**Как русскоговорящие покоряют Голливуд — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/russian-speakers-conquer-hollywood/

Two Russian-speaking immigrants share their unique journeys and successes in Los Angeles, from visas to coffee culture and Hollywood living.

## Key Takeaways

- Persistence is crucial when facing visa denials; success can come after many attempts.
- Los Angeles is a competitive but promising market for innovative businesses like specialty coffee shops.
- American coffee culture is highly developed and diverse, contrary to some stereotypes.
- Living in Hollywood Hills symbolizes achieving a dream influenced by American pop culture.
- Unique business concepts tailored to local tastes can help immigrants succeed in the US market.

## What the video covers

- The video features two Russian-speaking individuals who immigrated to Los Angeles via tourist visas and changed their status to immigrants.
- Yana Leventseva, a popular Instagram blogger, shares her long journey of visa denials before finally succeeding on her ninth attempt.
- Yana grew up influenced by American pop culture and dreamed of living in California, which motivated her persistence.
- Azamat, co-founder of the Drinkit coffee shop, discusses launching a successful coffee brand in Los Angeles amidst strong local competition.
- Drinkit offers a unique 'smart pickup' ordering system that creates a novel customer experience uncommon in the US.
- Azamat emphasizes the advanced coffee culture in America, countering the misconception that US coffee culture is underdeveloped.
- The video includes a tour of Yana’s Hollywood Hills home, highlighting its luxury and celebrity neighbors.
- The story touches on challenges like visa struggles, cultural adaptation, and business competition in the US.
- Both guests illustrate different paths to achieving the American dream through perseverance and innovation.
- The video aims to inspire Russian-speaking immigrants by sharing real-life success stories and practical insights.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction and Yana's Visa Journey
2. 03:10 Azamat and Drinkit Coffee Shop in LA
3. 06:31 Unique Coffee Ordering Experience
4. 09:31 American Coffee Culture Discussion
5. 13:11 Tour of Yana's Hollywood Hills Home
6. 19:46 Challenges and Success in LA
7. 23:00 Future Plans and Closing Thoughts

Answers

## Questions about this video

How many times was Yana denied a US visa before succeeding?

Yana was denied a US visa eight times and succeeded on her ninth attempt after trying for 12 years.

What makes Drinkit's coffee shop unique in Los Angeles?

Drinkit uses a 'smart pickup' system where customers see their names or funny random names when picking up orders, creating a unique experience.

Is American coffee culture really underdeveloped as some believe?

No, according to Azamat, American coffee culture is highly developed with a wide variety of quality coffee options and knowledgeable baristas.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

Today, we will tell you two very interesting stories of Russian-speaking guys living in Los Angeles.

00:06

Speaker A

Both heroes arrived on tourist visas, changed their status to immigrant, and stayed to live in the USA, but by completely different paths.

00:14

Speaker A

We highly recommend watching until the end. The episode will be as informative as possible. Let's go. And our first guest in the video will be Yana Leventseva, a blogger with one and a half million followers on Instagram, who lives with her husband and children

00:37

Speaker A

right in the Hollywood Hills. Yana, you have an incredibly interesting story about getting an American visa, so I’d like to start with that. Could you please share how much effort it took for you to get here?

00:49

Speaker A

Starting with the effort, that’s eight American visa denials. I got it on the ninth try. So, dear friends, for all of you who have tried once or twice and were denied, don't despair. There are losers like me who have been trying

01:02

Speaker A

to get this visa for 12 whole years after that many denials. But I will say in my defense that there was a person who motivated me. He had 13 denials, so I thought, "Well, if they gave it to

01:10

Speaker A

him, they'll definitely give it to me." Because I flew around, probably, the whole planet. I applied from Indonesia, Romania, several cities in Russia, and England. I even got visas specifically to fly there from Serbia, but in the end, I got it in Romania. That turned

01:24

Speaker A

out to be my happy ending. And now, when we are already here in Los Angeles, California, I sometimes wake up at home. And I still can't believe I'm here because I grew up specifically on American culture. For some reason, my

01:38

Speaker A

parents shielded me from Russian show business and the music world. So, of course, I wanted to get to the place where I watched tapes of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, and all the other stars and pop music.

01:53

Speaker A

And basically, all the movies we probably rewatched in childhood, starting from The Parent Trap to others. It all happened here, in California.

02:01

Speaker A

And that’s why I strived for this for so long, and I never gave up on the path to my dream.

02:06

Speaker A

Well, from the Hollywood Hills, we move to the western part of Hollywood to introduce you to our second guest of the episode. Azamat, one of the founders of the Drinkit coffee shop, who moved here 3 years ago and has 15

02:17

Speaker A

years of experience in the coffee industry. Azamat, tell us. Why did you decide to open a coffee shop in the center of Los Angeles and compete with local brands?

02:28

Speaker A

Opening Drinkit in Los Angeles was an absolutely inevitable story. Because Drinkit currently has huge success in Russia. We are really blowing up. Every new coffee shop that opens performs very well. We have excellent results in other countries. Specifically in Dubai,

02:48

Speaker A

and now in Azerbaijan. And, naturally, we expect with a high degree of probability that we will see the same success in the US.

02:57

Speaker A

Uh-huh. That is, in fact, why we chose it. Why specifically Los Angeles out of all possible cities, where there is, after all, massive competition? Well, Los Angeles, in my opinion, is actually the coffee capital of America. There is a

03:10

Speaker A

huge number of very cool and very diverse coffee brands here. And global brands open their first locations specifically in Los Angeles. So, the choice of Los Angeles was obvious.

03:22

Speaker A

Although there are some nuances, for example, the fact that we could have chosen New York, because New York is closer to Moscow in many ways than Los Angeles. But here, a second human factor came into play. All the founders

03:37

Speaker A

of the project wanted to live in warmth. That is why we chose Los Angeles.

03:41

Speaker A

Well, that’s understandable, yes. And I suggest we move inside the coffee shop now to show what exactly these guys use to surprise Americans so much and how they stand out from the rest.

03:51

Speaker A

Let’s go take a look. Well, we surprise them right from the entrance, because we have an absolutely non-standard way of placing an order.

04:00

Speaker A

The way a guest picks up their order— all of this together forms a totally new, a totally new experience for the guest. This is very uncharacteristic for America, and in general for the whole world, because this concept and

04:14

Speaker A

this pickup format—we call it "smart pickup"—exists today only at Drinkit, when the guest sees their name. Very often we have an option for random names, you can come up with funny names. And when a guest sees that, it

04:28

Speaker A

creates emotions that definitely create a new experience for the guest. Uh. We receive a huge amount of positive feedback on this format. At first, we were worried that maybe the guest wouldn't accept it, maybe it would seem like too much, like

04:44

Speaker A

we want to see a classic barista take the order. But no, it turned out that they actually like it, and for us, this was one of the important confirmations of our hypothesis.

04:55

Speaker A

Yes. Well, we’ve been to the United States of America. And I have seen this approach only with you and only at Luckin Coffee, which is a Chinese chain, and they only have a couple of locations in New York. So, just so you

05:07

Speaker A

understand how unique this is for the US. Right. And it seems to me that precisely because we have more of this in our countries now, yes, these modern types of coffee shops are appearing.

