Age: 27
Education: Master’s degree in management of organizations, Vinnytsia National Technical University
Profession: IT entrepreneur
Did you know? Lidiya Terpel cites the Kyiv Post Top 30 Under 30 awards as one of her inspirations. “The people who were featured on the Top 30 Under 30 list have inspired me during last years,” she said, of young people who have won the prize before her. “Some of them were my mentors and I tried to understand their secrets of success.”
Ukraine has at least 100,000 IT specialists, and that is expected to double over the next three years. IT outsourcing alone is bringing in well over $2.5 billion per year and the sector is getting even bigger and stronger. The whole IT industry is valued at more than $3.2 billion.
But Ukraine is not only an IT services outsourcing hub. It’s also a source of innovation, creativity and creation. It is the nation that has brought, or helped to bring us, the likes of PayPal, GitLab, WhatsApp, Grammarly and Petcube.
Ukrainian IT is unstoppable. And that is largely because of the youthful energy and sheer ambition of many young people here who are seizing or creating opportunities, starting up an array of intriguing and important tech companies.
“I got into the tech sphere right after graduation,” says Lidiya Terpel, a 27-year-old IT prodigy who is founder & CEO at Skyworker.
“That was a Revolution of Dignity period in Ukraine,” she said, referring to the uprising that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
I understood that anyone can influence the situation if you make your voice heard. So I chose the way of developing my own global company to get the power for meaningful changes in Ukraine.”
In IT, Terpel says she can find straight answers to lots of big questions, and you can find them quickly. It is also an area in which she can quickly realize her business ambitions and put her creative spirit to good use.
“You don’t need to have huge finances to start a business. Because you can motivate team members with shares [in the company] and develop the product only with your hands and knowledge,” she said.
IT is also global, which is good for business and good for Ukraine, Terpel thinks. It means there are plenty of clients, and plenty of ideas, a free flow of information, goods and services.
“Of course, there are borders, but also, there is an ambitious plan to break them down and deliver Ukrainian products to any place in the World.”
Recently, Terpel and her team progressed in the international Seedstarts CEE Startup Competition, at the end of November 2019: “Thanks to that, we will represent Ukraine at the Global Startup battle with 60 startups in Switzerland in April 2020… We won despite being one of the youngest startups with 0 investments… which competed with companies who already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she said.
Terpel and her team are now preparing for the final competition, but she is still having plenty of fun too.
“I am proud of the fact that we build a company not only for making money. Skyworker is our work, but also our hobbies and our space for experiments… our creative place where we’re building a new, unique, modern method for hiring teams of technology companies,” she explained.
To others looking to start a cool Ukrainian IT company, Terpel has some advice.
You need to fall in love with solving complex problems, she suggests, adding that this skill is at the root of the most successful startups. Secondly, you need to read more about hiring and team building.
“Because with the growth of the company, you will increasingly realize that no matter how cool you are — without the ability to surround yourself with highly effective people… you will not go far and will constantly return to the start due to regular hiring mistakes.”
Lastly, she says: exit your comfort zone. “Even if your heart is jumping out of your chest, go for it.”
