Success story: as a waitress from Kyrgyzstan hit the Forbes rating

Photo: Shoptiques

30-year-old founder of the New York company Shoptiques Olga Vidischeva knows what the American dream is. Having moved to America from Kyrgyzstan a little more than 10 years ago, she taught English, working as a waitress in New Mexico, combined college studies with a model career, got a job as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, got an MBA degree at Harvard, and then suddenly gave up her career for a startup and a few years later, she entered the Forbes list of the most successful entrepreneurs up to 30 years.

Now her fashion boutique aggregator works with 5 with thousands of partners around the world and earns tens of millions of dollars.

Olga’s success story was told by the publication “Company's secret".

One way ticket

Vidishcheva does not hide that she is from Kyrgyzstan, but she considers herself an American. Now she speaks excellent English and practically does not use Russian. However, in the 2003 year, when 17-year-old Olga only moved to America, she did not know the language at all.

The first English word that Vidishchev learned was cucumber. Cucumbers were part of many rolls that she served while working as a waitress in a Japanese restaurant.

Photos: Facebook

After six months, Vidishcheva felt that she could begin preparing for the TOEFL. The money for the first semester in college (approximately $ 4000), where Vidishcheva entered a year after moving to the USA, was collected in just 3 a month.

In her second year, she transferred to a more prestigious Wellesley College, where Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton studied, and Vladimir Nabokov founded the Russian language department. To pay for her studies, a student worked as a model. The growth of 173 and the parameters of 86 – 58 – 86 allowed her to sign a contract with Maggie Inc., the largest Boston model agency, and over the years 10 has appeared in advertisements of various companies.

After graduating with a degree in economics and a second major in mathematics, Vidischeva settled as an investment analyst at Goldman Sachs. Once a woman brought sandals from her business trip to Paris that her friends liked and could not find a boutique on the Internet where she bought them.

“Then I didn’t have an idea that it could become a business, - I just thought: how strange it is that they are not on the Internet,” she said.

When Vidishcheva moved to Boston to study for an MBA program at Harvard Business School, she discovered that none of her favorite New York boutiques was on the Internet. At the same time, none of them traded on the Internet either independently or through any marketplace.

“I thought, why don’t they have websites in 2009? I devoted my second year at Harvard to this topic and, after surveying 800 Boston boutiques, decided that the idea was too obvious not to tackle it,” the woman said.

Photo: Shoptiques

In 2011, when Vidischeva received her diploma, she had only $ 10 thousand savings and more than $ 100 thousand tuition debt. Everything promised to pay back “the ideal job” that the alumna was offered in London. A good position in an investment company with clients from the luxury industry, a large salary and life in the same city with her young man. The woman decided to give up all this and spent $ 8 thousand (almost everything she had) on the development of the first version of the site.

The entrepreneur decided to search for programmers through acquaintances in Indonesia, because it is much cheaper than in America. The remaining $ 2 thousands left to move to New York. There, Vidishcheva spent the night on the floor with friends and alone worked on Shoptiques in free co-working.

The work went on almost around the clock. During the day, an entrepreneur was looking for partners, and at night she corresponded with her programmers, who were separated from New York by 12 time zones.

Silicon Valley

October 4 2011 occurred immediately 3 events that determined the fate of the Shoptiques. Vidishcheva launched a prototype of the service - a closed beta for acquaintances and friends. Beta was a site where you could get only by invitation - their businesswoman sent a narrow circle of friends and acquaintances. Each of the invitees could purchase items from 25 American boutiques and invite more 5 people. Just a day, 12 thousands of people turned out to be on the waiting list. On the same day, a coworking friend told Vidishcheva about Y Combinator and convinced her to submit an application - she sent it 20 minutes before the deadline, without really understanding what kind of place it was.

A week later, Vidischeva was invited to an interview in San Francisco, and a few hours after the meeting, she was informed that she had been accepted.

Her mentor in the program was Paul Bakhayt, the creator of Gmail.

Photo: Shoptiques

From Y Combinator Vidischeva came out with investors, which included some of America’s most successful venture funds - Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, Benchmark Capital, and Y Combinator himself. The founder of Shoptiques does not disclose the amount of investment and the distribution of shares, but on CrunchBase there is information about $ 2 million.

Shoptiques specializes in small independent boutiques selling women's clothes and home accessories.

The company earns a commission on sales, which is set for each store individually - from 12% (for delivery, payment processing and packaging) to 30% (if return of orders and promotion is required).

In 2013, the income of Shoptiques was $ 300 thousand, and in 2014, about $ 3 million.

In 2015, Shoptiques planned to bail out $ 20 million, but in 2016, it stopped disclosing financial indicators, because, according to Olga, this upsets investors.

The Shoptiques office occupies an entire floor of a building in the Flatiron area of ​​Manhattan. About 30 people support the site, remove things, coordinate the logistics of orders from around the world. In addition to workspaces there is also a photo studio, littered with boxes and hangers with clothes. Here, twice a week, shootings are held at the request of boutiques. This means that 800 items arrive at the office every week, some of which are deposited in the employee’s wardrobes as a pleasant bonus.

Photo: Shoptiques

Over 4, the site has grown from 25 boutiques in New York and Boston to 5 thousands of boutiques in 12 countries around the world.

Only 1 out of 5 stores that want to cooperate with the site are selected. The boutique's assortment should be unique - ideally little-known but high-quality local brands that cannot be found anywhere else. Items must be exclusive, available in small quantities. “A real boutique should have a pleasant atmosphere and a nice interior.

The average Shoptiques check, as told edition “Company's secret”Is about $ 150, and the price range ranges from $ 15 (per dress) to $ 8 thousand (for another dress).

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