Why chaos kills startups and how to prevent it: Kateryna Bershadska’s operational approach
When we talk about a startup, we usually imagine an idea, founders with fire in their eyes, and the first lines of code written in the kitchen. What is often left out of the picture is the real business mechanism that either works smoothly or falls apart under the pressure of daily challenges.
In this mechanism, operational management is not “something to be done later,” but something without which a startup in 2025 will either not survive to Series A or lose control before the first release. This is the opinion of Kateryna Bershadska, an operations management expert and founder of Business Engineer consulting company. Below, I propose to consider her methods and business skills, and I think it will be informative. IT companies in recent years have clearly demonstrated this reality. In 2022-2023, startups that were able to quickly adapt their operational processes to war conditions survived and even grew despite the loss of markets, relocation of teams, and constant air raids.
Liki24, Reface, Awesomic, and HURMA are not only stories about ideas, but also examples of a systematic approach to managing chaos. After all, a startup is not only about “what to do” but also about “how to implement it on a daily basis.”
In international practice, operations management has long been recognized as a critical part of building a startup. For example, Notion or Stripe had internal systems in place at the MVP stage: sprint processes, priority boards, and fitch flow control. This did not prevent them from being flexible, but rather allowed them to maintain focus as the team grew and feedback came from all sides.
Increasingly, Ukrainian teams are also realizing that without structure, processes, and clear roles, scaling becomes a risk, not a prospect. This is often realized through pain points: loss of customers due to support errors, release failures, team demotivation, or conflicts between product and technical logic.
An example of a systematic approach is the work of Kateryna Bershadska as a partner of the Financial Technologies Problem Lab at the State Biotechnology University. Her experience in integrating operational management practices into educational and business processes demonstrates how theory and practice can work together to prepare specialists to manage real projects that have already created several startups and successfully passed not only Series A but also developed further, receiving investments! In fact, everything is quite specific: there are basic areas that should be laid down from the first month of operation. According to Kateryna, a logical chain is effective: Product Management – Development and releases – Customer Success – Sales and marketing – HR and team dynamics.
- Product Management. This is where you decide what to do and in what sequence. It is important to build a process for collecting feedback, prioritizing features (for example, through RICE), creating a roadmap, and sprint planning.
- Development and releases. It’s not just “write and upload”. It includes CI/CD pipeline, quality control, versioning, regression testing, and bug tracking.
- Customer Success. The team responsible for customer retention. Its cycle includes onboarding, support, regular feedback, and analysis of the reasons for outflow.
- Sales and marketing. This includes automation of digital funnels, unit economics, A/B testing, LTV/CAC analytics, and integration with CRM. This also includes finance: budgeting, burn rate control, runway forecasting, scenario planning.
- HR and team dynamics. This includes a transparent hiring process, adaptation of newcomers, weekly one-on-ones, performance metrics, and support for psychological stability.
All of this may seem overwhelming for a three-person startup, but this is when it’s time to lay the groundwork-not for bureaucracy, but to maintain momentum, energy, and transparency.
The main principle of building an operating system according to Bershadskaya’s approach is “it’s not a template, it’s a living organism,” and what’s important, it should preserve the company’s DNA!
Operating system: not about control, but about survival
If the first phase of a startup can be compared to an explosion – energy, ideas, first sales – then there comes a time when this energy needs to be systematically channeled. Otherwise, it will either dissipate or explode from within.
Those who ignore this moment face typical problems:
- the team burns out because they don’t understand the priorities;
- founders drown in routine instead of development;
- customers leave because the product “breaks” or their feedback is lost;
- investors refuse to fund because the business looks like an improvisation.
Operations management is not the antithesis of startup drive, but its systemic support.
How to implement it correctly
First of all, you need to appoint a person responsible for operations. At an early stage, a full-fledged COO may be a luxury, but without a person in charge of the structure and processes, the team quickly finds itself in chaos.
At Awesomic, all the processes were initially “in words”. But after attracting investment, one of the founders took on the role of operations manager. Then a systemic rhythm appeared: clear planning, task automation, and reporting. This allowed the company to scale even during the war and work with global clients.
The example of Bershadska’s work also shows the effectiveness of integrating business cases into educational programs. This allows students to immediately apply knowledge in practice and see the value of learning.
Documenting processes
“Document processes, even minimally,” the expert emphasizes. Even a simple diagram of “how we onboard a new client” or “what the feature release cycle looks like” is already operational management.
Many Ukrainian teams started with Google Docs or a single board in Notion, and this was enough to avoid constant restarts. For example, the Legal Nodes team documented all key processes in the form of maps in Miro, from the decision-making structure to the flow of work with clients. This allowed them to delegate functions and scale the service without losing quality.
Automation
“Anything that can be automated should be automated,” is one of Kateryna’s work principles. Not out of laziness, but so that the team focuses on value, not routine.
Among the key tools:
- Jira or Linear for managing sprints and priorities;
- Slack or Discord for internal communication;
- GitHub or GitLab – technical control and CI/CD;
- Metabase or Looker Studio – analytics;
- HubSpot or Pipedrive – CRM and sales automation.
At Liki24, the entire cycle – from order to delivery – was built on internal automation tools. This made it possible to control logistics and customer requests in real time and scale the service without increasing staff.
Regularity
An operating system works only when it has a regularity and rhythm. Meetings, analytics, reviews, retrospectives, OKR sessions are not about “taking time away” but about focus and control.
The founders of Workee, a SaaS product for freelancers, hold weekly meetings for 15 minutes – no extra workload, just key tasks and risks. The result is less conflict and more engagement.
Data-driven approach
Startups often make decisions intuitively. But every function or hypothesis should be tied to metrics:
- what do we want to change?
- how will we measure the effect?
- what metric will it improve?
At Reface, the effectiveness of new AI features was evaluated through dashboards: interaction time, engagement, and repeat user actions. This allowed us to quickly close ideas that did not work and scale those that did.
Conclusion: manageability is more important than speed
The idea that operational management slows down growth is a misconception. It provides speed without destruction.
If a startup starts with a “let’s do it fast and figure it out later” approach, it is likely that over time the team will burn out, customers will leave, and investments will disappear.
Operational management needs to be built from day one – not when it’s already on fire, not when the investor demands to see the processes, and not when the team is scattered. It is when it seems that it is “too early”. It’s like the foundation of a house: it’s invisible, but it determines how many floors the structure can withstand.
A startup is always a high-stakes game. But the bet is not just on the idea or product. The real bet is on the team’s ability to handle growth, adapt to change, and work under pressure. Operations management is the invisible framework that allows all of this to happen.
Bershadska’s example shows that a successful combination of business practices and educational projects can not only scale companies but also train professionals who can effectively manage complex processes.
In 2025, the winners will not be those who started first, but those who can go the distance.