05:18

Speaker A

Many people, when they arrive here, or in general about America, get the feeling that things aren't as developed here, or specifically about Los Angeles, that the service culture and coffee culture are less developed. Do you often encounter that opinion?

05:32

Speaker A

Anton, honestly, when I hear that coffee culture in America is bad, and it’s often from our own guys. It just really gets to me.

05:43

Speaker A

This is something I fundamentally disagree with. The American coffee market is an incredibly developed market, and in many places, it has an incredibly advanced level of coffee taste appreciation.

06:02

Speaker A

And when a person says they don't know where to get good coffee, it probably just means they didn't look. A huge number of projects that I've visited in Los Angeles, and across America in general, just delight me from the very

06:18

Speaker A

first sip. You take that first sip and think, "Damn, this is cool," and there’s such a huge selection of coffee options. I very often see the depth of knowledge baristas have, so, of course, no, that's not true.

06:31

Speaker A

Well, we'll talk about this in more detail later today, I think. Alright, sounds good. Speaking of dreams, guys, we are in the Hollywood Hills. And it's in this area that many celebrities, rappers, artists, and directors live. Right near Yana, for

06:45

Speaker A

example, Quentin Tarantino lives. And when you see those beautiful, luxurious houses in Hollywood movies, those houses are located right here, and Yana lives in one of them. Will you show us what’s inside?

06:57

Speaker A

You're watching "Cribs." Let’s go. By the way, not straying far from the topic, this house used to belong to the famous rapper Ice-T, who is very popular here in the US. And then our current owner, the one we are filming

07:16

Speaker A

with, bought it. And so, here we are. Can you share how many rooms are here?

07:20

Speaker A

It looks absolutely gigantic. Yes, the house is 580 square meters. There are five bedrooms here. You could make it six, but we did this. We don't even have that many people, so we turned it into a small room. I call it

07:30

Speaker A

the "mudroom," old-school style. I'm from Siberia. Yeah. But overall, this room is like a spa for us. Now, we’ve moved to the area where we have our pool. And there’s a very convenient feature specific to this house. What I

07:41

Speaker A

liked is that this roof closes completely if, for example, it’s raining, cloudy, or cold. And it opens completely if, well, the weather is great like it is now, so you can tan and swim. I have two kids, and they

07:51

Speaker A

absolutely love this place. You could say they live here. Aside from me, I’ve honestly only swum once the entire time. A crime. Yana, what else can I do? I really love that this house has so many terraces. So you’re

08:05

Speaker A

practically always outdoors, which is very convenient. And there are also a lot of bathrooms, which is great for a big group of people.

08:13

Speaker A

But I think the view deserves s

08:29

Speaker A

better than there. This house, by the way, was featured on the famous American show, "Selling Sunset." And that’s because the sunsets in this area are insanely beautiful. The sky just gets bathed in a rosy light.

08:43

Speaker A

I think many people are probably wondering right now how much all of this costs. I’ll start from afar, because I ran into a very interesting situation in the real estate market here, since it’s always been easy for me to find property in any location.

09:00

Speaker A

I’ve moved seven times, you know that , and I’ve never faced such a problem finding a rental house as I have here.

09:06

Speaker A

To start with, people here don't bother at all when showing houses, because we were looking at a budget starting from 15,000 dollars. And I’ll say right away that we didn't find anything even decent, let alone great. Although in

09:17

Speaker A

Dubai, for instance, a supposedly luxurious and expensive city, you can find a stunning villa in a new area with security, a community, infrastructure, schools, gardens, and everything needed for a great life. But here, the houses I found that were

09:32

Speaker A

somewhat beautiful were 27k plus. I mean, even in a house in Bel Air for 35,000 dollars. When the owner showed it to me, I walked in and the pool and terrace were covered in yellow leaves, sticks were everywhere, dead lizards

09:46

Speaker A

were floating right in front of you, and there were cobwebs all over the house. And he says, "Well, you can see through the dirt," like, look past the grime, the house itself is nice, right?

09:58

Speaker A

I honestly don't know how anyone can treat things like that. What’s the problem with ordering a cleaning, but okay, every place has its quirks. And after I had already looked at 34 houses , this one, by the way, was one of the

10:08

Speaker A

first. And I realized that, although it was initially priced at $ 27,000, since my husband and I come from a background where we like to haggle, I believe that if someone really wants to lease out a property, there is nothing shameful

10:20

Speaker A

about asking for a discount. They won't bite you for it. No one is going to beat you with a stick. That is why we are used to driving the price down. And after a month of negotiations, we managed to bring the price down to $

10:31

Speaker A

19,000. From what initial amount? From $ 27,000 down to 19. So, dear friends, if you think that haggling is shameful, just calculate how much money you will save on your annual rent.

10:41

Speaker A

Azamat, many entrepreneurs are watching us. I think many are interested in the question of opening a business in America. And I would like you to share the expenses that were required to open the coffee shop.

10:52

Speaker A

Honestly speaking, it turned out to be a substantial amount. We spent, I'm rounding it off, about $ 450,000. The actual figure is closer to 480. The most frustrating part of all this is probably the rent. Um in the US, we

11:11

Speaker A

didn't quite expect that it would be so difficult to get permits. Actually, at the stage of looking for a space, it is better to choose a location that already has a food use, that is, a place where food was served before. We

11:23

Speaker A

decided to take a risk, thinking we could handle getting the permits quickly, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. How long did it take you? I would round that up to six months. And because of that, the whole construction was delayed. In total, it took us 13

11:39

Speaker A

months to build the coffee shop. And all this time we were paying rent. It came out to almost $ 100,000. We were just paying to build the coffee shop.

11:50

Speaker A

Moving on, probably one of the major expenses is definitely the renovation. More than $ 150,000. We have fairly high quality requirements. Because it's an international brand.

12:01

Speaker A

Were the contractors some Russian speakers, right? They were guys from Belarus, if I remember correctly. And it was convenient, of course, absolutely, there was no language barrier, but in any case, it was more than $ 150,000, close to 200. Next is the equipment,

12:19

Speaker A

around a hundred, maybe a little more. And after that, there are a lot of various government fees, those very permits—you have to pay for every step, for every review. And many small expenses that eventually led to spending 400, or to be precise, $

12:37

Speaker A

484,000. But for the next coffee shops, we will clearly be able to improve on the total expenditure. Yana, often such a bright, luxurious life has a downside , because such beautiful houses generally attract a lot of attention.

