How to make a million: success stories of Ukrainians in the USA

They are all immigrants who have found the American dream. Each of them moved to the USA for different reasons: to study, to find themselves, because of personal tragedy. We started from scratch - without money, connections, but with ideas and the desire to work. And the latter, now successful businessmen say, is highly valued in the USA.

ForumDaily talked to three Ukrainians, who told how they achieved recognition and money overseas.

Ukrainian millionaire Victor Palamarchuk

Victor Palamarchuk. Photo: from the personal archive

His working day begins at six in the morning: Victor Palamarchuk himself opens his warehouse in the city of Delaware, greets each of the workers and begins to manage. He does not have a personal office with a “director” sign on the door, a large desk or a leather chair. He says his workplace is the entire warehouse: “I I work with everyone: I need to load parcels - I load them, I need to go somewhere - I go, I need help with something in the warehouse - I help.”

A simple “work and earn” scheme enabled Viktor to make a million dollars profit in 4 a year after the founding of the company for the transportation of goods and parcels Ukraine express. He started with 3 people in the state and the direction of the USA-Ukraine, now works with the whole world and sends a million tons of cargo to 3-4 a year. In addition to offices in the United States, the company already has offices in Poland, the United Kingdom, and Italy, and a branch in Germany is opening soon.

Viktor was not accustomed to the status of a millionaire, he says he lives in the same house as 10 years ago, still works a lot and would return to Ukraine if it were possible to develop an honest business there.

Worked as a cleaner, taught English through the newspapers

Victor Palamarchuk hails from a small town in the Khmelnytsky region in western Ukraine. In 24, he had a decent by local standards business and good earnings, he and his wife had enough money, they didn't even think about moving to another country. Although his mother and sister had long lived in the United States and called Victor to him. This continued until the wife of a businessman became pregnant.

“Of course, as is done in Ukraine, I brought the money to the regional hospital, paid for everything, negotiated for everything. The son was born and died the next day. Because he was fed and placed on his back, he choked. And the nurses at that time were celebrating their birthday on another floor. My son and another child died that night. And I just realized: nothing will change in this country, this was the last straw. No matter how much money you pay. In 3 months I sold everything, opened a visa for myself and my wife, and we left.”

The family arrived in the states already poor, since almost all the funds were spent on visas and relocation. Victor was unemployed only for the first 3 days after his arrival. Then he got a job as a cleaner and at the same time took on any part-time work that was offered to him: he had to paint - he painted, he had to help at a construction site - he helped. The businessman recalls that at first he learned Polish perfectly because his employers were Poles. And only after 2 years I began to speak English well. I learned the language myself: I read a lot and watched local television. “Then I organized my own cleaning service, they cleaned the houses of rich people, and then moved on to logistics - and for the last 7 years I have been doing this: this includes mail, containers, and large cargo transportation,” he says.

From Ukraine to Australia: how a small Ukrainian company has become a global

The company, which was founded by Victor, now delivers parcels worldwide. Photo: from the personal archive

Victor started by sending parcels from the USA to Ukraine. The main clients are the Ukrainian diaspora, who still have relatives in their small homeland. “We immediately lowered prices - they were overpriced on the market, and we gave people the opportunity to send parcels at an adequate price,” Victor reveals one of his business secrets.

The first businessman to open immediately 2 office: in Chicago and Detroit. Then, two months later, offices appeared in Ohio, then in New Jersey, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Florida. The company grew, and the opportunities turned out to be much more than Ukraine could request. Then Victor decided to change the direction a bit.

“Most of our clients now are people who live outside of America. For example, you are in Ukraine or Germany and want to buy jeans in an American online store. You do not indicate an address in your country, but the address of one of our warehouses. These jeans come to us, we throw away the excess packaging and send them to your address. That is, we are intermediaries between the American online store and you.”

Such intermediation turned out to be many times more profitable for the buyer than delivery directly through stores: “Due to the fact that we have direct contracts with airlines and sea freight, we can offer much lower prices. For example, we charge $7 per kg for delivery to any point in Ukraine,” says Victor. “For comparison, in large American companies prices will be at least twice as high.”

