Recently, AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) have become the most popular sectors in the Ukrainian information technology industry. As a result, the general demand in the IT market has been tilting heavily towards ML and AI products, and more funds from investors are pouring into these industries.
Sergey Kartashov (Sergejs Kartasovs), the Senior Partner of Roosh, talks about the setbacks in the IT business about these industries in Ukraine, how they can be rectified, and the reason Ukraine can lead the rest of Eastern Europe in AI.
Demand Exceeds Supply
The IT market in Ukraine lacks the availability of professional developers. Surprisingly, there are over 200,000 employees in the IT industry, yet IT firms had a 30% vacancy rate. The industry has grown very fast and engaged the services of virtually every expert. The result is a heightened cost of labor and a more intense rivalry between firms to hire quality staff.
Sergey Kartashov said that there are multiple triggers to this problem. There is the rapid growth of the Ukrainian IT industry, the hiring of Ukrainian citizens by several foreign companies, and the inability of the local varsities to train an adequate number of IT specialists.
According to Kartashov, many IT companies in Ukraine intend to create an IT school. A notable example is the one created by Sergey Tokarev and Tymofiy Milovanov, modeled after Stanford University.
Approaching Education Differently
Sergey Kartashov gives reasons why firms are creating schools to rectify the shortcomings of the existing ones. He said that the IT industry is dynamic, and schools in Ukraine cannot keep up with the change. As a result, a graduate has to get retrained in an advanced course. In most cases, this training is funded by the developer’s employer.
Another reason is that universities offer courses in programming without teaching them to create startups, teaching the legal aspect, the business aspect, and other essential areas. Graduates from such schools come out with an idea but are clueless about building, promoting, and knowing how to pitch their idea to investors.
A Novel Investment Ideology
With the arrival of the investment culture from the west, there are expectations for the development of Ukrainian startups. In America, there is a margin for a mistake that permits startups to come up with many failed projects before their next market hit, with investors willing to buy it.
Sergey Kartashov said that the Ukrainian economy is willing to create a new Amazon or something innovative from tons of experimental projects.
In America, it is not outrageous for most of the sponsored startups to churn out failed projects. Investors do not fret about this happening because they can still earn from the minority of these investors. Furthermore, the startups that did not succeed are still useful. They can provide budding teams with an opportunity to have a go at it, building experience while making their pioneer product and drawing attention from investors.
This experience can help specialists to hone their skills, help prospective startups to learn how to communicate with investors, and help lawyers with an opportunity to collaborate with law firms and officials. The bottom line is that a failure is viewed as an opportunity to gain more experience.
Another investment that is alien to Ukraine is agreement on future shares. This is an agreement between a startup and an investor. The investor funds the implementation of the startup’s project and eventually earns some shares when the startup issues shares. This can be a big boost for Ukraine’s startup market.
