Ten Million Bridges
At the peak, the UN spoke of up to eight million displaced people; add the Ukrainians who already lived abroad and you are comfortably past ten million. Numbers that tell of an immense human tragedy — and of a global network of people who remain deeply, emotionally tied to their land.
The idea was to connect these people — “never ‘used’” — in a format where everyone had something to gain. Its first case came before the name: Andrii, a Ukrainian in Canada, introduced a client for medical clothing during the pandemic. “If one bridge had worked once, it could work ten million times.”
How It Works
“It is worth saying clearly, though: we did not invent anything. Referral and affiliate systems have worked for decades. UAmbassadors is nothing but our reworking of that mechanism for the B2B world.”
Anyone can introduce Faktorist to a potential client in their market and share in the profits that follow; producers pay commissions only on sales actually made. During the war, when men aged 18 to 60 could not leave the country, UAmbassadors also covered trade fairs that Ukrainian producers could not attend.
Readers of the book can join too: details at everythingwill.be/ok/ambassadors.
Passion Beats Competence
A counterintuitive discovery: artists, chefs and designers systematically outperform colleagues with a traditional commercial background. When an artist recommends a Ukrainian handcrafted product, that recommendation carries an emotional weight no salesperson could match.
The first buyer from the African continent was met at a hotel bar counter during a food & beverage fair. Over time, UAmbassadors become cultural ambassadors too — telling the story of a country which, despite everything, “continues to create, innovate, produce beauty.”