What Building Defence Tech in Ukraine Really Looks Like

<p>Viktoriia Yaremchuk (CEO &amp; Co-Founder of Farsight Vision) was handed a problem nobody had solved: Ukrainian frontline units drowning in drone footage with no way to process it, sitting manually watching hour-long videos to spot something useful. She had a PhD, a software background, and friends calling from the front asking for tools that didn&#39;t exist. So she built them.</p><p><br></p><p>What followed was three years inside one of the most unforgiving product environments on earth - geospatial AI and digital twin technology tested not in a lab, but in GPS-denied warzones where the users can&#39;t always tell you what they need because the information is classified, and getting it wrong costs lives. From a first investor cheque of ~$100K with little more than an MVP, to contracts spreading brigade by brigade through word of mouth on Signal, to a team now spread across four countries, many of them with husbands, brothers, and fathers serving on the frontline.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Viktoriia delivers a masterclass in building and selling in defencetech, how Farsight Vision actually works, how to sell to a military customer when there&#39;s no conventional sales cycle, what it takes to build and lead a team when there&#39;s no end date on the mission, and what Europe still doesn&#39;t understand about the war being fought on its doorstep.</p><p><br></p><p>Get in touch with Viktoriia:</p><p>https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktoriia-yaremchuk-3ba80116</p><p><br></p><p>Want to get hired by Farsight Vision</p><p>https://farsightvision.hurma.work/public-vacancies</p><p><br></p><p>-----------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>Chapters:</p><p>(00:00) Introduction</p><p>(01:45) What Farsight Vision Actually Does</p><p>(17:40) How to Find the Right Co-Founder</p><p>(27:08) The Personal Turning Point That Started Farsight Vision</p><p>(46:44) From Idea to Battlefield: MVP in Months</p><p>(53:07) The Biggest Mistake They Made in the First Year</p><p>(01:01:00) How to Hire for a Mission-Driven Team Under Extreme Stress</p><p>(01:07:04) Raising the First $100K: What Investors Saw Before Victoria Did</p><p>(01:16:59) How to Price a Defence Software Product Nobody Has Ever Built Before</p><p>(01:32:10) From One Sale to Hundreds: How Word of Mouth Works at the Frontline</p><p>(01:43:48) What Is Darkstar and Why It Changed Everything</p><p>(01:57:40) Closing a €7M Round: What Actually Got Investors to Say Yes</p><p>(02:06:13) The Most Impo