Entrepreneur Tatyana Bakalchuk is “an anomaly”, says Max Seddon in the Financial Times. In Russia’s male-dominated business world, success often depends on ties to the Kremlin. Bakalchuk (pictured), though, is a self-made billionaire, the first such woman in the country. Wildberries, the business she founded in her Moscow apartment while on maternity leave in 2004, has “fought off venture capitalists and state-backed rivals” to become Russia’s leading ecommerce site.
Bakalchuk, 44, now has a $1.1bn fortune, and became rich by “reaching deep into everyday Russian life”. Her firm began as an online clothes retailer for women and took time to emerge as a serious business because ecommerce lacked an infrastructure – the long distances in Russia, poor roads and sclerotic postal service held up development. But she ploughed on regardless. “If I’d read business textbooks, I probably wouldn’t have done anything. I’d have worked out the business model and realised it was impossible. But if you don’t know, then it can’t scare you.” Today, the company offers four million different products from 35,000 brands and 26,000 suppliers.
Wildberries’ turnover grew 88% in 2019 to Rbs223.5bn ($3bn), with net profit rising from Rbs1.88bn to Rbs7bn, making Wildberries the leader in Russia’s fast-growing ecommerce market. Bakalchuk, who processed her first orders herself at home, now runs a business with no external investors and 48,000 employees, including 12,000 extra staff hired to cope with surging business as a result of Covid-19. In the first quarter of 2020, Wildberries doubled both turnover and sales year on year.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
The secret to success, she says, is to start small and move slowly. “Russian entrepreneurs who go to schools such as Harvard are all obsessed with the idea that you come up with a business idea, raise money and grow as fast as you can.” But when you do that “your business model will have feet of clay. It has to be done right”.
-
How to profit from defence stocks beyond EuropeOpinion Tom Bailey, head of research for the Future of Defence Indo-Pac ex-China UCITS ETF, picks three defence stocks where he'd put his money
-
Why the Waspi women are wrong'Opinion Compensation for the Waspi women would mean using an unaffordable sledgehammer to crack a nut, says David Prosser
-
Chen Zhi: the kingpin of a global conspiracyChen Zhi appeared to be a business prodigy investing in everything from real estate to airlines. Prosecutors allege he is the head of something more sinister
-
Who is Jared Isaacman, SpaceX astronaut and Trump's pick as NASA chief?Jared Isaacman is a close ally of Elon Musk and the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space. Now, he is in charge of NASA
-
Defeat into victory: the key to Next CEO Simon Wolfson's successOpinion Next CEO Simon Wolfson claims he owes his success to a book on military strategy in World War II. What lessons does it hold, and how did he apply them to Next?
-
'We still live in Alan Greenspan’s shadow'When MoneyWeek launched 25 years ago, Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve. We’re still living with the consequences of the whirlwind he sowed
-
Isaac Newton's golden legacy – how the English polymath created the gold standard by accidentIsaac Newton brought about a new global economic era by accident, says Dominic Frisby
-
'How I brought MoneyWeek to the masses'Launching MoneyWeek gave ordinary investors information – and hence power, says Merryn Somerset Webb
-
'Why I launched MoneyWeek'Inspired by The Week and uninspired by the financial press, Jolyon Connell decided it was time for a new venture. That's where MoneyWeek came in
-
The Stella Show is still on the road – can Stella Li keep it that way?Stella Li is the globe-trotting ambassador for Chinese electric-car company BYD, which has grown into a world leader. Can she keep the motor running?
