It’s all about people. You can have your capital though you need to have the right people and team in place. This is the main principle Vladyslav Greziev was thinking about when he devised his company Lobby X, a unique social enterprise recruiting agency and a human capital platform.

I graduated in economics from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In general theory of economics we have two general types of capital in the world; labor capital and finance capital. It would be best if you had both of them. But if you only have, for example, finance capital, you could put money on the table and without people this money will lay on the table and will do nothing.

No wonder I noticed during our interview he had a book “Who: The A Method for Hiring” by Geoff Smart and Randy Street emphasizing the importance of hiring the right people.

Lobby X’s business model is unique also because their business is an unusual combination of combining two approaches.

On one hand, they work with different so called “reform sector” companies in Ukraine such as NGOs, graduate communities of different top Ukrainian universities, various educational projects and their graduates, graduates of youth organizations such as, for example, ISEC, and different national patriotic organizations such as Plast, The foundation of Regional Initiatives, Academy of Leadership and so on. Overall they have more than 70 other communities in their partnership network.

And on the other hand it’s a classic recruiting agency. They provide full-cycle recruiting services to many tech companies. For example, the latest new type of clients came from military tech because of the full-scale war Russia started against Ukraine the previous year; new businesses emerged that produce weapons or some defense technologies, and Lobby X started helping them with hiring engineers and administrative staff.

They combine those two ways in one company and highly utilize their tech platform and ATS to facilitate recruiting as well as provide good visibility to their clients.

As the company was founded in 2016, they already have a huge database of candidates from applications. They heavily use digital tools and social networks to promote their vacancies.

But what’s even more fascinating is that Lobby X being a private organization actively collaborates with various state and civil initiatives and is free for them.

We have helped recruit people for the progress of Ukraine since 2016 and we help free of charge to recruit people to state bodies, reformers who do fundamental reforms, and to develop state institutions. We help free of charge for NGOs and independent media. We believe that in this way we help to develop Ukraine, the state and the civil society.

Hiring for the Armed Forces of Ukraine

When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began Vladyslav joined the Armed Forces the next day, on the 25th of February 2022. And while serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vladyslav and his company were already known and they understood that Lobby X could help them in finding needed people for their military units. Gradually they started receiving more and more requests from various military units.

Vladyslav did research and talked to the communities and quickly understood that people in those communities that are already among their partners were highly enthusiastic and willing to work for the victory of Ukraine, so they decided to involve and engage those individuals to serve in the Armed Forces, build processes and help Ukraine win.

Currently, Lobby X works with 60 different units and brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and they recruited at least 1,000 soldiers. They had more than 16,000 applications.

We do not actually know the exact number because it's hard to count the exact number during the full-scale invasion, active military actions. So this is not the focus for us to count but rather to give and volunteer.

In contrast with the official government military recruitment office’s so-called “Soviet”-style inherited system, Lobby X created a new, modernized recruiting funnel which is more customer-oriented and provides military units leaders with a fast and clear way to strengthen their manpower- and brainpower and hire people with the skills they actually need the most. And, crucially, it helps new recruits with a clear understanding of requirements, they can pick a military unit, their role and be sure it all will be treated with a high level of privacy. Vladyslav points out that this is very important because this is about the risk of being injured or dying. This is war.

We do believe this modernization could help us to win the war. To save lives. Of course, we should not destroy the usual system of military enlistment offices. We would better advocate to build the alternative mechanism and they should both run.

TEDx, NGO “Opir” and Changemakers

Apart from Lobby X, Vladyslav is a very societally involved and has been actively contributing to Ukrainian civil society since 2012 when he joined the TEDxKyiv team. After joining as just a volunteer he was promoted and eventually took on more responsibilities, and in 2015, he officially became team leader and licensee of TEDxKyiv.

And still now I'm a licensee. We're looking for newbies and new fresh blood to the team, new leaders because after the full-scale invasion, it's very hard to do the same volumes, high quality level activities on a volunteer basis because TEDx is only a volunteer organization due to the license.

Now they focus on training speakers from Ukraine with amazing, unbelievable stories that happened after the full-scale invasion and sending them abroad to talk to a global audience.

Since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 Vladyslav has also been leading NGO opir.org. In Ukrainian the word opir (опір) means resistance. opir.org still operates and supplies with provisions and equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and with humanitarian aid for the civilians in the occupied territories and territories close to the frontline.

They are looking for volunteers - active civilians abroad who can invest a little of their time in small social media activities to help Ukraine and to fundraise.

Another impressive project is a new initiative in which Vladyslav and a group of other active leaders in Ukraine is developing. In Ukrainian it's called Zminotvortsi which means "Changemakers" in English. They believe that a new generation of Ukraine's current teenagers will be change makers. And they want to invest in that new generation and provide them with education and practical knowledge to develop their understanding of how this world operates in different spheres such as for example personal health, relationships, business, education and science, culture and art, technologies and innovations, media and information.

We are looking for entrepreneurs who are ready to open the doors of their companies for graduates of this program to come and be a trainee in the organization. We open for partnerships when companies have a lot of different opportunities to create partnerships and of course we're open for fundraising opportunities for any other donations from the private sector or some foundations.

Millions of people have left Ukraine, and it’s very sad that a lot of them might not come back so investing in the young adults can help Ukraine to fight the lack of workforce and deal with challenges after the war. They are specifically focused on children from villages and small cities where it’s harder to get access to opportunities as opposed to major cities such as Kyiv and Lviv.

And of course this difference in these opportunities reflects in the worldview and this understanding of the world, these students and these children, that's why we came over there to make more value for them and in general, in cumulative effect. It'll be very, I think, effective.

All of those projects are open for partnerships, collaborations, and volunteers. And with a model such as Lobby X, if you become a commercial client you also help the social enterprise sector with new hires free of charge which is a soundly noble mission.

Vladyslav is one of those people in Ukraine who makes a huge difference every day. His story is very inspiring, and definitely a good example of how we can change a lot just by our involvement, belief, willingness to collaborate and give. Fundamentally, it all comes down to people like him, who are instrumental in shaping a new economy that amplifies our collective capital.

Please also enjoy this short interview with Vladyslav Greziev.

References & Mentioned:

• YouTube Interview Episode
• Audio Podcast Episode
• Lobby X profile at kyivlab.com.
• thelobbyx.com website
• opir.org NGO
• TEDxKyiv website
• Changemakers facebook page
• Discover more innovators at https://www.kyivlab.com/