Ukrainian Entrepreneur Day: TOP-5 solutions you can use

Viktoriia Hubareva

Ajax Systems is an international technology company that develops and manufactures wireless security systems. It's founded in 2011 in Kyiv by Oleksandr Konotopskyi. The company is now forming a team for the region, which includes Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and Ajax Systems' global plan is to win over the world. That is, enter the market of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, start a business in the United States, Canada, Australia, and South America.

Such a "global" launch took place in just 2 years, after Konotopskyi's decision that the company should become not only Ukrainian but also European. Then Oleksandr realized that each European country has its own specifics. That, for example, for consumers in Germany and Italy, the price isn't important. At the same time, the UK, where the standard of living and the economy is comparable to the German ones, is putting a lot of pressure on the price.

Therefore, before hiring business development managers in different countries, the company prepares a product-market fit, i.e. calculates how the product fits the market and checks if the product is suitable for a country, whether it can compete with the local digital policy, what the functionality should be. That's why the European market was chosen at the start after the company visited several international exhibitions. The second point that helped spread out so well is betting on several sellers. Oleksandr Konotopskyi believes that product-market fit helps to open the door, but doesn't guarantee sales:

"If a company takes one person, it's unknown whether it is wrong or the market is not ready. When it hires two, three, or five, it becomes clear," he said.