From senior executive to building an insurance company with $120 million in revenue
I am an entrepreneur in the financial sector ( «Arsenal Insurance» ), and I have always taken a clear-eyed view of business: either you make it your primary focus, or you lose to those who make decisions in their own interests. The full-scale war tested the resilience of the system and our ability not to cling to the past.
In March 2022, we recorded a 95% drop and were left with almost no sales. In such a situation, people no longer need insurance, and for a financial business, a threat to the country's existence means a threat to the market's very existence. Despite this, we did not stop. Even in the midst of a shock, an insurance company still has two realities.
First, claims payments and settlements: losses do not disappear; they may simply be delayed.
Second, assistance—the ability to organize the necessary help and services. We focused on concrete actions: supporting people who had found themselves abroad and serving the market even when there was no immediate direct revenue. Today, we have returned to pre-war levels and continue to grow. In 2025, our annual revenue was $120 million.
Our strategic ambition is to build a company worth $1 billion, leveraging future integration into the European market and the opportunity to create either a large insurance company or a technology “satellite” that will enable us to scale globally.
War-risk coverage became a new product because the market needed it
How did the business idea come about?
The business idea is tied to market needs. We launch what people genuinely need right now. That is how a product covering war risks came about. Demand emerged after missile attacks, when people began calling us themselves to ask whether they could get insured. We calculated the risks and set an economically sound premium, which was later borne out by claims data.
Market focus, discipline, and the ability to see what matters most
What key skills helped you launch the business?
The first skill is the ability to stay current: to read market signals and not get stuck on what worked yesterday. I often see entrepreneurs trying to “fit a square peg into a round hole”—pushing a product they themselves like but the market does not need. The second skill is staying focused on what matters, rather than on convenient details. The brain avoids anything that requires new knowledge, time, and effort, but that is exactly where you need to look. The third is discipline in the business model: not confusing growth with scaling, and not entering new markets until the unit economics add up.
Falling demand, the risk of losing the market, and a shortage of insurance products
What were the 3 most difficult challenges you addressed in the early years?
- A sudden collapse in demand. In the first month of the full-scale war, sales fell by 95%. People were dealing with the basic necessities of survival, not buying insurance.
- Systemic risk to the financial sector. If there is no country, there are no banks or insurance companies in the usual sense either. In other words, the business could be left existing only on paper.
- Product shortages and market chaos. This included a shortage of Green Cards for people traveling abroad. We had to find policies even from competitors and arrange for them to be delivered to the border.
The full-scale war and distrust of insurance became the main crises
What crises has your business faced, and how did you overcome them?
The main crisis was the start of the full-scale war. We were operating amid uncertainty, not knowing whether the market would even continue to exist. We managed to preserve our operational capacity thanks to our contact centers and service function: we helped people arrange insurance in Poland and explained where and what kind of insurance they could get—all free of charge and with no direct benefit to the company. At the same time, we supported the claims settlement process, since claims for compensation always come in with a certain delay. The second crisis was distrust of insurance as a category. In Ukraine, people are reluctant to pay for a risk that may never materialize. When demand for war-risk insurance emerged, we faced a gap between expectations: clients wanted only a minimal price increase, while the actual risk called for a very different premium. We accepted this as a market reality and built the product based on risk mathematics.
Reputation, partnerships, and new products—the 3 decisions that fueled growth
Which decisions proved most effective in growing the company?
The first decision was to invest in our reputation through concrete actions at a time when making money was almost impossible. We opened a helpline with an “everyone can call” approach, helping people find hard-to-get policies, including competitors’ Green Cards, and arranging for them to be delivered to the border. Later, many of the people we helped came back to us as paying clients.
The second decision was to preserve our partnership model in the first days of the full-scale war. While other insurance companies were withdrawing deposits from banks and winding down partnership programs with banks and car dealerships, we did not. We did not withdraw deposits early, did not stop advancing repair costs at car dealerships, and remained a reliable partner. As a result, when competitors began leaving the market, business gradually concentrated with us.
The third was to adapt our product quickly to clients’ new needs. We launched war-risk coverage for cars at a premium of 2% of the vehicle’s value, reflecting the actual likelihood of an insured event. This allowed us to capture almost the entire niche segment in which people were willing to pay.
Don’t settle for less, and make time for the people who matter most
Which mistake do you now consider your most valuable learning experience?
For me, the most valuable learning experience came from setting my expectations too low and settling for less. At the start of my career, I agreed to work for free and began on a tiny salary. My advice today is simple: don’t lower your standards, value your intelligence, and always aim for first place. Another mistake was that, by immersing myself completely in the business, I spent less time with my own children than developing my senior executives. I am actively working to make up for that now.
