Five years of dev.ua: how (and why) we survived

On June 17, 2021, my first text was published on our new website. It was called “ dev.ua was born .» In that article, I sent my hopes and aspirations for the future somewhere into the universe.

I have to admit: while preparing to launch the media, although I believed in this idea, I was still quite skeptical. What I was most afraid of was how we would quickly gain an audience from scratch and start making money on advertising. Which event would come sooner: would Artem (Kintsevy, founder of dev.ua) run out of money or would we grow to an adequate level of recognition in the market?

That’s what I thought then. And, of course, I didn’t guess right — none of the options came true. Six months after our launch, a full-scale invasion began.

Of course, I didn’t believe in the start of such a war. Artem was more pragmatic on this topic. When we were working on launching the publication on some tenth floor in a coworking space in the Gulliver Tower, he was obviously a little nervous about the possibility of hostilities right next to us.

If I were writing a long text about our five-year anniversary now, I would call it «dev.ua survived.» Because everything that happened to us after February 24, 2022 is a continuous period of survival.

I don’t know what kind of financial evaporation Artem used to pull us through until the end of 2022, but later it became obvious: we either had to close or find a way to make a living. Therefore, in addition to the editorial staff, we began to build a small commercial team that would actively sell special projects, videos, and other types of advertising.

Since the spring of 2023, I have been responsible for the project, as it is called, in general — that is, for its financial part. Maria Brovinska became the editor-in-chief. Artem, after a rather tense conversation with me late at night, finally agreed to give me a chance and appoint me CEO. And I agreed to try to carry this burden for at least a year — provided that Artem supported me at first.

Last night, probably due to nerves, I had such a severe attack of tachycardia that I had to call an ambulance and restore a normal heart rhythm. You lie on the couch, the doctor injects some painkiller into your vein, and you think: what the hell is all this for me?

So not only did dev.ua survive, but so did the CEO of dev.ua :))

Over time, things began to stabilize a bit. After we started going full-scale, we gave up the office, so expenses decreased. Salaries were initially cut, and we had to say goodbye to some people. Good people. There were already few of us in the team, so we recruited only the best — those who matched our values. Because of this, we cut them alive. We moved on — and cut them again. This is how you can describe the first few years of our existence.

Surprisingly, we managed to remain as stable as possible in terms of our… journalistic work. There was not a day when the feed was not updated, materials were not published, scripts were not written, or videos were not shot. Even when part of the team was under occupation near Kyiv, even when there was no electricity in the city for days. We worked under any conditions — we wrote the first useful instructions: how to act during shelling, how to find a safe shelter, how to prepare for blackouts, etc.

I remember sitting in a car with the engine running in the winter and working on a computer, while there was gasoline and mobile internet. I remember the invincible coffee shops in the Golden Gate area and IT people swarming like flies around the sockets powered by generators (they’re all trendy now, with Ecoflow). And in a coworking space, where there was also often light, I once sat just on the rug because there were no free chairs.

Perhaps we held on for so long because we really believed: we were doing something useful. For our IT community, and in principle for ourselves and other people. And only Artem knows how many times I told him that I was tired of pulling this cart. Not that I talked — sometimes I shouted. Then we called each other again, I apologized, he apologized, we exhaled and moved on.

Thank you for your patience, Artem, thank you to my dear team, and thank you very much, my dear wife! I couldn’t have done it without your support.

Thank you to our esteemed partners! For you, we try to show the tops of advertising effectiveness, having frankly small resources. Very often we even succeed. Sometimes I myself don’t quite understand how. Without your faith in us, dev.ua would also no longer exist. Advertising is our only source of income.

We must honestly admit: we are still in survival mode. Of course, I would like to have a larger team, a nice office, new computers, etc. Of course, I have plans for the further development of dev.ua. But we are moving forward very carefully. In small steps. Sometimes problems come, and we take a step back again. But in such a way that we fall completely — so far, this has not happened. We have definitely learned to withstand the blow over these five years. But who knows with what force it will come next time. I don’t want to guess.

So, while you’re reading this not-so-subtle column, my team and I will be sitting in a coworking space eating pizza and beer. And in the evening, we’ll go to a bar in the neighborhood together. We’ll see a few of you there.

We live today. What will happen tomorrow — well, we’ll see. Are we ready? I don’t know. I don’t want pretentious statements. I want reality.