Andriy Kusyy, co-founder and CEO of LetsData, recently shared a stark warning at TechChill in Riga: prepare for an unprecedented surge in disinformation, driven by the insidious art of repurposing. He painted a vivid picture, recalling how his team first witnessed this phenomenon while tracking a coordinated operation targeting political candidates. Just a month later, the exact same playbook, virtually unchanged, resurfaced, but this time it was weaponized against banks, aiming to scam unsuspecting customers. This shocking revelation underscores the critical importance of early detection and rapid takedown of disinformation campaigns, preventing them from morphing and resurfacing with new, equally damaging objectives. LetsData, a Ukrainian-founded startup, is at the forefront of this battle, deploying AI-powered tools across over 50 countries to identify these patterns and provide crucial early warnings to its diverse clientele, which includes governments, enterprises, military, and strategic communications offices. This innovative approach highlights the evolving nature of digital warfare, where the same deceptive tactics can be quickly re-applied to different targets, making a proactive and AI-driven defense system indispensable. Kusyy’s insights serve as a potent reminder that the fight against disinformation is not a static challenge, but a dynamic and ever-evolving one that demands constant vigilance and sophisticated technological solutions.
Beyond the formal presentations, Kusyy and I found a moment of connection amidst the conference’s hustle, stepping out into the refreshing Riga sunshine. We bonded over Lviv, Kusyy’s hometown, a city I’ve visited several times, though my recent trips have been shadowed by the ongoing full-scale invasion. My vow to truly savor its beauty after the war mirrored, I imagine, his own silent hope. Ironically, Kusyy himself currently resides outside Ukraine, and his team is a truly global and remote operation, spanning across Ukraine, Spain, the Baltics, Romania, and Poland. LetsData itself was born from the crucible of disinformation, founded in 2022 by Kusyy and Ksenia Iliuk, the company’s COO, as a direct response to the escalating disinformation unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Their shared experience in the information space had prepared them for this critical venture. Kusyy’s previous role at Grammarly, another Ukrainian-founded AI success story where he led the machine learning platform team, added another layer of personal connection – I even confessed my own struggles with spelling and thanked him for Grammarly’s invaluable assistance! This personal anecdote beautifully illustrates the human element behind this technologically sophisticated fight, showing how deeply individuals are intertwined with the challenges and solutions in the digital realm, especially when their homeland is at stake.
Kusyy revealed that while their initial motivation was deeply rooted in helping Ukraine counter the relentless Russian disinformation campaign, the scope of LetsData’s mission quickly expanded beyond national borders. He explained, “Our first customers were around Ukraine, but then we started working more and more internationally. Right now we are analyzing the media space in more than 50 countries.” The company’s genesis, he admitted, was far from typical. “We just hired a bunch of students at first, in Ukraine,” he chuckled, illustrating the resourcefulness and raw talent that fueled their early efforts. Once they had a functional prototype, LetsData began securing its first contracts, a testament to the powerful resonance of their vision. Potential clients, he recalled, “really loved the idea of what we were building. They were ready to start working with us on the promise that we would deliver [on the promise] in three months or so.” This early commitment from clients, based on a promise of future delivery, speaks volumes about the pressing need for effective disinformation solutions and the trust LetsData was able to inspire even in its nascent stages. It underscores a crucial point: in critical fields like cybersecurity and information warfare, early innovation, even with limited resources, can attract significant support if the problem it addresses is urgent and the proposed solution is compelling.
