This Ukrainian Entrepreneur Built His EdTech App Into A Global Phenomenon

Forbes

Anton Pavlovsky founded Headway Inc to help busy people improve their lives by reading more books—and avoiding doomscrolling. Air raids be damned.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinadilicosa/2025/10/17/how-ukrainian-entrepreneur-anton-pavlovsky-built-edtech-app-headway-into-a-global-phenomenon/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, this Ukrainian entrepreneur built his EdTech app into a global phenomenon

00:06in the middle of a war. Anton Pavlovsky, the 40-year-old Ukrainian entrepreneur and founder

00:12of Headway Inc., which develops gamified educational apps, was in London when the war

00:16in his homeland began in February 2022. By that point, Headway was already taking off,

00:23having reached 200 million users since its founding in 2019. When he heard the Russian

00:28army had invaded his home base of Kiev, where the company's headquarters and 150 of its employees

00:34were located, his first thought was for the safety of his team. He left the UK within hours, flying

00:41first to Lublin, Poland, and then to Romania, where he trekked on foot to reach Ukraine's

00:46southwestern border. Pavlovsky's father, a 60-year-old former army commander, immediately

00:52re-enlisted and met his son at the border. Together, they got Headway's employees

00:58as well as hundreds of their family members out of the country and into Warsaw, Poland,

01:02where the company set up a provisional office. The year he founded Headway, Pavlovsky was a 34-year-old

01:09chief product officer at another startup, IT firm Genesis Tech, and he was brokenhearted from the end

01:15of his five-year marriage. Pavlovsky told Forbes, "...it was difficult, but it put me on a journey of self-discovery

01:22and self-reflection. I devoured books on psychology, interpersonal skills, mindfulness, and that stress

01:29reignited my love of reading. After I understood, it hit me. Most people are not that fortunate to

01:35actually go through this journey. As much as I love reading, not all people do." He still remembers the

01:41exact moment he decided to turn that realization into a business. He said, "...I just wanted to bring an

01:48ability to learn, to study, to the people." Pavlovsky approached IT firm Genesis Tech with an idea for an

01:55educational app based on distilling knowledge from books, and the company put in $5 million over time in

02:01exchange for a minority stake in Headway. Headway Inc., not to be confused with the American mental health

02:07firm of the same name, launched four weeks later. Today, it has 160 million users across its five

02:15product portfolio. Forbes estimates Headway Inc.'s revenue at $160 million and values it at $720 million.

02:24The company now employs some 450 people and has five offices spread across four countries in Eastern

02:31Europe. Designed to keep users from doomscrolling through social media, the Headway app is a library of

02:3715-minute book summaries on topics ranging from self-improvement to business. In 2021, Headway

02:43added the brain game app Impulse to its portfolio. Impulse is more about self-discovery, offering

02:50quizzes and puzzles to help people determine their IQ, personality type, and other skills. All content

02:56across Headway's portfolio is produced by its employees with limited assistance from AI. Pavlovsky says,

03:02we are old school there. Pavlovsky says Headway has been profitable since 2020 and that it has kept

03:09growing through the war in Ukraine. Revenue grew by 90% in the first year of full-scale conflict in 2022

03:16and has since tripled. Headway Chief of Staff Oleksandr Yaroshenko explains that Headway had put cash

03:24aside in an emergency fund and was able to pay for employees' relocation expenses without hurting the bottom

03:29line for 2022. Pavlovsky expects Headway will reach $1 billion in annual revenue by 2029,

03:36at which point he plans to take the company public on the New York Stock Exchange.

03:41As for life back in Ukraine, while the war continues, the vast majority of Headway's employees have now

03:47returned to their homes and the company has just moved to a much larger four-floor office in Kyiv to

03:53accommodate its expansion. When an air raid alarm went off in the middle of his video interview with

03:58Forbes, he brushed it off and kept talking. And when a more serious threat forced him and his team to

04:04take refuge in the office's underground parking lot, he didn't shut down operations. Instead, he set up

04:10the bunker with Wi-Fi and a snack bar. For full coverage, check out Martina DeLucosa's piece on

04:16forbes.com. This is John Palmer from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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