12:53

Speaker A

Right. Have you encountered anything negative? Yes, unfortunately, we had one sad experience that happened in May. Our house was robbed. And what's most horrifying is that our nanny and the kids were actually home. As it turned out later, I talked to people, and I

13:08

Speaker A

haven't met anyone yet—well, let's say 90 percent of people in Los Angeles get robbed. Because, like any big megalopolis, especially where many celebrities live and where houses are easily visible like this, after talking to people, I know that Birkin bag

13:22

Speaker A

collections and collectible watches were taken. And there is an assumption here that California is a fairly liberal state. And everything here is simply covered by insurance. And in our case, the robbers thought we had gone out to dinner, because usually

13:36

Speaker A

robberies happen on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, when there's some kind of holiday or you leave in the evening, and they see the car pulling away; naturally, all of this is tracked. And such panoramic houses are tracked by micro-drones. So, a note to viewers: if

13:50

Speaker A

you rent a house like this, these drones, you can't see or hear them, they fly right in front of your windows . And specifically, well, the robbers who broke in, they knew exactly where they were going, because, I’m saying

13:59

Speaker A

this and I have goosebumps again. I wouldn't wish such an experience on anyone, because my children are quite small, 2 and 4 years old, and we had a nanny. And, essentially, they completely shattered that glass wall on the third floor and went straight to

14:14

Speaker A

the master bedroom, where we kept all our jewelry, gold, and Rolexes. They stole a few watches from me, and they also stole from my husband, since he works with diamonds and gold, you know, and other valuables too. And right now

14:28

Speaker A

we are communicating with the insurance company to get all of this reimbursed. But even considering, it's incredibly scary, even considering whether insurance covers it or not, the most terrifying thing is, of course, the people's health. But since no one was hurt and

14:40

Speaker A

no one was killed, the police said they don't even have the right to arrest them and send them to prison, because the law here protects them since they allegedly didn't threaten our lives.

14:49

Speaker A

Despite the fact that we have video cameras all over the house, outside and inside, the guys knew—well, it was two young guys 100%, because even through the mask you could see the shape of their eyes. And despite this,

15:01

Speaker A

they stood there and called someone on FaceTime right from the roof. And before breaking the glass, they had this metal rod, which they most likely bought somewhere. But they were wearing gloves again, so the detective and I were hoping that when they were buying

15:14

Speaker A

them, they probably weren't wearing gloves. In short, it was a whole investigation. And it was clear they understood they wouldn't be punished, so they weren't even in a rush. We were just lucky that we arrived at the house

15:26

Speaker A

exactly 3 minutes after they broke in. I mean, the gap was just 3 minutes; they broke in at 9:27, and we arrived at 9:30. And then my husband actually chased them out onto the street with knives through the backyard. Yes, it's

15:42

Speaker A

a terrible situation. Naturally, the last thing I thought about while living in Los Angeles was that we would face a situation like this. Because I still feel like my psyche is in some kind of computer simulation, like in GTA, which

15:53

Speaker A

we used to play when we were kids. I didn't think that robberies actually happen on the streets here, that people walk around, and these constant helicopters fly overhead, which you can probably hear through the microphone.

16:05

Speaker A

But even though I'm saying this with a smile on my face now, I truly wouldn't wish this experience on anyone. And it's worth noting that it is precisely these prestigious Los Angeles neighborhoods that are more often subjected to crimes, like robberies. If

16:18

Speaker A

you don't really have anything to steal , no one is going to break into your place, right? That applies to ordinary apartment complexes and simpler housing . But Beverly Hills and the Hollywood Hills are statistically the areas most

16:30

Speaker A

prone to various types of robberies, precisely because people here have things to steal; you can take a lot.

16:36

Speaker A

And it really does often go unpunished. I want to ask, Yana, considering you've faced this yourself, the problem is widely known, right? Does the city actually fight this somehow, given that people pay such high taxes here? And it

16:50

Speaker A

would be strange for the state to provide no help at all in fighting such incidents.

16:54

Speaker A

Well, the only thing you can do is hire private security. And again, a guard who charges you 25-30 dollars an hour won't cut it, because if you're robbing such a house, you pay him, I don't know , 5,000 bucks, but you steal, roughly

17:08

Speaker A

speaking, 250,000, so you just factor that 5,000 into your budget, so to speak. But regarding security, well, what can be done? Obviously, when you are building your own house. My husband works in construction, and for him, a security system means specific alarms,

17:24

Speaker A

motion sensors, and, uh, bulletproof glass that protects against all kinds of break-ins. Even if there's some kind of impact with a metal object, the glass basically won't shatter. But at the very least, there will be time to call 911. Also, the police assigned us

17:40

Speaker A

a few different patrol companies that drive by every five minutes now because burglars had climbed over the neighboring fence, where it was possible to scale it. And so patrol cars are constantly monitoring the area to make sure no one else breaks in. Or

17:54

Speaker A

if they see someone suspicious, they pull up and ask, for example, "What are you doing here?" So. Because, again, all these burglars, they most often rent electric cars, like Hyundais. They use fake license plates, and they obviously don't rent the cars in their

18:08

Speaker A

own names, but through some third party . Let's move on to the pleasant part. We came to Beverly Hills, and we already touched on the topic of relationships.

18:15

Speaker A

So, you're marrying an American. It would be very interesting to share with the guys how you met.

18:22

Speaker A

It actually happened in a very interesting way, because I honestly wasn't planning on getting married at all. I was living my best life, and everything was wonderful for me in Dubai. I didn't want to move anywhere, even though after getting my visa, I

18:35

Speaker A

really liked America. But when I arrived here for Burning Man, I don't know, I had this feeling that I had reset myself.

18:41

Speaker A

Uh-huh. After that, I went to Vegas to chill out because it was so hard after that chaos in the desert that I wanted some heavy luxury. I went, essentially, with my friends, Nastya and Misha. And the three of us went everywhere together,

18:56

Speaker A

like some kind of throuple. Eventually, one day, when we were playing blackjack and everyone got bored of it, Misha says, "Come on, I'll teach you how to play poker." And we decided to just walk past the poker tables so he could

19:06

Speaker A

show me in practice how the game works. And, naturally, I had this tiny little bag, which fits like, headphones, a card, and lipstick. And, well, we were standing next to the table, I don't know, maybe a meter away. My future

19:22

Speaker A

husband turned to me, saw me, saw the bag, and just said, like, "No, seriously, what can you put in that bag ?" Well, I mean, what can you even fit in that handbag? And it was so sweet. I

19:32

Speaker A

didn't miss a beat and said, "All your chips." Like, all your poker chips would basically fit in there. That's how the conversation started, because he liked my joke. Actually, to this day , I'm just blah-blah-blah, entertainment 24/7. But that's how it

19:47

Speaker A

all began. And we've been together ever since. Three months later I got a proposal, and six months later we had the wedding. And, well, now I'm the wife of an American citizen.

19:57

Speaker A

As far as I know, you run a business in Dallas, Texas, but you live in Los Angeles. Can you tell me how that happened?

20:05

Speaker A

It was actually hilarious, because when we first met, he was engaged to someone else entirely. And at that moment, he asked, "Like, what do you like about Dubai? Have you ever even thought about moving to America?" It was all strictly

20:16

Speaker A

on a friendly basis at the start. I said, "Listen, if I ever move to America, I'm only moving to Los Angeles and nowhere else, because I managed to visit a few states and realized that LA has the most comfortable atmosphere for

20:28

Speaker A

me." Firstly, in terms of my career, since I'm a blogger, as you know. Secondly, the weather and nature here.

20:34

Speaker A

I really love that everything is so green here. I mean, you want the ocean, you've got it; you want mountains, you've got it. Desert? Vegas is just three hours away. I mean, everything is very close and very convenient. And I

20:44

Speaker A

think there's a really cool community of people here who will always support you and your brand's development, everyone is ready to help because usually, people who have migrated somewhere tend to band together and provide each other with much more

20:59

Speaker A

support and help. In Dubai, the situation was different for me. My career kept hitting a wall because they only promoted people who were, you know, born there and developing in the Middle East, with more of an Arab audience, and so on.

