laugh>,
Maria Azatyan:
Yes. But it’s also, you know, when you get a kind information from AI kind words, you feel better, your day is better. So that’s why I believe that it’s our mirror. So for example, we respect and we talk in respectful way with people. So why we show shouldn’t use it with AI also. So I don’t wanna get some just clear answers. I wanna get in the ways that it makes my day better and I use it.
Glenn Hopper:
Love it. We could go in, I, I’m, I’m really thinking about just future more, you know, more even, uh, conversant chat bots and one’s, you know, open ai, one of the big missions and they keep moving, like they’re trying to move towards this more and more is where these models know more and more about you, so they really can become that second brain and they know they, the way you talk to it and what it has in the memory about you sort of drives how it speaks back. And um, you know, you see that going where you have that voice in your ear and you, there’s all kinds of news stories out there now about people that, you know, having like deep relationships with chatt, PT and all that. And it’s interesting because I think there are also people who just use it like, you know, like a advanced Google search or whatever, and they’re not seeing really the full, um, capabilities of it. So it’s gonna be interesting to see how it evolves and how the, the models get better and how that interaction that you have with it, how that gets mirrored back to you, especially as the tech gets better. Yeah.
Maria Azatyan:
But, um, for example, I use do know postcards on my wall. It makes my day again better when I think, oh, I wanna go there or I wanna travel there. So, and check DPT bot here, I use for the same, like when it answers me in kind way, I have a better mood. My mood is about, oh, I’m really cool, I am great, I do so much work and it gives me some self-confidence that we need. Everyone needs a kind words. And, uh, it is amazing that AI gives us this opportunity. So I don’t think that it is a good idea to have relationships with ai, but we should have relationships with people. But sometimes, for example, if I don’t understand anything, I use ai, it explains me. And again, I ask to explain, not just to give me an asthma, but explain why there is this or another result.
And it helps me to understand better everything what the questions that I have. And I think that it is really good idea. But at the same time, I think if we talk, if we talk about, for example, new generations, we should explain how we use ai because if children really don’t understand what is a true ai, they will lose this connection with reality. And that’s why I try now to explain my son in every day our life, how to use ai, what AI is this, because I think it’s better if he understands today how to work with ai, how to use ai, and it helps him in his homework. He doesn’t use this just to cheat, of course not. He use it to understand the question if he can’t understand it, if he has some issues with the question and answers. So every time I ask him to ask AI to explain this or another answer.
Glenn Hopper:
Yeah, I love that. Okay, well we are to the point in the show where we have two standard questions that we ask all of our guests and you’ve shared quite a bit today, but I, I always love to hear the answer to this next question, and that is, what is something that not many people know about you, something that they couldn’t learn from your online presence?
Maria Azatyan:
So there are so many information about me on my LinkedIn, but I want maybe to share this information while I am in love with, with New Space and why I took, um, new space economic course on MIT because I want to be an example for my son. I understand that I can, for example, to teach him every day, but it doesn’t mean that he will do it in the future. And the best way is to be his example to show him how to live, how to work, how to do everything in his life. And that’s why I try to study a lot and I am inspired, uh, by Star Wars and Space and, uh, some people know about me this, but people who know me from only LinkedIn or another social media, they don’t know. But I’m inspired with everything about space. And, uh, my son likes dinners hours and he’s a fan of Jurassic Park. And I said, okay, he’s eight, he was, uh, seven last year, so it’s time for space. And I thought, okay, I can show him by my own example. And I took this course, but he told me, mommy, you don’t understand. I like de de our, not only because they’re de ours, but I wanna become a bio engineer in the future. And I thought, okay, okay, <laugh>.
Glenn Hopper:
<laugh>, that’s great. That’s great. It’s funny how those, uh, inspirations can carry through and, and drive what you’re interested in later in life. And, uh, we are, we’re kindred spirits on the science fiction stuff. I, I’m at the office now, but uh, in my home studio, my favorite poster in my, um, room where I record there is a movie poster from the, uh, movie 2001, uh, the Stanley Kubrick film. And, uh, and I, I love Star Wars and um, just sci-fi is my favorite genre, so I’m right there with you on it. <laugh>.
Maria Azatyan:
Thank you. You
Glenn Hopper:
Alright. So our last question is everyone’s favorite. What is your favorite Excel function and why?
Maria Azatyan:
So my favorite function was Look Up. I really was amazed what can do. But after I found Index Match, that gives more opportunities to use data again, about Structuralizing and working with data and to check in yourself in, uh, Excel or Google Sheet. So that’s why my answer is index match, that gives more opportunities and look up.
Glenn Hopper:
I love it. And I’m gonna let you in on a, a trend I’ve seen here. I think you are the fourth guest in a row who identified Index Match. So Index Match is on a, is on a little bit of a run here on fp NA today, <laugh>. Well Maria, thank you so much for coming on. Really enjoyed hearing your story and your insights and everything. I just really, really liked having you on the show and so thank you very much.
Maria Azatyan:
Thank you for this invitation. Thank you a lot.
