Why an American businessman moved to Ukraine and does not plan to return to the USA - ForumDaily
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Why the American entrepreneur moved to Ukraine and does not plan to return to the USA

American entrepreneur John Yuk moved to Kiev to launch his project in 2016. His startup GameTree helps you find friends for computer games. For more than two years, John was so in love with Ukraine that he did not plan to return to the United States. He said MC Today about life in Ukraine, why he considers our programmers the best and why he keeps quiet about his place of residence.

Photo: Facebook John Uke

Before the launch of the GameTree, according to the publication AINThe entrepreneur studied at Babson College, one of the coolest schools in the USA, where students are required to run a business while studying; taught programming and digital photography; started his programming school in San Francisco Hacker: Coding Academy; founded NewVo - a site where you can share tips on fashion. Now he is raising a startup in Kiev.

Я — серийный предприниматель, работаю над стартапами еще с тех пор как окончил университет. Сейчас я занимаюсь собственным проектом, и за последние шесть месяцев у меня не было полного рабочего дня. Не думаю, что такое возможно в Калифорнии. Если бы я не переехал в Киев, то мне, скорее всего, пришлось бы работать на кого-то.

It’s easier for me to bear the risks and failures associated with a business that depress other people because I am from a family of entrepreneurs.

My father founded the company Underwater Kinetics, which develops and sells lanterns of various kinds.

He already has 50 patents, and inventions are sold in 80 countries. He started this business in college when he studied engineering. But I quit my studies and has since been working on my own project.

Many may say that such things are not interrelated, that everything depends on the person himself, his character. But since my childhood I had a living example of business before my eyes, then it is much easier for me to build my own strategy.

Experience helped me to understand one trivial thing: before you start doing something, you need to understand your motivation, determine your strengths and weaknesses. The most important thing at startup is effort. And they must immediately be sent to the right direction.

How did the idea of ​​GameTree

I worked as an IT recruiter in San Francisco for Bridgegate. My job was to find top CTOs in companies like Google or Playboy. A month after starting work, I independently learned how to code, and I came up with the idea of ​​an algorithm that would be able to make accurate predictions based on what people like and what doesn't.

I wrote a trial version, first tried it in Python, but it turned out that I lacked knowledge of databases, then I just checked it in Excel, then I tried to implement the same thing in Ruby and JavaScript. It turned out that he predicts film ratings on 70% more accurately than analogs. So I thought: it can be used for game recommendations. So began my current project - GameTree. After all, the game is more difficult to select than the movie or music.

I myself have been a gamer almost all my life, I grew up on games. Much cooler to play with someone, and our slogan sounds like “Find yours”. Games are a great reason to make friends, because while playing, you cooperate, compete, see how friends behave in stressful situations.

GameTree is a recommendation platform. Here you can evaluate the games, take personalized tests in order to be prompted to friends with similar tastes or games that suit you. So while you are playing online, you can write to a friend with an offer to chat. Or if you do not have enough partners for the board game, the last player in the DotA team. It works for both online games and console, mobile, desktop, even VR.

Photo: Facebook John Uke

Ukrainian programmers do not need to control

Recommendations from Ukrainian friends helped me decide, and I chose Kiev as the launching pad for my startup. The level of programmers in Ukraine is not inferior to the level of specialists in the United States, but at the same time it is easier to contact and agree with them.

In Kiev, I can safely hire a few people for the salary of a specialist from Silicon Valley. They cost 6-7 once cheaper than Americans.

Ukrainians are more stable. They change jobs less frequently than Americans, which is good for retaining inside information. For two years, no one from 11 has left my team. This is unusual for any company, especially at the beginning. I like to think that GameTree is a good place to work.

Ukrainians care less about stocks and more about salaries. But in any case, my whole team gets options, even if they don’t ask for it. This is part of my vision for the company: if a person spends a large part of his life on something, he should own a part of it.

The developers here earn less than their American counterparts, but with respect to prices for accommodation, one can say they are better off. For example, a programmer in the Gulf of average hands can earn $ 6000- $ 19 000 per month, and a Ukrainian specialist of the same level has $ 1200- $ 4200.

I generally prefer to work with local people. There is only one foreigner in my team - a Turk, who periodically comes to the country. I once contacted American developers. They were extremely ugly: they said they would do the work - and disappeared.

Ukrainian programmers are initiative. Others (for example, from India or China) need to be given TK and describe everything to the smallest detail. They perform tasks well, but think little. The guys from my team do not need to constantly monitor.

Ukrainians are also, I think, a little more optimistic and energetic than residents of other countries of the former Soviet Union. And this is important for the startup team. The level of English in the IT community is high, since Ukraine is one of the leading countries in IT outsourcing in Europe, and possibly in the world.

At first I was going to give away design, sales, marketing and business development to outsource to California. But I was pleasantly surprised by the level of local specialists, so I preferred to work with them. We finally rented a small two-story office at the Golden Gate.

And the people here are really friendly. Once I sent offers to Ukrainian data sciencé specialists, and after 24 minutes I had three interviews scheduled, and three others politely replied that they were not interested in the proposal. I don’t know if this is due to the fact that I’m from the USA, or there’s just a different business culture, but in America it’s hard to reach developers with such skills, besides, annoying recruiters are constantly chasing them.

Photo: Facebook John Uke

What does Ukraine like?

In life in Ukraine, of course, there are many drawbacks - not the most adequate landlords, the state of the roads. I am also very surprised that all foreign dishes are prepared by local. In America, Mexicans cook Mexican food, Japanese people cook Japanese food. It played a cruel joke with me: I once ordered nachos and they brought them without cheese. All over the world nachos are made with cheese, and there it is! Ready to kill for good Mexican food.

But there are still more advantages. Here are more sincere people. If they say something, then most of them mean it. All these "How are you?", "See you soon" in America are false.

In Ukraine, people are sincerely interested in each other’s affairs and agree on a real meeting.

As an example: before the trip I was looking for a place on the couchsurfing. I expected to find a lodging for the night, but I didn’t expect 40 people to respond. Someone offered a night, someone just wanted to talk. I think it's because I'm American.

Regarding the level of medical service, I cannot say anything, but I heard that it is much cheaper than ours. Gyms are quite expensive, but still cheaper than in the States. In general, the cost of living for me decreased by 70% compared to California, and by about 80% - from San Francisco, while the standard of living remained the same.

I don't know Russian very well. Sometimes it is difficult, but on the other hand - I do not understand the advertisement that hangs at almost every step, I do not understand the conversations that I can hear by chance. This makes it possible to think freely.

In general, Kiev is my favorite city in Ukraine. Here people live without haste, there is no eternal fuss. I have already been to Odessa, Lviv, Ternopil. Odessa is like Florida, but I didn’t imagine it at all. Lviv also struck. Very exquisite, beautiful. I found a stray kitten there, transported him to Kiev and left. It is now a year.

Photo: Facebook John Uke

I also like the fact that there are many murals in Kiev. Although I am almost not interested in art, but I like to walk past the drawings on the walls. I especially like the mural, which depicts a man with an eagle's head. In America, it is almost impossible to get permission and draw something on the wall.

I have already managed to taste the dumplings, borscht, lard, to love Ukrainian cuisine in general. The good news is that in Ukrainian restaurants offer many dishes from potatoes - I love her very much.

Here are active young people who love startups. They are more risky, they are not puzzled by stability and economy, therefore, it is easier to generate and implement cool ideas. I want to stay in Ukraine. Work here gives a great competitive advantage.

Many of my friends, the founders of multi-million dollar companies, also live here. But we all don’t say much about it, it’s a kind of secret. No one wants to rent a profitable location.

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