Company cabinet

Universe Group

Tech (Product)

Kyiv

Verified

Simplifying the present, we create a better tomorrow

Universe is a product IT company that creates applications for iOS and Android and develops its own R&D centre. Universe products are used by approximately 55 million users from 180 countries. The most famous of them are the utilities Scan Guru, Translator Guru, Cleaner Guru, and the educational platform Wisey.

5years on the market

1office in Kyiv and working space in Warsaw

70+employees

55 millionusers from all over the world

Universe products simplify people’s life

The history of Universe began in 2018. The future founder of the company, Yaroslav Morozov, worked as Team Lead of iOS development in IT holding Genesis at that time. He headed up with the idea of developing his own VPN utility application. His initiative was supported. The product proved itself very successfully. Later, the project grew into a separate company in the ecosystem of Genesis businesses.

The name Universe was not chosen by chance. Firstly, the company strives to create large-scale projects that resemble separate universes. Secondly, each employee is also a separate universe that brings something of its own to the common macrocosm of the company and thereby stimulates the company's development.

In the first year, Universe developers created two applications — VPN and Scan Guru. In 2019, the video editor and Translator Guru, which supports 100+ languages, appeared in the portfolio of applications. As a result, the company earned its first million dollars. In 2020, Universe began to look for new niches and launched the first project in the R&D centre — the online style guide. In 2021, the company presented the first product for Android, as well as the educational platform Wisey.

In 2022, the company confidently withstood the beginning of a full-scale war. It organized the relocation of the team to safe regions, provided comprehensive assistance to employees who stayed in Ukraine or relocated to Poland, adapted the office to new challenges. Also, Universe supports the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the company launched new products for the web and mobile devices.

Yaroslav Morozov,
CEO

Five years ago, I envisioned Universe creating products that made people's lives easier. It was supposed to be an ecosystem of simple and convenient applications that help to solve routine tasks quickly. We have reached a lot of our goals, so we keep moving in the same direction. We have become the second-largest utility publisher in the world by revenue, and we have a plan to lead this ranking. Universe products are used by approximately 55 million users from 180 countries.

The company's flagship products Scan Guru document scanner, Translator Guru and phone memory cleaner Cleaner Guru are consistently among the top three most popular apps in the AppStore's Business category. During user interviews, the company found out that thanks to Scan Guru, a writer from New York converted 700 pages of handwritten text into typed text. Universe specialists joke that after that the writer has to make Scan Guru a co-author of the book 🙂

The company is proud of its official partnership with such international giants as Meta, Google, and TikTok. For example, during the launch of Wisey, Facebook representatives helped the company involve specialists from the University of Berkeley (USA) in audience research.

Yaroslav Morozov,
CEO

In 5 years, I see Universe as a holding in which key areas are headed by employees who developed in the team. I want to give my specialists the same cool opportunity that I was once given in Genesis.

An office where you are always welcome

The Universe team has been working in a hybrid format for a long time (it is possible to work both in the office and completely remotely). It does not matter where you live: in the capital, other cities of Ukraine, or abroad. The doors of Universe are always open for talented candidates. However, if you live in Kyiv and would like to work close to your colleagues, you will always be welcomed in a cosy office in Podil.

The Universe office space is divided into three work areas: the R&D center, the admin team, and the utility team. Specialists work in spacious open spaces. There are conference rooms for meetings, and a corner with a walking track, a desk and other sports equipment for sports fans. Employees can have a snack, drink coffee and chat with colleagues in the kitchen.

The main feature of the office is the silent room for work or rest. The rule is not to disturb others with conversations – only peace. There is also a library here. Employees can read in the quiet room or choose a book to read at home. Another pleasant bonus is a dizzying view of St. Andrew's Church. On Friday evenings, the silent room turns into a space where colleagues can listen to music on a vinyl record player, play board games, just chat and attend trainings from guest lecturers.

The company provides meals to those who work in the office. Everyone can find fresh dishes for breakfast every morning in the kitchen and order lunch from one of the corporate suppliers in the afternoon. Coffee, tea, fruit, snacks, and other goodies are always available in the kitchen.

