Daryna Kulya

Projects and Things I have been up to 

Community events

Startup Drinks Windsor

After 8 months in Waterloo, Ontario I became a part of the startup world and learned a lot about entrepreneurship. Back in Windsor, Ontario where I was attending university I got inspired to connect tech with entrepreneurship and build a strong startup community. One of the events I attended in Waterloo was Startup Drinks Waterloo, a part of Startup Drinks Canada network of events for entrepreneurs.

Together with Yvonne Pilon from WETech Alliance we brought a very new, successful event to Windsor that put the city on Canada’s startup community map!

Check out details about our events here: Startup Drinks Windsor on EventBrite

Social Media Day Windsor-Essex

Popular social media source Mashable introduced Social Media Day as June 30th in 2010. After attending the celebration event in Waterloo I realized that it should be brought to Windsor as well. Conversation about social media and how it impacts local communities is happening everywhere around the world and it was really great to join the discussion and facilitate a gathering in Windsor.

Check out my blog post for more exciting details of the conversation held on June 30th in Windsor.

Startup adventures

Bite to Meet

Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and marketers – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them. At Startup Weekend Detroit in November of 2010 I became a part of a newly formed team.

Bite to Meet is a web-based platform for professionals to expand their social networks over a meal. Our team has got the 3rd prize at the competition and lots of valuable feedback from judges and attendees. I have contributed to the business development side of the project (problem identification, target market and revenue streams).

Check out our presentation here.

DitchThePillow

DitchThePillow is an early stage startup founded at VeloCity – Mobile, Media and Web incubator at the University of Waterloo by Daryna Kulya and Vivek Trehan.

Our web-based product provides a fully customizable phone-based notification platform. In recent years the smartphone market has grown significantly and we aim to smarten-up regular phones by adding this customizable notification ability.

Check out our presentation here as featured at Velocity 101 and StartupCamp Waterloo.

Research projects

Smartphone usage at the University of Windsor

The research problem that my group was addressing was identifying what influences consumer decision-making when it comes to purchasing a smartphone.

We distributed 157 surveys to University of Windsor students on campus and got the following results.

Top features influencing respondents’ decision making when purchasing a smartphone

According to smartphone users

1. Instant Messaging
2. E-mail
3. Hardware design and features
4. Monthly service cost
5. Manufacturer brand name

According to non-smartphone users

1. Monthly service cost
2. Manufacturer brand name
3. Cost of the device
4. Availability of applications
5. Instant messaging

Explaining results above is not so difficult – students who are smartphone users value design and features when non-smartphone users are rather price-sensitive.

Building the foundation for a successful career

Guide for students starting their university experience and those already on the career path helping them to build a strong foundation for the future. Written for Computer Science students, but should be helpful for a wider audience.

Take a look at the PDF version here.

SIFE Windsor

SIFE Windsor ( Students In Free Enterprise) is a dynamic group of motivated individuals who are determined to facilitate economic change in the community.

Presentation of SIFE Windsor at the 2009 National Competition in Toronto can be viewed here.

Information Management System

As one of the “oldest” members of SIFE Windsor I have seen a clear trend – as new people were joining and many founding members started graduating and leaving organization the knowledge gap and loss of information, contacts and ideas was inevitable. Felt like a new academic year meant starting things from scratch.

In December 2009 I made a presentation to the SIFE Windsor’s Executive team outlining the need for a formal information management and knowledge transfer system. We had a file sharing system at the time, but file sharing and knowledge transfer meant completely different things to me. The presentation went well, but I didn’t know how to actually implement the proposed solution.

The skills and knowledge I have acquired during my work term at Research In Motion as a Business Systems Developer in 2010 helped me turn my idea into reality.

Today SIFE Windsor’s Information Management System is based on the Oracle XE database with APEX interface and is available to 48 users and with 2 custom applications to suit members’ information needs.

Marketing and Communications

Executive Magazine

Interview with a Windsor entrepreneur: True Beauty at True Salon

Member Development

Self-evaluation form designed to see how members assess their involvement. Download

Marketing

Increasing awareness in the local community: Brochure

Recruitment

Introduction of SIFE Windsor to the student community : Join SIFE Windsor

SIFE Convention

Event to showcase entrepreneurial projects to the university community, organized for the first time in July 2009 at CAW Student Centre, University of Windsor. View poster here.

Other

Article for What’s On magazine after participation in the FLEX Program: A Year in America