How we created the pitch deck for the Ukrainian tech ecosystem in 2021. The Ukrainian post

In recent decades, the Ukrainian technology sector has grown significantly, expanded, and gained momentum. To start the leap, we need to consolidate and jointly push forward Ukraine as a place where a booming innovative environment, disruptive technologies and unicorns are born.

Each Ukrainian community and company found its own facts, messages, and intonations to talk about Ukrainian technologies in the world. However, there was currently no single narrative repeated by many voices that is really strong. That’s why we realized how we could fix it.

TechUkraine in partnership with UNIT.City, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many other stakeholders of the sphere took the initiative to create the up-to-date pitch deck for the Ukrainian tech industry.

During 9 months of developing the project “How to Pitch Ukrainian Tech”, we went through several stages

launched all-Ukrainian survey,
conducted several meetings with ecosystem stakeholders – ideathons and brainstorms,
presented the concept
Implemented it into: a joint initiative of the Ukrainian ecosystem pavilion at Web Summit and the promo video of presenting the tech ecosystem by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and TechUkraine

and now we are ready to present the whole road map, achievements and summary.

Let’s start!

Chapter 1 – All-Ukrainian survey (February-April)

In February, TechUkraine in partnership with UNIT.City, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed and launched the all-Ukrainian survey – “How to pitch Ukrainian Tech Industry?” to gather insights about UA Tech brand perception from wider audiences.

Key findings of the research:

Associations, statements, references
Visions of the future of Ukrainian tech
over 200 answers from all over Ukraine

Chapter 2 – Ideathon “How to pitch Ukrainian tech?” (May)

On 29th of May, we met at Ideathon “How to pitch Ukrainian tech?” – the first iteration with TechUkraine Changemakers at NEST: after gathering, analysing and introducing the united narrative of Ukrainian tech presented for the public discussion

Previously, we sent over 100 letters with invitation to join the initiative with the aim to attract all tech stakeholders and cover interests and points of view (government, associations, clusters, donors, VC, companies, media, etc)

During the event

Nataly Veremeeva presented the findings of the survey
Participants united in 4 groups, worked on the visualization of the industry, mission & vision of it
After that each group presented their vision to the audience and discussed conceptual narrative and slogans together

Chapter 3 – Brainstorms (June-July)

During the second and third iteration of ideathon “How to pitch Ukrainian tech?”, which took place on 7th of June and 14th of July, participants brainstormed and observed the structure of the future pitch deck, core elements of the united narrative and slogans of Ukrainian tech.

Chapter 4 – Announcement of participation in Web Summit 2021 (September)

In the beginning of the Autumn the Ukrainian tech community actively pushed forward the initiative of participation in Web Summit 2021 in Lisbon.

As a result, the 30th of September at the Club of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with the participation of Mykhailo Fedorov (Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine), Pavlo Kartashov (the Director of the Ukrainian Startup Fund), Anna Derevyanko (Executive Director of the European Business Association), Valery Krasovsky (co-founder and CEO of Sigma Software Group), Oleksiy Vitchenko (the founder of “Digital Future”), Oleksandr Komarov (the president of Kyivstar), it was officially announced that the first Ukrainian pavilion will be organized at the WebSummit, one of the largest events in the world of technology, on the 1st to 4th November in Lisbon.

Chapter 5 – Meetup before Web Summit (October)

On 12th of October, at Unit.city the joint team gathered startups, businesses, investors, and the government for the offline meetup before Web Summit, the international event where the Ukrainian ecosystem had been presented for the first time, to synchronize and to set up the key point of the common presentation of Ukrainian tech within the event.

During the event there was a focused discussion of the ideas and narratives worth spreading)

Chapter 6 – presentation of the results of THE ideation “How to pitch Ukrainian Tech” (October)

On 27th of October we invited tech ecosystem stakeholders to the presentation of the results of the ideation “How to pitch Ukrainian Tech”, and the pitch deck, promoting Ukrainian Tech Ecosystem:

Nataly Veremeeva showcased the presentation, created on the basis of the survey and 3 iterations of brainstorms of tech ecosystem stakeholders
Active players of the market discussed the pitch deck during the networking party

Participants were inspired to pave the way for Web Summit 2021!

Chapter 7 – The first-ever Ukrainian tech ecosystem Pavilion at Web Summit 2021

And already on the 2th of November the first Ukrainian Pavilion at Web Summit took off!

