"I grew up in a Russian household, but in Sweden, which are two very different cultures. My dad was a Russian diplomat, and we stayed in Sweden after the fall of the Soviet Union." Taras shares how his childhood has shaped his journey as an entrepreneur. "My dad left governmental politics and started his company. So I grew up with my dad starting a company, failing, and starting, then failing, which lay the foundation of oh, wait, you can go out and do whatever you want to do?"

Taras started his first design company at 20 years old. Amidst moving to the USA and starting up other companies, Taras found a hidden passion and began custom-building motorcycles from unwanted bikes he found on Craigslist.

"I was getting deeper into the tech and this machine world and felt torn. So I had to shift my focus and attention towards something. You can't have scattered focus."

Taras had a strong desire to combine his love of hardware, tech, design, and sustainability, creating an EV motorcycle brand, Tarfrom.

"Being in the biker community, I also saw different mindsets around the biker culture and a reason why people, typically in tech or the creative industries, are not getting into that space." He realized that the EV bike community was building products, but not lifestyles. Instead, he wanted to move away from the dominant macho vibe and into a brand where people can ride motorcycles that look modern but are also sustainable.

Taras has not had an easy road. He was just about to finish his prototype a few weeks before the world shut down. But he never gave up. Instead, he and one engineer lived in the workspace together for months to finish what he had started. "I asked myself the question, what would be required of me to not give up during the hardest times? And the answer was working on something that I believe has a massive impact. Not economical or profitability impact, but an effect that truly can inspire people to make better decisions about how we move, consume, and interact with products."

Connect with Taras on LinkedIn or Instagram. Visit the Tarform website to learn more.

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More about Taras

Taras is an award-winning multi-disciplinary designer, serial entrepreneur, technologist, and inventor. With over 15 years of experience, Taras has worked with Google, T-Mobile, Spotify. His work is featured in the Petersen Automotive Museum, FastCo Innovation by Design, and TechCrunch Electric Generation.

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