21:18

Speaker A

And then, when we finally defined that we were in an exclusive relationship and he suggested moving, he said, " Let's go to Dallas first, and then we'll move to LA later." He, of course, doesn't really like Los Angeles because

21:31

Speaker A

of the high crime rate here. And many of his friends who also run serious businesses have actually moved from Los Angeles to Texas, since the laws there are much more favorable for doing business and for taxes. There are

21:44

Speaker A

actually many advantages specifically for business-oriented people. But since I am a blogger and I want to become a global star here, we moved here because of me. What a worthy man, making a choice in favor of his woman. Oh. Well,

22:04

Speaker A

Azamat and I walked around West Hollywood a bit and just arrived at one of the coffee shops that would be interesting to talk about. And you said you sometimes try 30-40 coffees a day because you analyze so much. So, could

22:17

Speaker A

you share what exactly makes this coffee shop stand out? About the analytics, that's true. It's part of our job. You need to keep your finger on the pulse to know how competitors are developing. We, of course, always follow the market leaders. Alfred

22:34

Speaker A

Coffee is one of the market leaders in Los Angeles. Uh-huh. How many locations do they have ?

22:39

Speaker A

Currently, over twenty in Los Angeles. Uh-huh. And they are developing very actively. Lately, they've been opening up; last year they opened three or four locations. This year, they will most likely open about four or five. This project is important for us in terms of

22:58

Speaker A

price, price positioning, and in terms of taste, and what trends they choose, drink sizes. We actually analyze a huge number of indicators to understand what their success is.

23:13

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Well, what is their success specifically? If we knew, if it were all so simple that you could just go in and say: "Aha, that's the success.

23:21

Speaker A

Let's just repeat it." But unfortunately, no. It's just information for our analytical database to understand where the market is moving and what one of the market leaders is doing. Uh-huh.

23:35

Speaker A

And nothing more than that. Unfortunately, we don't have a ready-made answer for the reason behind their success.

23:40

Speaker A

Well, but what makes them stand out? Are there any specific points in general? The coffee market can probably be divided into several segments. The first is the simplest and most understandable mass-market coffee shop, like Starbucks.

23:54

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Where price, accessibility, and a wide selection are important. And there are other projects, these are hardcore specialty projects. Today, perhaps, we will visit one of them, and I will show them to you. Where the guys are all

24:12

Speaker A

about taste, where service is secondary , where there are many restrictions for the guest because, for them, the product is the priority.

24:20

Speaker A

Uh-huh. And there is another, in my opinion, new format of coffee shops—lifestyle coffee shops that have managed to integrate a balance of quality and the ability to fit into the life of every guest. Nowadays, visiting and drinking coffee from Alfred's is trendy.

24:41

Speaker A

Uh-huh. And this is confirmed by the fact that companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple collaborate with Alfred.

24:51

Speaker A

Uh-huh. They came up with a unique way to monetize their cups. There are so-called cup holders—it's a sleeve that helps hold the coffee.

25:04

Speaker A

Yes, to hold the coffee. They started selling the surface of this cup holder to, well, the same Apple and Netflix so they could place their ads there, and they make 50,000 dollars out of thin air for a service like that. Their

25:20

Speaker A

current average rate is about 50,000 dollars for running an ad for 3 weeks. That is, of course, a unique case, but it sounds purely Hollywood—like a real Hollywood thing, all this cinema collaboration. And this is exactly West Hollywood, where we are right now. And

25:38

Speaker A

in general, do many Russian-speaking people visit your cafe? Yes. Uh, I feel it's definitely more than 25%—20-25%is a safe figure to quote. And we are, of course, incredibly grateful to them because they provide so much feedback.

25:56

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Um, almost everyone who comes —there are many from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, and they almost always wish us so many good things.

26:12

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Well, yes. They come in and say, "We’re rooting for you, we wish you success," and Russian speakers consistently account for about 20-25%of our daily revenue.

26:26

Speaker A

And that is, that’s really cool, but overall, the main flow is actually Americans. And I understand this is mainly the local West Hollywood community.

26:36

Speaker A

Yes. Uh, the majority of people are indeed Americans. We even had a force majeure on our first day, well, or the second or third day of opening, when a local Hollywood blogger came and filmed a short video about us.

26:50

Speaker A

And just the next day, it was a Saturday, a huge number of people came to us. We had a record number of visitors then. We processed more than 250 orders there.

27:01

Speaker A

That was a record. But we didn't expect it, we weren't ready for that many people, yeah. And 99%of them were Americans, local folks.

27:12

Speaker A

And if you compare it to Alfred Coffee, which you mentioned, since they are market leaders, how many people do they have on average per day? And you mentioned that your peak was 250, right ? Yes, there were times around 250,

27:25

Speaker A

maybe a little less. If we are talking about Alfred Coffee, you have to understand, first, they are 13 years old.

27:32

Speaker A

Uh-huh. And on average, their coffee shops serve more than 300 people a day. Uh-huh.

27:38

Speaker A

That’s 350- 400. The location we were at with you is their very first location. It's already 13 years old. And they serve about 550-600 people a day there. And how long has your location been open now? Uh, we have been operating for almost 4

27:56

Speaker A

months total. We opened in the final days of March. And today marks the end of the final month, and I hope, uh, there are 30 minutes left in the workday. I really hope we set a revenue record today.

28:10

Speaker A

Wow. The guys will send me the numbers soon, and I hope we beat last month's record.

28:15

Speaker A

Uh-huh. The month of May. Yes. We've almost reached Azamat's house now. He lives really close by, yes, right here. And another coffee shop; I want to ask you, what makes it stand out? Uh, if you remember, I said at the

28:29

Speaker A

beginning that there are several categories of coffee shops. At least, that's how I divide them. There are guys who are deeply immersed in the product. There are mass-market coffee shops and lifestyle ones. And Maru Coffee is the coffee shop we've just

28:42

Speaker A

arrived at. Actually, it is probably one of the leaders in the Los Angeles market in terms of the product. Uh-huh.

28:49

Speaker A

The guys are obsessed with the flavor, they are very obsessed not with the number of drinks, and I don't even think with how much they earn, but only with how their product looks and what kind of taste the guest gets. For them,

29:05

Speaker A

this is paramount. The clearest example is what happened quite recently: the guys had an insanely popular topping. Actually, Maru Coffee is considered one of those who brought this trendy type of drink additive to Los Angeles about 10 years

29:24

Speaker A

ago. It was an expensive ingredient for them and at the same time insanely popular. A year ago, the guys made the decision to ban it from being added to any drink. They explained it by saying, "Guys, we are fighting for the taste."

29:39

Speaker A

It is important to us that you try pure coffee, the way we developed it, rather than just adding something sweet. And from a business perspective, the guys practically shot themselves in the foot . "We will cut off a large part of our

29:51

Speaker A

revenue, but at least we will be..." authentic, yes, an authentic coffee shop. This certainly deserves respect. I periodically stop by to try their coffee and see what kind of filter they have. They very often have delicious filter coffee, so, yes, these are the

30:09

Speaker A

guys you absolutely must visit if you want to try tasty coffee. And is this a Korean brand?

