The story
I
Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
I grew up in Ivano-Frankivsk with three sisters. A TV series about Jacques-Yves Cousteau made me want to see the whole world, meet its tribes and live many lives at once. I carried a candle in church, and at 13 I led a group of boy scouts, where I fell for nature and learned to survive in it.
Carried forward: curiosity about people, and a love of the outdoors.
II
Student years
At university I was a social and political activist, an Open World alumnus, and co-founded an NGO that grew to 80+ members. Along the way I got lucky: an internship at one of the region’s biggest property developers, where I spent the first two months beside the owner, learning how he did business.
Once I had settled into the office I got bored fast, and started an online community to entertain myself and feel less alone. It became the region’s largest social platform: 200k+ members, regular events, and its own co-working space. Sweet days.
Carried forward: I can gather people and build something they come back to.
III
2015–2022
In 2015 I co-founded a software agency with a friend, turning other people’s ideas into products. In 2017 I sold the small businesses I had and flew to the Bay Area, where the scale of the ambition amazed me. Around the same time I found Bitcoin, and with it programmable money and asset tokenization. I spent the next three years in that niche, giving tech and go-to-market support to DeFi infrastructure across Europe, Asia and the US, and watching the industry mature.
In 2020 I played with GPT-3. It was basic then, but the potential was obvious. That turned me toward AI/ML and a startup with two more friends, scaling its sales in the US, until the full-scale war in Ukraine began.
Carried forward: a network on three continents, and a sense that finance can be beautiful.
IV
United Kingdom, 2022–2025
I moved to the UK and became the first in my family to study abroad, at Cambridge Judge Business School. I built my confidence there by watching others closely and rediscovering myself. Cambridge was warm and good to my family: a new home, a school for my kids, real confidence in my spoken English, long runs, and great conversations with Professor Andrew. Entrepreneur First in London and the funding for what came next grew out of those years.
Carried forward: mentors, and the nerve to start again somewhere new.
V
Assisterr, 2023–2026
With Assisterr we built the infrastructure for creating, deploying and monetizing Specialized Language Models and AI agents.
Backed by Google for Startups, Outlier Ventures, Echo.xyz, Taisu Ventures and more. T1 listings on Kraken, Bybit and Binance Alpha.
I closed the company in Q3 2026.
What I took away
Growth isn’t product-market fit. Impressive user numbers and ecosystem activity don’t necessarily translate into sustainable demand.
People are the foundation. Misaligned incentives with partners, broken trust and commitments that never materialize will undermine even the strongest ambitions. Strategic alignment matters more than the name on the logo, and you have to move fast on people in both directions.
Capital doesn’t fix fundamentals. Money and partnerships create momentum, but they can’t substitute for a business that genuinely works.
Ownership means looking in the mirror. Not everything was in my control, but the direction, the priorities and the outcome were mine.
A difficult chapter, and the one that changed how I think about building companies, choosing partners, measuring progress, and allocating time and capital.
Carried forward: how to build at scale, and to trust myself and the signals I see early.
VI
Asia, 2025–2026
After years of pushing, I went back to basics: family-maxxing, kung fu, Muay Thai, eFoil, meditation and long hikes. Somewhere in there I rebalanced. The curiosity and energy I had been missing came back, and with them the urge to express myself and make things.
Carried forward: what matters, and where to point my energy.
VII
San Francisco, since October 2026
Back in the market, with an open mind.
I came to San Francisco to build again, from fullness and curiosity. Same wood, same water. A different person carrying it.