Why Marina Mogilko's 'Silicon Valley Girl' Podcast Is Exactly What the Innovation Economy Needs Right Now
Marina Mogilko
In a media ecosystem oversaturated with founder bios and five-minute thought leadership clips, Marina Mogilko is opting for something else: depth.
The entrepreneur and digital creator, best known for building a multi-million-dollar language platform and cultivating a massive YouTube presence, has announced the expansion of her flagship interview series, Silicon Valley Girl, as a weekly podcast, available on all major podcast platforms starting June 4th.
But this isn't just a content pivot, it's a strategic expansion rooted in a broader trend: the demand for more honest, globally attuned conversations in tech and business.
"The goal has always been to decode success," Mogilko says. "But more than that, I want to explore the human cost of growth, what people aren't saying on stages or in press releases."
And in that mission lies the heart of Silicon Valley Girl 2.0.
Mogilko's rise wasn't forged in the typical startup circuit. She moved to the U.S. from St. Petersburg, Russia, taught herself the intricacies of visa applications, and turned her experience into a business: LinguaTrip, an online education and study-abroad platform that now serves users across multiple continents.
Her first traction came not from seed funding or accelerator buzz, but from YouTube, where her clarity, relatability, and transparent business breakdowns made her a standout in both the edtech and creator communities. Today, she has over 17 million followers across her digital channels and a reputation for demystifying complicated systems, whether it's immigration paperwork or venture term sheets.
That hybrid expertise, part educator, part operator, part media strategist, is what makes her voice resonate in an era where audiences are increasingly skeptical of polished narratives and growth-at-all-costs messaging.
The Silicon Valley Girl podcast debuts with a high-caliber lineup that spans industries and ideologies; Coco Rocha, on modeling, mentorship, and modern entrepreneurship, Reid Hoffman, discussing AI, ethics, and the future of intelligent systems, Jenny Lei, unpacking burnout and money culture in Gen Z-led startups, Blake Scholl, reflecting on aerospace innovation and the long runway to disruption.
What Mogilko is building isn't just a guest-driven show, it's a platform where long-form dialogue is used to examine how innovation collides with identity, morality, and mental health.
And that framing matters. While most business media continues to chase performance metrics and trend cycles, Silicon Valley Girl chooses a different metric: insight density.
"Listeners want substance," Mogilko says. "They're tired of recycled headlines. They want to understand how leaders think, how they fail, how
What Mogilko understands better than most is that her audience isn't just U.S.-based. Her influence spans Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India, regions increasingly producing the next generation of digital professionals, many of whom don't see themselves reflected in traditional media coverage of tech.
This international credibility gives her a unique vantage point: a founder who's both inside and outside Silicon Valley's core, translating industry-speak into something more grounded, and more globally relevant.
Her growing focus on angel investing, especially in women- and immigrant-led startups, further signals her long-term commitment to the ecosystem she's documenting. In many ways, Silicon Valley Girl isn't just a show about innovation, it's a node in the network Mogilko continues to build, support, and invest in.
Looking ahead, Mogilko hopes to expand the podcast's reach by featuring underrepresented founders, cross-border investors, and creatives who are monetizing influence without conforming to tech-industry norms. She's interested in what she calls "builders with a conscience", people making meaningful decisions, not just profitable ones.
And in a media landscape still learning how to cover complexity, that's a differentiator.
Where many business podcasts summarize ideas, Silicon Valley Girl interrogates them. It opens space for vulnerability, uncertainty, and nuance, traits often excluded from pitch decks but essential to the future of responsible innovation.
Silicon Valley Girl will be available on major podcast platforms starting June 4th. New episodes will be released weekly. Learn more at www.siliconvalleygirl.com or follow Marina Mogilko on YouTube .
