My path has never been simple or straight. I've worked as a children's camp leader, an interpreter on river cruises, a hotel housekeeper in the US, an import manager, a customer service rep at UPS, and later became Head of a Visa Application Center in Moscow, leading a team of 100+ people.

My path has never been simple or straight. I've worked as a children's camp leader, an interpreter on river cruises, a hotel housekeeper in the US, an import manager, a customer service rep at UPS, and later became Head of a Visa Application Center in Moscow, leading a team of 100+ people. At thirty-four, I left that job and joined the police. Ask me why — it's not what you'd expect.
Then, in 2022, everything changed. After Russia invaded Ukraine, my husband and I didn't want to stay in a country that chose war. We sold our apartment and left, crossing into Georgia through the mountains at night. On the way to Brazil, we stopped in Greece, where I was baptized in a thousand-year-old church, something I'd never had the chance to do before. Then we settled in Brazil with no plan, no network, and not speaking the language.
In Brazil, we taught ourselves JavaScript from zero and are building Yet, a marketplace that helps stores sell food close to its expiry date at a discount instead of throwing it away.
I don't come from tech or a typical startup background. I come from a bunch of very different jobs, a war, a border crossing at night, a baptism in a foreign church, and a strong belief that you can always start over. I'm happy to talk openly about all of it: the hard parts, the courage, and the strange, adventurous shape a life can take when everything familiar disappears.