Mas headed the Innovation lab at one of Ukraine's largest telecom operators. His path into the company began in 2015, when he became IT&Digital adviser to Kyivstar president Petro Chernyshov. Later he moved into the role of lab head. His public image had long been built around a single detail: the red shirt. The operator's signature colour is blue, and Mas's recognisability at industry events rested on that contrast.
He announced his departure on Facebook without going into detail. In a conversation with LIGA.Tech he wrote:
“I know you've been waiting for this for a long time. 31.07 — the return of the man in the red shirt.”
The company did not name an official reason. A source at Kyivstar told the publication that Mas's position had been 'covered by the digital director.' The name of the appointed head was not given in the article, and Mas himself did not comment on the reasons for leaving. At the time of publication, there was also no word on what he would do next.
A path through several projects
LIGA.Tech recalled the highlights of Mas's biography. Born in 1974 in Kyiv, he graduated from the university's radio physics faculty and in the late 1990s worked in banking and the public sector, in particular at the National Bank of Ukraine, where he dealt with payment processing. In January 1999, together with classmate Ruslan Dmytrakovych, he became one of the co-founders of the Ukrainian Banner Network.
His best-known project was Infostore, Ukraine's largest file-sharing service. The service operated from 2003, and in December 2008 the police seized its servers and the project closed. In 2000, Mas also took part in the launch of UAportal, whose investor was Oleksandr Soroka. In 2007 the portal was sold to the holding.
Another episode cited by the publication concerns the Mail.ua email service. It was created together with Oleksandr Olshansky, and in 2012 the company sold the service to Mail.ru for around half a million dollars. Ukrainian users switched to the Russian platform the same year, and for the domestic market this became one of the most discussed stories in internet business at the time. The sold email service left Mas with a reputation as a man who knows the Ukrainian internet audience from the inside.
The lab and the accelerator
His work at Kyivstar took place against the backdrop of the operator's attempts to build its own startup ecosystem. On 20 April 2016, the company announced the VDNKh-TECh-Kyivstar telecom accelerator, and in December of that year four startups from the programme went into production. These projects belonged to the direction Mas represented within the company, and this was precisely where the line between corporate innovation and real products ran.
In parallel, he remained one of the organisers of iForum, a conference about internet business. The first iForum took place in 2009, and Mas oversaw the 'Internet Business' track. In those years he was a prominent figure in industry discussions, not merely a corporate manager.
What came next
Mas's new project appeared a few weeks after the LIGA.Tech article. In August 2019 he launched 'Craft Social Networks' and announced a syndicate of investors with a minimum contribution of $100. The idea was built on small social networks created by a community, without aiming for mass growth. The project was later continued by Bohdan Hnatiuk, owner of Maralles magazine and the Chakloon company. In November 2019 the syndicate had around 280 members.
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