#036 : Dov Kaufmann @ Tolstoy

In this episode of Chill, we chat with the great Dov Kaufmann from Tolstoy. The Co-Founder and CEO of Tolstoy, Dov spent 7+ years as VP of Business Development at Yotpo before embarking on this new venture in 2020.

One of the coolest techs we’ve seen in quite a while, Tolstoy is “next level” when it comes to on-site engagement. Overdose’s Andrew Potkewitz and Dov discuss entrepreneurship, growth, engagement, video journeys, guided selling, and more...
Tolstoy
Video has been a popular play for marketers for a while, but now an even more powerful and persuasive option is becoming the hero: interactive video. Interactive video enables hyper-personalised face-to-face communication, without actually being in person.

A fresh, innovative start-up, Tolstoy, is leading the charge in this ‘next level’ engagement tech space by creating a sophisticated, yet simple and easy-to-use video builder.

The crux of the tech is the fusing of interactive and linear video to create video branching: viewers respond to the Tolstoy video message with clickable on-screen choices which take them on a customer journey based on their needs. The tailored messaging steers viewers to the right content for them.

Described as a chatbot on steroids, a Tolstoy not only grabs user attention, but guides, educates, and qualifies potential customers. It’s cost-effective, technically easy to deploy, and can be embedded in a business’s website, landing page, emails, or used in social media. It sends out a notification to you whenever someone engages with your video, so you can reach out immediately.

To top it all off, Tolstoy enables businesses to collect critical data they would miss with traditional video—providing truly comprehensive marketing intel.
Dov Kaufmann

Dov was employee number nine or ten at Yotpo when it was just getting off the ground. He started in support, then quickly moved into managing events, and then managing business development and starting up the partner team.

By nature of being a people-heavy organisation, Dov says Yotpo was difficult to scale up. “It becomes very, very difficult to manage at scale, and a lot of things, especially in a SaaS company, end up being very repetitive and you’re just having the same conversations with partners.”

The Tolstoy idea came from the pains Dov experienced at Yotpo. He had been thinking for years about whether there was a way to provide the benefit of face-to-face communication in a self-service asynchronous video platform.

Eventually, he made it happen—he jumped out of Yotpo, teamed up with his Tolstoy co-founder, and together, they built the platform to answer those pains. Yotpo became one of Tolstoy’s earliest customers.