Iryna Kravchenko,
Talent Acquisition Team Lead

The days seem different while working in the office. It is extremely important to switch my attention. I love the office for its various locations — the silent room, where you can work in silence; meeting rooms, where it is convenient to call candidates; the kitchen, where a lot of impromptu meetings with colleagues took place. The beauty of Podil has a specific influence on the office atmosphere. You can hold a meeting with a colleague in the fresh air or just run out to get coffee at your favorite coffee shop.

Everyone affects the overall result and their career

The work schedule is flexible. The only rule is to work synchronously with the team for at least five hours a day. The rest of the time can be adjusted to your biorhythms. In Universe, there is no strict control of working hours. The results are more important here.

The entire company works according to the OKR system (Objectives and Key Results). The CEO defines the main business goal of the company for a certain period. Based on the main goal, heads set goals for their departments. Each employee analyses what contribution to the overall goal he/she has to make, sets appropriate goals, and approves them with management. It has a superb effect on motivation. People realize how exactly their work helps the company. They are more willing to work on tasks that have been set by themselves, not by a manager.

The following meetings are held in Universe for the team to be aware of everything that is happening on the projects and beyond:

demos (once a month) — department heads share project updates;
all-hands (once a month) — more informal meetings where CEO talks about various organizational points and company news;
episodes (quarterly) — meetings to evaluate work results, summarize the results of this period, and define goals for the next one;
daily team meetings, Scrum meetings, individual meetings of specialists with managers, etc.

The company has developed its own matrix of competencies that determine the level of specialists. If you develop new competencies, you can move to higher positions and be promoted. When closing management positions, preference is usually given to internal hiring. If the employee understands that he/she has achieved a lot, or simply wants something new, he/she is allowed to try himself/herself in a new position.

Roman Shevchenko,
Head of Operations in the Utilities team

I joined Universe as a Manual QA Engineer six months after the company was founded. After working for some time, I became more interested in how the mobile application development business is organized in general. Later, I began to take on more responsibility and help colleagues with their tasks. Our CEO Yaroslav noticed my proactivity and offered me the position of Delivery Manager, who is responsible for the release of new versions of products. Today, my position is Head of Operations and my area of responsibility is the technical and operational implementation of the strategy of the entire Utilities direction. I already have ten people in my team, and we continue to grow.

Before Universe, I worked in marketing for 5 years. The beginning of a full-scale war became a stimulus to stop and rethink my attitude to work. So I started looking for a new company for employment. I wanted a job where I could quickly see results and qualitatively improve my expertise. Therefore, I decided to narrow my specialization and focus on performance marketing. It was important for me to objectively analyze my impact on the product, but I didn't want to chase the numbers.

At Universe, I am responsible for the creative campaigns for our products, which are seen by over 10 million users daily. I am engaged in research of audience's attention. I love my work for the mix of creativity and analytics. For me, it is one of the most interesting occupations. The lack of experience in creative marketing in IT did not prevent me from switching and developing in a new direction.

Diana Voloshchenko,
Creative Marketing Specialist

Employees are encouraged to take care of their health and rest

The duration of vacation in Universe depends on the number of days worked. Each employee is credited with 1.6 days of vacation for the month of work. In total, employees accrue 20 days of vacation for the year of employment. Universe employees can collect days to have a longer vacation, use them at once, or use them next year.

The company fully pays for all sick days: up to three days — without a certificate, from three days — with a certificate from any clinic. Universe takes the health of its employees seriously. If employees do not feel well, then they will not work very efficiently. Therefore, employees are always encouraged to rest and fully recover after illness.

All employees are provided with medical insurance after a trial period of three months. It covers consultations with various specialists, a full check-up of the body once a year, dentistry, and prophylactic massages.

Universe promotes the development of employees

The company pays a lot of attention to the professional and personal development of employees. Therefore, they are encouraged to do various training. In particular, they compensate from 70% to 100% of the cost of external courses (depending on whether the acquired knowledge will be needed during work).They also cover 70% of the cost of learning English on courses or with a tutor.

In addition, the Universe HR team regularly organizes internal educational activities for all employees who are really interested in it. The courses on public speaking, conflict theory, networking, sales and emotional intelligence have already been conducted. They also encourage the exchange of experience among colleagues. Once a month, the company holds Universe Slides Night — team meetings where one of the employees presents a topic in which he/she considers himself/herself an expert. It can be anything related to professional activities or hobbies.

