Built by people who know what it means to be new.

Olga was born in Omsk, in the heart of Siberia, in 1991. Rebellious from an early age, she never saw herself staying in a place where ambition and unconventional ideas often struggled against a deeply conservative environment.

She moved to Moscow, where she led cultural projects for the Museum of Cosmonautics in collaboration with NASA, the U.S. Embassy, and other international organisations. One of her projects won a Gold SABRE Award in Amsterdam in 2018.

Later, working for Russia’s largest bank, Olga supported major cultural and creative projects involving institutions such as the Bolshoi Theatre and the Tretyakov Gallery.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Olga openly opposed the war. Soon afterwards, she left Russia and eventually found a new home in Amsterdam.

Nick was born in Kyiv in 1991 and later grew up in Izmail, a small city on the Ukrainian-Romanian border. As a child, some of his favourite books were world atlases. Growing up in an ordinary post-Soviet family, maps and Jules Verne novels were his first way of discovering a world that still felt impossibly far away.

That curiosity about other countries and cultures eventually shaped his career. Nick became a project manager, leading international projects at Ford and IKEA and working with people across countries and cultures.

But the desire to build something of his own never went away. After seven years in the corporate world, Nick took a leap of faith. In 2019, he left his career behind to become a full-time entrepreneur and build Localie.

It all started with an idea and a dream. In December 2016, Nick Nedelchuk, then 25 and working as a commercial project manager at IKEA, came up with a simple idea: a platform that would match travellers with like-minded locals who could meet them, show them around and help them experience a place far beyond the usual tourist routes — discovering hidden gems, stories and context that only locals truly know.

Just like visiting a friend.

Nick joined forces with Sergey Chebykin, his former university teacher, who had moved to California and was working at Walmart Labs in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Together, they built the very first version of Localie after work, late at night and on weekends — a passion project developed alongside their full-time jobs.

On 12 March 2018, Localie officially went live.

Localie grew quickly. We organised just three trips in March 2018, 16 in April and 32 in May. At our peak, we were receiving more than 300 bookings a month, with localies available in 350 cities across 70 countries.

In 2019, we were approached by our first investor. He had discovered Localie on Twitter and started using the platform whenever he travelled. His fifth booking was in Amsterdam — and the localie he chose happened to be Nick.

By the end of their walk, he made Nick an offer: $120,000 at a $1.5 million post-money valuation. They signed the investment agreement, and Nick left his corporate career behind to become Localie’s full-time CEO.

Things were moving fast. The team was growing, bookings were increasing, and Localie was appearing at some of Europe’s leading tech conferences, including Web Summit in Lisbon and Slush in Helsinki.

Later that year, Localie was selected for the six-week Startup Madeira acceleration programme in Portugal.

The future looked bright.

Then COVID hit.

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