After Russia started the full-scale war against Ukraine, Ragnar organized deliveries of the very needed and pricey vehicles to Ukrainian defenders in the hottest spots on the front. So far, he and his team have managed to deliver 63 trucks and continue to help Ukraine.

In the interview with AIN.Capital, Ragnar Saas shares how it all started.

How Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine has affected you personally. What do you think and feel about it? 

I found out about it literally 30 minutes after it started, on February 24 about 5 AM. In Lift99, we had a plan for the case if something started and had an agreement about what to do. So after the invasion, the whole team hopped and left Kyiv before 7 AM, when there was already a huge traffic jam.

I think the first two days were extremely depressive. From Estonia it all looked like the biggest horror of life, but for Ukrainians it’s not a movie — it’s reality.

Mentally the first day was a day of horror for me, and on the second day, I made a $20,000 donation to the Ukrainian Army.

On the first day, the information was hard to get, but by the second day, it became clear that the Ukrainian army was much more defensive than anyone had assumed before. On Friday evening, I saw hope that Ukraine would remain as a country. On Monday, I was interviewing with an Estonian business newspaper where I clearly stated that Ukraine would stand and stay independent, and allies will eventually come up.

My wife’s mom moved from Ukraine to Tallinn, but she’s planning to go back soon. My connection to Ukraine is so big that I couldn’t stay out of it. 

As far as I know, you support Ukrainian defenders with vehicles. Tell us more about how you organized the delivery of them for the Ukrainian army? How did this idea come about in the first place?

Immediately from the moment when the Lift99 team relocated to Lviv, they started monitoring the situation and looking for where help was most needed. In the early days, the needs were basic: bulletproof vests, first-aid kits, etc. Literally everything was needed. They have already fundraised about $700,000, which is crazy. It might be bigger because the amount keeps changing.

I remember that it was exactly the third week in March when the unit fighting near Kharkiv contacted us to get them a truck. Their unit’s car stopped exactly in the middle of the fight. I knew that Lithuania was helping Ukraine with vehicles. I read about it in the Washington Post, I guess. So I immediately went to an Estonian car portal, where I found a Toyota Hilux and bought it the next day.

After I posted about this truck which was to go to the Kharkiv local defense unit, to my biggest surprise, many people started to contact me. Some of them wanted to sell the cars, some were even ready to donate, and this started to grow.

Just for you to understand how this works, I bought the truck on Sunday and said that I was driving it out on Friday. And in those four days, there were already not one but 14 cars with drivers and everything else ready to be left Friday at 6 AM from Tallinn! I was driving with a broken muscle and could hardly walk, but we were at the border at midnight. And we arrived in Lviv Saturday afternoon.

We have now sent 63 trucks to Ukraine. And I’ve lost count, but I believe we’ve helped more than 40 different military units with vehicles, mostly in Kharkiv and Donbas but also in Mykolaiv.

I’m proud that one unit, The 227th Battalion of the 127th Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine of Kharkiv city, used an Estonian vehicle in counterattack to destroy the most powerful Russian tank, T-90M Proryv, and reached the Russian border!

Who helped you with that initiative? 

Some are entrepreneurs. For instance, Veriff sent one car, Klaus sent two cars. Also one VC firm sent one car, and so did one angel. But there were also ordinary people — for example, a retiree from South Estonia who gave his entire pension for a month.

The Mayor of the one supertiny municipality in the West of Estonia called me and told me they had a local municipal Toyota Hilux. And the locals decided to donate it to the Ukrainian Army.

Recently, a Finnish entrepreneur who wants to help has contacted me. Also, a woman from Canada, who is actually Georgian, raised money for Ukraine. There are also Ukrainians in the United States.

It is difficult to buy cars in Estonia because the market is empty. But we have so many people here in Estonia who are willing to help somehow. For example, we’re painting those trucks so they can fit the military needs. And last week, we had so many volunteers who wanted to do just anything meaningful to help to end this war, so we let them join us for painting.

And how did you manage to get so much attention to attract all those volunteers and backers? 

