I Didn’t Get into IT — and Ended Up in Medical Design: How Chance Changed My Career
I’m Dmytro Supruniuk, founder of Technology Project Group — a company that creates technology solutions for healthcare facilities. We help translate clinicians’ needs into modern design solutions so that future hospitals meet the requirements of medicine and provide high-quality patient care. My professional journey did not begin quite as I had planned.
When I applied to Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, I fell a few points short of getting into the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Engineering, where I had wanted to study and pursue a career in IT. Instead, I enrolled in the Faculty of Electronics, in the Department of Biomedical Electronics. It was there that I met my future wife and closest friends, and gained the knowledge that became the foundation of my professional career.
After graduating from university, a chance meeting between my brother and a childhood friend led me to my first job in the healthcare business. That was where I began working with medical equipment, medical gases, and hospital infrastructure. With each new project, I gained a better understanding of the industry’s needs and saw opportunities to develop a specialized expertise that the Ukrainian market lacked at the time. Eventually, this experience led me to establish Technology Project Group. In 2021, we founded a company specializing in the design of healthcare facilities, with a focus on medical technology.
We help hospitals implement modern diagnostic and treatment methods by translating clinical needs into design and engineering solutions. Today, our team works on projects in Ukraine and beyond, combining engineering expertise, modern medical technologies, and a deep understanding of the needs of healthcare facilities and their specialties.
Turning Down a Director’s Role and Bridging Medicine and Design
How did you come up with the business idea?
The idea of starting my own business emerged gradually, through the experience I gained in healthcare. While working at ALT Ukraine, I was responsible for medical equipment and medical gases. That was when I met my future business partner, Dmytro, a design engineer specializing in medical technology with extensive experience in the field.
Over time, I realized just how much the market needed this expertise. Doctors know what the treatment process should look like, but they cannot always translate their needs into technical specifications for architects and engineers. We saw an opportunity to become the link between medicine and design. Understanding the market itself was also important. Most similar professionals were good engineers, but they lacked deep expertise and did not see how to turn their knowledge into a standalone product that healthcare facility owners and managers needed.
I saw an opportunity to offer clients more than just one part of a project: comprehensive expertise that helps identify optimal solutions while accounting for clinical objectives and available resources during construction project development. That is how the idea for Technology Project Group was born.
Belief in the Idea, Communication, and Accountability for Quality — Three Skills That Launched TPG
What key skills helped you launch the business?
I believe three skills helped me most when starting the business. The first was belief in my idea and the ability to keep moving forward even when the results were not yet visible. In business, things do not always happen quickly. It is important not to stop just because there are no tangible results yet.
The second was communication. The ability to connect with people, reach agreements, and build partnerships became one of the foundations of the company’s growth. This is especially important in difficult or conflict situations, when you need to find a solution that works for everyone.
The third was accountability for the quality of my work. For me, quality is not just a standard; it is the essential condition for earning clients’ trust. When someone takes responsibility for their work and consistently maintains high standards, it always strengthens the business’s reputation.
A New Niche Without an Established Model, a Shortage of Specialists, and Regulatory Complexity
What were the 3 most difficult challenges you tackled in the early years?
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No clear understanding of how to develop a new business area. We were working in a niche where there was virtually no established business model, so we had to find many of the answers ourselves.
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Finding people. Medical technology combines knowledge of architecture, engineering, and medicine, but there is no distinct profession that brings all these fields together. So we chose to train our own specialists rather than search the market for people who were already qualified.
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The nature of the market itself. Healthcare facility design is subject to a large number of regulations and standards, which makes scaling a business considerably more difficult than in many other fields. This required clear specialization and a focus on what we are genuinely good at.
Half a Year Without Projects and a Chance Meeting That Saved the Company
What crises has your business faced, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest test for the company came at the start of the full-scale war. We had been operating for less than a year, so the business was still at an early stage. Work came to a standstill for almost half a year: there were no new projects or funds in our accounts, and some of the team had left the country. A chance meeting between my wife and my former manager proved to be the turning point. It led to an introduction to a new client and our first major contract after the full-scale war began. The project gave the company financial stability and allowed us to continue growing.
Our Own Business, a Specialized Focus, and Training the Team In-House
What decisions proved most effective in growing the company?
The most important decision for me was starting my own business. When I was employed by others, I increasingly realized that I wanted to build something of my own. Even after I was offered the chance to lead a new company, I decided to turn it down and choose my own path.
That decision marked the beginning of Technology Project Group. Another important decision was to focus on a specialized niche. We turned away from providing comprehensive design services for large-scale projects and concentrated on medical technology. This allowed us to work in an area where we have the greatest expertise and can guarantee high-quality results.
Another important decision was to develop our own team. It is almost impossible to find ready-made specialists in medical technology in the market, so we invest our time and knowledge in training our people. That is how we have built a strong team and retained our expertise within the company.
A Poor Hiring Decision That Reshaped Our Approach to Business
What mistake do you now consider your most valuable learning experience?
My most valuable learning experience came from a poor hiring decision. We brought someone with strong recommendations into a leadership role, but later realized that their approach to work did not align with our values, communication principles, or the level of accountability we expect from our team.
The situation cost the company time and money and affected its reputation. At the same time, it forced me to rethink our approach to growing the business. We gave up areas where we could not fully control the outcome and focused on those where we could guarantee high quality and meet client expectations.
Today, I am convinced that a strong team is built on more than professional skills. It is just as important for people to share the company’s values and have a common understanding of their responsibility for the end result.
