Ruslan Kogan has made millions using modern digital technology to do something old-fashioned – sell us household stuff.
asserted
Kogan → make → stuff
And when asked to choose a favourite restaurant for this interview, as per the time-honoured conventions of the Lunch With series, the Belarusian Jewish, marathon-running tech entrepreneur, dad of three and enthusiast of 10-hour slow-cooked brisket does something highly unusual.
asserted
Jewish → ask → something
He requests we have lunch at his mum’s.
asserted
we → request → mum
As the entrepreneur explains once Irene Kogan’s Belarusian feast has arrived at her dining table: “When I’ve been overseas, and no matter how much fine dining we’ve had in restaurants, as soon as I get back to Melbourne, what you’ve got in front of you is exactly what I’m craving.”
asserted
I → explain → what
Few executives (actually few men) ever seem to publicly acknowledge their love for their mums like this, but the 43-year-old entrepreneur (a multimillionaire since his 20s thanks to his online retailer, kogan.com) has always done it his way.
asserted
entrepreneur → seem → it
Pretty much ever since he arrived here in 1989 after his family fled the communist Soviet Union for Australia, the land of bananas and pineapples, which a six-year-old kid in the old Soviet Union had never seen before.
asserted
kid → arrive → Union
Alex and Irene Kogan and their children, Svetlana and Ruslan, arrived with $90, and first settled in Elsternwick housing commission flats in south-east Melbourne, but today we are about five kilometres north and several worlds away.
asserted
we → arrive → Melbourne
Irene and Alex Kogan’s imposing home in Melbourne’s mansion suburb of Toorak, a few blocks away from their children’s abodes, looks like a scaled down British Museum.
asserted
home → look → Museum
Gravel crunches underfoot as I walk past two Teslas and mount steps leading to a grand portico.
asserted
I → crunch → portico
Ruslan Kogan is worth about $300 million (down from $575 million amid the pandemic shopping boom), has just slashed his salary by about $800,000 as part of a share incentive scheme, and while overseas recently, took to social media to complain about exorbitant hotel laundry fees.
asserted
Kogan → slash → fees
He ended up washing his T-shirts in the bath.
asserted
He → end → bath
A boffin in a black hoodie branded with a Kogan logo opens the front door.
asserted
boffin → brand → door
Ruslan Kogan, with big glasses, slightly thinning hair and engagingly gappy teeth greets me with a precise but friendly accent once dubbed by The Australian as “south-east Melbourne via 1980s Belarus”.
asserted
Kogan → thin → Belarus
Beyond the foyer with a vast sweeping stairway the living room faces onto a pleasant garden, the lounge to the left is dominated by one of the largest televisions I have ever seen.
asserted
I → dominate → televisions
To the right is a dining table, a kitchen and Irene, smiling and dressed in a pink jumper and jeans.
asserted
table → smile → jumper
Next to her is Anastasia Fai Kogan, Ruslan’s wife, a marketer and philanthropist involved with the Melbourne Opera, Australian Institute of Music and Arts Centre Melbourne.
asserted
Kogan → involve → Music
Anastasia is known for show-stopping outfits at the National Gallery of Victoria Gala, but today is also wearing a pink jumper and denim jeans, which both women delightedly point out.
asserted
women → know → which
I give a box of Koko Black chocolates to Irene, who frets that the dishes will go cold while they are photographed.
asserted
they → give → Irene
Ruslan, in a jovial mood, talks cooking.
asserted
Ruslan → talk → cooking
Turns out producing the perfect 10-hour slow-cooked brisket is just another outlet for the businessman’s geeky obsessiveness.
asserted
producing → turn → obsessiveness
Within earshot of his wife, he jokes Anastasia used to chide him for regularly waking up in the middle of the night to check on the smoker, before technology came to the rescue.
asserted
technology → joke → rescue
“I’ve got all these different probes and alarms that alert me, in case something happens.”
asserted
something → get → case
Such obsessiveness led Ruslan, who had worked in Telstra and at Accenture, to found his online retailer in 2006 with his credit cards, frustrated after searching for a decent television and realising he could to a better job making and marketing his own.
uncertain
he → lead → own
First up on Irene’s menu is chicken soup, a straw-coloured broth garnished with three carrots lying on a dense bed of noodles flecked with parsley.
asserted
soup → colour → parsley
Kogan declares his mum’s and Anastasia’s chicken soup to be the top two best chicken soups in the world.
asserted
soup → declare → world
“And I’m not brave enough to go any further in the rankings,” he says.
asserted
he → ’m → rankings
More often than not, Kogan starts the day with a long run, along the Yarra, the famous Tan track around the Royal Botanic Gardens and around Albert Park, site of the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix.
asserted
Kogan → start → Prix
When he runs it’s a digital detox, without phone or headphones, only his Garmin fitness tracker (Kogan is an authorised seller) recording his progress.
asserted
Kogan → run → progress
“I don’t have the physique or the look of a marathon runner, but to me, there’s something about running that has always been really attractive … a form of meditation almost,” he says.
asserted
he → have → meditation
But it’s also customer research.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
As Kogan (who ran the 2022 Paris marathon in four hours, 44 minutes) runs, he listens, and increasingly the snatches of conversations he runs past are about the cost of living.
asserted
he → run → living
“We as a business are doing well,” he says.
asserted
he → do → business
The cost-of-living squeeze makes cost-conscious consumers undertake more price comparisons, which suits Kogan (the business and the man).
asserted
which → make → Kogan
He thinks Australia must foster entrepreneurship because we have limited resources and need to capitalise on our one major unlimited resource – the human mind.
asserted
we → think → resource
But nobody fostered that with you, I point out.
asserted
I → foster → you
You just did it.
asserted
You → do → it
In Australia he was lucky, he responds.
asserted
he → respond → Australia
“In the sense that I had the privilege of growing up underprivileged.
asserted
I → grow → privilege
That created this hunger to want to build stuff and achieve things, and that’s why I started businesses from the age of 10.”
asserted
I → create → 10
That job was cleaning and reselling discarded golf balls at the local golf club.
“I’ve said many times that what it takes to be an immigrant is very similar to what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
asserted
it → clean → what
…and 59 more, not listed.
The Aporia
