A Russian startup releases an electronic angel for women
The portable alert system could have helped back in 2000, when Kathy Roma was the victim of a brutal attack back home.
It’s hard to predict where Kathy Roma, or Katya Romanovskaya for those who know her in Russia, will be on any given day; she’s often found in global hubs, especially Moscow, New York, San Francisco and Shanghai. Travel is a big part of her job as communications director for Nimb, a tech startup.
Nimb is the Russian word for halo, as in the ring of light above the head of a saint or an angel. The company that adopted the word as its brand produces a portable alert system, featuring a digital ring worn on a finger. In case of an emergency, the wearer can press a button on the GPS-connected device to instantly alert friends and relatives and summon help.
“Only four letters, easily pronounced and it has a protective meaning in the language of its creators,” Roma explained.
The system is designed for women, providing a measure of assurance if they find themselves in an uncomfortable, potentially dangerous situation. Nimb, for example, can be activated if a woman feels that she is being harassed or followed by a stranger at night.
Roma has worked for the company since its founding in 2014. As Nimb’s communications director, she is responsible for promoting the product and communicating with clients and partners. The ring is something she believes in, something that she potentially could have used back in 2000, when she was the victim of a brutal crime in the provincial Russian city where she was living at the time. Roma is reluctant to name the location because she doesn't want to give trolls a chance to bother her parents who still live in the same city, she said.
A total stranger attacked Roma in broad daylight. She had dropped off her then-five-year-old daughter at daycare and was heading home. The man approached her and said he needed to talk. She had a strange feeling about him and kept walking, looking straight ahead.
After entering her apartment building, she noticed the man was following her up the stairs. With a burst, he caught up with a knife in hand. She tried to resist, but he stabbed her multiple times. A neighbor, alerted by her screams, came out into the hallway and scared the attacker away. Roma suffered nine stab wounds.
Luckily, an ambulance quickly arrived, but the immediate aftermath of the incident was touch-and-go. Roma spent several days in a coma and was hospitalized for over six weeks, enduring several operations.
Given the seriousness of the attack, she managed to get back to a normal routine relatively quickly. Time passed, she raised her daughter and worked as a PR manager for several financial companies. In addition, with a friend she co-authored a Twitter account to mock the Russian government. It became one of the most popular sources of political humor in the Russian Twitterverse and now has almost 2 million followers.
Although she was satisfied with her material life, she felt that something was missing. She grew alienated from politics. “When you can’t change anything it’s very easy to waste your life on attempts,” she said.
Her sense of alienation eventually spread to her career. Russia’s business climate wasn’t conducive to creativity and innovation, Roma said: “The main goal of business was not to create something exciting, but to get in touch with a Kremlin functionary, or seduce a public official into issuing a new regulation that would profit your company and reduce competition.”
Nimb was founded in Russia in 2014 by Leo Bereschansky and Nick Marshansky who were then working in advertising. Soon the team, which now includes Alex Medvedev, Dmitry Gordi and Roma as PR director, moved to Silicon Valley. The ring itself is manufactured in China.
Today the company is at an important junction: Its first batch of rings has been sold and Nimb representatives are gathering feedback from around 3,000 users, which generated $300,000 in income for the company. About 300 devices have been sold to people in Russia.
In addition to having the ability to alert relatives and friends with a push of the ring’s button, in the United States, users can also access 24/7 response centers that will notify police and emergency services.
Although constantly on the move, Roma maintains strong connections to Russia, and to her friends, relatives and business partners there. Her now-adult daughter lives in Siberia. Of all the places she travels, Roma prefers New York the most: “It’s like a beautiful wild animal which won’t harm you and will even protect you.”
Doing business in the U.S. is not always easy, however. If she doesn’t get an enthusiastic response to a communications query, following up feels pushy. “I still want to do things in my style: just to do something cool that would attract people and they would come to me themselves,” she said.
The knife attack changed Roma’s approach to life. Rather than breaking her, the incident made her the stronger, happier person she is now, she says. “I didn’t allow myself to get stuck in a negative mode. Now, it’s easy for me to accept the world’s imperfections.”
Anna Baydakova is a recent graduate of Columbia Journalism School.
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