From Dreamer
to Builder

Who I Am

I might look cocky, but I'm not. I'm sensitive, deeply empathetic and often misread — it's ironic, because I shaved my curls at 22 just to be taken seriously. I'm a polymath: neurodivergent, curious about everything from quantum physics to alternative history and esoteric philosophy. My brain constantly takes things apart and puts them back together.

I don't give up — not on belief, not on my character, not on people. Even when I was betrayed by close friends and partners, I didn't change who I am. I try to be kind and altruistic — yes, that's its own kind of ego — and it's built into my beliefs.

I forgive people. I don't get angry, which is a problem because instead of restoring myself and setting boundaries, I digest everything and keep it inside. Worse, forgiving too fast lets people do it again. It's not healthy. But it's not easy to break me.

Early Life in Ukraine

My parents are extremely educated and honest. My father has near-encyclopedic knowledge. My mother built social projects — a mental health hotline, HIV and TB programs, rehab programs. That's where my values come from.

In my early career I worked in TV and wanted to become a director, so I studied film directing. There wasn't a real film industry in Ukraine, so I worked across creative fields — project manager and creative director for event agencies. I ran brand activations for Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Philip Morris, banks, and others. I also produced entertainment events — private parties with big budgets. It was a scene.

I worked in corporate law too, at a firm handling complex business disputes. Ukraine in those years was messy — corruption was normalized, and navigating business often meant navigating conflict. I learned a lot about strategy, negotiation, and how power really works.

I also ran operations for a car-rental company — during the UEFA events we operated over 100 vehicles. I built our internal security team and became our investigator, tracking down stolen cars through digital trails and traveling across Ukraine to recover them. Our success rate was about two out of three.

Maidan, the Catapult, and Prison

In winter 2013 the Maidan revolution began. We protested against Yanukovych's corrupt regime and its anti-European direction. The protests lasted months. At times it turned violent.

At one point protestors needed a smoke wall — burning tires — to block snipers and police lines. We were already supporting Maidan with supplies. But people carrying tires to the barricades were targeted and shot. We thought, "We can throw them over with a catapult." I found blueprints online and brought them to our construction crew. They built a ballista-style catapult. We delivered it to Maidan. It worked. Tires flew to the fire without risking lives. It drew a lot of attention.

I spent almost two months in jail. Six weeks later, Maidan won. The regime fled the country. Parliament voted to free political prisoners by name — including me. I was released.

But victory's power faded. Russia seized Crimea and started war in Donbas. Attention shifted. I received a summons to reopen the same case. My lawyer told me serious money had been set aside to fight us. I decided my country didn't love me. I got a US visa, flew to LA, and applied for asylum.

The US: Starting Over

When I arrived, I thought I knew English. I couldn't speak at all. I worked immigrant jobs — moving, waiting tables. I flipped furniture from Craigslist. In New York I got a real estate license, tried rentals, went back to restaurants.

Then a salesperson from Allset walked into the restaurant where I worked. They were a foodtech company with a real sales team — six full-time reps doing door-to-door. They offered commission for anyone who could sign up restaurants. I took the opportunity.

Door-to-door wasn't working for me — my English was rough and the method was slow. So I hacked their system. I had a friend build a scraper to pull restaurant contacts from Yelp. I set up Outreach.io and created email sequences with a "legend" — subject lines about private dining reservations that got nearly perfect open rates. Restaurant managers always read those. The pitch followed: corporate clients want to dine at your restaurant, they spend more than average, join our platform.

The replies flooded in. But many wanted calls, and my English couldn't deliver the pitch. So I partnered with an American friend — a bartender I'd worked with — to take the calls. I trained him on the platform and we started closing deals at scale. We made $25,000 in commission. The CEO offered us both full-time positions.

Within three months, the two of us were closing around 60 deals a month. The entire six-person sales team had been averaging 30. We implemented the system across the team, and Allset built a dedicated lead-gen department around our approach. Within a year, they were closing 200 partnerships a month.

