STANFORD – It was a typical wartime afternoon in Ukraine. I balanced my laptop on my knees in a dim concrete cellar, as the walls trembled from nearby explosions and an air-raid siren wailed.
A client presentation filled my screen, and my team members pinged me from bomb shelters across the city. The absurdity of demoing a new product while the ground shook and the power flickered wasn’t lost on me. But I was determined to keep my digital studio on schedule in that bunker-turned-office: we had clients waiting, war or not.
Scenes like this have become the norm in Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion. While pitching ideas from a bomb shelter is as difficult as it sounds, many tech entrepreneurs and firms have stubbornly refused to let innovation become another casualty of war. Their resilience stems from a shared ethos of solidarity and improvisation – founders are doing whatever it takes to keep their companies alive.
But the war has pushed Ukraine’s tech industry to its limits. Running on adrenaline and ad hoc fixes isn’t sustainable. This underscores a simple truth: rebuilding the country’s once-booming startup ecosystem cannot wait.
Before February 2022, Ukraine’s IT exports were soaring, and its startups were attracting global investors. But once the war started, many of my peers traded their laptops for rifles or fled with their families. Even as the economy collapsed, and the Kremlin bombed power grids and internet cables, the tech industry adapted.
Firms embraced remote work, and in safer cities, like Lviv, entrepreneurs turned basements into buzzing coworking spaces. Amazingly, many companies barely missed a beat, as evidenced by the rise in IT export revenue in 2022.
To ensure that Ukraine’s innovation economy survives and drives the country’s recovery, we must start to fix its foundations – providing reliable power and internet connectivity, office space, access to capital, mentorship opportunities, and supportive policies – before the war ends. This is not idealism. It is a strategy grounded in economic pragmatism.
With most other industries in tatters, tech startups are propping up the economy. Supporting these innovators would not only help Ukraine but also spark breakthroughs that could have a global impact.
Taking bold action now also sends a message to Ukrainian founders in exile that there will be an ecosystem to come home to, and shows foreign investors that Ukraine is open for business. During the war, for example, one of my companies launched a new product to help displaced entrepreneurs that is already gaining international recognition. Crisis reshapes, rather than eliminates, opportunity.
Many of the Ukrainian tech community’s improvised fixes and stop-gap measures should be formalized. Those basement workspaces should become publicly supported permanent innovation hubs. Networks that helped startups relocate must be expanded nationwide, and international partners should sponsor incubators and accelerators (virtual or in safer cities), so that Ukrainian founders can continue building at home.
The big tech firms that offered free cloud services and grants should turn this emergency support into long-term partnerships. They could even launch a Ukraine innovation fund to provide new ventures with capital and confidence.
During the war, Ukrainian policymakers have maintained – and even streamlined – Diia.City, a virtual free economic zone for tech companies. Building on this foundation, they should continue to reduce bureaucratic red tape for startups. Political leaders and other stakeholders should also account for the digital economy when developing reconstruction plans. In addition to funds for traditional physical infrastructure such as bridges and roads, they should invest in research labs and startup incubators.
Lastly, it will be important to rally Ukraine’s diaspora. Ukrainian tech professionals living outside the country have become unofficial ambassadors, connecting local startups with foreign investors and support. We can systematize this kind of engagement by creating mentorship programs and investor roadshows that pair experienced Ukrainians abroad with founders at home.
Focusing on the innovation ecosystem as the war rages might seem wasteful, but it would recognize Ukrainians’ ingenuity, talent, and perseverance and bolster their faith in the future. With the right support, the tech community can fuel an economic recovery as robust as the Ukrainian people’s spirit.
But these founders and entrepreneurs urgently need a solid platform under their feet to continue operating and, ultimately, to transform a war-torn country into a leading tech hub. Ukraine’s bomb shelters will eventually fall into disuse, but the ideas dreamed up and brought to life there will light the path for future generations.
Salome Mikadze, Co-Founder of the software development company Movadex, is an MBA candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
