What’s your work from home situation like these days? For Andriy Klen, co-founder and CFO of smart device startup Petcube, it is not only email notifications popping up on his laptop screen, but also incoming missile alerts. He pauses our conversation to follow the rocket’s calculated trajectory, before being notified that it has disappeared from the radar. We continue our call, he from Kyiv, and I from our office in Amsterdam, where the biggest conflict of the year broke out a couple of weeks ago over a change in catering.
Klen’s laughter at the absurdity of it all as he continues to answer my questions is emblematic of the resilience of Ukrainians living under constant threat and still managing to work, volunteer, care for kids — and pets — and come up with novel ways of supporting the defence and economy of their country. As Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day today, August 24, we spoke to some of the tech sector doing their utmost to retain that hard-won freedom. Supporting the Ukrainian economy TNW Conference 2025 - Back to NDSM on June 19-20, 2025 - Save the date! As we wrapped up our incredible 2024 edition, we're pleased to announce our return to Amsterdam NDSM in 2025.
Registration now! Klen is one of the initiators behind Spend with Ukraine, a non-profit organisation running a web platform with a directory of over 240 Ukrainian-rooted businesses. Acknowledging that people may be hesitant to provide direct aid to military efforts, its originators wanted.