Ukraine Tech Collective offers help to companies

Publication date:

22.04.2022

Publication from:

Ukraine Tech Collective – is a non–profit platform designed to facilitate skill swaps so Ukrainians who are currently protecting their country still get paid & can support their families during the time of russian aggression against Ukraine.

Where did the idea come from?

Emma Heap, who is the founder of an early stage startup Sudor, contracts a team of software engineers from Ukraine. The company consists of up to 15 members, some of whom are Ukrainians that have had to defend their country or deal with a completely new set of life challenges that require additional attention.

Companies similar to Emma’s realize that safety and financial aid for their team members in Ukraine has the highest priority. Therefore, there is already an incredible amount of help that is being provided from companies around the world. Such support can be in the form of relocation, paid leave, reduced number of tasks etc. However, similarly to Emma’s situation, many companies can’t continue this level of support indefinitely, without it putting the business at risk.

As the CEO of an early stage start up with an engineering team in Ukraine, I felt like I had a very tough decision to make. Engineering is critical to our business, and we needed to be able to continue with development but at the same time I wanted to support our team members. I realized that if I could find someone to cover for our engineers whilst they defended their country then we could still pay them, they could support their families and our business wouldn’t be jeopardized and so Ukraine Tech Collective was born.