Karina Tymchenko

I jumped headfirst into SMM when it was still raw, barely mainstream (2019). Half a year into corporate life, I burned out before I even had words for it. I dragged my friends along for the ride (to this day, I don’t know why they trusted me that much). Together, we devoured the restaurant niche until COVID tore it out of our hands overnight. Start. Adapt. Survive. This became our mantra. By 2021, I was running accounts with 1.5M followers and leading a team stretched across time zones. I’ll never forget driving through town, switching radio stations, and hearing a stranger casually quote words I had written in my notes app during the rush hour. That surreal collision of anonymity and recognition still echoes. Then war. In one moment, everything I’d built collapsed. I had to leave Ukr...