While disinformation has long been a thorny issue, the level of attention it receives from startups, potential customers, and investors has fluctuated over time. LetsData discovered that securing funding for their ambitious endeavors was not an immediate triumph. Initially, the startup adopted a bootstrapping approach, relying heavily on the revenue generated from those crucial early contracts with government organizations and strategic partnerships. This period of self-reliance demonstrates their unwavering commitment and the intrinsic value of their service. The tide began to turn with their first external investment from Startup Wise Guys, which provided the vital capital needed to develop the next generation of their product. As the business gained momentum and traction, LetsData successfully closed a pre-seed round of $1.6 million, led by the Polish VC SMOK Ventures, with follow-on investments from Startup Wise Guys, Tilia Impact Ventures, 1991 Ventures, Wayra, and angel investors Marty Krátký-Katz and Pavel Bobosikov. Kusyy candidly admitted that “raising is confusing,” acknowledging the numerous missteps they made during the process. However, he emphasized that their robust revenue traction ultimately salvaged their fundraising efforts, allowing them to close the round despite the challenges. This transparent account of their fundraising journey offers a genuine glimpse into the often-bumpy road of startup growth, highlighting that even with strong fundamentals, the path to securing capital can be fraught with learning experiences, ultimately reinforcing the importance of resilience and adaptability.
In a gesture of invaluable mentorship, Kusyy generously shared his hard-won lessons from navigating his first fundraising round, offering a roadmap for aspiring founders. His advice was direct and insightful. Firstly, he cautioned against having “twenty people ready to follow ‘on standby’ while you are still securing the lead investor,” explaining that “while they are waiting, they are losing their conviction.” This highlights the importance of strategic sequencing and maintaining momentum in fundraising. Secondly, he stressed that “fundraising is not the same as going through a loan process,” underscoring the qualitative differences in investor relations versus traditional debt financing. Thirdly, while demonstrating traction is crucial, Kusyy urged founders to “show more” than just revenues, warning that it’s “not a good idea to build all of your story on the revenues alone.” This emphasizes the need for a holistic narrative that encompasses vision, market potential, and long-term strategy. Finally, and perhaps most profoundly, he emphasized the paramount importance of the team and the founders’ convictions. “What are the convictions of your founders? Who is your team? That’s the key thing investors want to know,” he stated, reminding us that at the heart of every successful venture are the people driving it. These practical insights provide a humanized, behind-the-scenes look at the realities of startup fundraising, moving beyond financial metrics to emphasize the strategic, psychological, and team-oriented aspects critical for success.
Kusyy eloquently characterized disinformation as an integral component of modern warfare, using Ukraine as a stark case study. He illustrated how information operations and physical warfare are meticulously intertwined, forming a devastating one-two punch. “When, for example, you have an attack on energy infrastructure,” he explained, “a few days before the attack, you will see lots of new accounts appearing on social media channels like Facebook, Telegram and so on.” These accounts, he continued, “will start posting different, confusing messages, like, ‘Oh, the government fucked up again. There will probably be electricity cut-offs because of the government – they steal all the money.'” Then, after the physical attack that causes actual electricity cut-offs, these same accounts pivot to “amplifying the damage,” spewing accusations like, “Oh, but the mayor’s house, they have electricity and you don’t, because it’s a corrupt state.” Kusyy highlighted that this coordinated effort reveals a chilling pattern: “It’s a pre-cursor of an attack” — followed by the physical assault — “and then afterwards, amplification of the damage.” This goes beyond just military targets; the private sector is also under siege, often through sophisticated impersonation tactics. LetsData recently uncovered over 700 pages launched overnight, all impersonating the CEO of a major bank. Such a massive, rapid-fire attack underscores the absolute necessity of AI-powered disinformation tracking services. No human team could possibly detect such a surge across multiple platforms in real-time, highlighting why automated monitoring and alerts are indispensable. When these incidents occur, LetsData immediately notifies the target, providing comprehensive evidence, data, and context for their internal teams to escalate. Kusyy also revealed plans for LetsData to offer a product that will escalate responses on behalf of clients, further streamlining the defense. He proudly stated, “We primarily consider ourselves dual-use because we have both the use cases in the government and defense, but we also think it’s very important to work with private companies.” This dual-use approach, he argued, stems from a crucial belief: that strength in numbers is vital in combating disinformation. “The more organizations that have instruments to detect [activity] early and take it down, the more expensive it is to run a [disinfo] campaign,” Kusyy asserted. “That’s why we think it’s important that both the private sector and the government get involved.” This powerful synergy between public and private sectors, driven by advanced AI, offers the most robust defense against the evolving and pervasive threat of disinformation, making it more costly and difficult for malicious actors to succeed.