One of the warehouses of the company. Photo: from the personal archive

Victor doesn’t even dare to compare his company with major players in the market yet - the logistics business in the USA is so powerful that now Ukraine express is perhaps only in the top 200 companies in the country. However, in addition to logistics, Victor is trying himself in other areas. For example, he opened an online store of Ukrainian goods and even tried to interest the American market in them. But Victor doesn’t see any prospects in this business yet: “With the Ukrainian manufacturers in 2, I probably lost $ 300 thousands. Because none of them hold words. For example, several companies must be represented only by us, and they also sell products to others. And we do not have the opportunity to earn even the salaries of employees. ”

According to Victor, business works differently in the USA: there are clear rules of the game, and everyone knows what they can do and what they cannot do.

“I haven’t met anyone who made huge money in a year. Only in Ukraine can it happen - you were elected as a deputy, you came to power - and that’s it, in a year you are a millionaire. There is no such thing here. You invest money, work hard, for years, and then achieve something,” he says.

And this is the main reason why Victor is not in a hurry to return home. He says he wants, but so far he does not see such an opportunity. He helps the Ukrainian army, sends free humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but prefers to live and work in the United States.

Make money on sports souvenirs: Victor Kostrub

Victor Kostrub. Photo: from the personal archive

The main thing you need to know about the Fine design company is that it sells paraphernalia for sporting events and is now the largest in the United States. It has a representative office in all states, branches in the UK, Germany, Romania, and will soon open in Australia.

The company was founded by Ukrainian Viktor Kostrub. He came from a city in the Rivne region to Seattle in the early 90s - friends invited him to visit. At 19 years old, he didn’t have any specific plans at the time; he says he wanted to look around and try his hand. And then I decided: I’ll stay. He applied for political asylum, and his friends found him a job. “My first job was in a store, for $3,5 an hour,” recalls Victor.

Then he replaced her with a position in a company that produced sports memorabilia. There he realized: this is a promising business. But Victor was able to decide to open his own only after 2 years. “At first my goal was to buy a house, so I denied myself everything and saved for an apartment. I decided so as not to worry about at least the rent if the business doesn’t go well.” Then I collected a small start-up capital - about $6 thousand, found Ukrainian partners and founded the company. The business model is as follows: the company produces sports accessories and souvenirs and receives the exclusive right to sell them at events.

“A contract is signed and we become a partner in a certain competition. This means that only we can sell souvenirs with the logo of this event. It could be baseball caps, sweaters, T-shirts - anything. It is of great value for competition participants and fans to buy such souvenirs,” explains Victor.

“We started from the office in the basement”

Victor Kostrub (right) near his office. Photo: from the personal archive

Victor did not have money to rent the premises. Then the parents of his friend, and later his partner, gave them a garage. But there was not enough space for equipment. “The house had a small basement. We expanded it - we dug in completely under the house and made a real workshop. There were machines, paint for printing, stencils,” says Victor.

There were just no orders. The businessman recalls: month after month passed, and no one paid attention to the company. Back then, finding contacts of potential clients was not easy - without widely available Internet, you had to go to the library. Victor took lists, for example, of all the figure skating rinks in the state, copied phone numbers and methodically called everyone, offering his services. Nobody gave a positive answer.

“I then calculated exactly how much money I needed to feed myself - $70 a month. Only porridge and potatoes, even excluded fruit. But after 6 months, even for such a life there was no longer enough money. All savings are gone.” Victor says: this was the decisive moment - it was necessary to either change something or close the company. He analyzed his conversations with clients and realized that he had spoken to them incorrectly:

“I did not think about what the client needed, I was thinking how to make money myself. Then I put myself in the place of a client, started talking to him on an equal footing, and not as an immigrant with a local resident. In addition, I stopped being ashamed of my accent. ”

One contact with a taekwondo school - and the company is already operating throughout America

Photo: from personal archive

9 months after the opening of the company, a client appeared - the local figure skating federation signed a contract with them. During one of the phone calls, Victor finally heard the cherished “yes”.

