Maria Nurislamova is the co-founder, and in fact, the founder of the Scentbird perfume selection service. At thirty-one, she managed to become a successful businesswoman, not even in her homeland in Russia, but far beyond its borders. A company incorporated in America has $ 60 million in revenue. Surely ten years ago, a simple girl from Bereznyakov who came to conquer New York did not even think that she would soon become one of the most influential women in the business world.
Ambitious student
Maria was born in Bereznyaki. Already a schoolgirl, she moved with her parents to Perm and went to school with an in-depth study of mathematics and English. Parents did not want her daughter to become a humanist, so they insisted that she enter the Polytechnic University. However, Masha’s studies seemed boring. Like many ambitious young people, the girl dreamed about how to get out of her native city and go to conquer the world.
This opportunity was presented to Masha. At nineteen, she went to New York under the Work & Travel program. When the internship ended, our heroine decided to stay in America. Parents were shocked, especially dad. Fortunately, his mother managed to convince him of the need to give her daughter the opportunity to choose.
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In America, Mary entered an inexpensive business college. Still, higher education had to be obtained, because without a diploma you cannot build a career. The girl earned money for study herself, did not take a penny from her parents. She worked as a waitress and a masseuse. By the way, in America it is very easy to combine work and study. Working students themselves choose when to attend classes: on weekends, at eight in the morning or at eight in the evening.
In college, seminars were often held where reputable speakers came. Once they were visited by Alexis Ohanyan, who is the founder of the Reddit social forum. After listening to his speech, Masha was wildly delighted. She decided that she would become a businessman at all costs and open her startup. By the way, after the seminar, the girl went to Alexis and left her contacts, saying that she wants to be friends.
Of course, Ohanyan did not get in touch, but after a while Masha accidentally met him in a cafe. The girl invited the businessman to record an interview with him and put it on YouTube. Oddly enough, Alexis agreed. So our heroine had the opportunity to make useful contacts and learn more about the nuances of doing business.
Fateful meeting
Maria was actively involved in the work and launched several projects, but they did not bring much profit. There was a lot of unnecessary routine and zero effect. However, the girl did not give up and continued to search for herself. One day, fate brought her with fellow countryman Sergei Gusev. The guy once moved from Perm to Moscow and also tried himself as a businessman. Young people decided to join forces. In parallel, romantic feelings flared up between them. So who knows, maybe Scentbird will become their family business.
The first steps
However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The first thing Sergey and Maria decided on is a niche. They decided to storm the perfume market. The girl decided to help every person find his perfect fragrance. To do this, the guys created a site on which users were asked to leave their email address, write three favorite fragrances and describe why they were chosen. Thus, a base was created to have an idea of the existing proposals.
Then Maria and Sergey decided to send people three probes each. They hoped that the person who liked the bottle would be left to himself, and the rest would be returned.Well, of course, he will transfer money for perfume to the guys account. However, the Americans turned out to be those thieves. Everyone left the samplers to themselves, but didn’t pay a dime for them.
New plan
Then the guys decided to act differently. To get probes, you had to subscribe for a nominal fee. Maria and Sergey poured perfumes into bottles ordered from China with their own hands, glued a Scentbird sticker and sent it to recipients. There were so few orders that the guys almost forcibly presented perfumes to bloggers and freelancers, hoping that someone would advertise them. And so it happened. One of the bloggers posted a video review, after which our heroes immediately received three hundred orders.
Slowly, the business began to grow, but its development required the involvement of investors. When the monthly income reached the mark of 50 thousand dollars (more than three million rubles), Maria turned to a long-time acquaintance Igor Shoifot, who was just involved in investments. He told our heroine to come to San Francisco.
The girl prepared a presentation so that the proposal would interest investors. She operated with exact numbers, which made a big impression on influential people. The project of Maria and Sergey agreed to finance. Our heroine returned to New York with a check for 350 thousand dollars (more than 22 million rubles).
Successful businesswoman
The project started in 2014. For several years, he has gathered over 300 thousand subscribers. Since the business is conducted in the United States, the main customers are Americans. Mostly men aged 28-32 years and women 26-28 years old. Monthly revenue is $ 5 million (over 314 million rubles).
In addition to perfumes, the service offers other beauty products. For one probe, a person pays $ 15 (944 rubles), for three - 35 (2200 rubles). To develop business and study demand, Maria and Sergey regularly conduct surveys among subscribers and ask to share their impressions of this or that perfume.