Scaling a startup from a bunker: founders' story from Ukraine
awesomic.io
awesomic.io
In other words, geopolitical situation aside, why not bootstrap this business or rely on debt?
The point for us was not capital costs or smth, but opportunities to grow at a different scale. We see VC not as primarily funding, but as partners for the journey — source of learnings, support and network. We were mostly focused on raising from angel entrepreneurs, even current customers joined. Hopefully this answers your question.
A+ would work with again.
A simple link to subscribe will let me do it without interrupting me.
We get to build the internet we want to experience. Don’t create a shitty experience for your readers.
Glad to hear everyone is safe, best of luck.
YC launch discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28199089
Their case studies: https://www.awesomic.io/case-study
Any other super relevant links?
That a pretty big size .... Any specific experiences you/they can share on how they coped with the struggles and things that worked for them? (maybe topics for a series on survival and growth when things perhaps changed overnight)
Around ~100 right now.
> Any specific experiences you/they can share on how they coped with the struggles and things that worked for them?
Yes! We are planning to cover another article just on this topic.
Main things which we used:
1) Free 1to1 with therapists
2) Group sessions with therapists
3) Unlimited PTO
4) Financial support
5) In case a teammate is in the danger area, proactive support for evacuation
6) Real-time monitoring of the situation + updates to the team
7) "Believe in better times, and what we'll do there"
Also, would be great to hear of the coping mechanisms the individuals and families involved ... that were beneficial for them in their own personal capacity and situation.
It's one thing to ask for support for humanitarian aid purposes (such as fundraising to distribute food, helping someone's family get out, etc.), it's another to exploit the war to grow your business.
When the war started, I had numerous cold emails from Ukrainian businesses offering services (primarily outsourced marketing, design, software engineering) with the first paragraph containing emotionally charged, guilt-tripping statements. Those emails started to cause me to have some resentment and I marked them as junk. I will not be pushed to support a business that's trying to guilt trip me, regardless of what's happening.
War is bad, majority of world supports the Ukrainian side. I pray for the conflict to be over soon.
I assume they still need to make payouts, keep workplaces and support the economy. From my perspective, begging for charity is not okay when you can bring value. Maybe I am just too optimistic about examples you mentioned.
And one way you can support it is to support the Ukrainian economy by doing business with companies there.
Yep, and not only that, what I see in those pictures are many young, military age healthy males that are hiding out in 'safe places' while other men and women are literally putting their lives at stake to save the country and the lives of the residents - while this group is pimping their business. Doesn't feel right to me.
>while this group is pimping their business.
From the macro scale POV, the large wars are won by economies. USSR and USA won over Germany and Japan by running larger economies (USSR starting 1942/43).
One of the significant part of the war being waged by Russia is to decimate Ukrainian economy. These guys are successfully fighting it back. Them continuing to exist and even thrive and grow is one more piece of war lost by Russia. It is a long game/war. It is very possible that the conflict would go into ceasefire smoldering mode for years during which the survival of Ukraine as independent nation would be decided not by occasional artillery exchanges across ceasefire lines, it will be decided by whose economy would continue to develop successfully.
>hiding out in 'safe places'
They aren't hiding from the draft. Most of them could easily be reached and drafted by army when/if needed. Ukraine drafting offices are overwhelmed with people ready to sign up.
Yes, they are...pimping their business while other older and less physically capable people are dying for them.
Yes, except these 'men' apparently.
The clearest framing of this for me is that the religion of Silicon Valley is primarily founded in avoidant behaviors and artificial restrictions on healthy behavior.
I hope you all stay safe and find healing.
Disagree. I find it very helpful to be busy during stressful times. Otherwise you are just endlessly thinking about the war and incessantly checking news sources.
I can't even imagine the mental pressure these folks are under.
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This is obviously not an article about startup growth at all costs; it's the story of what's been happening to a startup in a war zone. I don't think it's in very good taste to lecture people who are going through that, let alone toss cliché internet swipes like "this reads like a satire", which are against the site guidelines anyhow.
Hopefully, this is not the case. We were not pushing people during such heart-breaking times, on the opposite, they needed work as a distraction and spent at least 30% of work time lately on volunteering projects, eg. designing for non-profits. This gave an additional sense of purpose to being productive and stay strong.