This week’s parent profile is of Ivan Kychatyi, who in addition to being the founder of multiple tech startups, is also the father of a 7 year-old. Ivan and his family are from Ukraine, and although they arrived in Germany years before the Russian invasion, the war has still had a transformational impact on Ivan’s working life.
Shortly after Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, Ivan pivoted from his previous startup to co-found UATalents, a platform helping displaced Ukrainians in Germany to find work. Having recently rolled out a new AI cover letter generator, Ivan and his co-founder’s focus has now expanded beyond UATalents — and Ivan has found himself working on lots of big and important things at the same time while also doing his best to continue being present for his family.
In our interview, we talked a little bit about UATalents, but we went into even more detail on the more everyday aspects of Ivan’s working life. Although Ivan’s circumstances may be unique, his day-to-day challenges are things that will be familiar to many parents listening. How do you carve out enough working time in the day while also attending to your family obligations? And after a busy day of working on something in the creative and/or professional world that you really care about, how do you detach and make sure that you are fully there again when it’s time to spend time with your kids?
Ivan led us to a lot of interesting places in my conversation with him, so turn the volume up and keep it locked here while you do your podcast chores. And be sure to pay extra attention when Ivan talks about how he unintentionally trained his 7 year-old in the art of making a good sales pitch.
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