30:14

Speaker A

Yes, it is a Korean brand. And here, perhaps, I should add something regarding Koreans. It's not a Korean brand, it's a coffee shop that originated in Los Angeles but has Korean roots—the founders are Korean.

30:26

Speaker A

Oh, and I’ll add that, overall, when we talk about the Korean footprint, there is currently what’s known as the Hallyu wave, which is the Korean cultural wave.

30:39

Speaker A

And from a food perspective, specifically coffee, Koreans are currently having a huge impact on the entire Los Angeles market. The figures aren't official, just an observation of mine, but I get the feeling that out of every eight or ten new coffee shops

30:55

Speaker A

opening in LA over the last two years —and that’s a lot of coffee, I track and visit almost every new one— they are coffee shops with Korean roots , meaning either the founders are Korean, or there’s some kind of

31:08

Speaker A

influence, and so on, right? So they are really becoming the most powerful driving force, perhaps, in the development of the coffee culture of greater Los Angeles.

31:27

Speaker A

Actually, one of the main reasons I chose this complex is, without a doubt, the view.

31:32

Speaker A

I need something that will inspire me, because I work a lot, and I want to know what I’m doing it all for, and these kinds of views are part of that. And when I saw it for the first time, it inspired me so much. I

31:44

Speaker A

thought, damn, I have to stay here. So, I stayed right here. I can totally understand that. And in winter, you can see snow-capped mountains here, right? From that side, you'll be able to see snowy mountains.

31:54

Speaker A

Yes. Even though it’ll still be warm here, like 22-25 degrees [Celsius], you can see snow-capped mountains. That’s the charm of Southern California.

32:04

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. We’ve arrived at Azamat’s apartment now, but Azamat only moved in how many weeks ago?

32:09

Speaker A

Well yeah, about a week ago. So it’s still empty. But in any case, thanks for the tour. And the view here is just incredible, of course. It’s easy to see why you chose this particular apartment. And how much are

32:20

Speaker A

you paying for it? Well, it’ll probably come out to—I haven’t received the first bill yet —but around 3,500 to 3,700.

32:29

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Monthly rent for this apartment. That’s including parking. Parking is expensive here. Uh-huh. Mhm. And the parking is actually a unique feature here. The parking alone costs 500 dollars. Well, that includes electric charging, yes, that’s the only benefit,

32:44

Speaker A

although I don’t use that much electricity, but yes, it includes the cost of electricity.

32:49

Speaker A

Got it. Can you list for the viewers everything the complex has to offer? That’s a tough task, I think. I haven’t really checked out everything that’s here yet. I just haven’t had the time. You drive, get some sleep,

33:02

Speaker A

and head off to work again. Oh, right, definitely a few pools, two of them.

33:08

Speaker A

Uh-huh. A jacuzzi, a sauna. A movie theater, a gym. The gym, by the way, is really cool. It has new equipment, a rooftop, conference rooms, a workspace, and barbecue areas. Honestly, I probably can't list everything yet. I still

33:27

Speaker A

haven't explored it all. Well, everything is done with such style, I mean, Azamat already showed us around everywhere. We filmed everything for you and are showing you these shots in parallel. But you can really feel the taste and the details in everything

33:38

Speaker A

. Overall, this is probably the most modern complex I've seen so far. It's new, yes. It was put into operation quite recently. Uh, guys from San Francisco built it. I read about it , it's a cool studio, they have cool

33:51

Speaker A

projects, and they really put in the effort. There are many details that I don't like, like the parking, yes, how the parking was implemented.

33:59

Speaker A

But as for everything else, it's amazing, yes. Uh-huh. And the view—that’s the view is the reason why I live here, yeah. And Azamat, of course, it's very interesting to ask you about your monthly expenses in Los Angeles. Can

34:14

Speaker A

you list them in bullet points? Yeah, I think it's quite modest overall . I probably won't be able to say exactly, because I've never calculated them in detail, but I'll give you a rough estimate. It's rent for the apartment, uh, somewhere

34:32

Speaker A

around 3,500, it'll be 3,700 now. Hm. The car. A Tesla. Yes. I bought a Tesla, I leased it.

34:42

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Uh, including insurance, the driving features. Inside the Tesla, there are also a lot of different subscriptions. They love adding those.

34:52

Speaker A

It comes out to about plus or minus 1,000 dollars. Including charging? Uh no, what, without charging?

34:58

Speaker A

Charging, yes, well, charging, I don't even know how much. Well, 200 bucks usually. Well, okay. Yes, about 200 dollars, probably.

35:06

Speaker A

Although, I think I drive less. Well, okay. The next big thing, well, what else? Food. I love cooking at home.

35:13

Speaker A

Uh-huh. I like cooking myself, so up to 1,000 maximum. Usually a little bit less.

35:19

Speaker A

And where do you buy groceries? Uh, the closest store from here is Food .

35:24

Speaker A

H Foods. Well, that's a good one, yeah, a good chain. Overall, considering that I don't eat much, the price difference isn't critical for me, so, well, it's close and convenient. Next, for the big ones. I don't even know what I have

35:40

Speaker A

left. Well, you travel—I know you go to Las Vegas to play poker, Yeah? But I didn't count that as an expense. It’s just, yeah, that’s just vacation. But these trips don’t cost some astronomical amount of money.

35:54

Speaker A

A trip to Las Vegas is actually, I don’t know, 300, 500 dollars, especially if you drive there.

36:00

Speaker A

You just stay for one night, take part in the tournament, and that’s it. Yeah. Well, what do you spend, say, on medical expenses?

36:08

Speaker A

Oh, yeah, unfortunately, I do spend on that. Unfortunately, I spend, because I have a pretty large bill.

36:14

Speaker A

I recently unexpectedly, there, needed to go to a clinic, to a hospital , and in the end, I had a bill of over 100,000 dollars. It’s a classic, yeah, I’ve negotiated it now, and I’m paying it off.

36:28

Speaker A

Did you have insurance? No, I didn’t have insurance. Yeah, that’s the problem right there.

36:33

Speaker A

Then you should definitely say you have no insurance, the bill is usually 10 times lower.

36:37

Speaker A

Yeah, but I was able to negotiate precisely because I don’t have insurance. They gave me a discount, so, yeah, my monthly medical expenses are probably about an extra 3,000 dollars. I’m currently, so they dropped the 100k down to three?

36:53

Speaker A

No, they dropped it to about 22-23 thousand dollars. And I’ve already paid some, and I’m continuing to pay. It comes out to about 3,000 dollars, probably, per month.

37:07

Speaker A

Next, there are some tax payments of mine, about 2,000 a month. Well, this is just that kind of period, these aren’t permanent expenses, but for the next 3-4 months, it will be like this.

37:19

Speaker A

Mhm. All other small expenses, I don't remember. Well, communication—I have some issue with my connection, I still can’t figure it out. It comes out to about 250 dollars a month. That’s a bit expensive.

37:30

Speaker A

Oh, that’s very expensive. Yeah, that’s a bit pricey. I know for sure that it’s expensive, but I don't have enough time to figure out why.

37:36

Speaker A

Well, I pay 90 for my phone for the best plan, and 50 for home internet.