But the platform had a user problem. They were burning investment on $10 signup credits that people gamed for cheap lunches. Restaurants churned because they never saw real customers. I proposed a fix: redistribute credits strategically to drive traffic to new partners. I also had marketing create content featuring each new restaurant — their story, tagged on social. Churn dropped. Restaurant owners were happy. This same playbook helped us land chains who wanted to test one location first — we'd flood that location with users, prove the value, then sign the whole group.

Then I proposed something bigger: the corporate segment. Instead of just restaurants, we'd sign up companies who wanted to provide meal credits to employees. This gave us real, recurring users — not credit-gamers. It became a lifeline. The CEO used it to justify another funding round. Eight months after I joined as a commission-only rep with broken English, I was promoted to VP of Sales.

HAY! Straws and ofNature

After Allset I joined HAY! Straws. We sold sustainable straws to major hospitality chains — Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Sysco — shipping containers worldwide and generating over $4M in sales across 2,000+ B2B accounts. I also invented a new product format: I snipped a piece of reed one day and realized it could work as a straw. We turned that into a scalable, manufacturable product that's now adopted globally.

I pitched McDonald's and Starbucks too, but they needed machine-manufactured straws at industrial scale. HAY! couldn't deliver that. The rejection planted a seed. I started exploring cellulose acetate — a biodegradable material that could be machine-produced. That research led me to found ofNature.

We raised $150K pre-seed, built manufacturing in Ukraine, and scaled to $120K/month in beta output. Then February 2022 happened. War killed the company. We lost team members. My cofounder fled. I told my investors I'd build another startup to cover their loss.

In 2025, McDonald's announced they're adopting cellulose acetate straws globally. The same material we pioneered. We were just too early.

Ventures and Evatar

During COVID we pivoted to selling PPE. I partnered with a friend and we won a $159M contract with New York State public schools. We also founded a sales agency and sold PR services, filling top placements and selling over $1M in a year.

At the same time I worked for Elegatto, a DTC brand. I joined to learn business end to end. We scaled from $100K to $3M ARR.

I developed concepts and MVPs for other ventures. With ÆOESS — a breathing IoT device I still believe in — I went furthest: built a hardware prototype, started software development, created the business plan and pitch deck. But without a medical cofounder and the credibility that background provides, it never got the traction it deserved.

Then Evatar — first validated in 2023 when I posted avatar videos with generated news and companies reached out wanting to use it. I partnered with my cofounder Nik. We built, launched, pivoted, had ups and downs. We're still going.

The Shift at 33

My first 30 years were light. I didn't take things too seriously. I was good at whatever I got into, then left as soon as it wasn't fun — same with education and career. I went to three different universities and dropped out. Same with jobs.

I was always curious, learning on the go. My priorities until my 30s were creative flight and searching for myself. Career wasn't a priority. I wanted fun and love. I loved parties. I felt like the center, in VIP zones with beautiful people, dancing and enjoying myself. I'm not from a rich family; we never had enough money, yet I always paid for everyone, even with my last dollar. I wanted to feel rich, so I acted like one.

Around 33 something clicked. That lifestyle lost its shine. I became obsessed with building and getting things done. Parties and empty conversations became empty for real. I cut them out and started working 70–80 hours a week. Since then I've burned out countless times, but I keep rising.

How I Work

I connect dots across fields — film taught me story, sales taught me people, operations taught me systems, product lets me use all three. I prefer zero to one because it forces honesty. Either you make something real or you don't.

This is how I build. I don't want to create another dashboard people have to learn. I want to build tools that do the work — that take intent and deliver results. The best interface is no interface. The best product is one that makes itself invisible while making your life better.

I fix the vibe in rooms because I can feel it. I forgive too much and I'm learning boundaries. I burn down and rise again. I do not quit.

I believe imagination is a muscle. Tools should help it grow. I believe in kindness, courage, and shipping.