Dima Okhrimchuk, FTMBA 17 - Spreading Awareness to Support Ukraine | OneHaas

Dima Okhrimchuk, FTMBA 17 - Spreading Awareness to Support Ukraine

*Warning: Please note, this podcast includes references to topics including violence and sexual abuse that some people may find disturbing.

Today, we chat with Dima Okhrimchuk, CEO and Co-Founder at Organization.GG, a marketplace for online experiences in the gaming multiverse.

Dima was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. He had the opportunity to become an exchange student in the US and this experience made a huge impact on his personal development. He dreamt of getting an education abroad and after visiting Stanford and UC Berkeley on a business trip to Silicon Valley, he knew he should be there, where all the innovations are coming from. So, in 2015, he started his MBA at Haas, at a time when there was an ongoing war in Ukraine. Everyone is talking and saying that the worst started on the 24th of February this year, but it actually started much earlier than that, back in 2014. This was the year when Russia started its invasion of Ukraine.

In this episode, Dima shares with us what it was like to be studying abroad at a time when his home country was almost at a war, why he went back home after graduation rather than staying in the US, and his experiences founding his tech business before and after the conflict.

Dima also let us in on the current situation in Ukraine, the recent developments, how people are united to help Ukraine win, and what we can do to support the people of Ukraine.

Episode Quotes:

On returning back home after getting his MBA

"For me, that was never a question of whether to stay or to come back to Ukraine. That was my goal from day one. I wanted to build out the network, get the knowledge from UC Berkeley, meet a lot of talented people, but upon graduation, I always wanted to come back to Ukraine and start using and sharing that knowledge with Ukrainians because Ukraine is a young country with a lot of perspectives and a lot of opportunities."

Global awareness and spreading the word about the situation in Ukraine

"In the first couple of weeks, the whole world was buzzing about it but as time goes by… And I understand people have their own lives and they forget about what is happening in a country that could be thousands of miles away. But the war in Ukraine is not over yet. It's far from being over with that planned aggression of Eastern parts. Putin is not going to stop. His main goal is to demolish Ukraine as a nation. We need to fight back and we need to win. And for that, we need to have awareness around the globe. So, continue talking about this and continue watching the news, especially the independent news. Spread the word about what's happening."