"Closed Round" is back for its 5th season! Catch the new episodes now on the channel.

The podcast will be released twice a week. One episode will feature a guest, while the other will focus on Ukrainian or foreign tech companies, individuals, or events.

In this season, the hosts will discuss how technology is transforming traditional businesses and how these businesses are entering the tech world.

The guest for the first episode is Vlada Zatsarinnaya, CEO of the developer community DOU.

“Vlada has been developing the main platform for the Ukrainian tech community—DOU—for many years. It is a powerful community and, at the same time, a significant business. We have long wanted to talk to her about all of this,” says the podcast host Ilya Kabachinsky.

In the new episode, the hosts talked with Vlada about the DOU audience, earnings and revenue streams, diversifying these channels, and everything related to the business aspect of the project.

“Venture capitalists highlight startups that have a loyal community around them. This is a protective mechanism, a competitive advantage that cannot be replicated. DOU already has a group of loyal audience, and now it will be interesting to see what kind of business the team can build around it,” adds host Anton Poleskov.

Vlada also shared insights about competitors, the market, and future growth opportunities. The discussion included the ongoing development of the tech community, which has been DOU's primary mission since its inception.

The second episode is dedicated to OpenAI and one of its two CEOs, Sam Altman, who has transformed OpenAI into a purely commercial project and has already secured the largest investment round in the company's history, amounting to $6.6 billion.

During the episode, Ilya and Anton examined what happened to OpenAI's original concept, why all partners left Altman, and whether this change poses a threat to regular users.

The podcast's constant partner is the Ukrainian IT company FAVBET Tech, which specializes in developing innovative solutions for the entertainment industry. Since 2022, it has been an active participant and partner of the IT Ukraine Association's events, is among the top five largest taxpayers among residents of “Diia.City,” and supports military initiatives from the Ministry of Digital Transformation.