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
2 days ago
- Int'l Business Times
Why Marina Mogilko's 'Silicon Valley Girl' Podcast Is Exactly What the Innovation Economy Needs Right Now
Marina Mogilko In a media ecosystem oversaturated with founder bios and five-minute thought leadership clips, Marina Mogilko is opting for something else: depth. The entrepreneur and digital creator, best known for building a multi-million-dollar language platform and cultivating a massive YouTube presence, has announced the expansion of her flagship interview series, Silicon Valley Girl, as a weekly podcast, available on all major podcast platforms starting June 4th. But this isn't just a content pivot, it's a strategic expansion rooted in a broader trend: the demand for more honest, globally attuned conversations in tech and business. "The goal has always been to decode success," Mogilko says. "But more than that, I want to explore the human cost of growth, what people aren't saying on stages or in press releases." And in that mission lies the heart of Silicon Valley Girl 2.0. Mogilko's rise wasn't forged in the typical startup circuit. She moved to the U.S. from St. Petersburg, Russia, taught herself the intricacies of visa applications, and turned her experience into a business: LinguaTrip, an online education and study-abroad platform that now serves users across multiple continents. Her first traction came not from seed funding or accelerator buzz, but from YouTube, where her clarity, relatability, and transparent business breakdowns made her a standout in both the edtech and creator communities. Today, she has over 17 million followers across her digital channels and a reputation for demystifying complicated systems, whether it's immigration paperwork or venture term sheets. That hybrid expertise, part educator, part operator, part media strategist, is what makes her voice resonate in an era where audiences are increasingly skeptical of polished narratives and growth-at-all-costs messaging. The Silicon Valley Girl podcast debuts with a high-caliber lineup that spans industries and ideologies; Coco Rocha, on modeling, mentorship, and modern entrepreneurship, Reid Hoffman, discussing AI, ethics, and the future of intelligent systems, Jenny Lei, unpacking burnout and money culture in Gen Z-led startups, Blake Scholl, reflecting on aerospace innovation and the long runway to disruption. What Mogilko is building isn't just a guest-driven show, it's a platform where long-form dialogue is used to examine how innovation collides with identity, morality, and mental health. And that framing matters. While most business media continues to chase performance metrics and trend cycles, Silicon Valley Girl chooses a different metric: insight density. "Listeners want substance," Mogilko says. "They're tired of recycled headlines. They want to understand how leaders think, how they fail, how What Mogilko understands better than most is that her audience isn't just U.S.-based. Her influence spans Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India, regions increasingly producing the next generation of digital professionals, many of whom don't see themselves reflected in traditional media coverage of tech. This international credibility gives her a unique vantage point: a founder who's both inside and outside Silicon Valley's core, translating industry-speak into something more grounded, and more globally relevant. Her growing focus on angel investing, especially in women- and immigrant-led startups, further signals her long-term commitment to the ecosystem she's documenting. In many ways, Silicon Valley Girl isn't just a show about innovation, it's a node in the network Mogilko continues to build, support, and invest in. Looking ahead, Mogilko hopes to expand the podcast's reach by featuring underrepresented founders, cross-border investors, and creatives who are monetizing influence without conforming to tech-industry norms. She's interested in what she calls "builders with a conscience", people making meaningful decisions, not just profitable ones. And in a media landscape still learning how to cover complexity, that's a differentiator. Where many business podcasts summarize ideas, Silicon Valley Girl interrogates them. It opens space for vulnerability, uncertainty, and nuance, traits often excluded from pitch decks but essential to the future of responsible innovation. Silicon Valley Girl will be available on major podcast platforms starting June 4th. New episodes will be released weekly. Learn more at or follow Marina Mogilko on YouTube .
Int'l Business Times
27-05-2025
- Int'l Business Times
'One In A Billion': French Stuntwoman Putting Fizz Into Hollywood
When Sarah Lezito began messing around with motorbikes at 13 she never dreamed that one day she would become the stunt double of some of Hollywood's biggest stars. The French winemaker's daughter has stood in for Scarlett Johansson -- twice -- on "Avengers 2" and "Black Widow" and appeared in a dozen films including "The Batman". The 32-year-old is one of a very rare breed of motorcycle stuntwomen, with a massive social media following that helped bring her from the vineyards of France's Champagne region to Hollywood. AFP caught up with her on her own personal training track amid the otherwise tranquil vineyards near Epernay, the Champagne capital in northeast France. Barely astride her red chrome Kawasaki, she was off down the track performing stunts with disconcerting dexterity, her long brown hair trailing out of her helmet in the wind. "This is kind of my temple," she said after performing a series of gravity-defying tricks including standing with both feet on top of her 200-kilo (440-pound) machine and then flipping herself onto the handlebars. "People think I'm working, but it mostly allows me to release all the pressure," said Lezito, whose lucky charm -- a plastic beaded bracelet -- is wrapped around the throttle of her bike. The woman now popularly known as the "world stunt champion" (although there is no recognised world championship) began her acrobatics career young on the family holding near Epernay. "I fell into stunts by watching videos," she told AFP. "No one in my family was in the motor sports world. My father