While known for our serious commitment to Estonia’s startup community, LIFT99 isn’t the place to work for those who take themselves too seriously. That’s probably why Maria Magdaleena Lamp and Vira Suarez, founders and writers at Do All Write, fit right in. You’re likely to find them tip-tapping out stellar copy and content, cracking up at their own jokes in the common area, or heckling Rannar any time he has a microphone. They assure us they do work, so here’s exactly what that means for these two.
Vira on the left, Maria on the right
GIVE US A TL;DR OF YOUR LIFE STORIES
Maria: I’m Maria but you can call me Lampy. I’ve been a copy and content writer for around a decade now. I spent the longest continuous stretch of my professional life as the in-house content person at Jobbatical. I was there for five years, which is forever in startup time, shaping the voice and tone of the company as I graduated from copy and content writer to content strategist. I loved that job, but a few months into the pandemic, I hit a wall, burned out, and decided to quit. I got a cat and moved to Brazil for a bit. In that order.
Vira: I’m Vira, originally from Ukraine but I lived in the US for most of my life. I’ve been in Estonia for the past 4 years. In my professional life, I’ve done a lot of different things — from hospitality and retail to real estate appraisals, health insurance systems mapping, and public policy analysis. I also took some time off between projects during the pandemic and realised I wanted to go back to writing — but this time with a partner.
HOW AND WHY DID YOU START A COMPANY TOGETHER?
Vira: I knew Maria from her Jobbatical days via my husband who had worked with her.
We were friends already and I knew that she was an excellent writer, so I suggested we team up to build a content agency.
I knew we would work well together as we have complementary skill sets. I also knew I could learn more creative writing from her while managing the company from the administrative side.
Slide from predesigned deck Vira used to pitch Maria
Maria: Having written about the same thing for five years in a row, I loved the idea of branching out, seeing what was out there, and finding out how far I could stretch my skills. Throughout our friendship, Vira and I had half-jokingly talked about going into business together. While I was on my journey of self-discovery in Brazil, Vira finally hit me with an actual pitch deck, called All Jokes Aslide, and talked me into doing it for real. In October 2020 we spent many hours brainstorming punny names, because that’s who we are as people, and actually registered the company. In January 2021 Do All Write launched officially.
WHEN YOU SAY YOUR SKILL SETS COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR A CONTENT AGENCY?
Maria: Vira has a very structured mind. She goes into everything strategy and big picture first, figuring out an action plan. She’s a fantastic writer but, unlike me, she always starts with outlines and overarching narratives. That level of organization doesn’t come naturally to me, so it’s been awesome to learn some of it from her.
Vira: Maria is super creative and outside the box. From the outside, it may seem chaotic at first, but once she goes through her process it comes out hitting all the marks. Her writing has a very distinct voice and she is not afraid to be herself in her work.
HOW DO YOU FIND AND CHOOSE CLIENTS?
Maria: We’re currently in a stage where we largely get to pick who we want to work with and what type of work we want to focus on. In the beginning you take all the opportunities to build the business as you figure out what you’re all about. You’ll find clients you will never vibe with, or projects that you don’t enjoy even as you do your best. It’s empowering to learn that this is okay, and it’s how you get to know your ideal clients and your potential as a business. Then you get to segue into this confident phase where you know your strengths and can identify where they will be the most useful. Today we have both international and domestic clients, mostly startups and scaleups, but also government agencies, and PR firms. There are some bigger projects that take a few months, some that are just a simple fix of someone's copy, and these days an increasing number of retainer clients with long-term goals in mind.
A very professional photo by Kristi Sits.
Vira: Some clients just want to fill their content pipeline and that’s fine. But there’s a lot of beauty in expanding together with a client, getting in at the ground floor, and integrating more strategically. It has been great, learning as we go, uncovering skills we didn’t think about offering as part of how we were approaching the business at first. This is definitely the main perk of having long-term clients. It keeps us discovering new things while ensuring the company has measures of stability and predictability.
WAS IT DIFFICULT TO ESTABLISH YOURSELVES DURING THE PANDEMIC?
Vira: Most of our clients are established businesses and organisations, so we didn’t really feel the effects of the pandemic in that sense. So far, we’ve done little to no marketing, because we already had a considerable amount of connections and a reputation — especially thanks to Maria. Her name carries weight when it comes to content. A lot of the time we work with companies that don't have in-house content teams, or do but need some fresh ideas and an extra pair of hands. The market for copywriters is very disjointed here and we knew we had the skill and the will to bring something different to the table. It’s fun to work on something we’re passionate about.
EVERYONE AND THEIR GRANDMA THINKS THEY CAN WRITE, WHAT MAKES DO ALL WRITE STAND OUT?
Maria: We can confidently say that we are good at what we do and we can bring the receipts. It’s a massive cliché but we actually, wholeheartedly, care about writing good content. We genuinely want to feel proud to put our names on something. We’re not afraid to be funny and put some heart into even the most mundane subjects.
A lot of the content out there is formulaic — there just for the sake of being there, hitting keywords. We don’t want to do that.
Vira: People know they need content but often don’t know why. We want to give companies the strategy and communication that sets them apart. Too many brands are scared to sound different. But if you don't sound different, if you don’t have a voice of your own, you will have a hard time selling your product.
Vira and Assistant Editor Bellini “Blini” Lamp
WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE SO FAR AND WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR GROWING THE BUSINESS?
Vira: There are three people on our team right now. We want to keep growing our business while digging into our strengths and looking into new strategies. We do want to expand, have some excellent writers on board and keep writing ourselves as well. While we want to increase the scale we’re set on maintaining our ideas and philosophy. Another important aspect is our relationship with each other. Writing is a very creative process and you need to give people mental space to do it while acknowledging and accommodating each other's strengths and weaknesses. We want Do All Write to be a place where we, and anyone who joins the company, truly enjoy collaborating and creating for our clients.
Maria: We definitely function differently than most companies — no hustle culture beyond this point. Personally, my long-term goal is not to run a business and manage a fleet of writers. It’s important to me that I still get to write copy and work on campaigns that excite me. As we work to find that balance, we’re learning so much about how we do our best work. It’s a great feeling and an incredible amount of personal growth — to have gone from “This is terrible and I’m cracking under pressure” to “This is stressful but I’m learning and getting stronger from it.”
