How a 29-year-old startup founder is running her business from bomb shelters in Ukraine

• Alyona Mysko was on the verge of taking her startup global when Russia invaded Ukraine.
• Amid the bombings, she was forced to flee Kyiv and had to run her company from shelters.
• Mysko detailed how she pivoted her startup to helping small businesses in her war-torn country.

Alyona Mysko was about to take her startup global. She had spent weeks rebuilding the website for Fuelfinance, which had half its customers in Ukraine, where it’s based, with the goal of drumming up business abroad.

Satisfied, she closed her laptop at midnight on the day of the website launch and crawled into bed, counting on a restful night’s sleep.

At 6 a.m., she jerked awake. Her boyfriend stood over her. “The war has started,” he said.