By the autumn, they were all back in Kyiv. Matskov prefers his team—which has grown from 30 at the start of the full-scale invasion to 41—to be in the office. But then Russia started hitting power stations and telecoms infrastructure. Some days, the electricity was only on for a few hours at a time. As temperatures fell, Howly once again moved the whole team west, to where it had generators and Starlinks set up to keep the lights on and the internet running. Employees brought with them family members and even pets. “I think the electricity was cut, like, 10 times a day. And after the electricity drops, you hear somebody running to the generator,” Matskov says. In mid-January, the team voted to return to Kyiv.

The war has pushed Howly to speed up its plans to diversify. It’s branching into legal advice, signing up lawyers who can spend a few hours online to answer queries from users. And it’s moving into Spanish language services. Growing in the current environment isn’t easy—venture capitalists are leery about investing in a leadership team that’s entirely based in a war zone. But there is still some money available, and the war has driven a new kind of solidarity and mutual support within the tech sector—whether that’s unicorns reinvesting into the ecosystem, or companies sharing generators and survival tips. “All the biggest tech companies in Ukraine, starting February 24, they just work together,” Matskov says. “The cooperation was amazing.”

"In 10 to 20 years, Ukraine will be the new Silicon Valley.”

January 1 is a huge day for the health and well-being industry. It’s when millions of people, fired up by their New Year’s resolutions, sign up for gym memberships and fitness apps, and order sportswear and wearable tech. To prepare for the start of 2023, Victoria Repa ordered $300,000 worth of generators and water-treatment equipment for the BetterMe office in Kyiv. Russia was in the middle of a ferocious campaign of air raids that targeted civilian infrastructure, including power stations and water-treatment plants, and Repa needed to make sure her team could get online, stay warm, and have access to showers and clean water. “It’s strange,” Repa says, laughing at the absurdity of it. “But we compete with companies that aren’t in this situation, so we don’t have time to complain.”