Ukraine’s IT industry is booming and is growing five times (25%) faster than the global average (4-6%).
Ukrainian start-ups raised $2 billion in VC investments in 6 years.
By 2025, the industry is projected to generate $10 billion
5,000 IT companies, 252,000 developers. 5 unicorns

2.11 – Workshop

On November 2 at 4 PM (Altice Arena Fil 1) our leading Ukrainian tech players made a big presentation “Hidden gem: Ukraine’s tech ecosystem at a glance” and explained why Ukraine is a powerful global IT hub and should be on the radar of international investors, companies, and startups.

Probably it was the most important event for the whole delegation: over ninety minutes, 13 speakers gave the audience a comprehensive overview of the local IT market and their organizations. During the presentation which was visited by over 200 people from 20 countries, the audience discovered:

What kind of benefits are provided by the special legal framework Diia City to IT companies
How investors can earn on Ukrainian startupers
Why Ukraine is an appealing destination for international businesses
How fintech drives digitalization of Ukrainian market: cashless payments growth in Ukraine
About Ukraine as a gaming hub of Eastern Europe: the role of tech in entertainment development
Lessons learned by Ukrainian tech products, expanding to EU markets
What’s happening in Ukrainian cybersecurity ecosystem today

Andrew Wrobel, Emerging Europe’s founding partner and the lead of Tech Emerging Europe Advocates moderated the session.

3.11 – Ukrainian Network Party “DREAMLAND” Dreams. Ideas. Fantasies.

Also, the Ukrainian tech community invited Web Summit guests to visit the boundless world of imagination, where reality merges with fantasies — The Dreamland. Guests enjoyed a party in an incredible location, Restaurant Ferroviario, in the format of a secret place, with the performance of the most technological duo of Ukrainian DJs and impactful networking.

The first-ever Ukrainian stand at the world’s biggest tech conference Web Summit 2021 turned out to be a huge success! Key achievements were showcased within the “Ukraine at WebSummit: Summary & Network Party”:

Almost 40 percent of the Web Summit’s participants visited Ukraine’s pavilion. The presentation of the local tech ecosystem was also overcrowded, which included people from over 20 countries.
In total more than 60 Ukrainian startups took part in the first offline Web Summit in two years. Among those who were represented at the booth were 14 startups that won travel grants from Ukrainian Startup Fund, Ukrainian Hub and CRDF Global.
Effa, the first world’s 100% renewable and recyclable toothbrush made of paper, became the first Ukrainian startup to make it to the Web Summit’s main stage to tell the world about itself and Ukraine.
Another famous Ukrainian project Reface also had its moments of glory. Its CEO Dima Shvets gave a speech on how AI is changing the face of fashion, entertainment and music and Oles Petriv, CTO at Reface talked about how we will live in a synthetic future.
Last but not least the Ukrainian party “Dreamland”, a side event organized by UNIT.City, Kyivstar, Softserve, and JKR Investment Group, blew the minds of over 200 people.
Over 20 international media wrote about Ukraine’s pavilion. The total media coverage is estimated at 1 000 000 (press, TV)!

Chapter 8 – Video presentation of the Ukrainian tech ecosystem

In December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came up with the idea of the video presentation of the Ukrainian tech ecosystem which could be the business card of the industry worldwide. The TechUkraine team joined to support the initiative, gathering relevant data, video content by the industry stakeholders.

And the video will include key messages of the our pitch deck:

UKRAINE: Europe’s biggest Tech country

Ukraine is a blooming tech talent pool. We power global tech engines. It’s BRAINing here.
Entrepreneurship hub: Start easy, develop fast, grow global with Ukraine. The land of tech freedom.
World’s R&D lab. Everything is TECHable with Ukraine.

We’ll announce the presentation of the video in following days.

Summary

The systematic promotion of the sector is no longer a whim but a necessity; the industry must have common messages and facts.

The promotion of the sector should not be allowed to run wild because the results of the ideaton show what is being broadcast when it is not done systematically.

We have already achieved a lot, and now every IT worker must become a passionate ambassador of the Ukrainian tech sector abroad. Even employees travel a lot and talk about the country and the sector. And it is essential that everyone does not criticize but says the right, reinforcing things.

We are all in the same boat here, and we should be proud of who we are and what we have achieved. A bonus is that repeating one message enhances it, increasing the effect.

That is why it is important to take this initiative, spread the messages, fill them with up-to-date facts, and do it systematically and with the whole industry. Check it, share it, use it in your everyday promo activities, it is available for everyone.