Ivy tech. A new chapter in Ukraine

IT Cluster IT Cluster

We are a 6 year old international IT company bringing the best engineering talents in Eastern Europe to startups and scaleups around the world. 

With headquarters in London, our main engineering office in Kharkiv and clients in the US, UK and Australia we are enjoying the international flair each day brings. 

Over the last months we have been growing our wonderful software development teams, supporting our client’s growth, bolstering our internal recruitment team, we moved into a brand new office in Kharkiv’s business centre, and most importantly redefined our values and vision. 

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It’s really felt like a significant time which has called for a new identity and a new name. That’s when we chose ivy tech. 

Here is the story how the name ivy tech came about: I, Carmen the CEO, recently visited my family in Germany where I went for a lovely afternoon walk after a day of video meetings with my team in Ukraine. I needed to stretch my tired screen-eyes and as my eyes wandered around the forest near my parents house, I saw a huge ivy plant climbing up a tree. I stopped and looked at it and thought “Wow, what an impressive plant. It just started with a small seed and now it has climbed up this very tall tree and covered the majority of the trunk.” The ivy plant always stays green and the leaves always stay close together. Ivy can resist almost any weather which is why it exists all over the world. For me this is a beautiful symbol of what our company ivy tech represents rapid growth, togetherness, community, resilience and progress. As a company we started really small six years ago and if I can be honest, we had some tough times. But thanks to people who have stuck with us (and still work for us today), clients that believed in us and needed the value we were bringing, and maybe with a little bit of luck, we are on a rapid growth path today. Our teams are getting closer and bigger and we are starting to reach the top of the tree. We are chasing the sunlight – always!

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What lies at the heart of ivy tech

We’ve always been about much more than building high quality technology; we are about people. We care about putting the right teams together, we care about seeing our people grow in their careers, we care about how our people are doing inside and outside of the office. 

We spend one third of our lives working – one third! 

How do you want to spend one third of your life? Working with people you don’t like? Maintaining boring legacy systems? Sitting on a bench? We guess your answer is No. 

That’s why we built ivy tech, to provide a place of work people enjoy coming to on a Monday morning, to match them with clients that provide them with technically challenging projects, to add value to their lives!

Who are our clients

We partner with well funded Startups who are for example in online payments, Fintech and healthtech in locations such as the US, Australia and UK. 

We choose to work with clients we “click” with on a personal level as the client’s product management team ends up spending a lot of time with our teams in Ukraine. We also choose clients with interesting and challenging products that will keep our teams growing professionally. 

Our clients stay with us for multiple years which means our developers get to grow as the client grows – it’s a win-win situation. You can read some of our client feedback on our website www.ivy-tech.co

 

What makes ivy tech different 

In this time of the “IT boom” things like good wages, big corporate parties, fancy merchandise and benefits are a given (and ivy tech provides those as well), but what isn’t always a given, is that the individual person is seen and cared for in the workplace. And that’s what we really are doing differently. 

Our CEO in London and senior management in Ukraine take extended time to get to know each team member well and identify their individual needs and desires. We can’t always make all dreams come true, but we’re working hard to be a company that is transparent, kind and human. 

We want our team to feel seen, appreciated and encouraged in their workplace, otherwise we have failed our mission. Ivy tech’s business philosophy is not one of greed and “how much profit can I possibly squeeze out”, it is one of generosity, community impact and progress. We still have a long way to go, but we are going for it and we want to do it with people who are ambitious and kind. 

Who is ivy tech’s management?

Our CEO, Carmen, is originally from Germany and now lives in London with her husband and son. Carmen’s background is in business operations, customer service and Startups. She first visited Ukraine in 2018 and was surprised how quickly she fell in love with the country and the people. Her vision for what ivy tech can do for Ukraine and its people is growing every day. 

Andy, an Englishman, is responsible for the running of the business in Ukraine and has lived in Kharkiv for 3 years and calls this city “home”. He has been working with Carmen for 2.5 years and has built strong relationships with all clients and team members. His passion is to see people grow in confidence and skill as they come in touch with ivy tech. Screenshot_2-640x426 Ivy tech. A new chapter in Ukraine

Where is ivy tech heading

We are currently growing our team of 40 people across the UK and Ukraine to a minimum of 70 by the end of the year. The reason we are growing rapidly is that some key clients of ours have experienced substantial success with customers and capital raising which has resulted in an increased hiring schedule. 

Some of these clients have built the core of their technology predominantly with our teams over the past 6 years – we feel enormous joy and pride. Furthermore, we have more new clients than ever knocking on our doors.

Word is going around that ivy tech provides high quality, trustworthy tech talent and is invested in an authentic and long term relationship with their clients. It’s not a secret that the whole world is looking for tech talent and that Eastern Europe has long been a popular outsourcing destination. 

However, especially in the Startup scene, honest and authentic relationships are so crucial and that’s why most of them only work with recommended outstaffing companies. Startups don’t want to work with “anyone”, they want to work with people that bring a great attitude, ownership, creativity and also want to be part of something great. 

Why ivy tech is a good place to work 

As described before, we are a very human company that puts its people first. We don’t believe in hierarchical leadership that oppresses others. Of course we have healthy business structures in place, but we are also very inclusive, give everyone a chance to be heard and we check if the person next to us is doing okay. 

Furthermore our teams get to work directly with Western clients on very cool and innovative products. These placements are long term and give the engineers the opportunity to make enormous leaps in their career, improve their English on a daily basis and truly be part of something great. Too often developers “drown” in a locally managed team that has 30+ team members, work for a client they never see, create a product they never use or get any impact updates about. It’s so different at ivy tech! 

Our guys and girls really become part of the client’s culture and get celebrated every week for their efforts. Of course we offer market rate salaries, for special roles there are sign-on bonuses to snatch up, private health insurance, massages, corporate events and parties, English classes, merchandise and so on. Our office is in Diamond City in the heart of Kharkiv which we’re currently designing with one of Kharkiv’s most popular interior designers to provide a Pinterest-perfect workplace for our teams. We are constantly striving to become a better, kinder and more transparent employer – and we are always chasing the sunlight! 

And now is a great time to be part of the ivy tech team. Go to the site, choose the vacancy that suits you and join us! We look forward to meeting you soon. 

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