Section 1: About me. Dossier.
«“Always go where you are afraid”»
Henzel Yuliana Ruslanovna
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Join the clubSection 2. About the business. Dossier.
Section 3: Biography.
Today, I am the founder of the women's lingerie brand Fox Lingerie. Over more than ten years, we have grown from a small local brand into a company operating in international markets, developing online and offline sales and a franchise division, and continuing to scale. My entrepreneurial journey began when I was 19. After moving from Luhansk to Kharkiv, studying, and the start of the war, I realized that I wanted to be completely financially independent. While studying, I taught English and gradually realized that I no longer wanted to build a career around one-on-one work with people. I wanted to create my own product and build a business that could scale. Over the years, the company has gone through several stages of development. We have scaled through online sales and a network of physical stores, launched a franchise division, entered international markets, and weathered several crises that each prompted us to rethink our management approach. One of the most difficult personal periods was my divorce after eleven years of marriage. My former husband and I were not only a family but also business partners. This forced me to rebuild my life, reconsider my role in the business, and embrace changes I had previously been afraid of. This period finally convinced me that the greatest growth begins when you are not afraid to step beyond what is familiar. One such decision was to pursue an international MBA, which helped me systematize my practical experience and take a broader view of business.
One of the most important moments in my entrepreneurial journey was Fox Lingerie being included in the Forbes Next 250 ranking in 2023. For me, this confirmed that hard work, bold decisions, and belief in what you do always pay off.
In addition to growing Fox Lingerie, I launched another business in 2022—a consulting company. My company operates in two areas. The first is starting a business from scratch and setting it up turnkey. People come to me with an idea, and we help them through the entire process: from consultation and business-plan development to a full company launch. At the same time, we train the owner so they do not just receive a ready-made business, but also understand all its processes and can manage it effectively in the future. The second area is systematizing and automating existing businesses. I believe that a strong company starts with a system. That is why we help entrepreneurs document business processes, implement customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning systems, define each team member's responsibilities, and build a structure that works independently of any one person.
The business idea came from a very simple need. I wanted to buy beautiful lingerie, but I couldn't find styles on the market that suited my taste. Push-up lingerie dominated in shopping centers, and I wanted a completely different aesthetic. So I found a seamstress, bought materials, and made the first collection. It wasn't a business model I had carefully planned in advance—I simply wanted to create a product I liked myself. In 2015, I posted the first collection on Instagram, and it sold very quickly. That's when I realized this could become more than just a hobby—it could be a full-fledged business.
Several qualities laid the foundation for my growth. First and foremost, determination and a willingness to move forward, even when you're afraid and don't fully understand what lies ahead. Second, discipline and the ability to set priorities. Today, I consider these skills among the most important for growing a business. Knowledge of marketing and management, as well as the ability to work with trends, have also been essential. In the fashion business, it's not enough to create a beautiful product—you need to understand what influences a customer's decision to buy.
Starting a business without experience. I entered a new field without a clear understanding of how everything worked. It was scary, but curiosity helped me keep moving forward. The need to become financially independent quickly. After moving and with the war beginning, I had to support myself entirely. Changing my career path. At a certain point, I realized that teaching English no longer made me feel I was growing. I wanted to build my own product and a business that could scale.
One of the most difficult crises was my divorce after 11 years of marriage. It was not only the end of a personal relationship but also the end of a long-standing business partnership. I had to rebuild my life and accept that everything would be different. Another serious lesson came in the period after the full-scale war began. I mistakenly hired four expensive senior executives instead of focusing on optimizing the business. It was a costly but very valuable management lesson. I also think of COVID: that was when we decided to launch an online franchise so we could keep moving forward. It became not only a way to weather the crisis but also a catalyst for growth.
Several decisions had the greatest impact on the company's development. First, moving from employment to creating my own product. Second, scaling not only online but also through a network of physical stores and developing a franchise division. Third, launching an online franchise during COVID. Instead of putting growth on hold, we used the crisis as an opportunity to scale and went on to grow by approximately 100% each year. Pursuing an international MBA was another important decision. It helped me systematize my practical experience, broaden my perspective, and look at the business from a different angle.
The most valuable lesson for me came from a time when I became too detached from the day-to-day management of the business. I hired strong, expensive senior executives, but later realized that even in a well-systematized business, an owner cannot completely lose touch with key processes. That's when I understood another important thing: delegation works only when there are clear checkpoints. Processes can be handed over to the team, digitized, and systematized, but the owner must remain involved in strategically important matters.
As a child, I helped pick strawberries at our country house, then sold them myself.
By teaching English.
In 2015, after launching the Fox Lingerie brand.
In 2017, when the company began to scale rapidly.
Fox Lingerie reached a million in revenue around 2021.
Section 4: How can I be useful? Experience I can share.
My practical experience will be useful to entrepreneurs launching or scaling their own brand. I have gone through every stage of business development: starting with a minimal budget, building a brand in the fashion industry, scaling through online and offline channels, launching a franchise model, entering international markets, and crisis management during COVID and the full-scale war. I can also share my experience in starting a business from scratch, building a marketing function, managing a team, and restructuring a company. Over the years, I have become convinced that business development is primarily about continually making management decisions, not accumulating theoretical knowledge.
For me, systematization starts with describing and digitizing all processes and assigning them to responsible people. A company should use CRM, ERP, or other accounting systems, and its roles, processes, and areas of responsibility should be clearly defined. If a process exists only in one person’s head, the business becomes vulnerable. At the same time, I don’t believe systems need to be built from day one. At the start, it can sometimes be more important to launch a product quickly and test demand. Once a business starts growing, that is the time to build a system.
In my view, having just one development scenario is not enough for growth. You need to be ready to quickly reassess your decisions, test new hypotheses, and move on to Plan B if your chosen strategy isn’t working. In my experience, growth has been driven not only by strategic decisions, but also by the willingness to adapt to change and not wait for ideal conditions. For a fashion business, it is especially important to approach marketing effectively. A beautiful image builds brand perception, but sales are often driven by authentic customer content and the thoughtful allocation of the marketing budget.
Section 5: Club value
