[3] Kaganskiy was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Kyiv, Ukraine),[4] where her father was an engineer and her mother worked as a music teacher.

At the age of six, her family emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, where her parents encountered initial difficulty due to language barriers.

[6] In 2008, Kaganskiy started the New York-based arts, culture, and technology meetup group ArtsTech shortly after graduating.

[5] In 2010, VICE Media invited Kaganskiy to join the Creators Project, an arts/technology publication founded in partnership with Intel,[8] where she served as Global Editor until 2014.

[9] In 2014, the New Museum appointed Kaganskiy director of NEW INC,[9] a cultural incubator launched to support artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs working in art, design, and technology.