From holding payroll together in chaos to scaling companies across borders, Daria Mateichenko built a reputation as the #2 partner founders call when survival isn’t enough — they want power, speed, and certainty.
“This business is completely wrong!” – founders hear it in their heads when chaos takes over — when every win seems to trigger three new problems. Breakthroughs feel like traps, and scaling feels like drowning. She knows that cycle too well. She’s lived through partner exits, financial collapses, divorce in the middle of a company crisis, even starting over in a foreign country with no safety net.
That fire forged resilience. And that resilience became DM Wings. Because when the dream is burning, what matters is having a #2 strong enough to keep it alive.
The Birth of DM Wings: All the black swans landed in the same lake
DM Wings wasn’t born out of a corporate career plan. It was born out of survival.
She co-founded a tech company with zero outside funding and fought through cashflow gaps, COVID shutdowns, and even the shadow of military aggression in her home country. Against all odds, that company scaled by 500%.
But then came the moment when all the black swans landed in the same lake within the same quarter: a partner exit, a divorce, a financial crisis, and moving to a new country with no network. The safety nets were gone. The ground felt pulled from under her. And yet, businesses still had to be kept alive.
That crucible is where DM Wings took shape. It was the realization that founders don’t just need advice; they need someone who can step into the chaos, shoulder the operational weight, and make sure their vision doesn’t collapse.
“My experience has shown me that founders need a partner who dives into the day-to-day and builds the backbone that lets their creative vision flourish,” she says today — but back then – she lived it.
The Critical Role of the #2: Why Founders Need An Extra Set of B…
Every founder loves to be the #1 — the visionary, the dreamer, the face of the story. But here’s the truth nobody wants to face: without a #2, even the boldest vision cracks under its own weight.
The #2 are the ones who turn “next big thing” into a system that can produce repeatable outcomes. And honestly, there aren’t many true #2s, and founders who’ve had a glimpse of it don’t want to scale without it again.
“My role is to make sure the visionary’s dreams don’t collapse under the weight of operational chaos,” she explains. Moreover, blending operational scars with AI-powered automation, she suggests companies unlock capacity and clarity in weeks.
DM Wings Today: Scaling Minus the Burnout Tax
DM Wings exists for founders who want to grow without losing their spark. We step in when the business is ready to scale but the weight of operations is dragging vision into the mud.
In practice, that has meant unlocking up to 27% more delivery capacity and giving founders back dozens of hours each month — time they can spend on strategy, clients, or simply breathing again.
What makes DM Wings different is the way they weave AI as a force multiplier — turning once-fragile processes into resilient systems that adapt fast and still protect creativity.
A Resilient Partner Growth Without Survivorship Bias
Her story isn’t about “successful success,” it’s scarred, and she can respond – “been there, that’s how we failed, and that’s what showed better results…” – for most of the issues founders care to identify in their work.
“Most founders want to exit the operational layer; I proudly say that we enter it!” – and that’s the instinct in the heart of DM Wings. We find structure that works, rhythm that doesn’t suck life out, role definitions that serve the business, and we train functions so that they perform — that’s our method.
Scaling Alone Breaks You. Scaling Together Builds You.
Scaling is numbers. Numbers and factors. Brutal honesty matters here — because without it, growth turns into illusion. And only with a trusted #2 partner you can strip the business down to its raw mechanics, see the gaps for what they are, and rebuild for results.
That honesty at DM Wings gave one recruitment agency a measurable lift: they dissected their ops pipeline, exposed undercounts, and rewired processes for stability and scale. Another case – they rebuilt functions in a construction business, driving a 2.7× increase in turnover. And it meant real capacity when they reshaped manager roles in a mid-size IT company, unlocking a 13% boost in hours that their managers could finally invest into strategic product development.
With the right #2 beside you, those numbers bend toward growth and those businesses start dominating. And access to that #2 is limited.
To learn more about how DM Wings can support your scaling efforts, visit DM Wings, and connect with Daria on LinkedIn.