37:43

Speaker A

Yes, my home internet is included in that amount too, something went wrong somewhere, and I figure if I contact them, they’ll recalculate it for me, yes, I’ll definitely take care of it, but I don’t have the time yet. For

37:54

Speaker A

now, it’s easier to just pay the 100 dollars, and then I’ll figure it out later down the line. Oh, I don’t remember all the other expenses. Surely they exist. Various subscriptions, yeah, yeah, by the way, there are a lot of

38:04

Speaker A

subscriptions. How much it comes to, I don’t even know. Well, give or take, what do you think you spend per month? No more than twelve, but that’s just for the moment. Usually, I spend less. It’s because of the medical bills, because

38:16

Speaker A

of the taxes, I gather, it was a real force majeure situation, having my appendix removed. Yes, that was unpleasant. And this situation actually delayed our coffee shop opening, because we we were opening just three days before the shop's launch, and I suddenly ended

38:32

Speaker A

up in the hospital. I thought, "Well, it was the month of Ramadan, and I was fasting. I thought, well, maybe it’s just a little hard on the body, you know?

38:41

Speaker A

But after 3-4 hours of tests, they said :" No, we can't let you go, you have to stay for surgery. "Well, that was unexpected, right?

38:49

Speaker A

I actually had a friend who went through a similar situation. She didn't have insurance either. She lived in Florida, and they billed her for 74,000 dollars. But after she said she didn't have insurance, because they usually inflate prices for insurance companies,

39:02

Speaker A

they billed her 4,000, and she just paid 200 dollars a month until it was paid off. No, not like that. My case is , yeah, my story is different. But for me, it’s a lesson. At the end of this

39:13

Speaker A

year, I’m going to get insurance. The insurance we have, it turns out, is actually good. It's also expensive, yes.

39:20

Speaker A

About 400 dollars. Well, in my situation, they calculated it based on what I want, for centers, for surgery, UCLA clinics, so that’s how it works out. Plus, there are different plans, and this format came out to 700- something dollars. Guys, a quick

39:38

Speaker A

announcement for those who travel abroad a lot or are moving somewhere, because we often get asked about foreign bank cards, which ones we can recommend, since Russian ones don't work in many places anymore and there aren't many decent alternatives.

39:51

Speaker A

Yes, and we spent a long time looking for an option we could recommend to our clients, and we finally found just the right one. And the main difference is that the card is issued not by some middleman, but by a bank representative

40:02

Speaker A

directly. Everything is processed completely officially, using an eSIM in Kazakhstan. A full-fledged bank account is opened. No grey schemes: no crypto, third-party accounts, or other shady stuff.

40:13

Speaker A

And usually, the processing takes 1-2 days, and as soon as the card appears in the bank's app, you can activate it and start using it. And if you need a physical card, you can order it separately for delivery. The card

40:25

Speaker A

itself is a personalized Mastercard. It’s valid for 5 years. Maintenance is free, and it’s multi-currency. And topping it up with a ruble transfer is very easy.

40:33

Speaker A

If this topic is relevant to you, feel free to write to us and find out all the details. All links, as usual, are in the description. And now, let's keep going.

40:43

Speaker A

You mentioned that you want to build a career here. Let's talk about what Rotem does.

40:48

Speaker A

He works with diamonds. He’s a diamond dealer, meaning he buys and resells diamonds. He also works with the company BHLDN. It is the largest retailer of natural diamond engagement rings in America. And on top of that, he is also involved in building houses.

41:03

Speaker A

For now, he’s doing real estate in Texas, but we’re not far from moving that whole business to LA.

41:09

Speaker A

Oh, you can check our channel; we filmed videos about Texas and its various cities, noting that Texas has significantly less regulation than California. And Rotem's example is a very good confirmation of that, because while I know little about diamonds,

41:25

Speaker A

real estate is a popular topic. Truly, things that would take years to build in California due to long waits for permits can be completed in months in Texas.

41:35

Speaker A

I can say the same thing about regulations regarding marriage. For instance, we signed our prenuptial agreement directly in Texas. Because, firstly, since everyone migrating to America heads to either Los Angeles, New York, or Miami, very few people move to Dallas. It's mostly populated

41:54

Speaker A

by native Americans who have been doing business there for years or were born there. Even when waiting for documents, for example, we were called for fingerprints just two weeks after filing; it was very fast. And in general, getting permits and documents

42:09

Speaker A

for our green cards happens much faster there than it does here. Since, basically, the number of people applying there is much smaller.

42:18

Speaker A

Now Azamat continues to show us the neighborhood. And considering he lives in the Arts District, they even kept these old rail cars here because the neighborhood has an industrial past, and they’ve adapted it all really well. It looks really cool.

42:33

Speaker A

Yes, that’s for sure. It used to be an industrial area, but in the eighties , things started to change. A lot of creative people, mainly artists, started moving here. And in the end, it formed the new look of how we see this

42:46

Speaker A

Arts District now. It's a huge number of creative projects, art galleries, food projects, a lot of great food, restaurants, bars, nightlife, and, of course, coffee shops. But I'm not surprised that you chose this place to live, given the nature of your work,

43:05

Speaker A

but the neighborhood is really cool. There are so many interesting design solutions here. And so Yes, there is a special energy here, really. First of all, it's the safest area in Downtown, because Downtown is a specific zone in general in terms of

43:19

Speaker A

safety. And the energy, the energy that is here, it's unique. Well, creative, right? It's creative, a creative vibe.

43:28

Speaker A

And that's cool, yeah. And, maybe it's hard to believe right now in the location where we're filming, but Skid Row is right next door. Essentially the worst neighborhood in Los Angeles. Yeah. And when we were preparing for this video,

43:41

Speaker A

you told me that this neighborhood inspires you. I mean, not the Arts District, but Skid Row itself. Can you explain why? It's hard, but I'll try.

43:53

Speaker A

The fact is that I often drive through Skid Row and see the people who live there, well, the homeless. At first, of course, there was the feeling, probably common to everyone, that, wow, this is dangerous, yeah.

44:06

Speaker A

But now I look at it differently. Looking at these people, I see lives. It seems to me that all these people, they were once children, then adults, maybe teenagers, students.

44:21

Speaker A

They had periods of success in their lives, when they achieved things, when everything was great for them. Then at some point, something happened.

44:28

Speaker A

Something broke, and they ended up on the street. And at that moment you realize that, damn, there's very little that separates us from the state where everything is going great, to the state of ending up on the street. And when I

44:44

Speaker A

see all this, it inspires me to work even harder. Sometimes it's literally just one case of appendicitis.

44:48

Speaker A

Yes, exactly. Yes, well, I understand what you mean; it really can inspire you to go and work while there are opportunities, while you have two hands and two legs.

45:02

Speaker A

Well yes, and to remember something human. Not everything is measured by money. Certain moments make you awaken some deep thoughts. Not just a feeling of some kind of disgust or fear, but to think about something deep and human. And so for me, these

45:22

Speaker A

trips, these short ones that I take, they, strangely enough, have, it seems to me, a favorable effect.

