Viktor Lunov, 45 years

My name is Viktor Lunyev, and today I am an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience building a food distribution company in Kyiv and the surrounding region.

My path into business was neither conventional nor obvious. I trained as a metallurgist, lived in Mariupol for many years, and worked on factory contracts. At the same time, I tried my hand at various small businesses, searching for my own direction and a sense of what I truly wanted to do. A key turning point in my life was moving to Kyiv in 2008, against the backdrop of an economic crisis. I had to adapt quickly and secure the basic conditions for living.

I started as a sales representative, selling sausage products, and that was when I truly became fascinated by trade. Sales turned out to be the fairest and toughest test of any product: you can immediately see what works and what doesn't. Psychology, face-to-face communication, negotiations, and accountability for results—all of this shaped my entrepreneurial mindset. After that, my team and I built a company literally «from scratch». We had no money at all: we worked with goods on credit, constantly turned over working capital, and gradually bought our first vehicles—from an old «tablet» van to «Gazelles» and «Sprinters». Our warehousing arrangements changed as the business grew: from an improvised truck with equipment inside to basement premises and a full-fledged warehouse. Along with this, our fleet, team, and management structure grew. Along the way, I came to understand time and again: business is not about quick money. It is a long process of constant development, self-discipline, and learning.

When starting a business, it is important to understand from the outset that the first stage often looks more like self-employment: you work 24/7, take on every role, and bear all the responsibility. But this stage is what builds resilience and an understanding of the true cost of results. Partnerships and internal agreements have always been especially important to me. I am convinced that if you start a business with a partner, you need to speak openly at the very beginning about your vision for the future—one, two, and three years ahead. Who is responsible for what, which values are non-negotiable, and where the boundaries lie. I have experienced difficult separations from partners, and that taught me the most important lesson: honesty and transparency matter more than any formal agreements.

I have never compromised my own moral principles. Even when I made mistakes, I found the strength to go back to people, admit them, and make things right. My reputation and personal code have always mattered more to me than short-term gain. If I could give advice to my 16-year-old self today, I would say: read more, learn about what genuinely interests you, and don't spend years on something that has no meaning for you. From a young age, I was drawn not to the status of a director, but to the role of an owner—the person who builds a system, structure, and processes, and gradually delegates operational functions to others in order to move forward. I move slowly, perhaps more slowly than many. But I keep moving forward. Mine is a long-distance strategy.

I want to keep working at 60 and 70, preserving the freedom to make decisions and remain independent of any external circumstances. For me, freedom means being able to decide for myself what I do, when, and why. Happiness, for me, is when what I have planned works out.

When an idea starts working, when a system comes to life. And, of course, family. Because it is in the family that you find true honesty and support, without which no business makes sense. I am open to conversation and exchanging experience because I am sure that any experience you share eventually comes back to you—in an even deeper and more valuable form. That is how a path is built: long and difficult, but truly my own.

How did the business idea come about?

The business idea didn't emerge as a «stroke of genius», but as a practical response to life's circumstances. After moving to Kyiv, I needed a job for the first few months—a way into a new city and a new life. A former classmate was just starting a company and suggested that we try working together. Later, our paths diverged, and I took over the factory as a supplier on my own and began building my own distribution model. I was especially fascinated by the logic of trade. Making a product is important, but selling it is much harder. Sales quickly show whether the market really needs a product and whether customers are willing to pay for it. This is the most honest indicator of whether any idea is viable.

What key skills helped you launch the business?

The foundation of my growth was persistence and complete confidence that any problem can be solved. I am used to seeing difficulties as challenges that need to be broken down into parts and «seen through» with systematic work.

The second important skill is the ability to find the «right» people and invest in developing the team. I believe in growing employees to fit the company's processes rather than constantly searching for ready-made solutions on the market. The third is systems thinking and automation. I worked extensively with 1C and automated repetitive tasks: processing orders, enabling sales representatives to work by phone (we introduced this back in 2013), and generally simplifying processes by removing everything unnecessary. My logic is simple: the simpler the process, the more stable the business.

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

The first challenge was partners' different attitudes toward money and investment in development. When money started coming in, some partners wanted to spend it freely and quickly—for example, on expensive cars. I clearly saw that money comes and goes, but the business remains. So it should be invested in development.

The second challenge was conflicts between partners and splitting up the business. Because of a lack of start-up capital, we had to bring many people in as «almost partners». Later, some of them left the company and tried to create parallel businesses. Over 15 years, three separate entities «branched off» from our company and eventually became competitors.

The third challenge was external pressure. Until 2012, this meant corruption-related issues and numerous inspections that were distracting and created risks for operations.

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

One of the most difficult crises happened during the full-scale war. Our main supplier factory was completely destroyed: shelling and a fire that could not be put out. In a single day, we lost about half of our business—a key supplier and a significant part of our distribution network across Ukraine. We managed to withstand the shock thanks to diversification. Even before the war, we had deliberately reduced our dependence on a single supplier—from 100% to approximately 50%. The remaining volume was supplied by around 40 different producers. This allowed us to refocus quickly and rebuild sales. The second major crisis was an unsuccessful expansion at «Stolychnyi Market». We opened two large warehouses and invested significant sums in renovations, then faced circumstances that led to serious daily losses for half a year. The hardest part was deciding to stop and close the project despite the resources already invested. We literally had to remove the equipment and only fully exit the venture several years later.

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

First, building our own warehouse and moving away from the cross-docking (Cross-docking) model—a logistics model in which:

• the supplier prepares goods in advance for specific orders / retail outlets;
• the goods are not stored at the distributor, or stay there for only a minimal amount of time;
• the distributor's task is to receive the goods, quickly sort them by route/vehicle, and deliver them to retail outlets.

This arrangement is convenient, but it makes a business critically dependent. Our own warehouse became a strategic pillar for us.

Second, investing in automation based on 1C: order processing, sales representatives' work, and optimization of repetitive tasks. My main conclusion is that it is worth investing more in automation and constantly simplifying processes.

Third, focusing on survival as the basic KPI at the outset. Not to «hit it big at any cost», but to get through the first years steadily, reach at least a small profit, and avoid burning resources through excessive expansion.

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

My most valuable mistake was the project at «Stolychnyi Market». I realized that it is not worth spreading yourself too thin and trying to «take everything at once»: opening several locations, covering every entrance, and capturing the maximum foot traffic. Reality quickly set things straight: half a year of losses and then closure. My conclusion is that it is better to start with one location, develop it carefully, reach profitability in six months to a year, and only then expand. With this approach, it could have become a successful standalone business-to-consumer direction.

Cherries from a state-owned orchard and my first sale at 16

Notebooks from “Pryvoz” and my first serious money

Factory contracts and manager bonuses through 2008

Cumulative returns from Kyiv distribution in 2012–2014