From 30 failures to barbershop billionaire: Alexei Lokontsev's rise

How 30 failures built a 250-location barbershop empire worth billions

Alexei Lokontsev Could Have Been a Banker or a Wedding Dress Salesman—Instead, He Became the King of Barbershops

With 250 locations, 4.4 billion rubles in revenue, and principles that defy convention—customers aren't always right, only women hold leadership roles, and never do business with friends or family—Alexei Lokontsev has redefined the industry.

In the Expert podcast Principles, the entrepreneur revealed the secret to business success and explained where to find your customers.

— Your first business: khychin and a "brotherly" hostile takeover

— I was in technical school, short on cash. My cousin opened a khychin stand in Tula—it was a hit. I lived in a village near Tula and asked him if I could open a similar spot in a nearby town. Registered as a sole proprietor, started working—business took off. I only had to work weekends, which was perfect for a student. Then my cousin saw I was making good money and called my older brother: "Let's wrap this up—hand it all over to me." Just like that, my business was gone. A family-style hostile takeover.

— What did you take away from that?

— Never rely on a single business, especially if it only takes your weekends. You need another venture for weekdays. And ideally, you should be the only one with the secret recipe.

— Can you even imagine not being in business?

— At one point, I worked at an ad agency, at M.Video, and issued loans at Russky Standard Bank. But I wanted to change things. I always knew I'd get an education and start my own business.

— Did you study finance and credit?

— Yes. I went into banking by profession, issued loans. Even now, I say I work in my field because my life is all about finance and credit.

— Didn't they fire you?

— I worked there for two years. Then I got tired of the same routine—explaining the same promotion's terms to people every day—and quit with no plan. Eventually, I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur. But it took thirty tries before I had a business that actually made money. I opened the first Top Gun at 37. Before that, my ventures just buried me in debt.

— How many of your failures shaped your success?

— Every failure is experience. I don't believe in business courses—you can't teach this theoretically. Here's one of the key reasons my business works: You can skip restaurants, skip buying new clothes. But once a month, you have to get a haircut. You can choose cheap or expensive, but you have to go. That's why every apartment has a potential customer for me. The principle is simple: Find what people will always do.