Olga Kirillova
Co-founder, CEO & Chief Customer Development Officer
Olga is one of mettaStartup Studio's two co-founders. She spent 14 years at adidas and Wayfair before this. Her job today: figure out what our customers need, then make sure we build it. Trained in fine arts. Loves humans. Always asks the question behind the question.
I spent 14 years inside Fortune 500 companies.
I started at adidas Russia in 2006 as a personal assistant. Fourteen years later I was running product at adidas Originals and leading a team at Wayfair.
In between, I got to do a lot. Run €20 million in marketing budgets across 800 adidas stores. Plan brand events for 7,000 people. Manage a $50 million product catalog across 17 European countries.
Most of my reviews said "exceeds expectations." But all that "success" at the office didn't show up where it mattered. Carsten and I wanted a second child but couldn't get pregnant for two years because we were burned out and anxious. We got sick on every vacation, every Christmas.
So I quit. Spent my savings on coach training. Started over in work I could be present for.
Then Carsten and I started our own coaching business in 2020.
Pandemic. Two kids at home. No website. No email list. 400 Instagram followers. We grew to €6K/month in 15 months. Better than nothing, never quite stable.
That first year taught us something painful. Being a great expert isn't enough in entrepreneurship. What matters is how well you can market and sell what you know. We'd spent €40K on more certifications and random courses trying to become better coaches. We should have been investing in marketing and sales systems instead.
So we pivoted. Back to what we'd been doing at adidas and Wayfair for years: marketing and sales. We went deep into both. Then we started packaging what we learned into a venture for senior experts who'd left corporate. That became mettaCofounder. A second one came later for sales teams at growing tech companies. That's mettaScale.
At mettaStartup Studio I run customer development.
Across both ventures. Same work I did at adidas: find out what people need, build it, refine it. Just for two kinds of buyers now, with AI doing the heavy lifting on outreach.
In every conversation I lean on 200+ founder interviews, a nose for when someone's lying to themselves, and the ability to say something hard, kindly.
"The shortest path is asking the question behind the question."
Most founders say what they think they're supposed to say. My job is helping them say what's true. That's where everything starts.
"During the course of the program I started my yoga teacher business on the side of my corporate job. And this year I am planning to transition out of my 9-5. I had no clue what my business could be. I was just unhappy in my corporate job."
"I was impressed by the warm onboarding. It's only month 1 and the support they provide is already amazing! It started with the platform & technical integrations, client interviews, visual identity, and website review... Can't wait for what's next: social media management, CRM, crafting offers, landing pages... Also, being part of the community they created and attending free webinars is priceless! As a startup, I find it wonderful to have such a fantastic team always ready to give advice and champion every step! ❤️"
"MettaCoaching with Olga and Carsten has been an incredibly valuable support tool for my new business as well as for myself personally. For someone with a new born business, I was really struggling with juggling sales, marketing, admin, keeping a clear vision for my brand, while still being able give my all to the holistic coaching work that I actually love. Olga and Carsten not only provide you with amazing branding, sales, marketing and digital wisdom to help you grow your business, but their openness and passion allow you to grow your own wings as well. What they do really works, and it has been the best decision I have made for my business so far!"
"I'm so happy that I found Olga and Carsten. Through their program, they gave me the self-confidence to set up my own business. I am so thankful for your help."
"During the course of the program I started my yoga teacher business on the side of my corporate job. And this year I am planning to transition out of my 9-5. I had no clue what my business could be. I was just unhappy in my corporate job."
