Velychko Svitlana Volodymyrivna, 34 years

My name is Svitlana Velychko, and today I am an entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of Links-Stream. My entrepreneurial journey began not with an ambition to create a company, but with a need to stop depending on external circumstances

. In 2014, when war came to Donbas, I first clearly realized that the stability supposedly guaranteed by employment could disappear in a single day. During the Anti-Terrorist Operation, I lost my job: the bank I worked for could not arrange a full relocation, and I found myself in a situation where rent in a new city was effectively equal to my salary. I then made a strategic decision to take full responsibility for supporting myself financially and build a way of working that required only me, a laptop, and professional expertise.

I was born in the Donetsk region and now live in Warsaw. Between these two places, there were nine other cities where I lived for more than a year. Constantly moving gave me a need for mobility, independence, and control over my own life. In 2016, on a minibus on the way to visit my parents, I came up with the name Links-Stream. At that point, it was not yet a brand in the conventional sense, but rather a personal affirmation that I was creating my own venture and my own system. The company grew organically out of my freelance online work.

I started with copywriting, then clients began coming to me with broader requests, and gradually this evolved into website promotion and comprehensive services. My approach remained the same: understand the client's needs in depth, assess whether results are achievable, and give my all to any project I take on. Repeat business and new tasks allowed me to systematize processes, develop clear offerings, and expand our range of services.

The business did not emerge from a sudden flash of inspiration — it was a natural continuation of practical experience, market demand, and my willingness to take responsibility and grow alongside my clients. Growth was built on disciplined adherence to deadlines, a focus on client results, a willingness to exceed expectations, and the ability to listen and respond constructively to criticism. For me, it was important not simply to fulfill a brief, but to offer a solution with a measurable impact.

At the outset, I had no backup plan. I was starting with essentially two bags of belongings brought out of the Donetsk region. A situation like that quickly mobilizes your inner resources and brings out skills you had never even considered. That became the starting point for developing my entrepreneurial mindset and systematic approach to business.

How did the business idea come about?

The idea did not emerge as a ready-made business model. Initially, it was my independent online work. I carefully analyzed clients' needs, adapted my services to their requests, and consistently created additional value. I started with copywriting, then added website promotion tasks, including promotion on forums, which were highly influential at the time. Clients gradually began entrusting me with more areas of work as a contractor they trusted. Over time, this work evolved into a structured management system and a fully fledged company, which I began deliberately developing as a business.

What key skills helped you launch the business?

The key skills were discipline in honoring commitments and meeting deadlines, a willingness to exceed client expectations to build long-term trust, a strong capacity for work, and the ability to listen. I learned to handle criticism and emotional pressure so I could offer real solutions rather than react impulsively. An important advantage was the ability to learn in a market that lacked structure: when there are no ready-made instructions, you have to either experiment or learn from those already achieving results. In my case, my first clients became those teachers.

What were the 3 toughest challenges you resolved in the early years?

1. Building a management system without being physically present. I opened my first office in Yuzhnoukrainsk (Mykolaiv region), as some of the employees I had hired online turned out to live in the same city. I launched the office and returned to remote work. Within a few months, the system began to fall apart, and I had to move to the city for a year to establish consistent management practices and an autonomous management model.
2. A lack of structured knowledge in the market. At the time, there were no high-quality educational products in my field. Access to information was limited to closed events or my own experiments, which required resources. I learned directly from client requests, working with small budgets but gaining a deep understanding of the processes.
3. Building a team. I learned to recognize not only people's professional skills, but also their values and personal qualities. This became the foundation for the company's long-term development.

What crises has your business faced, and how did you overcome them?

The first crises were management-related. Just a month after the office opened, the manager I had left in charge did not support my vision for its development. I quickly returned, restructured management, and replaced the person in charge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we lost a substantial share of our clients because we worked in a segment that businesses did not consider an essential expense.

I focused on public visibility: speaking at online conferences and demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of continuing promotion even during a crisis. After the market reshaped itself, we gained a new wave of clients who were moving online en masse. The full-scale war was the toughest challenge. After withdrawing from certain markets for ethical reasons, the company lost around 40% of its clients in the first month alone. Personal circumstances added another challenge — members of my family went to the front. I found a way forward by transforming management: I formed a working group, introduced a transparent financial model and a bonus system, and shared the revenue and expense structure with the team.

I moved away from an emotion-driven leadership style and focused on a partnership-based approach. In 2023, the company doubled its net profit and returned to steady growth. Today, our revenue and profit are growing by approximately 50% year on year.

Which decisions proved most effective for the company's growth?

The decisions made after 2022 had the greatest impact: moving to a partnership-based management model, making finances transparent, involving the working group in strategic changes, and systematizing processes. Investing in media visibility during crises was also important: speaking engagements, launching a Ukrainian-language YouTube channel for the professional community, and creating free expert content. This strengthened trust and ensured a steady flow of inbound clients. To achieve X2 growth, I worked on several levers simultaneously: expanding our geographic reach, packaging services, increasing average transaction value, developing additional sales to existing clients, and broadening our target audience.

Which mistake do you now consider your most valuable learning experience?

The most valuable lesson came from mixing personal and professional roles. I invited my boyfriend to join the company in a management position, which later negatively affected both the business and our personal relationship. After the relationship ended, there were conflicts, broken agreements, and a loss of some operational context. This experience led me to a rule: personal relationships and the business hierarchy must be kept clearly separate.