Name: Ivan Pasichnyk
Age: 29
Education: mechanical engineer; Kyiv Polytechnic University
Company: Ecoisme
Did you know? In January 2016, Forbes Europe included Ivan Pasichnyk into its list of 30 of the most successful people in Europe up to 30 years old in the industry sector.
Ivan Pasichnyk believes anyone has the chance to emulate his success.
“I’d like people in Ukraine to comprehend that everything’s achievable,” tech startup wizard Pasichnyk, 29, told the Kyiv Post after Forbes placed him on its list of 30 of the most successful people in Europe up to 30 years old.
Three years before, Pasichnyk and two brothers, Alexander and Anton Diatlov, had cofounded Ecoisme, a startup that designs energy monitoring systems. In the era of green energy and ecological awareness, these products were destined for success.
The Ecoisme team was created in Kyiv in 2013 during a hackathon – an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software and hardware development thrash out and implement tech ideas.
Headed by Pasichnyk, they built a smart energy monitoring system for residential buildings that can detect all major devices in use in a home with a single sensor connected to an apartment fuse box.
After that hackathon, the young company – now with 13 people – started to rake in prizes and recognition.
Ecoisme has won multiple awards, including the Best of Innovation 2016 at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, local rounds of the 1776 Challenge Cup global startup tournament, the Seedstars World tech tournament, first prize at the RWE Utility Day, and the EDF Pulse contest, organized by the largest energy supplier in the world.
They managed to attract $100,000 in funding from T-Venture, the early-stage venture arm of Deutsche Telekom, and to win a place in a U.K. based tech-acceleration program run by Richard Branson’s Virgin Media and U.S. Techstars. The company has had eight backers in total.
“Everyone does the job equally important for the company,” Alexander Diatlov, an Ecoisme co-founder, told the Kyiv Post. “But Pasichnyk is the CEO and engaged in a company’s development strategy and general management. Accordingly, it is his job to be the face of the company,”
Pasichnyk agrees, saying that everyone in the team deserves recognition. “We’ve done a lot of work,” he said. “And more still lies ahead.”
Pasichnyk is also a firm believer in the new direction his country has taken. He supported Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution and camped out on Maidan Nezalezhnosti with other activists during the protests. He was also in the team that developed the first Ukrainian 3D printer.
As for social initiatives, Pasichnyk with his friends opened a hacker space – a community-operated programming workspace – in 2012 in Kyiv.
“I always try to do something for Ukraine,” he said. “There are a lot of good initiatives here.”