only had an agricultural quad, not at all made for sports, but I started trying to do wheelies with it in a field." Then she began posting her stunt videos on YouTube. But she seemed destined to follow her family into wine and viticulture until she posted a video of a medley of tricks one day in March 2013 called "One out of Billion Girls". "It was thanks to this video that they noticed me," she said. The "they" being the team from the Hollywood blockbuster "Avengers 2". A few months later, she abandoned her winemaking studies to fly to South Korea to perform Johansson's stunts in the movie. Because she "adapted quickly" to stunt work, Lezito decided to go professional, appearing in several major movies, including "Inferno", "Millennium" and "The Batman" with Zoe Kravitz. "I met all the actresses I've doubled for," she said. She has had her moments on some of the movies, although she insists she has never felt fear on those she does "at home" for social media. "I had to ride through flames for 'Bad Girl', a film which was never released. On paper, it was very simple, but I didn't have a helmet," she recalled. And in the summer of 2023 while filming David Fincher's "The Killer" in Paris, starring Michael Fassbender, Lezito had a severe fall. "I flew off the motorcycle, I wasn't going very fast but fast enough to land on my head and the helmet cracked." She ended up in the emergency room with a head injury. It "made her think", she told AFP, and she "decided to take a break" and put her Hollywood career on hold. Lezito now devotes herself to her social media channels, posting videos of her stunts to her more than 30 million followers -- including 9.5 million on Instagram, some two million more than MotoGP star Marc Marquez. Her garage doubles as a studio, with her YouTube trophies and gifts from her fans displayed on the walls. But it is also where she gets her hands dirty repairing her fleet of roughly 10 motorcycles. "As long as I enjoy sitting on the motorcycle, I'll keep doing this," she said. French stuntman Sarah Lezito does her stuff AFP The stuntwoman has doubled twice for US star Scarlett Johansson AFP Daredevil: Lezito has put her Hollywood career on pause after an accident AFP
Int'l Business Times
23-05-2025
- Int'l Business Times
Asian Stocks Bounce Back After Treasury-led Sell-off
Asian equities stabilised Friday following the previous day's US bond-fuelled sell-off with traders tracking a slight pullback in Treasury yields as Donald Trump's signature tax-cutting budget passed a key congressional vote. Worries about the US budget deficit have returned to the fore this week after Moody's removed its top-tier credit rating and the president pushed ahead with a budget that some suggest will expand the country's ballooning debt. A tepid auction of 20-year Treasuries on Wednesday ramped up those concerns, dealing a blow to stocks that had just recovered from the April fireworks of Trump's tariff blitz. Still, risk appetite returned in New York on Thursday, with yields pulling back after the Republican-led House narrowly passed Trump's "One Big, Beautiful Bill Act", which shrinks social safety net programmes to pay for a 10-year extension of his 2017 tax cuts. The package, which now goes to the Senate, had faced scepticism from fiscal hawks who fear the country is headed for bankruptcy, with independent analysts warning it would increase the deficit by as much as $4 trillion over a decade. But the White House insists it will spur growth of up to 5.2 percent, ensuring it adds nothing to the $36 trillion national debt -- growth projections that are well outside the mainstream consensus. There is a feeling that "perhaps the fiscal worries have gone a bit too far", said Pepperstone's Chris Weston. "Many have crunched the numbers on the tax bill and see the raft of measures to not be overly stimulatory and to therefore result in a major blowout of the deficit in 2026 and 2027 and is, in fact, quite neutral in its effect." The drop in Treasury yields -- suggesting improving demand for US debt -- was helped by upbeat data on the jobs market, home sales and factory activity that observers said indicated the economy remained healthy. A mixed day on Wall Street was followed by a largely positive start in Asia. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul and Manila all rose, though Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei and Wellington struggled. There was a little cheer from comments by Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller, who said interest rates could be cut in the second half of the year if Trump's tariffs come back down to around 10 percent. "If we can get the tariffs down closer to 10 percent and then that's all sealed, done and delivered somewhere by July, then we're in good shape for the second half of the year," he told Fox Business. The dollar slipped against the yen as figures showed Japanese inflation rose more than expected owing to a surge in food prices, particularly rice. The reading turns the focus on the Bank of Japan as it considers its next move on monetary policy after a recent spate of interest rate hikes and in light of Trump's tariffs. Bitcoin pressed on with its latest rally, hitting a fresh record of $111,980.33, on hopes for a cryptocurrency bill on the regulation of so-called stablecoins, digital coins with value tied to the dollar. This has led to optimism for future regulatory clarity in the sector, including for bitcoin, which is not directly linked to the dollar. Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.8 percent at 37,280.84 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent at 23,624.64 Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,383.81 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 143.88 yen from 143.99 yen on Thursday Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1295 from $1.1281 Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3432 from $1.3419 Euro/pound: UP at 84.10 pence from 84.07 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.6 percent at $60.86 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.5 percent at $64.12 per barrel New York - Dow: FLAT at 41,859.09 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 8,739.26 (close)
