“Joining the defense-tech industry was a logical continuation of my volunteer work” – an interview with the new CEO of Defence Builder, Line Ridvig

Defence Builder is a Ukrainian accelerator for Defense Tech startups. Its mission is to create better conditions for the development of Ukraine’s defense sector. Recently, there has been a change in leadership in the project: Kateryna Bezsudna left her position as CEO, retaining her role as co-founder.

The new CEO is Line Rindvig, who has extensive experience in international operations and has been actively working to support Ukraine’s defense capabilities since 2022 — from coordinating humanitarian and military aid to developing strategic partnerships.

 

AIN spoke with Line Rindvig to learn about her vision for the development of Defence Builder and Ukraine’s role in the global defense ecosystem.

Please tell us more about your transition from the music industry to volunteering in Ukraine and later managing the defense accelerator?

It has been a slow transition while working in the music industry. I was a volunteer, and at the end of last year, I decided it was time to change my focus to something that aligns with my values and protects human lives more than empowering them through cultural means. Stepping into defense tech is just another step after volunteering. Now that I’ve found a more suitable path, I can pursue it long term.

What competencies will help you fulfill the CEO role at Defence Builder?

In my career, partnerships are key. When working with music artists, first identify if they are scalable, then help them become so.

Then, you find the right team and partners, build the right identity and culture around the artist’s career or business, and scale up by expanding into new territories, starting new businesses, and gathering a community. I’m now applying the same skill set to defense.

What is unique about this is that I stepped into a country during wartime. My volunteer work complements my professional career because I have established trust and relationships with the defenders. Our team and I can use these relationships to identify problems and work on solutions with founders and startups, ultimately finding solutions that can help make a difference on the battlefield.

Are you still working with Kolo Nordic?

At the beginning of this year, I ended all my volunteer commitments except for one in order to gain time to refocus and shift my career. When you have a full-time job and are a full-time volunteer, you don’t have any spare brain capacity to make wise decisions.

I had to scale back. That said, Kolo Nordic and other NGOs are reaching out to me. They still let me know when they need help with funding or their projects. If they need access to someone, they also come to me.

So, unofficially, I’m still part of what they do, but I have no commitments to them.

My only commitment is to Nordic Aid, an NGO I helped co-found in Ukraine. After the attacks on your healthcare system and medical facilities, together with doctors, specialists, and those interested in supporting Ukraine, we founded this NGO in my home country, Denmark.

We have reached out to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health with this initiative and are now working to deliver the first hospital compound to Donetsk. This is just my volunteer work, which I do when I’m not sleeping or working here.

I also have my own initiatives. For example, I deliver ballistic and safety equipment to key brigades.

As the new CEO, what goals do you set for the first three months in your new position? 

We have to stabilize everything internally. A CEO change brings a new structure, ideas, and initiatives.

Therefore, it is crucial to synchronize and expand the team. We are currently hiring for a few positions that will be posted in a few months. 

Our next step is to announce Batch 3 and its framework. Along with our trusted defenders, we are studying what is most needed and on which areas we should focus for Batch 3.

It’s important to note that our approach to our batches and the technology and solutions we seek is often a response to what is required on the front lines, not a choice. Once we have identified the framework for the third batch, we will announce it.

What is your strategy for selecting the startups to collaborate with? 

Once we begin accepting applications for Batch 3, our focus will be on Ukrainian startups. However, if we don’t find any suitable ones, we will look outside of Ukraine. This is one of the key initiatives that I will bring with me. The goal is to establish collaboration opportunities with startups from our European allies.

Of course, we need to have a set of structures in place before we begin supporting international startups. However, our main goal should still be to support the Ukrainian frontline. Therefore, any international startup we collaborate with must have a Ukrainian entity.

Also, we must ensure that a percentage of the initial production is allocated to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It’s a structure that we’re still discussing internally and with our partners, but it will be one of our initiatives. Then, of course, we have to find the right partnerships. We must further integrate Ukraine into Europe.

We must establish solutions that easily attract investors’ interest in our startups and work. We should also consider teaming up with European manufacturers for hardware or knowledge.

Are there plans to cooperate with European educational institutions? If so, what will the format be?

We will soon team up with key European universities and military academies to begin an early dialogue. This will allow us to share knowledge and information more efficiently from the beginning, enabling us to work together more effectively.

An interesting aspect of this war is the transition from purely military and state-made decisions to civilians participating in a country’s defense. At the beginning of the war, civilian initiatives funded the concept of drone warfare.

Your volunteers and international volunteers purchased or assembled drones. Later, states and our allied nations provided support.

We must embrace the collaborative mentality between the private sector, civilians, and the defense sector. Defense Builders must educate people about the value and feasibility of this function.

What are your plans for international expansion? 

We live in a time where the world order is changing, particularly in Europe. We are now facing a new era where we cannot necessarily rely on all our previous allies. At least we have to prepare not to. So Ukraine is the wisest and most obvious partner and the strongest one at that.

The same is true for Ukraine. Ukraine relies heavily on Europe and its allies for support. I believe my new employers want to strengthen these partnerships and collaborate more with allied nations.

At first, the main focus will be on Europe because that’s the territory. I have my network, but, of course, we must remain open to others. Only time will tell, but for now, we must be realistic about the markets we are facing. Much of our activity and many of the partnerships we seek will be within Europe.

I talk a lot about Europe because I want us to be realistic about the markets we identify. I could easily say “global,” and we are not excluding anyone. However, we also have to be realistic and acknowledge that we can’t collaborate with the entire global market or all of Ukraine’s allies immediately.

Of course, the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and other allied nations are potential partners, and we are open to it. We also just have to have realistic focus areas.

Since I am a Danish citizen, it makes sense to start a dialogue with partners in Denmark. That’s the most obvious part. It seems that Ukraine and Denmark are becoming best friends during these hard times. Germany is also an interesting territory for the first time since World War II. They are investing in the military and defense equipment.

Germany has one of the largest economies in Europe. France is already a strong ally of Ukraine and the Netherlands. Yesterday, I also spoke with a potential new accelerator from Spain. They are on my radar for potential partnerships, and we will reach out to locals. 

We are a fairly small team right now, but we need to expand before we can start working globally.

Can we say that your appointment as the new CEO will bring about a radical change in strategy? 

Yes, there is a crucial shift in strategy. It’s something we’ve discussed internally. We talked about it a lot with the partners before agreeing to partner up.

Then, our team did something brilliant: they specialized and focused on the startups, providing their teams with a perfect foundation, program, and mentorship experts. That is now in place.

They are solely focused on finding solutions that can actively support the frontline now. They are working quickly because they understand the rapid pace of innovation on the frontline.

The strategic shift is that we have more or less stabilized that aspect. Now, we need to focus on allocating resources to our startups.

Read more: Defense startups received $30k: winners of the Defence Builder accelerator