How did a former International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni leave behind her life in Belarus and become a successful entrepreneur at a tech startup in the United States? Keep reading to learn how Utah impacted the incredible story of Irina Dubovik, the Chief Revenue Officer of Pre.dev and CEO of a Web3 digital marketing firm in Miami, Florida.
Irina travelled to the U.S. in 2017 as part of an IVLP group focused on female entrepreneurs hosted by our D.C. partner MCID Washington. The program aimed to illustrate the impact of women-owned businesses on the U.S. economy. The group met with entrepreneurial funders like Zions Bank and Utah Microloan Fund as well as with local entrepreneurial companies like Cotopaxi and Stone Ground Bakery. Through these meetings, they learned about leadership development, job creation, access to capital, marketing, education, and innovations in encouraging entrepreneurship in the United States.
Irina recalled that studying Utah's startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem, engaging with mentors in our state, having meetings with government and business representatives, and learning from families who hosted them for dinner had a strong impact on her career development. She shared that Utah was especially memorable because of our emphasis on families. When she returned to Belarus, she used what she had learned from Utah and the other U.S. cities she visited to create the first Belarus Startup Ecosystem Map, launch a business accelerator called StartupOn, and create a series of master classes on entrepreneurship.
Everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine, and Irina was faced with the difficult decision of whether to remain in her home country and face a possible future invasion or move to the U.S. and restart her life and career. The war not only hit home because of the geographic proximity of Belarus and Ukraine but also because Irina had many close Ukrainian coworkers at the time. Thinking back on her time in the U.S. with IVLP helped her decide that leaving for the U.S. was the right decision. She moved to Washington, D.C., after receiving a visa for individuals with extraordinary abilities and later relocated to Miami, Florida. She stated that her IVLP experience helped her better adapt to life in the U.S. and understand American business culture.
Upon arriving in Miami, Irina used her IT skills and entrepreneurial abilities to start a digital marketing agency similar to the one she ran in Belarus. She also dove headfirst into the entrepreneurial world of Miami, becoming a project coordinator for the first-ever Startup World Cup, held in Miami in 2024. The Startup World Cup is a global competition where the world's most talented business entrepreneurs gather to give the best startup pitch and win funding for their idea. She has also served as a speaker, judge, and consultant for several entrepreneurial programs, including Georgetown University’s Bark Tank and the International Webmasters Association.
Irina has achieved incredible success since moving to the U.S. and, in 2024, she was named one of the Top 100 Women of the Future in Emerging Tech. Her most recent endeavor is an innovative website that uses Artificial Intelligence to empower founders of tech startups. The website allows entrepreneurs to plug in an idea for a website, software, or tech device and receive a ready-to-go prototype in just 3 minutes. This allows business entrepreneurs who may lack coding or web design skills to create a working prototype of their idea. This can help them better pitch their concept and receive funding to make their business dream a reality. To date, Pre.dev has created over 10,000 projects and has been recognized by tech giants like Google and Amazon Web Services.
Irina’s resilience to leave her home and start her life over has led to incredible opportunities and immense success. She says that her love for startups and entrepreneurship stems from the extraordinary community they create. This sense of community drives her, and she hopes to help curate community through her work.
