Krasiukova Anastasiia Serhiivna, 33 years

My name is Anastasiia Krasiuk, and today I am an entrepreneur and the owner of digital marketing agency Upcorn Agency. Our team has around 20 people, and the company’s annual revenue is approximately $700 thousand. My path to entrepreneurship grew out of a combination of two factors: professional expertise in SEO, which I have been working in for around ten years, and a habit of taking responsibility. Over time, this inner drive led me to start my own business. In 2014, I moved from Mariupol to Kyiv. Later, several events in my life significantly changed the way I think: a divorce, six months living in Asia, and working with a psychologist. This period became a point of inner reset for me. It was then that I strengthened my own foundation and formulated a principle for myself: focus less on other people’s expectations and more on what I believe is right for my life and development. I did not enter business “from scratch.” I already had a long professional journey behind me before creating the agency. I began my career in sales: my first job was as a sales representative at an internet service provider, making cold calls. I later held other sales roles, followed by an in-depth dive into SEO, which gradually became my core area of expertise. I gained entrepreneurial experience even before launching the agency. In 2016–2017, I developed a short-term apartment rental project: I rented apartments and then rented them out by the day. Later, I consciously closed that line of business and decided to focus entirely on SEO as my main professional competency. As I built the agency, it was important to me to create a growth model without “heroics” or cash flow gaps. We developed the business gradually: we were profitable from the first month, increasing the number of clients step by step while expanding the team in parallel. At the same time, my personal brand and networking remain the agency’s main source of leads. They bring in the highest-quality inquiries and deals, which are most often successfully closed.

How did the business idea come about?

The idea of creating an agency arose naturally from my own demand as an expert. I had worked in SEO for many years, taught a course at Projector Institute, and spoken at industry conferences. As a result, a steady stream of service inquiries began coming my way. At some point, I realized that I physically could not take on all the clients myself. At the same time, simply referring them to someone else would mean losing both the opportunity and control over quality. So I decided to monetize this demand and build a team that could scale my expertise as a product. In addition, I had always been attracted to the idea of owning a business. Creating the agency became a logical and mature way to make that desire a reality.

What key skills helped you launch the business?

The foundation of my professional growth was a combination of three key skills. 1. The first is a strong work ethic and a willingness to work hard. 2. The second is the ability to take responsibility for decisions and their consequences. 3. The third is experience in sales. My early training in cold calling and subsequent sales roles gave me confidence in communication, the ability to clearly explain a product’s value, and the skills to close deals effectively. At the strategic level, I would separately highlight the development of my personal brand. It became the key channel for attracting the highest-quality leads and remains the company’s main driver of sales.

What were the 3 most difficult challenges you overcame in the early years?

At the start, the biggest challenges were related to operations and the team. First, building a strong team. The first year brought various difficult situations that took a lot of energy. Second, the need to constantly balance the number of clients with the number of specialists on the team.

This is critical for an agency business: overloading the team or, conversely, hiring too many people immediately affects the quality of work and profitability. Third, finding clients and specialists at the same time. These are two ongoing processes: for the business to grow, you need to scale demand and the team’s capacity to serve that demand simultaneously.

What crises has your business faced, and how did you overcome them?

I would not describe our journey as financially crisis-ridden. We built the business so that we were profitable from the first month and scaled gradually—from a small number of clients and a small team to larger volumes. If we speak of crises in a broader sense, they mostly involved team dynamics. For example, there was a case where one person tried to create tension and spread gossip within the team.

We simply ended the working relationship. We also encountered clients who did not honor their financial agreements. This became an important lesson: we strengthened our financial discipline, set out the rules of cooperation more clearly, and introduced advance payments. Overall, I see such situations not as a drama, but as a natural stage in the maturation of a business system.

Which decisions proved most effective for the company’s growth?

The decision to invest systematically in developing my personal brand had the greatest impact on the company’s growth. It generates the largest flow of leads while also bringing in the highest-quality deals. For me, this is a long game: expertise, visibility, and networking work far more effectively than ad hoc marketing tactics. The second important decision was to scale the agency gradually, without sudden leaps. We expanded the team in step with the growth of our client base, maintaining financial stability and profitability from the first month of operation.

Which of your mistakes do you now consider your most valuable learning experience?

The most valuable lesson for me was that I had not been firm enough about financial agreements at the beginning. There were several cases where clients failed to meet their obligations. This showed how important clear payment rules and advance payments are as a way to protect the business. Thanks to this experience, we significantly strengthened our financial discipline in working with clients.