By the numbers
…plus tens of thousands more taught for free.
Awards & honors
Personal recognition, and the awards earned by the companies I've led.
Personal
- Forbes 30 Under 30 — 3×Forbes Poland (2020 · 2021) · Forbes Ukraine · 2023
- Founder of the YearCentral European Startup Awards
- EB1A “extraordinary ability” green cardUS Citizenship & Immigration Services · 2024
Dronehub & companies
- Financial Times FT1000Europe's fastest-growing companies · 2023
- Granted patent — autonomous drone parcel handlingPolish Patent Office · 2023
- GENIUS NY — $500K finalistGENIUS NY accelerator, Syracuse NY · 2022
- Best ScaleupCarpathian Startup Fest · 2024
- Innovator of PodkarpacieRzeszów Regional Development Agency (RARR) · 2021
- IoT Startup of the YearCentral European Startup Awards
- UiPath Automation AwardUiPath
I grew up in Ivano-Frankivsk and moved to Poland at eighteen with two words of Polish and a robotics habit. In 2017, a single email — a request from the European Space Agency that most companies ignored — became the contract that turned into Dronehub.
Building it the hard way taught me the lesson I now build everything around: take the work that's dangerous, repetitive, or simply too slow by hand, and hand it to a machine.
“AI lets you return to the garage — it rewards talent, not capital.”
That conviction is why I split my time between drones, a new AI & robotics venture (Oswin AI), and teaching tens of thousands of people to build with AI. The recognition — three Forbes lists, the Financial Times FT1000, a US green card — followed the work, not the other way around.
The journey
Born. Robotics kid; FLEX scholarship to the US at 15.
Founds Cervi Robotics → Dronehub. ESA contract, 3× Forbes, FT1000.
US base (EB1A) — first Syracuse (2024), now North Carolina. Drones, AI education, Oswin AI.
In his words
We don't make drones. Dronehub is a gas station for drones.
Looking at ten years in business, I'd sum it up as a road from failure to failure.
Discipline matters more than motivation.
The world belongs to those who aren't afraid to show themselves.
The story, by era
Ukraine & robotics
1994 – 2012- 1994Born in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.
- 2010Wins the US State Department FLEX scholarship; a year at Prior Lake High School, Minnesota, competing in FIRST robotics.
- 2012Moves to Poland; studies computer engineering at UITM Rzeszów; becomes a Microsoft Student Partner.
Building Dronehub
2015 – 2023- 2015Founds Cervi Robotics in Rzeszów's Aviation Valley.
- 2017Wins a first European Space Agency contract — the genesis of Dronehub.
- 2020Refocuses fully on the autonomous platform, rebranding to Dronehub. Forbes Poland “25 przed 25.”
- 2021IBM partnership; GUTMA membership; Forbes Poland “30 przed 30.”
- 2022HUUVER (Horizon 2020 coordinator) & AUDROS (ESA + EDA); GENIUS NY $500K finalist; US market entry.
- 2023Financial Times FT1000; Forbes Ukraine “30 до 30”; granted Polish patent.
United States & AI
2024 →- 2024US EB1A “extraordinary ability” green card; US base in Syracuse, NY; Carpathian Startup Fest “Best Scaleup.”
- 2025Scales VADYM.AI / KIERUNEK.AI to thousands of students; begins Oswin AI (AI & robotics).
- 2026Relocates to the Research Triangle, North Carolina — the US base for the next chapter.
How I work
Automate the third time
If I do something twice, I think about automating it. If three times, I automate it.
Build for the garage
AI rewards talent, not capital. The moat moved — so build, and teach others to.
Take the dangerous work off people
Hand machines the repetitive, risky, slow-by-hand jobs. Leave humans the part that needs a human.
One surname
Your name is the one thing you leave your kids. Build like it's on everything.
Verify my accounts
Make sure it's actually me.
These are my only official profiles. If an account claims to be me and isn't on this list, it isn't me — in particular, the X / Twitter account @vadymmelnyk is not mine.