Ruslan attended Brighton Secondary College in 1995 and 1996 before receiving a scholarship and transferring to Melbourne High School.
One of Ruslan’s first business ventures was during his schooling years when he and his family lived in the housing commision flats right next to the Elsternwick Golf Course. After noticing that golfers would hit balls off the fairway and were often too lazy to go search for them — he’d collect the lost golf balls, clean them and repack them in egg cartons, selling them to golfers on weekends. During high-school he then launched a string of other businesses including a car wash service, mobile phone repair business, and a web design agency.
Ruslan continued to show a keen interest in technology throughout high school, and finished top of the state in Information Processing and Management with a perfect study score in Year 12. After graduating, he attended Monash University, where he studied and began working for companies including Bosch, General Electric, and Accenture.
At the age of 23, Ruslan founded Kogan.com out of his parents’ garage, selling his own brand of flagship TVs. Now 14 years later, Kogan.com is the leading online retailer in Australia with over 1.9 million active customers. To even better serve and delight its customers, Kogan.com has since expanded into Mobile, Internet, Insurance, Travel, Cars, Super, Health and Money. Kogan.com is also now a publicly listed company in the ASX300.
Ruslan believes it’s important to inspire and educate the future generations who hope to become young entrepreneurs themselves. He often uses his time to speak at different schools and universities to inspire students such as those who attend Brighton Secondary School. He believes that these students are the future and is happy to share some wisdom and advice to students whenever he has the opportunity.
