Episode #29: Bootstrapping an 8-Figure Business, Co-Living, and Founding the Nomad Train with Maria Sirotkina

Episode Summary

Maria Sirotkina shares her entrepreneurial journey, starting with co-founding her first company, J-Study, in her home country of Russia, and running it as an 18-year old CEO. She explains how she and her partners scaled that business to 8-figures in annual revenue and what her biggest leverage points and breakthroughs have been. She provides tactical strategies for bootstrapping a lean startup, growth hacking, and paying attention to the right metrics and KPIs. She also explains the concept of co-living, how she developed her passion for it, and why she founded her Co-Living business ReStation in the Canary Islands, which she has now scaled up to 4 buildings that have housed over 1,000 nomadic travelers. She shares both the real estate and business lessons she has learned from operating her co-living space, and why it is crucially important to co-living spaces to establish a clearly defined culture. Maria then explains why she co-founded her third business, Nomad Train, which takes groups of Nomads from Moscow, Russia to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Maria also shares her passion for nomadic travel, why she chose to study Arabic, how she met her husband in Cape Town, and what her top 3 favorite travel destinations are. She also explains the concept of ‘deep work’ and shares her productivity strategies, including the specific tactics she uses for running three businesses in different countries while being a wife and mother of two who prioritizes her family. View the full show notes including links to everything discussed in the episode at www.TheMaverickShow.com

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About the Guest

Maria Sirotkina

Maria Sirotkina is a serial entrepreneur and world traveler who has been to over 50 countries, holds an MBA and is proficient 5 languages (Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish and English). She co-founded her first business Jey-Study in 2007 at the age 18, a educational-travel company in her home country of Russia that she has since scaled to be national-level tour operator with 5 office locations, serving thousands of students and generating 8-figures in annual revenue. In 2016, she followed her passion for nomadic travel and founded a co-living space in the Canary Islands called “Restation Co-Living” and has since grown that from 1 to 4 properties and hosted over 1,000 residents. In 2017 Maria co-founded “Nomad Train”—an opportunity to take the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Ulaanbaatur Mongolia together with a group of 30 other Nomads. Nomad Train is facilitated by Russian-speaking program leaders and each stopover location on the 2 week trip includes accommodation, access to a co-working space with reliable wifi, and organized excursions on the ground. Maria is also the co-founder of “co-living hub”, a non-profit organization that supports co-living hosts and founders around the world to improve their local co-living experiences with the overall goal of supporting the growth of the co-living movement world-wide. She is hosting the first ever Co-Living Hub conference next month where 100 founders of co-living spaces around the world will descend on Gran Canaria to strategize with each other about how to shape the grow the co-living industry.

What You'll Learn

How Maria bootstrapped an 8-figure business starting with $300
How Maria built a co-living business in the Canary Islands and co-founded Nomad Train
How Maria remains fiercely productive at work and completely ‘present’ with her family

Links From the Episode

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MARIA’S COMPANIES

Nomad Train (Use Code: “MAVERICK” to get $100 discount)
ReStation Co-Living (Use Code “MAVERICK” for a FREE weekend when you book a month)
Jey Study

WINE SHARED DURING THE INTERVIEW

Marques de Vargas Rioja Reserva

BOOK MARIA RECOMMENDS

Deep Work by Cal Newport

APP MARIA RECOMMENDS

Sleep Score

LOCATION WHERE THE INTERVIEW TOOK PLACE

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria(Canary Islands, Spain)

MARIA’S TOP 3 TRAVEL RECOMMENDATIONS

MARIA’s TOP 3 BUCKET LIST TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

OTHER PLACES MENTIONED

Check Flight Prices to Any of These Destinations

OTHER PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

Time Stamped Show Notes

[05:25] GROWING UP IN RUSSIA, STUDING ARABIC AND TRAVELING TO THE MIDDLE EAST

Growing up in a small Russian town
Wanting to study more complex languages and experience different cultures
Moving to Jordan to live, work and study
Learning different Arabic dialects
Why the Egyptian dialect is the most widely understood Arabic dialect
Hitchhiking and Budget Traveling from Russia to Morocco

[16:25] MARIA’S EXPERIENCE LIVING IN AFRICA

Living in Lagos, Nigeria for a year
Why Lagos is one of her favorite places in the world
Living life in the moment and viewing every day as a party in Nigeria
The legendary music scene in Nigeria
How Maria first came to Cape Town, South Africa
How she won a sales challenge and got her first flight to Africa paid for
Maria’s experience in Cape Town and meeting her future husband there

[21:15] CO-FOUNDING “J-STUDY” IN RUSSIA WITH $300 AT AGE 18

Selling language courses to friends at the University
Selling English-language-immersion trips to students
Selling the trips B-to-B to teachers who run student groups
How entrepreneur was perceived as a lame thing to be at the time
Not having support from her parents when she started the company

[26:51] SCALING J-STUDY TO 8-FIGURES IN GROSS ANNUAL REVENUE

Strategies for increasing sales and reducing costs
Meticulously monitoring cash flow and optimizing key performance indicators (KPI’s)
The biggest breakthrough moments that substantially propelled the company forward
Creating an annual 5-star luxury event for their top teacher clients
Commanding fierce brand loyalty from their core repeat customers
Understanding who your “actual” customer is, which is not always the user
The crucial leverage point of focusing on relationship-building and customer-experience

[37:24] FOUNDING RESTATION CO-LIVING IN THE CANARY ISLANDS

Understanding the concept of “co-living”
Living and working around the world with people who have a similar mindset
How Maria became passionate about “co-living” in one of the best months of her life
Creating communities with strong and deep connections
How Maria selected the island of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria to open ReStation
How Maria researched, surveyed and interviewed to establish “product-market fit”
Using a leasing model and negotiating with landlords
Mitigating her downside risk to 6 months of expenses
How Maria went from zero to full-occupancy in 2 months
Creating a defined culture of entrepreneurship and productivity
Hosting events to attract her target customers
Marketing to her target market
Scaling from one building to 4 buildings
Maintaining a consistent year-round event schedule
Partnering with other nomad-oriented organizations
Matt’s experience staying at ReStation

[54:54] CO-FOUNDING “NOMAD TRAIN”

Describing the Legendary Trans-Siberian Railway
The challenges for foreign travelers to fully experience the Trans-Siberian Railway
How Nomad Train handles cumbersome travel logistics
How Nomad Train creates community, provides workspace access and excursions.
How Nomad Train helps with visa applications in advance of the trip

[1:05:42] TIME MANAGEMENT, PRODUCTIVITY, AND PRIORITIZING HER FAMILY AND KIDS