War has not stopped the entrepreneurial spirit of Ukraine – in fact, developing Ukrainian businesses is vital to ensuring the country’s future and post-war recovery.
For this reason, the Promprylad Foundation and the Berkeley Haas School of Business have partnered to create a unique program for Ukrainian entrepreneurs, which was recently concluded for the second time. Promprylad believes that entrepreneurship is not about innate talent, but rather, it's something that anyone can learn.
“It's crucial to import frameworks to Ukraine from places where entrepreneurship is ingrained in a culture and nurtured over centuries,” said Ivanna Pohrebniak, the head of Promprylad’s New Economy Center.
Entrepreneurship is a core part of people’s identity in the U.S., but “in Ukraine we still feel the pressure of stereotypes inherited from the Soviet Union, where standing out, running one's own business, or discussing profits were considered undesirable,” Pohrebniak added.
The first session of the international program took place in the summer of 2023, while the second session, "Berkeley Spring at Promprylad," was recently concluded. In total, 202 participants from across Ukraine have participated in the program so far. The participants came from a range of sectors, including IT, marketing, art and design, non-profit, and sports technologies.
Based in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in the west of Ukraine, Promprylad Foundation is a part of Promprylad.Renovation, an impact investment project that has transformed an old plant into a center of the creative and innovative economy of the region. Promprylad Foundation works to develop sustainable solutions for Ukrainians and is dedicated to creating a positive socio-economic impact in the country through further education and support for innovation.
The eventual aim is to set an example that will be copied and scaled up in other cities. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Promprylad has focused on initiatives that allow Ukrainian people, organizations, and businesses to continue working and developing, despite Russia’s brutal war.
The partnership between Promprylad Foundation and Berkeley marks the first institutional collaboration between Berkeley's business school and a Ukrainian organization. The program was specifically developed by staff at Berkeley and combines several courses that are taught at the university in California. The course is given by experts with experience working in startups and international businesses, some of whom have co-founded companies themselves.
The Ukrainian participants benefit from practical knowledge from the course instructors, as well as networking opportunities with both the mentors and other students. For Tamara Hotra, the manager of Ungvarskiy Thermal Resort in Zakarpattia Oblast, the program was “like a breath of fresh air.”
“Our company is going through a time of change, transformation, and growth, and this training was very timely for me,” Hotra said. “Now I realize how valuable this practice of asking your customer is, and of listening more than talking. I take with me great networking, the practice of different thinking.”
Previous participants in the program have included the owner of an app for people with diabetes and the partnership manager of a platform for more inclusive hiring, which aims to help people such as veterans and those who are internally displaced find suitable employment.
Out of the 15 projects presented last year, six continue to grow and have evolved into startups.
One example is Spline Art, a platform for investing in modern Ukrainian art, which became profitable within the year following the program.
This year's program featured 14 teams that showcased their ideas and projects after completing three months of intensive training and collaboration. The entrepreneurs' bold ideas were evaluated by a jury of business leaders, educators, and startup mentors, including Berkeley instructors Gauthier Vasseur and Rhonda Shrader, Kyiv School of Economics Rector Tymofii Brik, and Ivanna Pohrebniak, the head of Promprylad’s New Economy Center. The jury assessed and gave advice on diverse projects, ranging from compact water filters to devices for the visually impaired.
"The Berkeley at Promprylad program continues to support a promising generation of Ukrainian entrepreneurs important to the country's economy,” said Vasseur, who is also the program director.
“In these trying times, it's inspiring to see what true resilience means, and I hope the team of instructors we've assembled have inspired them as much as the participants have inspired us,” he added.
Thanks to donor support, the cost of the course for Ukrainians who participated in both the summer 2023 and spring 2024 programs was significantly reduced from $8,000 to $1,700. This year, 10 veterans and 16 students were able to study for free due to the support of the donor Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund.
The Berkeley at Promprylad program demonstrates that despite difficult times, different partners can work together to create an environment where creativity and international cooperation can thrive. The positive impact of the Berkeley at Promprylad curriculum will be seen for years to come, with several projects from last year continuing to grow and having already become successful startups.
