Rethinking revenue for my startup serving immigrants and expats
I became an entrepreneur by accident. I’ve worked in journalism since I was 16, contributing multimedia pieces to major outlets like National Geographic and Forbes. I won a Fulbright grant to study at New York University. I planned to go back to Ukraine, but suddenly Russia invaded Crimea and parts of Ukraine, and people were being killed in my hometown.
During a summer internship in Miami I accidentally became pregnant. I had to figure out a way to stay in the United States with my future husband. I also wasn’t particularly employable because I did not have a work permit and there were very few media jobs in South Florida.
Starting a company was my only legal way to have an income.
While looking for an immigration lawyer, I came across many scammers and bad actors. I started a Facebook group where people could get quality immigration advice free from fellow immigrants and immigration lawyers. The group exploded; it currently has 42,000 members. After being approached by several advertisers, I developed a website, started a company and gathered a team.
Two years down the road, I have a green card, two kids and a team of 15, half volunteers and half paid. I rely on outsourcing lots of work to Ukraine and Russia because it is cheaper and helps me feel less guilty about not being there. Approaching payroll day, I lose sleep (though luckily I always make payroll). But my website, Rubic.us, reaches hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants a month. Last month we had 64,000 page views on the site, 169,000 people reached us through our Facebook page and 63,000 watched our videos. On special occasions like Donald Trump’s election, executive orders on immigration, or the approach of the Diversity Visa Lottery dates in the fall, we have more than a million.
Our editorial strategy focuses on providing “USA 101” information: how to deal with denials of tourist visas and immigration courts, get a Social Security number, write a good CV, establish credit history and understand health care. We provide constant access to various experts so our audience can ask their questions directly. We also publish inspiring stories, like those of immigrants who opened a thriving restaurant or relocated their vodka empire to the States. We talk about people who overcame great obstacles like being kidnapped by the Kremlin and afterwards being arrested by ICE while waiting for the asylum interview.
But the company’s revenue, from donations and native advertising, is not enough to pay myself a salary. So I entered the Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism Program at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism to make it happen.
In the first month of the program, thanks to the program’s amazing guests, journalists, entrepreneurs and professors, I realized it wasn’t just me. The whole industry is having a problem with diminishing advertising revenues. And everybody seems to be moving away from advertising and trying to increase other revenue sources, like events, memberships and providing services.
So I am exploring these types of revenue. Before the program, I thought my solution lay in venture capital or grants. I also was convinced that I had to expand to other markets quickly and start serving Latinx and Asian markets because they are larger and my model is applicable to any immigrant and expat community. Now I realize the cons of these ideas. Participating in the Entrepreneurial Journalism Program has made me remember the notion with which I started my business in the first place: to prove that journalism can be profitable if you address the needs of your community.
