We won several awards in HackerNoon’s Startup of the Year awards (and here’s what we learned)

We’re a Ukrainian team building an HCM platform — and last week, we found ourselves at the top of HackerNoon’s Startup of the Year 2024. Out of 150,000+ nominated startups worldwide, Sereda.ai placed:

• 🥇 1st in AI Wrappers

• 🥈 2nd in Business Development

• 🥉 3rd in Automation

We’re based in Kyiv — and proud to be the only Ukrainian project that made it to the top in a global AI category.

But here’s what actually surprised us: We didn’t campaign hard. We didn’t run ads. We just told our story — about building tools for people development, structured knowledge, and feedback inside growing teams. And the response? Way beyond what we expected. A few reflections:

• People love missions they can relate to. HR tech isn’t sexy, but team health matters.

• Being small is an edge. It kept us fast, scrappy, and close to users.

• AI alone doesn’t sell — usability does. We learned this the hard way.

We’re super grateful to everyone who supported us. This wasn’t just about votes — it was a moment of recognition that you don’t need to be from the Valley to build globally relevant AI products.

Have you ever launched something quietly and had it take off more than expected?

Curious to hear what surprised you in your journey.

— Team @Sereda.ai