I happened to have a big network, including on social media. So when I announced that I was driving to Ukraine, many people wrote to me. I must say that in the first convoy, most people were strangers to me. But later, I was always followed by two or three people from Lift, who came to pick up the vehicles, check them, and do all the paperwork. And there was a graphic designer who organized how to paint them.

At Lift99, everyone is working hard to ensure delivery directly to the unit in need as quickly as possible. That’s the key thing. We were lucky to find a partner in Lviv who helped us get across the border in just two hours. We usually drive trucks to the Polish border, where ladies from our Ukrainian partner cross it, and then take those vehicles to Lviv.

Everything happens very quickly, so soldiers get those vehicles the next day or even the same day — it depends on their location.

Things are changing too fast, and we are rethinking how we can make a difference. Like yesterday we were giving one car to the unit in Severodonetsk, and the commander was extremely moved. He almost cried because he lost many people because of the lack of a vehicle. The truck was what he basically needed — Toyota Landcruiser. And we delivered it to Kyiv this time. We have a volunteer from Estonia who drove this truck from Tallinn to Kyiv. And from there, he took it to the locations where it was mostly needed. In general, in this convoy, we delivered seven vehicles to the Luhansk region, where the most severe fighting is today.

Did you face any difficulties while working on this initiative? If so, what were they, and how did you solve them? 

When we drove for the first time, we didn’t even know if we could make it through the border, how we should work legally, what documents we should have, etc. The Polish customs officers were surprised — they weren’t sure if we could pass, so we talked, explained to them the situation, and eventually, we got it through.

The main difficulty was always about how the logistics worked. The first time we had no clue how long it would take because there were huge lines from the European side of the border. And we were lucky to manage to cross it in a couple of hours. Later we learned how to do it as fast as possible with the help of our partners.

The highest priority is that the vehicles must survive on the battlefield in highly extreme situations.

And two of the trucks we transported to Ukraine broke down afterwards.

Today we also do a deep technical check to make sure all the vehicles are strong enough. Sometimes when someone donates a car, we kindly say no, if we see that it is too weak. And that is really hard because people are very kind. But when the risks are high that they would break down, we can’t accept them.

Do you have any partners in russia? If so, what do they say about this war?

I don’t have any partners in Russia. Most Russians I know have left the country. All of them are extremely ashamed of this war.

Do you plan to visit Ukraine, and when do you think it is going to happen? 

My last visit to Ukraine was on March 28, when I delivered 14 cars to Lviv for the Ukrainian Army. I am planning to visit Kyiv in June.

Recently you reopened Lift99. Why did you decide to do so?

It was the decision of the team. They were discussing how to start rebuilding the ecosystem again. So, they decided to go to Kyiv to do it step by step. It takes time, given the military situation and taking into account the risks. But now, the team of Lift99 is thinking of how they can be more helpful to founders and startups, how to help them scale their businesses to the international markets, etc.

The first question was: where are all the members? Many of them are around the world: some of them are in Portugal, some in Berlin, but some are in Ukraine. People are slowly returning to Kyiv, even though it is hard to drive due to a shortage of diesel and gasoline. But the team felt that the best way to help Ukraine is to open Lift99 and start to rebuild the ecosystem.

So if you want to build a product, join a startup team or learn more about the startups — contact them on social media.

What business assets and connections do you have in Ukraine? Tell us about the startups you have backed? Are they in Ukraine or evacuated?

I have invested in six startups, and roughly half of them stay in Ukraine. I’m surprised that none of them have their doors closed. I met with the Awesomic founders in Lviv at the end of March. They didn’t face the huge affect of the full-scale war as everyone else. There were some in February and March, but in April, they managed to adapt to the new reality, and they started to raise their business again to get more traction. They don’t depend much on Ukrainian clients.

Most Ukrainian startups today divide their time between developing their products and helping the army. I haven’t seen any big fallout, and that is very surprising to me how people have adapted, how they are working on two fronts and finding ways to stay strong in that difficult time.

