Ukrainian companies are persevering with to function amid Russia’s invasion of their nation and are decided to hold on as a part of the nationwide effort to not be overcome by the risk from the east.
Software program improvement service supplier Redwerk is an instance. After the lives of all its employees have been thrown into the air when Russian tanks entered Ukraine, the corporate needed to act rapidly.
Konstantin Klyagin, its founder, was travelling house after a vacation in Sri Lanka and, throughout a change of flight in Dubai, he learnt that Russia had invaded his homeland.
He needed to change his plans whereas at Dubai and headed to Berlin, the place he had beforehand lived and owned a flat. He has not but been again to Ukraine.
Klyagin is the founder and CEO of Ukrainian software program improvement firm Redwerk, which focuses on growing software program as a service (SaaS) for enterprises. It was arrange by a 24-year-old Klyagin in 2005 and now serves worldwide clients with SaaS improvement providers constructed within the Amazon Internet Providers and Microsoft Azure clouds.
The corporate began off in Zaporizhzhia and opened an workplace in Kyiv in 2010. Its workforce includes builders, DevOps specialists, challenge managers, consumer interface (UI) designers and each position that’s required to create and launch a full-scale SaaS operation, mentioned Klyagin.
It was on 24 February this yr when, on a flight house to Ukraine, Klyagin had to consider serving to his household and employees get to security, earlier than enthusiastic about his enterprise.
“Once I arrived in Dubai to alter flight, the media was full of stories concerning the invasion,” he advised Pc Weekly. “I listened to Vladimir Putin’s speech and realised I used to be going wherever however Ukraine.”
“I listened to Vladimir Putin’s speech and realised I used to be going wherever however Ukraine”
Konstantin Klyagin, Redwerk
Klyagin mentioned essentially the most stunning sight for him was Russian tanks crossing the border simply 80km from the town of Kharkiv, the place he grew up and had household.
“I by no means made it again to Kyiv in February and I’ve been working remotely ever since,” he mentioned. “I arrived in Dubai, realised Russia had invaded and there was no manner again because the air house was closed.”
Klyagin had beforehand lived and labored in Germany and had a flat in Berlin, so he determined to go there. His girlfriend, who was pregnant with their first baby, quickly joined him.
After 5 months in Berlin, they moved to Lisbon in Portugal, the place Klyagin had a big group of buddies. “Lisbon was thought-about an necessary net 3.0 hub and plenty of Ukrainian entrepreneurs got here right here,” he mentioned.
His dad and mom at the moment are secure in Berlin, however his enterprise, with 80 workers, has remained in Ukraine.
Klyagin himself plans to return to Ukraine as quickly as it’s potential. “When it’s secure and the warfare is over, I’m transferring again to Ukraine the subsequent day,” he mentioned.
Within the meantime, Redwerk has continued to function at full scale, after a short lived slowdown when the corporate and its employees readjusted to the brand new actuality going through Ukraine.
“At first of the invasion, there was plenty of uncertainty,” mentioned Klyagin. “Many corporations have been transferring whole operations to the west of the nation however there have been main difficulties, together with a scarcity of housing, so we determine to do it in a decentralised manner.”
That is the place the agency’s distant working expertise gained in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic helped. “We advised everybody that every of them would get $2,000 up entrance in money or in any kind they wished, so to pay their strategy to security, or they might use their very own cash and we might compensate them,” mentioned Klyagin.
Just about all the Redwerk employees took up the supply. “Many of the staff has been working remotely because the pandemic with solely 10 to fifteen within the workplace day-after-day,” mentioned Klyagin. “Our folks both went to the west of the nation, or to the centre.”
Then, on 28 February, Klyagin wrote an e-mail to his workers asking if everybody was secure and asking what they wanted to work. “I mentioned let’s proceed working as a result of it was necessary for everybody to have earnings in that scenario and was additionally necessary for Ukraine’s financial system,” he mentioned.
Klyagin mentioned that within the first week of the invasion, 20% of the corporate’s employees might work, by week two it had reached 80%, and earlier than the top of March it was 100% operational. “And we stored hiring folks,” he added. “We didn’t let anybody go, other than the same old attrition.
“We’re gaining folks as a result of there have been extra good folks in the marketplace who have been simply victims of their employers panicking and letting them go. We have been capable of cherry-pick the very best minds and expertise to develop the corporate.”
The corporate misplaced two workers to the Ukrainian army.
In response to Klyagin, Redwerk is doing extra enterprise now than earlier than the warfare. He believes it is because he has focused on the enterprise to cease him enthusiastic about the turmoil in Ukraine. “I discovered this a shelter within the warfare and it labored as a result of I bought 5 new shoppers, 25 extra employees and the enterprise grew,” he mentioned.
The corporate misplaced no clients after the invasion after Klyagin contacted every of them individually to reassure them that work wouldn’t be interrupted.
In truth, Redwerk shouldn’t be Klyagin’s solely enterprise. Since 2021, he has additionally invested in an organization arrange in Zaporizhzhia that develops drones for civilian use, specializing in industrial settings. IZIVIZ, as the corporate is understood, remains to be in its startup section, however has undergone a change in the course of the warfare.
“The enterprise went on maintain for a few months, however we determined to assist the military put together their drones and have supplied drones freed from cost,” he mentioned.