Q+A: Kogan.com at 20: what Ruslan Kogan learned from the highs and lows
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Welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A, where we ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics, and more. I'm Sean Aylmer. Kogan.com was one of the original disruptors in Australian retail. Built online, obsessed with value, and aiming to take on much bigger incumbents. Along the way, it's had periods of enormous growth, sharp setbacks and no shortage of scrutiny from investors and customers alike. So what does the next phase look like for Kogan.com and for Australian retail more broadly? Russell and Kogan is founder and CEO of Kogan.com and I've got to welcome you to the studio. Russell, nice to see you.
Great to see you. It's been a while and thank you for having me.
Yeah, we're off air.
What is the story behind Kogan.com and its founding?
We're talking, it's probably 12 or 13 years, at least since I've seen you in a professional sense. If you knew what you know today, 12 or 13 years ago, would you have done what you've done?
It's been a rollercoaster of a journey. Great ups, a few downs along the way as well, but wouldn't trade it for the world. It's, I think, running a business and everything that goes with it from working with incredible people to solving problems and challenges. I absolutely love it.
I remember back then, so this is probably 2010 when I was talking to you and I sort of said, why did you do it? How did you do it? And you said, I just realised you could get stuff much cheaper than you could buy it off the shelf. So just tell us that story. Tell us that thought.
Yeah, it's interesting in hindsight when you think about it. It's like, you know, you go to business schools and they'll sort of tell you, like, you've got to have a business plan and a great master plan of step one, two, three, three, B, C, D. No, I was just, you know, learnt a few business skills along the way. I did a lot of engineering and IT at university. I was lucky enough to be on a scholarship at Monash Uni studying in Miami at the time, saw the rise of online retail there. came back from there, was working in a corporate job and wanted to buy a TV. And even though I was on a decent salary, I couldn't afford one. And so then I started doing my research, started contacting a few factories.
I thought, I'm just going to order a sample TV and that will be my TV. But when I reached out to factories, they started replying with the pricing. I very quickly realized that hang on a second, there's a online business model here that's very possible, similar to what I'd seen work in the US, similar to what I'd seen work with Dell. And there could be an online business model direct to consumer for TVs. And then, you know, just started taking the steps to make that possible. The idea came on a Wednesday and by the following week, the business was up and running.
The other thing I think you've always had is incredible drive. Like you call it passion, call it drive, whatever. Where does that come from? Because you never stood still.
Yeah. Along the way, a lot of people have asked me like, oh, your parents must be in business. What have your parents taught you or did they lend you the money to start the business? To all of it, the answer is no. My parents and me and my younger sister were immigrants in Australia in 1989 arriving with $90 in our pocket. And my parents came from obviously a communist country, which doesn't teach you too much about business. And so I'd always thought, no, I didn't learn business skills from my parents. But then when you think about what it takes to be an immigrant and what it takes to be an entrepreneur, they're very similar. You've got to drop everything you've got, work your butt off, travel into the unknown for a potential benefit that might not even be there.
And I had witnessed my parents do all of this. So even though they didn't have business skills, seeing them work three or four jobs each, always be there for their family, work really hard, be determined, be goal focused, take the right risks. They're very good business skills. So my parents is where I learned that from. And I think it's also, you know, we know each other from back in the BRW days and they would make a lot of lists about entrepreneurs and businesses.
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