We keep in touch with all the startups from Ukraine. I recently met with Legal Nodes CEO Margarita, who had just arrived in Estonia from London (she lived in London before the full-scale war started). Mate Academy is in Ukraine. And I see they are all doing fine.

Are you going to continue to help Ukraine and how? 

Sure. We continuously talk with the team about how we can help. We see evidence that other countries are sending military help to Ukraine as well. And most of it has already arrived. So we keep the project live, though the content might change depending on the situation, because the bigger question will be how to rebuild Ukraine.

The World now sees that Ukraine and Ukrainians are the strongest. That is the only good thing in this war. And the help from not only Estonia, Poland, or Latvia but globally is very big. My wife is Ukrainian, and she has never seen so many Ukrainian flags in Estonia. Now you can see them literally everywhere.

Ukraine has become the biggest brand globally, and Ukrainian heroes will inspire generations all around the world.

“Two years ago, I published 16 questions, what I ask from myself before making an angel investment. In last 24 months, I have looked 4,000+ startups & made 20+ investments. Indeed – I have learned A LOT working with amazing founders, who have inspired me heavily to update my list,” he says.

Here is the full list of these questions:

• Can I explain this business & why did I make the investment to my mom?
• What positive impact will it have on the world & can it make the World a better place. Like IN REAL! Numbers, please.
• Will they give back to the community & create a new environment for the future unicorn founders?
• How useful & relevant is my personal experience & know-how for this startup?
• Are they cool enough that I’d invite them to my own home for dinner?
• Would I hire these folks to my own team?
• Are they SO good I could imagine them as co-founders in my next startup?
• Are they really self-confident & extremely positive?
• Is any of the co-founders have what it takes to be the CEO of a 400+ person company?
• Does a CEO LOVE to sell their product?
• How proud & excited I would be as an investor (= team member ) of this startup?
• Are they ready for BIG risks?
• Why is the team so excited about the product?
• Have they managed to turn me into its biggest fan?
• How many folks in my network could be useful investors for this exact startup?
• Can I make a list of at least three of my good friends whom I call so they should join the company ASAP?
• What could I win & learn personally from this journey if the startup fails?
• Can I imagine investing in the same founders if they start their next company?
• Do they really care about company culture & PEOPLE?
• Can they hire people who are much smarter & much much more experienced?
• Can I explain to my wife why I have a call with a founder at 01.00 AM or during a romantic vacation?
• Would I trust them asking advice about the next investment opportunity?
• Will they survive a full pivot? Or the second one?
• Would this founder survive a 100 km boat marathon with me as a co-pilot?

Who is Ragnar Sass

Ragnar Sass is an active angel investor, entrepreneur, and co-founder of the Estonian unicorn company Pipedrive, Salto Network, and Lift99.

According to the Salto website, Ragnar Sass invested in 20+ startups globally; helped numerous companies to grow their teams from 10 to 200+; co-founded Garage48 and mentored hundreds of startups across 80+ global hackathons. 

“All my passion & energy is help to build fast-growing startups. Starting from values, hiring best talent & grown them with rocket speed.”

Our tour is given to us by Ragnar Sass, co-founder of Pipedrive and a chain of Lift99 startup centers. The first such center opened in Ragnar’s homeland – Tallinn, Estonia. Kyiv became his second homeland.

Photo: hereinafter – Olha Zakrevska, AIN.UA.

“Kyiv boasts great potential in terms of the development of startup community. That is why we picked it for our second Lift99 location. Speaking about numbers, Kyiv has 4.3 developers per hundred population. By comparison, it’s 2.3 in London. At the same time, Great Britain’s investments are 4 times higher than that of Kyiv,” Ragnar explained.

Lift99 is an international community of accomplished startup founders that help each other. It was established in 2016. You can join the community only by invitation. Lift99’s primary mission is to enable local and global entrepreneurs to meet and collaborate. For that end, Lift99 will bring successful startups, large investors and experts to Kyiv.

Sass himself has invested into two Ukrainian startups – AxDraft and Nuka. And he is determined to continue his angel activities in Ukraine. He intends to make at least three more investments in the nearest future.