“I hear a woman say to me: we make a deal with you. And he asks: do you want to know why? I answer, of course. She explains: you were very persistent. I didn’t even know that word then. After the conversation, I looked it up in the dictionary - and it turns out that it means “persistent.” “I thought it meant “smart,” Victor recalls.

And then they were lucky. Victor was driving around the city and accidentally saw a sign for a taekwondo school. I came in, talked and offered my services at competitions. “They agreed - and this was a breakthrough. Because this sport is very closed, and if you negotiate with some schools, others will also invite you. So we captured the state of Washington, and six months later we were working at taekwondo competitions all over America.”

The company developed quickly. If there were 4 sporting events a month in a state, Fine design opened a branch there. So after 7 years there were already 7 representative offices of the company. The firm now caters to about 100 events a week. They are the best in their field, working at the World Taekwondo Championships, National Police and Firefighter Competitions, US Figure Skating Championships and many others. Two years ago, the company entered the top 5000 fastest growing companies in the United States. Victor says that now he can afford to work much less. Moreover, his eldest son shows interest in the business, so he has someone to transfer his share in the company to.

As a graduate of a Catholic college opened an IT company

Andrei Tsintsiruk traveled to the USA to learn to be a priest. He himself comes from the small town of Brody, in the Lviv region. He grew up in a believing family and when he found out about a grant to study at a Catholic college, which was provided by the Ukrainian diaspora in the United States, decided to participate.

“This program existed from 1993 to 2004, and schoolchildren were chosen from all over the country, the grant provided free education to 5 children,” says Andrey.

He passed the English test, passed the interview and found himself among the students of an American university - St.Basil College in Stamford, Connecticut. “I was 17 years old and I wanted to serve God and people. At this college it was possible to obtain a bachelor's degree in theology and philosophy. They also trained here to become priests,” he says.

Andrey Tsintsiruk. Photo: from the personal archive

But in his last year, Andrew decided to continue his studies and entered the specialty “International Business and Commerce” at Boston University. He says, at first, he also admitted that maybe later he would return to the spiritual direction. But then I realized that with the decision to accept the dignity I had to wait a little: “For Catholics, the priests take a vow of celibacy. And at that time I was not ready to make such a decision. ”

To pay for his studies at the magistracy, Andrew got a job at a research center at the university. There he got into the department, which was engaged in data processing and first learned about Big data. A student with a liberal arts education has learned programming languages ​​and has become a sought-after specialist.

“At the university I met my future wife, and after graduation we moved to Washington together. My first job was at the Heritage foundation, I did analytics for economic statistics - what level of economic freedom do different states have. This publication was later published in the Wall Street Journal,” recalls Andrey.

Then - a couple more prestigious companies, and 2 years ago Andrey, together with his partner Gerry Lipsky, decided to create their own company.

“Innovizo does not have its own IT product; we provide services in the field of data analysis. For example, for startups that have received half a million dollars in funding, hiring a full-time analyst is very expensive. In Washington, the average salary of such a specialist is $120 thousand per year. What if a startup needs an analyst for only 3 months? We offer such services. They give us a task and we carry it out.”

They started with pilot projects and startups with a small budget. Innovizo is now one of the most influential Data Science and Data Analytics companies on the East Coast. “Our first projects were up to $50 thousand. Now clients come with a budget 10 times larger,” says Andrey.

Andrei and his partner Harry Lipsky. Photo: from the personal archive

The company has a team in Washington and an office in Lviv, with a total of 20 employees. Andrey says that Ukrainian IT specialists are very qualified, so he helps startups that want to enter the American market find investors.

According to him, opening a business in the United States is not difficult. This does not require a lot of money, and the bureaucratic procedure is kept to a minimum. But what is important is to have a business model for the company and find your client before starting.

Andrey has no plans to return to Ukraine and does not regret not becoming a priest. I am sure that it is possible to serve people and profess Christian values ​​in business. “Business must play by the rules. And most importantly, here in the USA, those who work hard and work hard win.”

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