By December 2010, Alexey Mas had a biography rarely found among his peers. He was born in 1974 and, after winning physics olympiads, entered the radio physics faculty of Kyiv State University without exams. In January 1999, together with Ruslan Dmitrakovich, he launched the Ukrainian Banner Network (UBS): the Perl-based system was written in three weeks, and expenses amounted to about $100. From March 7, 2000, Mas headed the 'Ukrainian Portal' (UAPortal). The training promised to retell this journey as a practical program for those starting from scratch.
'How to Build Your Own Internet Business from Scratch?'
The sessions ran for four and five days in a row—or rather, two days of eight hours each—and were divided into seven blocks. The first dealt with the decision to start: choosing partners, refining the idea, fast and slow starts. Next came bootstrapping—that is, growing on one's own money without external investment—which in the internet projects of those years was perhaps the main way to survive. The third block was devoted to development and the team, including the rule of firing and employee shares.
From Idea to Selling the Project
The program then went beyond the first steps. In the AIN.UA file, the path is described as 'from choosing a direction to testing the idea and the first steps toward an audience,' but the program itself was broader: it included investments and selling the resource. The block on selling covered the risks of the deal, the paperwork between partners, and valuation. The program concluded with a discussion of motivation and time management for creative groups—that is, for those who make the product, not just count the money.
These topics were not abstract for the author. In August 2008, Mail.ua underwent closed testing; Mas was the project architect, and the Internet Invest group invested more than $1 million in it. Four years later, according to unofficial data, about $500,000 and around 300,000 users went to Mail.ru Group. It was precisely such deals that were analyzed in the blocks on investments and selling the project.
Price and Audience
Participation cost 1,500 hryvnias. With early payment, the price dropped to 1,100 hryvnias; for students it was 600 hryvnias. Group discounts were available, and AIN.UA readers received ten percent off. The publication at that time covered the Ukrainian internet market and startups, so the announcement was aimed primarily at those who already read about new projects and wanted to move on to practice.
The training format reflected another side of the Ukrainian internet of that time. Projects appeared quickly, often without money and without an exit plan, and experience was passed on through conferences, forums, and personal connections. In December 2008, Mas was already involved in this environment, and on April 1, 2009, he was at the origins of the first Ukrainian Internet Professionals Forum, which later became iForum. Mas himself drew up the forum's program.
What He Recalled Later
The training did not remain a one-off episode. In an April 2012 column for, Mas returned to it and called it a startup training. In the same year, 2012, Mail.ua already belonged to Mail.ru Group, and Mas himself continued to write for a professional audience.
Alexey Mas died on October 6, 2021, in Kyiv at the age of 47 after an illness. His death was reported on October 8 by his brother Viktor Mas. According to, in recent years Mas headed the innovation laboratory at Kyivstar, and in 2019 he launched 'craft social networks' with donors' money. That project was later continued by Bogdan Gnatyuk, and the result was Chakloon.
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