The first time Ragnar set his foot in Kyiv was back in 2011. He was invited by Maks Ishchenko, DOU’s founder. “It was winter and it was freezing,” he recalls. Since then, he has been frequenting Kyiv, participating and organizing events, hackathons, including his own Garage48.

“Today, I feel myself at home in Kyiv. And I witness all the positive changes you have.”

Last year, Lift99 raised $2.3 million investments to develop a software platform for startuppers and announced its plans to scale up across the entire Central and Eastern Europe. In the future, the team plans to create a pan-European startup community with offices in various countries.

Ragnar does not rule out a possibility of launches in other cities of Ukraine: “let’s see the results of the first space.”

Lift99 Kyiv 

Sass announced Ukrainian location of Lift99 last summer. Back then he said that the opening would not kick off before winter. In reality, the space opened a bit later – the official opening was held on April 24.

Sass had a number of tough requirements to the location selection process: it had to be downtown building well placed for public transport allowing you to quickly commute to an airport. “We will bring here foreign investors, and they value every minute,” he explained.

Ukraine had quite a few pitfalls prepared for Estonians. These included rent and repair issues among others.

“It wasn’t easy for us to make people meet the deadlines. I mean construction workers. We had to put pressure on them, and even scream at them… In Estonia, is there’s an agreement with fixed terms, everyone is working diligently to meet the deadlines. It’s different in Ukraine,” Ragnar explains.

Nevertheless, they managed to kick off the space on time, despite the fact that renovations in some rooms are still on the way.

Yellow means Ukraine

Lift99 occupies 1,800 sq. m. spread across two floors (3, 4) in the building of the new business center “Senator” at Volodymyrska 101. They are also going to have a location on top of the roof by summer. The details of the new location are not disclosed. Perhaps, it would be a lounge area with a space for cocktail parties.

The hall area features a special pride of Ragnar – a Ukrainian military helicopter that was purchased from the military, not without difficulty.

“That is why we are here. Everything is possible in Ukraine, even a helicopter in office!” Ragnar laughs.

The deal almost fell apart when martial law was introduced in November. However, the Estonian managed to locate a middleman who helped buy the helicopter, and Sass eventually got hold of this precious piece of interior. Admittedly, the purchase is only half the work, as it had to somehow fit inside the space. For that, the helicopter had to be disassembled into parts and then reassembled again.

Lift99 has a clean design with graphic puzzles on walls. Each is associated with prominent inventors from Ukraine and Estonia that changed the world with their inventions. The main color of the interior is yellow – the color of the Ukrainian flag.

Hub’s spaces bear the names of the inventors. For example, lounge area featuring the helicopter is called Sikorsky – in honor of Igor Sikorsky, a famous Ukrainian aviation pioneer, inventor of single-rotor helicopter and the first transatlantic hydroplane.

Next to it is the largest event area Mriya, named after the legendary Ukrainian aircraft that, for the record, is 36 times larger than the area of this room.

The third floor features conference rooms for 10 people called Prymachenko (in honor of Ukrainian artist Mariya Prymachenko) and Amosov (in honor of scientist Mykola Amosov).

Offices at Lift99 are designed to accommodate up to 4-6 people: Koum (Jan Koum, Whatsapp), Wozniak and Levchin (in honor of Steve Wozniak and Max Levchin – cofounders of Apple and PayPal, both of Ukrainian ancestry), as well as Ukrainian engineers Korolev (legendary Sergei Korolev who put the first person in space) and Romankiw (inventor of hard drive Lubomyr Romankiw).

The shared coworking space is called Puluj to honor the prominent Ukrainian physicist and inventor Ivan Puluj. Next to it is a workspace of Lift99 employees – Lina Kostenko. The third floor also accommodates skype rooms named after Ukrainian cities Kharkiv, Odesa, and Lviv.

The fourth floor features only office spaces. The shared coworking area here bears the name of the Ukrainian car Zaporozhets, and the other one is named after actress Milla Jovovich.

