Meet the Ukraine-born entrepreneur and relentless optimist learning how to be a CEO in wartime

Olga Kravchenko, 27, who was born and raised in Ukraine, moved to Southsea, where her husband Kriss grew up, two years ago. She is the founder of Musemio, an immersive learning platform for children to engage with arts and culture delivered through a mobile app.

‘We work with museums, charities, small publishers to create interactive games based on their content,’ says Olga.

‘What we are trying to do is make arts and culture accessible for every child by using virtual reality, in the most affordable form.’

Olga - who describes herself as an ‘accidental’ entrepreneur - featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2021. She has been awarded a grant from Innovate UK, and was recently selected as a regional winner of the Tech Nation ‘Rising Stars’ category for the South East.

However, in the early hours of February 24 this year, Olga’s world was turned upside down when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with troops entering the country from the north, south and east.

‘I woke up in the middle of the night because my husband saw an Apple News pop up saying the war had started,’ recalled Olga.

‘That was really crazy because it’s not something you imagine you would ever see popping up on your Apple News.’

For Olga, her first thoughts were of her family in her home city of Kyiv, her mum, grandma and dad.

‘He woke me up and I tried to reach my mum. My mum wasn’t picking up so I was already kind of a bit scared,’ she remembered.

‘I called my grandma, my grandma walked to my mum’s at 5am Kyiv time. She knocked on her door saying ‘it’s happened, it’s started’.’

Olga had soon bought plane tickets for her mum and grandma and given them instructions to head to the airport, not realising how quickly the situation had escalated.

‘My first reaction wasn’t actually the panic, I was trying to think how I could get them out of the country as soon as possible. Very naively I still thought I was going to be able to get them out of the last plane out of Ukraine, obviously that didn’t happen. The sky was closed.’

For the next two days, Olga’s family stayed in the underground parking of her mum’s building and she recalls two of the ‘most heartbreaking’ messages she has ever received.

‘The first was mum saying “we are underground, we might not have a connection, it’s scary, I'll message you when I wake up.”

The second came in March earlier this year during the process of a long-anticipated rescue operation, in which Olga and Kriss made the 72-hour journey to Hungary to pick them up, an ‘emotional’ reunion which Olga says she is still processing.

‘They started making their way to the border around March 10, then it took them three days to actually make it to Hungary,’ said Olga.

‘She was like ‘Olga we can’t find anywhere to sleep’ all the refugee centres were packed at this point. She said, ‘we’re just going to stay here at the petrol station, we have a toilet, we have soldiers, we feel safe’.

‘I don’t think I slept that night,’ she adds.

Finally, on March 27 their visas were approved and Olga’s mum and grandma arrived in the UK, and have stayed with her and Kriss ever since.

‘They’ve shared the same bed for the past six months, I don't think they find it very comfortable,’ laughs Olga.

‘But they’re very lucky because they’re here, they're with us, they're in safety, but as my mum likes saying - do not confuse tourism with immigration, especially when it’s a forced immigration.’

A feeling that is bittersweet for Olga, whose dad and the rest of her male family, as well as her five-person Musemio team, is still largely based around Kyiv, under Martial Law.

‘We’re still processing, you just can’t believe it’s happening,’ says Olga.

‘You know the phrase ‘‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” well right now - for Ukrainians - you have a lemon that doesn't actually have lemon juice and you’re still supposed to make something out of it.’

However, for Olga - who first left Ukraine to study her A-Levels at DLD College London 11 years ago when she was just 16 - she is glad to be catching up on lost time.

‘As a 16-year-old, you’re craving independence, and then a couple of months in you just cry because you really miss your family.

‘I always try to look for something positive in our story. I've been away from them for 11 years, I would see them for a couple of days every time I came back home,’ she said. ‘Now it almost feels like we are catching up on all the times that we didn't have together, which is really nice, I just wish it was under different circumstances.’

After moving to London, Olga soon found passion in the past, carrying out a Masters degree at King’s College London in Arts and Cultural management.

‘My dad was always encouraging me to pursue my dreams.

‘I love museums, as a humankind we have such a beautiful history, it's a shame sometimes people don’t appreciate it.

‘As a company, our mission is to make arts and culture accessible and exciting for every child, but it’s my own personal mission to unleash all the stories that are trapped,’ she added.

As part of that mission, Musemio has released a web VR experience called SunflowAR, to help bring awareness and show support for Ukraine.

‘What I’ve seen over the course of the last three, four months, is it’s disappeared from the news headlines,’ said Olga. ‘I had people asking me if the war was still going on.’

Aimed at adults, the interactive web link allows people to experience the war in their living room, from a different perspective.

‘You hear the story of a young girl, called Soniashnyk, sunflower in Ukrainian, who talks about how she feels,’ said Olga. ‘The siren is constantly switched on, an experience we had with our day-to-day work because we had to interrupt our calls when the siren is going on or when the internet drops out because of jets.’

Already working as a mentor to help women who are trying to start a business, Olga was keen to help when she heard of mentorship opportunities for Ukrainian refugees arriving in the UK and looking to find their footing.

While Olga stays in regular contact with her dad and the rest of her team, she hopes connection remains stable. ‘So far, so good,’ she says. ‘That’s one of the biggest issues we’re worried about, as it would make it unbearable.’

‘It’s his home, he’s not planning to leave. For a lot of people, they feel no one should flee their home because they are being attacked. It’s their home, it’s their land – there’s a lot of pride.’

For Olga’s family in Southsea, it is just a waiting game. ‘They want to go home, everyday they're talking about being excited about going home, waiting for an opportunity, questioning whether it’s safe.

‘I tell them it’s not. You’re staying here until missiles are not flying.’