On the mutual exchange of values

In September 2012, The Day covered the story of TRData, a Ukrainian startup that won the international startup competition SeedCamp which took place in the UK. Out of over 6,000 participating companies, only four were named as winners, and one of them was from Ukraine. The Day turned out to be the first medium to write about the young company in general and its victory in particular. The material was initially slated to be just a news item, but eventually became part of the issue’s main theme, that is, efficient small and medium businesses contrasted with inefficient use of funding by state enterprises and institutions. The TRData story was an excellent example of this.

However, it is common knowledge that the newspaper article has a short life. People read it one day, but usually forget about it the next day. We were pleasantly surprised to find a letter from the company in our email box one day. A photo was attached to it, featuring the article “Ukrainian Silicon Valley To Start from Small Business” cut out of the newspaper page and framed.

“For our company, the article in The Day was an excellent reminder of the significant success our team achieved in the past year, and we could not think of a more worthy application of the article, the first ever written publication about our firm, than framing it, matting, and hanging on the wall in our office, to serve as an inspiration for further achievements. The Day’s article was followed by a few more in the Ukrainian media, but it was the first one and, therefore, the most memorable for us,” the company told us.

This case is emblematic of a healthy relationship between the media and business community they cover. We noticed the young company’s victory, while they, in their turn, have shown us how important the media attention is to them. We have decided to share this story with our readers now. “None of my works were framed and hung on the wall before or after that incident,” the article’s author Maria Semenchenko wrote on her Facebook page. Art designer Viktoria Baron commented: “Such attitude reflects the true values,” and concluded: “I am happy for both sides.”