Office rooms that accommodate 6-8 people bear the names of Ukrainian actors, islands, inventions, and even historic and cultural symbols and artifacts. For instance, Camouflage, Sonyashnyk, Chaika, Vulyk. There’s even a Stalker game room named after the famous computer game.

In total, the 4^th floor accommodates 8 offices, two skype rooms and 4 conference rooms, and several thematic areas.

Stubborn tenants

One of the offices has a mysterious inscription: “No dog, no deal”. There is an interesting story behind it.

When Sass was negotiating the lease terms for Lift99, he told that he was planning to allow entrance with dogs. The developer was against the idea of dogs allowed inside.

“And then I said: no dogs, no deal! And we included a provision in our lease agreement allowing to have up to 10 dogs inside at any given time. So it is officially allowed to enter with your dog.”

Lift99 is positioned as a “place like home”, i.e. a place where you can live (the coworking has kitchens, showers, sleep and rest areas). That is why on the day of opening the guests were asked to wear slippers.

The coworking works 24/7, and the landlord didn’t like it either. But we managed to change his mind. “We explained that our target audience is people working without weekends and often burning the midnight oil,” Sass recalls.

“All in all, making something happen in Ukraine takes twice the effort than in Estonia. It applies to anything. But we like it here. So many talents here!”

Residents

According to Ragnar, 50% of offices are already taken by residents, including Ukrainian startups (AxDraft, Nuka, Dooge and others), as well as teams of overseas companies. Some residents are here at Lift99 temporarily (3-6 months) and free of charge.

“This is not our primary business. We charge for residence, but we also have a chance to accommodate pre-seed stage startups free of charge. It is our contribution to ecosystem development, and we will benefit from it, including financially, in the future,” Sass says.

Prices start at $20 per day or $200 per month without a fixed desk ($275 with a fixed desk). The monthly price for an office is $350 per desk. It is not cheap, but Ragnar does not fear competition from Kyiv coworking spaces like Chasopys, UNIT.City, Platforma, and others. He intends to cooperate with them. We all pursue the same mission, which is the development of the startup community and creative economy in Ukraine. The only exception is Creative Quarter.

“Ethics is paramount for us. I did not investigate the details, but in my opinion, Ilya [Editor’s note: Kenigshtein.] was pushed out of business. Everything went the wrong way, it should not be like that. Similar things cannot happen in Silicon Valley.”

Lift99 raised over $1M from investors. The return on investment period is set to 5-6 years. According to Ragnar, it is a long-term project.

Ukraine is politicized through the eyes of an Estonian entrepreneur

Ragnar’s experience of dealing with Ukrainian public authorities has also been somewhat frustrating. Sass came to register his company back in August, but the red tape dragged the process for 8 months. “3-4 weeks to open a bank account, 3-4 to coordinate money transfers from Estonia to Ukraine – it is, undoubtedly, beyond reasonable,” entrepreneur laments.

That being said, they never paid a single bribe:

“I have to say that Ukraine has really changed in terms of corruption. We have never faced corruption here. And that in view of the fact that when you start something, you need a lot of permits.”

Nonetheless, our country still needs to work on many things. In particular, we need to improve the business climate. So far, according to Sass, the environment does not encourage an increase in investment flow into Ukraine, at least as far as startups are concerned.

“Ukraine is teeming with robust startups, but Western investors are reluctant to invest because they are concerned about Ukrainian legislation, courts, and prosecutors… That includes me. I cannot invest in Ukrainian companies. It is too big of a risk. If you have property here, you cannot rely on the law.

That is why Ukrainian startups prefer not to tell that they are from Ukraine. Instead, they say “We are a London startup” or “we are a company with headquarters in Washington.” No such thing in Estonia. Estonian startups proudly declare – we are from Estonia! I sincerely hope that the president-elect will keep his promise to change Ukraine’s justice system.

Here’s an example: you need to go through hell and high water to get a business visa to Ukraine. We really hope that the new government will pay heed to startups and change legislation to benefit them. Other governments have been doing it for a long time – they initiate special programs, etc.”