In August 2025, I sat down with Matt Holland and Tom on the British Business podcast for one of the most personal conversations I have had publicly. The episode — titled “From Siberia to the UK: A Founder’s Brutally Honest Journey” — covered my full story: from growing up in post-Soviet Siberia to building MageCloud into a seven-figure ecommerce agency, and everything that went wrong and right in between.
Matt runs a podcast that focuses on immigrant entrepreneurs building businesses in the UK, and he was interested in the unfiltered version of how I ended up here. I appreciated that, because the honest version is far more useful to other founders than the polished one.
Growing Up in Post-Soviet Siberia
The conversation started with my childhood. I grew up in Siberia during a time of serious economic instability. From the age of ten, I was finding ways to earn money — selling fruit, helping with whatever small trade I could find. That early exposure to commerce was not glamorous, but it taught me that opportunity exists even in the most difficult environments. You just have to be willing to look for it.
From Developer to Agency Owner
I talked openly about the journey from being a developer to founding MageCloud. It was not a clean trajectory. There were wrong turns, failed experiments, and many moments where it would have been easier to go back to working for someone else. But the drive to build something of my own kept me going, and eventually MageCloud became a serious ecommerce consultancy working with brands across the UK and beyond.
The Silicon Valley Detour
One part of the conversation that I think is valuable for founders is the section about Silicon Valley. I spent time and significant money chasing the Silicon Valley dream — and it did not work out the way I expected. Losing that investment was painful, but the lessons it taught me about focus, capital allocation, and knowing your own strengths were worth more than the money itself. I shared the details openly because I think too many founders hear only the success stories and not the cost of learning through failure.
Building Cross-Border Teams
We discussed how I build and manage teams across borders — including why Ukrainian developers bring a particular combination of technical skill and resilience that I have not found elsewhere. Cross-border team management is one of the most underrated skills in ecommerce, and I shared what has worked and what has not over the years.
Wartime Pivots and Family Resilience
The hardest part of the conversation was about what happened when war broke out. Overnight, borders closed, team members were scattered, and the business I had built was at serious risk. The decision to move my family to safety while continuing to run the business was one of the most difficult things I have ever navigated. Matt asked thoughtful questions about this, and I tried to answer as honestly as I could — because the reality of running a business through a crisis is something every founder should understand, even if they hope never to experience it.
Why AI Changed the Business Again
We also discussed how AI disruption has forced another pivot in how MageCloud operates. The landscape is changing fast, and the agencies and consultancies that do not adapt will be left behind. I talked about how we are future-proofing the business and what that means practically for how we serve ecommerce clients.
You can watch the full episode on YouTube and find more episodes on the British Business with Matt Holland channel. There is also a dedicated event page on this site with the embedded video.
Related Reading
The themes from this conversation — resilience, founder journeys, and building businesses across borders — connect directly to several other discussions:
Building Ecommerce Camp — Why I Founded a Community for Ecommerce Founders — how the experiences described in this podcast led me to create a community where ecommerce founders can support each other.
Why I Became a GrowthMentor — and What I Help Founders With — how I use the lessons from my own founder journey to mentor others through the challenges of building ecommerce businesses.
Choosing the Right Ecommerce Platform — My Interview with WebsitePlanet — a deeper look at how MageCloud approaches platform selection and store audits for ecommerce brands.
Security, Conversion, and Smarter Retail Execution — My Episode on the Retail Is Detail Podcast — another recent podcast appearance covering the operational side of running ecommerce businesses well.
Conference Speaking: From PubCon Las Vegas to Building a Global Ecommerce Practice — the broader story of how public speaking and industry events have shaped my career.