45:28

Speaker A

Uh-huh. We didn't just come here for no reason. Yana and Rotem love to spend time in Beverly Hills. And Yana, the restaurants and cafes here are quite expensive. And you live with a nanny and two children. And I want to ask the

45:41

Speaker A

question in general, how much does it cost to support such a large family in America, in Los Angeles. Please share your expenses. Probably, since I moved from Dubai, I don't feel any colossal difference, so to speak, in expenses,

45:54

Speaker A

because, well, on the whole, it's clear that my husband has taken on all the expenses now. But what I can say is that the prices here are truly most expensive, probably, for housing. If you don't go shopping every day and

46:06

Speaker A

don't spend money on useless trinkets and such, all the time. Well, I mean, again, you can find both expensive and cheap options everywhere. Yes, I believe that, firstly, you need to bargain, and secondly, you don't need to choose the most expensive, because

46:19

Speaker A

the most expensive is not always the best. Honestly, we brought our nanny with us, because that turned out to be probably the biggest and most difficult issue here for me. It's very hard to find your own person here because

46:30

Speaker A

everyone is incredibly spoiled. And as for expenses on food, restaurants, and other costs, well, in total, it comes to about, probably, 35,000 dollars a month for our whole family. That's even including our house. So that's, in general, all expenses for

46:47

Speaker A

everyone included in that, right? So, this includes the cost of preschools for the kids, ages 2 and 4.

46:54

Speaker A

In general, we have already set up a certain lifestyle for ourselves. For example, our gym memberships are 350 dollars per person, preschools are 2,500 dollars, and the nanny is 3,000 dollars. Well, and some expenses for groceries. If, for example, you eat in

47:07

Speaker A

restaurants or don't eat in restaurants , it depends. But generally, our nanny cooks, or my husband also loves to cook . We just buy the groceries. Again, it depends on which supermarket you shop at, right? If we are talking about

47:17

Speaker A

Erewhon or Bristol Farms, that's one price, if we are talking about Whole Foods and Target, that's another price.

47:22

Speaker A

So, everyone just chooses what they can afford here. And gasoline in California is twice as expensive as in Dallas.

47:27

Speaker A

That's the only thing my husband complains about. Well, kind of jokingly , we all understand that. Well, in general, I can't say that I really feel much of a difference.

47:35

Speaker A

A difference compared to Dubai. And when you were last in Moscow, did you feel, for instance, a significant difference in the cost of living between Moscow and Los Angeles?

47:45

Speaker A

I think that since we’re all used to thinking in rubles, coming from the CIS , if you convert those rubles into dollars, you start thinking:" Man, why is it so much? "But in reality, if you start comparing, like, take coffee for

47:57

Speaker A

example, it's 6 dollars, which is what, maybe 450 or 500 rubles. In Moscow, the prices are absolutely the same. I even compared it when I was on a call with my mom, like salmon, berries, and other things. I can't see any major

48:07

Speaker A

difference. So, for me, it’s more or less the same thing. Again, it depends on the supermarket.

48:11

Speaker A

I agree. I also notice that the difference is mostly in the cost of renting housing or buying it. That is the biggest expense. So, apart from rent, I don't see any astronomical prices here. Of course, you can go for

48:24

Speaker A

a massage at the Four Seasons, or you can go to a Thai massage place. Pay 1,000 dollars there, or 100 here. So, everyone chooses for themselves. Well, Azamat, as far as I know, you initially came to the US on a tourist visa, then

48:35

Speaker A

you changed your status to student for a language course, transferred everything, studied at our school, and then filed for EB1 and EB2.

48:43

Speaker A

Yes, that's correct. Yes. Can you tell us more about how you got it and ultimately the green card as well through I think I was lucky because I made it before the tightening of rules began. I did indeed file for two cases. The

48:58

Speaker A

first was EB1A, and the second was EB2 NIW. Why did I do that? To play it safe, because if the first one was rejected, the second one would work.

49:10

Speaker A

In the end, I was lucky; within 7 months, they approved my EB1 case, even though for me it was secondary, the primary one was EB2.

49:20

Speaker A

And 4 months later, they sent the green card. Yes, I consider that very fast. The basis was a business in the coffee industry. We spent a long time choosing , you know, there's a specific concept in the EB2 NIW and in the other

49:37

Speaker A

petition. And we spent a long time with the lawyers choosing the right way to name the field, and in the end, we chose business in the coffee industry and ended up getting approval. Uh-huh.

49:50

Speaker A

A fun fact is that about a year after I got my green card, just recently, a couple of months ago, I received approval for my second petition. Yeah.

50:00

Speaker A

I didn't know what I could do with it, but the second petition for EB-2 NIW was also approved. Yeah. That's how it is.

50:05

Speaker A

So, roughly speaking, you told the State Department that you had plans to grow in the coffee industry here, and they approved you based on that. I mean , in simple terms, it's an O-1 visa, or talent visa, and you got it through

50:21

Speaker A

that. Yeah, I think I had a strong case because I had successful projects in other countries, and there were investments; I showed money in the account, a fairly large sum, and I wrote out a very detailed business plan about what

50:38

Speaker A

I was going to do. And this plan was for five years. I included the number of employees and how the revenue would grow. Overall, that plan—if I remember correctly—was a 60-page presentation, very detailed, with a P&L statement, naturally. And I think that

50:56

Speaker A

played a significant role, a very important role. And the second important criterion for the success of my petitions, I believe, was the recommendation letters. I collected so many of them. The lawyers, I remember, were very surprised and said," Azamat,

51:11

Speaker A

nobody collects this many. "I ended up with over thirty, and I managed to collect them from a rather unusual audience, even up to country consuls, because since I work in coffee , I had been to Colombia, and we promoted

51:29

Speaker A

the Colombian coffee culture in one of my projects in Azerbaijan. I’ll say separately about Azerbaijan that it’s an insanely cool place, and I still love the city of Baku, where I lived for four years, very much. And all of

51:41

Speaker A

this, this business experience in Baku, allowed me to actually collect a huge number of these letters.

51:49

Speaker A

I think that was an incredibly strong part of my petition. Yeah. Yan, I'm interested to know. Do you feel a difference in mentality while being in a relationship with an American? Do you have those inside jokes, funny moments, or some kind of

52:01

Speaker A

shared culture to some extent? I've heard from many girls that there's a barrier, but probably because my husband is American-Israeli, we have a very similar culture in that regard, and there are many overlapping words in the languages, even jokes. And overall,

52:16

Speaker A

I think when it's your person, it doesn't matter what languages you speak ; you just have that shared vibe. And honestly, with my husband, I don't feel that at all. Maybe I have some, you know, old Krasnoyarsk inside jokes.

52:28

Speaker A

From when I was just a school kid, and sometimes I want to make a joke like that, and I realize he won't understand it, but that's what I have my friends for.

52:37

Speaker A

Yes, and overall, I actually really like the American mentality, because even though many people say they are superficial, shallow, or unwise, and that they only care about eating and drinking, I absolutely disagree with that. Because for me, Americans are not

52:52

Speaker A

like our people from the CIS: they know how to respect personal boundaries, and they filter out people who don't offer depth or a future, or honestly, they just weed them out at the very beginning of a relationship. Because

53:10

Speaker A

back home, you know, every old lady on a park bench—sorry, let me finish— knows who divorced whom, who broke up, who cheated, and who was drinking at the dacha. That doesn't happen here. So , when people say they don't go deep,

53:22

Speaker A

well, if you want to build a relationship with someone, start building it yourself, start going deep yourself. What’s the problem? Nothing in our life is going to fall from the sky. That’s exactly what I think.

