Lessons From The Founders Scaling Their Startup In A War Zone
2 AM. We have alarm system. We screaming like a hell. It sounds like this: this sound in the middle of the night signified a Russian missile had struck close by. It was February 28th, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine had started four days earlier. I woke up, we went to the bunker, and happy birthday, Ramen! Roman's mom made a homemade cake, and it was kinda, yeah, happy birthday from the bunker. Yeah, and then alarm system end and we go back to our beds. Unforgettable experience I would say.
This is Stacy and Roman. They're the founders of Assamic, a platform that matches companies with designers for design tasks with 24-hour turnaround. We have now more than 100 designers connected; most of them are from Ukraine, with an office in Ukraine's capital city, Kiev. The two founders spent their time building their startup. Typical day was kind of like, uh, as a hustle founders mainly. It was like spending your work time in the office, meeting new people, talking to people, having interviews.
We've been living nearby in Kiev downtown and had kind of, kind of normal life. That all changed as 2021 came to a close, and Russia began moving military forces next to the Ukrainian border. Russia though is still sending more troops to the border. Stacy and Roman now had important considerations unfamiliar to most founders. We would understand the risk of the region, but we've been living. We've been constantly talking with our people, with our designers about potential, uh, potential threats. We shared advices how they can secure them in advance.
And on February 24th, Russia attacked Ukraine, a free and democratic European country. These are among the darkest hour for Europe since the end of World War II. I work at 7:00 AM. My mom called. She said the war started; go away to a safe place. I just called Stacy and woke her up, and we started evacuation of our people, of our, uh, uh, of ourselves as well.
We've been just moving out from Kiev because Kiev being bombed. Even when we've been riding out of Kiev, we see a Russian helicopter flew over us. There is no safe place in Ukraine now, so we are kind of safe, but it's hard to ignore because it's still, we hear radars every day. Any place in Ukraine is not the safest place because there are threats of missile attacks. We didn't expect this full massive scale invasion, so it was surprising for us even. We've been preparing for some escalation.
Once the two founders found safety for themselves, their concerns and focus shifted to their Assamic team. To be honest, the first days were so much about panic and stress for the people who were denying the reality. It was hard to deal with everything that is going on because it was like living a horror movie or a dream; but for us, having a plan in advance just helped us to focus and execute. It was more like a robot mode when you're just executing step by step. You know what to do, you know what funds do you need, and things like that.
The first month for me was really intensive. We've been helping everyone, so no time to be depressed or to feel sad or something like that. You're just active. You're executing. Executing this emergency plan was key to helping those that needed it most, but the emotional toll and trauma exposed itself once that initial hard work was over.
For me, the hardest part was when the photos from Bucha were listed. What I had was a week of actually staring at the wall. It was the week where I, it was hard for me to focus. I was staring most of the time just at the wall thinking my thoughts. That kind of photos, I, it's hard to explain because you know, it's not only photos. You know people from there. You know people who love their homes there. You know stories from there, so it's kind of personal every time. This is what makes it hard. You just cannot be disconnected or be far away from that.
After these horrible photos were released, we discovered a lot of raping cases. We had a few girls, and one of them was in an occupied city. So actually, a few days straight, we've been thinking how to hide her, what instructions should we provide her, what her relatives should do for like invaders to not find her. These were maybe the most fears that I had related to the safety of my people.
We've been kind of like paying for, we call these kamikaze drivers. It's a person who knows safe roads in very dangerous locations. So they could drive to our person, pick them up with their relatives, and evacuate them. This was the last person getting to the safe place from the occupied city. Already, we're so happy that we just have them.
Safety threats are the most important, so if there are any new common safety threats we see in some region where our people or where we are, so the first thing we are trying to eliminate any potential problems with safety, with control over basic health and safety.
The two co-founders were still left with a company to run. Once we done with the basic safety, we are focusing to grow in our business and getting new designers, customers. And I would say that we've been in touch with our community and with our people during all their time focused on building business. Even despite the war, we operated on the third day. We've been operating like normal and accepting new customers.
Yes, military wins the battles, but economics, this is who the worst. So we decided to stay here, to spend here, to bring more foreign money to our economy, to onboard more designers who lost their jobs. The whole country turned it into a startup mode. Imagine you living in a country, and the whole country is a startup, and you need to help to win. You can do anything. You can focus on the economy, as we focused it with Stacy, or you can go to fight, or you can kind of like do a bread for various and bake them and give them for free. So you can do anything, but it's a very special atmosphere, I would say.
Startup mode but on a counter scale. That countrywide startup mode has produced extraordinary resilience by the Ukrainian people and has helped slow and even stop some Russian advances. I am the most optimistic about Ukrainian people, about Ukrainian society. So much power in supporting each other, in uniting as people. So I'm just proud of these people who are kind of like so strong, and they are able to protect our company.
The optimism these two co-founders showcase are necessary for any founder building a company, but even more so for those fighting for the freedom of their country. Now I think it's more like optimistic future. We are discussing how we would rebuild the country once this would end. That's, I would say, one of the most active discussions we assist: wrong, we would resist, and help Ukraine, and we would win.
If you are able to help Ukrainians who are fighting on the ground or looking for safety, the following organizations need your ongoing support.