Скачать или смотреть Venture Central Roadtrip: Ukraine | Elena Mazhuha, Flyer One Ventures

🚀 Venture Central continues the “Roadtrip” series, this time visiting 🇺🇦 Ukraine! Our guest is Elena Mazhuha (Partner at Flyer One Ventures), who discusses the resilience of the Ukrainian startup ecosystem, the "animal" instincts of successful founders, and how the war has accelerated global expansion.

🔍 The Ukrainian VC landscape: A look at the ~3,000 active startups, split between local operational teams and a massive diaspora of founders building from the US and UK, plus the active funds backing them like U.Ventures, Horizon Capital, and Geek Ventures.
🛡️ Impact of the war: How the invasion forced companies to be global from day zero , the talent shift from B2B SaaS to defense/dual-use tech , and the role of support initiatives like "Seeds of Bravery".
🦄 Unicorns & Success Stories: The global giants with Ukrainian roots—Grammarly, People.ai, Monobank, Creatio, and Restream —and the ongoing debate about what defines a "Ukrainian company" like GitLab.
🐆 "Animal" Founders & Dollar DNA: Elena’s unique thesis on selecting founders: looking for "animals" (hungry, intuitive survivors) who possess "Dollar DNA" (making decisions strictly based on financial ROI).
🧬 Origin of Flyer One: How the fund spun out of the Genesis ecosystem (400M+ users) and uses its operational "backbone" to help portfolio companies hire over 300 senior roles and scale growth marketing.
🧠 The "Mafia" Effect: Why Ukraine hasn't seen a specific "PayPal mafia" yet, but is seeing a surge of founders emerging from high-growth global scaleups like Revolut, Bolt, and Palantir.
🌍 Ukraine vs. Poland: A candid take on why Polish founders often get "stuck" on their comfortable domestic market, while Ukrainian founders face an "adapt or die" pressure to enter the US market immediately.


Key ecosystem players mentioned: Grammarly, Monobank, Creatio, Restream, Genesis (GenTech), Vochi (acquired by Pinterest), GreenScreens, People.ai, GitLab.

💼 Elena's LinkedIn:   / elena-mazhuha  
🌐 Flyer One Ventures: https://flyerone.vc/

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