Loud corporate parties will be held after the victory, but now the priority is to support the army

Before the start of the full-scale war, the company often arranged corporate parties. Once a year, the entire team went abroad for a few days on vacation (in particular to Turkey and Croatia). In this way, employees could relax and get acquainted with their colleagues at the same time. They also liked various quests and team games.

Nowadays, the team building formats have been changed. During the year and a half of the full-scale war, the company donated more than 6 million hryvnias for the needs of the Defence Forces of Ukraine. One of the key directions of assistance is supporting of personal requests of relatives and friends of employees who have stood up for the defence of the country. The company constantly doubles the amounts of money that employees collect by themselves.

Universe also supported the educational project Captains' Training, created by the Territorial Defence Forces in cooperation with the Come Back Alive Foundation. Its purpose is to develop military leadership in accordance with NATO standards. They help officers to develop skills needed to effectively perform combat missions and maintain personnel.

On February 24, 2022, everyone was evacuated to a safe place

The company had a clear plan for evacuating employees in case of a full-scale war. Managers instructed everyone on what to do in different dangerous situations. All employees were ready for all scenarios and knew how to behave in danger.

On February 24, not only the company's employees but also their relatives and pets were evacuated to the west of Ukraine. All people were accommodated in a hotel in Bukovel. The company paid for three-month accommodation. Later, most of the workers returned to Kyiv.

Employees who expressed a desire to go to Poland were helped by Universe's partner, Meta. Employees of the Warsaw office contacted the company on the first day of the full-scale war and offered their support. Universe helped the girls with renting an apartment and buying equipment. Meta set up a separate mini-hub for them in their office.

About 5 days before the start of the full-scale invasion, Yaroslav, our CEO, shared an evacuation plan in case the situation worsened. At that time, no one believed that it was possible. Everyone was persistently asked to say whether they were ready to evacuate and how many relatives they would like to take with them. This preparation helped a lot when the full-scale war started.

On the morning of February 24, we called and discussed the action plan. The company pre-booked a bus for evacuation to the west of Ukraine. Later, the women and girls were offered to move to Warsaw temporarily. The company rented housing and an office. Our partners in Meta helped us a lot with accommodation. I decided to go with the cat. We had been living in Warsaw for about three months. However, we were thinking about returning to Ukraine all that time.

Rita Havryliuk,
Marketing Team Lead

During the blackouts, the team that stayed in Ukraine was provided with generators and charging stations. The company compensated 50% of the price of EcoFlow and organized the purchase process. The Universe office is fully adapted to cut off electricity, water and heating. There is always an Internet connection and a water supply. Thus, employees even can take a shower in the office. During blackouts, not only employees, but also their relatives are welcome at the workspace.

The team is united by proven values

Sometimes companies try to provide the employees with preconceived frameworks. Universe did it differently. They formulated values based on those patterns that were already working effectively in the team.

Proactivity
Universe workers are engaged and proactive. They dive deep into processes and offer ideas. Even if the initiative goes beyond the employee's area of responsibility. The team quickly overcomes difficulties to reach the final goal. Employees are the drivers of business improvement.
Focus on the result
The company's specialists are always focused on the result and try to do their best. It is important not to focus on the process for the sake of the process. You should create ambitious goals and never stop conquering new peaks.
Openness
Universe specialists always openly talk about the results, achievements and opportunities. The team is used to building honest communication and sharing constructive feedback in order to become better every day.
Flexibility
At Universe, it is important to quickly adapt to new business realities. If necessary, change processes and approaches for the best result. Here you should accept challenges as growth points and test all hypotheses.
Unity
Universe is a close-knit team whose members always help each other and share their experiences.

Ambisious Universians earn UniCoins, which can be exchanged for gifts

The company has a special gamified motivation system — the internal currency UniCoins. It is an element of the company's culture that helps unite the team and increase its efficiency. Currency allows you to publicly thank colleagues for help or sharing expertise.

Every achievement can be rewarded with UniCoins. Employees can use them to purchase goods and services from the company. You can get coins for showing involvement in team life. It can be helping a colleague, exceeding standard work duties, etc.

