Reply stands with Ukraine
days ago, the news about russia invading Ukraine shook the world.Most of us woke up to the sound of explosions. Our lives changed dramatically in just a few hours, as we were forced to face the horrors of the brutal, unjust war which noone thought possible in 2022.
While the world was watching our our cities being destroyed by the aggressor, we had no choice but to adapt and take action in response.
So, Reply stood up for what we all believe in – our country, our freedom, and our future. And we would love to share our story with you.
Reply operations during the war
Thanks to the resilience and dedication of our team, Reply remained fully operational even in the darkest of days.
Many of us had to work from the bomb shelters in the first few weeks or made Molotov cocktails in between the meetings. Some took the time off to evacuate to a safer region or leave the country. Some started volunteering part-time delivering the help to those in need. A few even joined the armed forces to defend our country.
Yet, no matter what, our infrastructure and regular processes remained unaffected with no downtime or any disruptions for the customers. And our amazing Support team continued to provide the regular quality of service (receiving a ton of support and love from our users in exchange 💙)
Taking action to help Ukraine win: Reply stories
Imposing our own sanctions
Reply is a sales tool, we help businesses make money. But we couldn’t allow russian businesses use our platform anymore, knowing those money they earn would be later paid as taxes and used by the russian government to sponsor the invasion of the neighboring country.
So, the first decision we made unanimously was to cut even the smallest ties to the aggressor. As thousands of conscious companies around the world, we immediately suspended all accounts related to the russian businesses.
The only way they could use Reply was to spread the truth about the war and fight disinformation among their contacts.
Helping those in need
When your country is under attack and people are dying, it doesn’t really matter if you’re here in Ukraine or thousands miles away in Portugal. You can’t stay aside. That is why many of our teammates started volunteering to collect and deliver humanitarian and military supplies to Ukraine.
Sergey Skripnik, our Engineering Team Lead, is one of them. With the immutable support from our team he is has already purchased and delivered thousands of dollars worth of targeted assistance for our defenders on the front lines. The bulletproof vests, binoculars, camouflage cloaks, and even boats he provided saved dozens of lives and help our defenders bring our victory closer, day by day.
Olga Zabelina, our Product Manager, is another Reply hero. Days after the invasion she took her daughter Alisa abroad to the relatives and came back to Ukraine as a volunteer. Olga has been helping to provide medical supplies for soldiers and children.
Fundraising and donating
Ukraine doesn’t have half of the russian military budget, but it has something that is worth a lot more – our people!
We at Reply have been donating to the most important causes – humanitarian, technical, and military aid – since day one.
The total donated by the company has already crossed $145,000. Here’s a short list of the funds we’ve donated to (which means they are 100% trustworthy and you can donate to them too!):
KOLO - IT-led community delivering hi-tech equipment to the frontline (dozens of individual contributions plus a business subscription with $10,000 donated monthly)
Nova Ukraine - emergency relief and humanitarian aid ($10,000)
Army SOS - the organization supplying defense means to the armed forces ($10,000)
Official NBU account - direct support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (the total of $45,600, including $10,000 Reply donated directly and $35,600 matched team donations).
The total amount of individual contributions from each one of us is impossible to calculate. Not a week goes by without another fundraiser in our team chat or personal social media accounts. The donations range from just a few dollars up to $1,000 single payment contributions. And we are convinced that every donation is equally important and praiseworthy.
The list of items purchased with our help include anything from the first-aid kits, tactical equipment, and bulletproof vests for our defenders to night vision devices, dones, a few boats, and a car.
While every one of those efforts might seem insignificant, we believe that every donation matters and together we can achieve anything. Case in point is the recent fundraiser by the Prytula Foundation when millions of Ukrainians managed to crowdsource $20M for 4 Bayraktar drones in under 3 days, with most donations being just around $5!
Speaking up for Ukraine
One thing we firmly believe in is that you have to stand up for what matters to you. That is exactly what Lesya Magas, our Product Manager, has been doing since the beginning of the war.
Living in Brussels, she is one of the Ukrainian voices abroad, trying to make sure the world would listen and respond to our call.
Together with other activists, Lesya has organized over 30 rallys, participated in dozens of public discussions, communicated with international media, and met with the several EU Member State Representatives.
And Lesya isn’t the only one standing up and speaking out for Ukraine abroad. Reply team members across the world participated in dozens of rallies and demonstrations over the past few months.
Raising awareness
As the communication platform, we couldn’t but use our super power to spread the information about Ukraine and ask for support.
Within the first weeks of the invasion, William Oleskiienko, our SDR Lead, has built a lit and contacted over 18,000 founders and executives, rallying them to join forces and stand with Ukraine. The support we saw resulted in another initiative – Tech Stands With Ukraine – the virtual honor roll to showcase conscious SaaS businesses supporting Ukraine (which also landed the #4 product of the day on Product Hunt).
Olivia Milton, our CMO, is another tireless fighter on the informational battlefield. Being forced to flee from Kyiv with her 4-year-old son, she has joined the PR Army of Ukrainian PR & Communications Leaders to get in touch and share the first-hand information with the journalists. Together, they were able to get almost 1,500 publications dedicated to Ukraine to the front pages of worldwide media.
Разом до перемоги!
Sadly, the war is far from over. But we can’t let the world go deaf and forget about the Ukrainian children dying from the russian bombs every day. We can’t give up. We’re protecting not just our land, but the whole free world.
But together we’ll stand. United, we’ll win.
If you are willing to help us end this war, here are some more ideas how you could support Ukraine: