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$1-9M
REVENUE
Featured
Lhamour
Twelve days after opening, thieves stole everything. Khulan caught the thief at the airport herself, survived three floods, built Mongolia's natural beauty export leader
Ulaanbaatar 🇲🇳
Featured
Founder-led
Brands where founders remain active leaders with significant influence on product development, quality standards, and company direction.
26 Brands
Vision Intact
Founder leadership means decisive action, authentic brand DNA, and deep product knowledge that hired executives can't match. Direct access to decision-makers accelerates deals and ensures the original vision stays pure during growth.
Featured Brands
Research in Progress
Antonenko Family Winery
Family hobby-to-business transition with two Anapa tasting rooms and full family operational involvement.
Anapa 🇷🇺
Profiled
Château André
28 French research trips over 6 years, Austrian consultant, authentic Provence château, daughter managing father's succession.
Khutor Shkolny 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Château Sort
Lefkadia alumnus pioneering 1m x 1.5m ultra-dense planting and monosortovye (single varietal) wines in premium restaurants.
Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Dva Romana
Two friends named Roman (lawyer + engineer) running a 5,000-bottle nano-winery with entirely manual production.
Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Isa Musaev Winery
'Best sommelier/winemaker of Dagestan' making 5 ultra-premium wines integrated with Caspian wine tourism.
Dagestan 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Krinitsa
French enologist (now Russian citizen) + young Russian winemaker = Double Gold Terravino 2024 winner with gravity-flow facility.
Krasnodar Krai 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Marko
Grandfather's 20-year passion project: Stavropol's sixth farm winery with ungrafted Krasnostop vines, named for grandson Mark.
Stavropol Krai 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Shumrinka
Decanter World Wine Awards winner combining Serbian Probus grapes, drone monitoring, and traditional handwork at scale.
Krasnodar 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Usadba Sarkel
Reviving 1,400-year-old Khazar winemaking site and Pushkin-era 'Kazachka' sparkling tradition with Forbes Top 100 recognition.
Tsimlyansk 🇷🇺
Profiled
Uzunov
Four generations: Soviet workers → Fanagoria Chief Winemaker (35 years) → Russia's first family farm license → both sons involved.
Posyolok Sennoy 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Villa Zvezda
The winemaker incubator: Co-founders later launched Usadba Sarkel (Forbes Top 100) and Vinabani (30+ autochthon varieties).
Konstantinovsk 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Vinabani
Four generations preserving 30+ nearly extinct Don autochthon grape varieties that survived Soviet anti-alcohol campaigns.
Malaya Martynovka 🇷🇺
$916M
REVENUE
Featured
Perfect Diary
P&G insider who used multinational playbook against them. First Chinese beauty IPO. $4B valuation. Category-creating digital strategy.
Guangzhou 🇨🇳
Research in Progress
Belbek
A ceramic artist from Sevastopol planted experimental vines in 2012. Three years later, his Cabernet Sauvignon won Grand Prix as Russia's 'Best Red Wine.'
Fruktovoe village, Belbek River valley 🇷🇺
Dacha Serdyuka
Ten kilometers from where the Krasnostop Zolotovsky grape was born, Sergey Serdyuk makes Russia's only wine without sulfur dioxide.
Kanygin village (vineyards), Novocherkassk (production) 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Domaine Lipko
A lawyer and Florida-trained golf professional turned winemaker on a Crimean Paleolithic archaeological site.
Sevastopol, Balaklava district, Chernaya River valley 🇷🇺
Profiled
Elbuzd
A tax office worker with no business experience financed Russia's first three-level gravitational winery through bank loans at 24% interest.
Azovsky District 🇷🇺
Profiled
Galitskiy & Galitskiy
After building Russia's largest retail chain, Forbes billionaire Sergey Galitskiy turned to wine as his legacy project.
Gostalgaevskaya 🇷🇺
$25-50M
REVENUE
Featured
SoleRebels
$6,000 on grandmother's land. 100,000 jobs created. Ethiopia's first global fashion brand. Artisan production as competitive moat.
Addis Ababa 🇪🇹
$60M+
REVENUE
Featured
SUGAR Cosmetics
Rejected ₹1 crore after two failures. Third startup reached $500M. Solved what L'Oréal overlooked: makeup for India's diverse skin tones.
Mumbai 🇮🇳
$5-15M
REVENUE
Featured
Walk of Shame
Fashion editor turned founder. Dinner party joke became Galeries Lafayette success. Authentic Russian storytelling that sanctions couldn't silence.
Moscow 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Yaila
Russia's first still wine from Pinot Meunier. First orange wines from Kokur. First bourbon barrel aging.
Sevastopol (winery), Gurzuf terroirs (vineyards) 🇷🇺
Research in Progress
Château Le Grand Vostock
When French winemaker Frank Duseigneur arrived in Krasnodar in 2003, Russia's wine industry was still stuck in Soviet bulk production.
Sadovy 🇷🇺
$5-10M
REVENUE
Featured
$10-20M
REVENUE
Profiled
Vedernikov Winery
A single bottle sold for 750,000 rubles at auction—a record for Russian wine.
Konstantinovsk 🇷🇺
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