53:32

Speaker A

Well, now we’ve arrived in another neighborhood, and I’m going to ask you to tell me what this area is.

53:38

Speaker A

This is Carroll Avenue. It was one of the first streets I walked down when I arrived in Los Angeles. And this street has the largest concentration of Victorian-style houses in Southern California. It’s incredibly beautiful , incredibly atmospheric. And for me,

53:56

Speaker A

it was total shock content. I just walked around here enjoying it, along this street and the neighboring ones.

54:04

Speaker A

Well, it really is a unique place, especially for Los Angeles. I mean, if this style is native to San Francisco, then here it’s just a few streets, well, a truly special place. On our right, the house from the show" Charmed

54:18

Speaker A

"is about to appear. Tourists are constantly coming up to it right here. And you mentioned there’s also a house from" The Fast and the Furious " in this same neighborhood.

54:24

Speaker A

Yes, that’s absolutely right. A little further down, we can walk to the house and the store from that movie.

54:31

Speaker A

Everything is still functional. You can go in there and buy groceries. And while we're here, I want to ask you, how is life in Los Angeles in general for you? So, at this point, you've been in the U.S. for three years, right? Uh

54:43

Speaker A

... Share your impressions, in general. Well, in short, I’m happy. I very often catch myself thinking that I feel really good, and that I’m constantly having pleasant emotions. Even after a hard day's work, driving along some incredibly beautiful street, you

55:06

Speaker A

realize that you are actually living in California, with palm trees all around, you're in Los Angeles, you're in Hollywood, and it feels like everything is working out.

55:16

Speaker A

And this, of course, this has been happening very often lately, so I can definitely give you a short answer. I am incredibly happy at the moment.

55:25

Speaker A

Well, that's cool. Well, you really have something to be proud of. You are doing business right in West Hollywood.

55:30

Speaker A

That’s a prestigious area by Los Angeles standards. You have a coffee shop there that is in demand. The business is growing. That’s really very cool, yeah. But, honestly speaking, there is still so much work to do. In order to

55:45

Speaker A

achieve the success we’ve planned for ourselves, Uh-huh. it requires a lot more effort, so there is a lot of work. Do you already have plans to open more locations?

55:59

Speaker A

We do have plans. They are quite grand. At the beginning, they were very, very big. We were planning up to 100 locations by 2030. But now we’ve realized we are making some small changes. I was just talking about the strategy session

56:15

Speaker A

we are having on Monday. And, most likely, the number will decrease because we are making some adjustments to our development strategy. By the end of the year, if we are talking about short-term plans, we plan to open two

56:31

Speaker A

more locations. We are in active negotiations right now. I hope everything works out. And perhaps even in the next 3-4 months, a second Drinkit will appear in Los Angeles, and by the end of the year, God willing, a

56:45

Speaker A

third. We are rooting for you. Thanks to the whole channel. Thank you. But I want to make sure the viewers don't get the impression that this is all so simple, that you didn't face any difficulties and just breezed into the

56:57

Speaker A

Los Angeles market. I would like to ask you to share more details about how it all started and where you actually stand right now.

57:07

Speaker A

Well, it's definitely not all sunshine and rainbows. There is nothing to hide here. We are a fairly open company. One of my partners openly publishes our numbers.

57:18

Speaker A

Uh-huh. I can say that we haven't reached the break-even point yet. We still have work to do, and there’s a lot of it.

57:27

Speaker A

What do we need to do to bring the location to better performance levels? Thank God, we see progress. Progress is happening, but nevertheless, we still have a lot of work ahead. Thinking about the prospects of Drinkit, about what will happen tomorrow,

57:45

Speaker A

I always proceed from the fact that in my world, the success of our project is inevitable.

57:54

Speaker A

Uh-huh. Uh, and this isn't just based on some belief of mine that, well, everything will be fine. It is based on some facts . And the first, and probably one of the most important, is our team. I am

58:09

Speaker A

still amazed at how it all came together, that such different, uniquely talented people gathered, each with their own strengths in completely different areas. For example, in the team, I am responsible for the product, for the taste, and for food development

58:28

Speaker A

as well. Ilya is the one who brought everyone together, who organized everyone, and who provided the initial idea. He is an incredibly smart person who dives deep into numbers and details . And that really helps us develop. We

58:47

Speaker A

have Nadarik, who is the person in charge of finance. He is the person who attracted our first investments.

58:55

Speaker A

Uh-huh. And at a fairly high valuation, he was able to convince investors to value our company at several million dollars to raise our first funds. A very talented young man. And there is Ruslan, the person responsible for the company's

59:15

Speaker A

operational efficiency, our COO, a person who dives incredibly deep into subtle operational issues and tries to automate everything. I just admire his patience and his ability to see the small details. Like, in operational matters of how to organize a bar, how

59:37

Speaker A

to organize procurement, and other issues. So, you have four founders, you four invested and entered the business together.

59:44

Speaker A

Four, yes, we have four founders. Plus Nikita, that's how I put it. Nikita is our latest top-management hire. He joined last, but he’s doing a great job. He is currently handling incredibly important tasks. And he fit into the team very well. And analyzing

60:05

Speaker A

the whole team, I realize that success is inevitable because we have assembled a unique team.

60:11

Speaker A

I am only talking about our team here right now. But there is also the Moscow office, the international office.

60:17

Speaker A

A wonderful product department works there, a huge number of guys who are enthusiasts in their field. They are truly on fire, their eyes light up, they create very cool concepts, they work a lot, and they help us a lot.

60:30

Speaker A

Therefore, teams and people are what will lead us to success. And again, speaking of revenue and the operating break-even point we are currently striving for. I was talking in the car about how there was a chance today that

60:46

Speaker A

we would break a new record and revenue would be higher than in previous months .

60:50

Speaker A

And the guys just sent it over. We broke the record. This month, July, we have record revenue. It sounds really nice, but to be perfectly honest and get into the details, the difference is just a few dollars. But in any case,

61:04

Speaker A

it’s pleasant, the trend has continued, and that’s cool. Yan, you came to America less than a year ago, and I’m curious to know what your plans are for your life here and where you’d like to grow.

61:17

Speaker A

Honestly, I have so much inspiration here, and for the first time in my life , I'm in a position where I don't have to survive and just work. I think you’ll really understand me on this.

61:27

Speaker A

First, I really want to help my husband with his real estate project in Los Angeles. I believe it has huge potential for growth. Plus, I love real estate. I’ve sold it all over the world and I want to bring that

61:38

Speaker A

expertise here. Especially since I can see ways to improve the market. And second, of course, diamonds. What woman wouldn’t? Diamonds are a girl's best friend. So, I want to create my own jewelry brand. And I’m currently working on my own cosmetics brand. And,

61:50

Speaker A

of course, to grow as an international influencer. But my biggest, biggest dream is, of course, to become a Hollywood actress.

61:56

Speaker A

Oh, but I think with your partnership, Yana, I just want to wish you both luck . You have a very strong partnership and a really cool story.

62:03

Speaker A

Thank you. Thanks for watching, everyone. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. And see you soon in America. Bye-bye.

Topics: Russian immigrants Los Angeles Hollywood Hills American visa immigration stories coffee culture Drinkit coffee entrepreneurship Instagram blogger American dream

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