There are two types of UniCoins:

Thanksgiving coins. Every month, the employee receives three coins. These coins can only be used to express gratitude to colleagues (1 coin = 1 person). If you were given a Thanksgiving coin, it is automatically converted into a Shopping coin and added to your account. This type of coin can be given both publicly and anonymously. 45% of such transactions are conducted publicly.
Shopping coins. Universe employees can earn them on theirs own and accumulate for achievements. It can be contribution to the company's social networks, giving lectures at Universe Slides Night, being a speaker at professional conferences, working as a buddy (providing informal support to a new employee at the beginning of his journey in the team), etc. These coins are also transferred to the balance once a month.

Everyone can exchange accumulated Shopping coins for various items available in the Unishop store. For example, branded clothes, towels, blankets, electronics, as well as a scooter, coffee machine, vacation for two in a country complex, etc.

How is the hiring and adaptation process organized in the company?

Selection for the Universe team takes place in several stages:

resume screening (it allows to determine to what extent the candidate meets the requirements of the vacancy);
a preliminary call with a recruiter;
test task (needed for 70% of vacancies); candidates for technical positions are usually offered to do a small task during the interview in order not to delay the recruiting process;
interview with the hiring manager (future manager of the employee);
bar raising — an interview with one of the C-level managers to test the candidate for compatibility with the company's culture and values.

In order to get the job, everyone needs to have a high-quality CV, read some information about the company before the interview, and think about questions to ask a recruiter. In this way, the interview will not look like an interrogation, and you will immediately understand whether your expectations match what the company offers. During self-presentation, the candidate should focus on results from previous experience, and confirm all words with specific facts.

The results do not have to be incredible, like launching a rocket into space or creating an app in two weeks. Small achievements, such as a gold medal at school, organization of a club at university, volunteering, and optimization of some work processes are also important. They just need to be noticed and highlighted.

Adaptation is possible both ways — online and offline. New employees listen to a presentation with all important information about corporate processes and receive a checklist of what he/she needs to do during their first time working in the company. Also, each newcomer gets acquainted with a Buddy — a co-worker with whom the newcomer does not cross paths at work. However, Buddy always helps the newcomer to adapt.

During the trial period, which lasts three months, the newcomer meets with the HR specialist three times to discuss all the issues that concern him/her. During this time, he/she also gets acquainted with colleagues from other departments and the CEO of the company.

After receiving the offer, I decided to go to Kyiv for the first working week and go to the office in order to get to know everyone better and be put in the picture quickly. On my first day, I was given an onboarding presentation that convinced me that I was exactly where I wanted to be. Later, I spoke with the HR manager and my immediate supervisor. I had a holistic understanding of the future development of the product I was supposed to work on after the first meeting. Later, I met buddy and we immediately found some common ground.

During the first working week, I managed to get to know the whole team and had a conversation with them during various activities for newcomers. I also managed to implement several important technical solutions that no one expected from me in the first week of work. It was facilitated by a well-thought-out onboarding process. It set me up for productive work from the first minutes of being in the team. For more than a year, my team launched a new product and significantly improve the existing one thanks to a business-oriented approach.

Ruslan Hazanfarov,
Android Developer

More than 90% of Universe employees recommend working at the company

The founder of Universe often says that it is needed to offer a position in the company to those people who are not looking for a job. That is why the company operates the Race of Recommendations Program within which employees can recommend candidates they know. In 2021, the employee who recommended a lot of people won two tickets for a trip to Italy. Now employees receive UniCoins for each recommendation.

Employees recommend candidates not just for the potential profit, they really consider Universe a worthy place to work and are ready to recommend the company to their friends. According to a recent monitoring conducted by the HR department, the eNPS of the team is 91.3%. This is the percentage of people who would recommend working in the company with 9 and 10 points on a ten-point scale.

The survey among employees also showed that 66% of respondents consider career opportunities the main advantage of working in the company; 54% like expertise of colleagues and the team in general; 52% chose salary and corporate culture in the team as the main advantage.

Do you want to create products for millions of people around the world?
Then hurry up and apply for one of the vacancies!

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