Battle Plan

This American tech company CEO didn't lose hope when Russia invaded Ukraine, where he had 150 employees. Instead, he joined them.

- By Kevin J. Ryan

KITRUM

CEO: VLAD KYTAINYK

CATEGORY: IT SERVICES

THREE-YEAR REVENUE GROWTH: 6,799%

IN THE FALL of 2021, as rumors of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine began to swirl, Vlad Kytainyk knew what he needed to do: make a plan. The 33-year-old CEO of a U.S.-based tech company with offices in Ukraine, Kytainyk had expected a full-scale attack ever since Russia's 2014 invasion of Crimea. "That was a clear signal," he says, "that we have a crazy neighbor with nuclear weapons that was willing to take our country."

He was hardly daunted by the challenge, though. Vlad Kytainyk was accustomed to surviving hard times and those hard times had taught him well.

Growing up in Ukraine, he had never known his father. His mother had struggled to find work. His family had to rely on the government and charities to pay for groceries. They could not afford electricity for more than a few hours each day. As a teen, he'd worked a series of odd jobs-delivering cakes, working security at McDonald's-saving enough money to attend college in Ukraine and earn a degree in computer science before ultimately co-founding Kitrum.

"When you eat shit in life, like, tons of it, you understand how not to treat people," says Kytainyk. "So when I started my own business, I knew exactly how I wanted to treat people. I wanted to make people's lives better."