Bohdan Bohach

Today I am an entrepreneur building the Maracatu brand at the intersection of Italian product quality and the discipline I gained from sport.

I have lived in Rome for 22 years. I moved here in 2005 at the age of 11, without knowing the language, without contacts, and without a clear understanding of what was ahead.

For a long time, my life revolved around sport: I trained, competed in MMA, and thought in categories of competition and result.

The turning point was a back injury in 2015. Two training sessions a day suddenly turned into a lot of free time and the need to rethink where to direct my energy. That was when I launched my first business and began forming a second identity, the identity of an entrepreneur.

I made the final decision to fully move into business in 2019. By then, I already had operating locations, but that was when I defined business as my main focus and my new sport.

How did the business idea come to you?

At the start, I was not looking for a dream business. I needed a model that would not take all my time and would allow me to scale while continuing sport.

At first, I considered vending machines, tested different options, and gradually arrived at the coffee niche. I started alone, without partners and without business competencies. I moved step by step: tested demand, gained the first customers, and checked whether the economics worked.

In fact, I tested the niche for more than a year before opening the first location.

What key skills helped you launch the business?

Honestly, in 2015 I did not have developed entrepreneurial skills or a systematic understanding of business. The foundation was not hard skills, but behavioral attitudes.

First, the absence of paralyzing fear. I saw the worst-case scenario as simply returning to my previous life, without dramatizing it.

Second, inner ambition and a clear decision not to work for someone else. I always knew I would build my own business.

Third, my sports background. MMA taught me to react more calmly to risks and mistakes. I was used to acting under pressure and not falling apart from hits, and that transferred directly into business.

What were the three hardest challenges in the first years?

The first was understanding how business works as a system when you start from zero: without experience, knowledge, or market understanding.

The second was deciding to scale even when the people around me did not believe in it and advised me to stop at one location.

The third was bringing the model to working economics: not fantasizing, but checking demand, attracting the first customers, and only then opening.

What crises did your business face and how did you overcome them?

I see crises as constant waves of challenges. They do not end; only their scale changes.

The first serious blow was cash gaps. If you do not control cash flow, the business may look stable but suddenly lack money for obligations. That taught me financial discipline and systematic money accounting.

The second big case was a legal dispute over the brand name in Europe. Two months after launch, we received a letter from lawyers of a German company because of trademark similarity. Although the product categories were different, the risks remained.

This happened during COVID and lasted almost two years: courts, expenses, and constant tension. In the end, we registered the brand, but not in all categories we had expected. It was an expensive but grounding experience.

The third challenge was 2023 and opening three new locations at once. We underestimated how hard it would be to find qualified staff. At one point, one location was at risk of not opening because of a lack of people.

We solved this by strengthening the team and hiring with a reserve. It gave me a clear understanding: scaling breaks not on ideas, but on people.

Which decisions were most effective for company growth?

Two decisions brought the biggest result.

The first was focus on the team. I invest in people, select those who share our values, and build long-term cooperation. Regardless of company size, the team is the key growth driver.

The second was a mindset of systematic growth. For me, there is no scenario where the company does not grow year over year.

In the Italian environment where I work, one stable family location without ambition to scale is often the norm. I consciously chose another approach: find a working model, scale it, and grow every year, even when others do not believe in it and advise stopping.

Which mistake do you now consider your most valuable experience?

The most valuable recent mistake was insufficient preparation for entering the Polish market.

I overestimated how easy it would be to transfer a model that works in Italy. In reality, an effective business structure cannot simply be copied to another country; it must be adapted to the local context.

The main lesson: cross-country scaling is not duplication, but translation of a business model into a new environment.

Today we are growing well online in Poland, but I clearly see how much work should have been done before launch.

How did you earn your first $100?

At 14, I delivered flyers on roller skates in Rome. The first $100 was part of an overall income of about 600-800 euros.

How did you earn your first $1,000?

At 17, I started working in a five-star hotel near the Colosseum, Palazzo Manfredi. It was my first almost official job.

How did you earn your first $10,000?

At 18, I moved to work as a waiter in a restaurant and worked from morning until late night, seven days a week. During that period, at 18-19, I managed to save about 10,000 euros.

How did you earn your first $100,000?

In 2015, through opening the first location and selling coffee.

How did you earn your first $1,000,000?

In 2018, in the coffee business, when two locations were already operating and a third was launching. That was when I reached the first million euros.

I am useful to entrepreneurs primarily through practical experience building retail and location-based businesses in Europe, as well as real experience doing business in Italy. I have lived here for 22 years and have been in business for 11 years.

Another area is team building: how to select people, build long-term cooperation, and maintain service quality in an operational business where everything depends on people.

I can also share experience in testing a niche before opening a location and making scaling decisions in an environment where most people choose the format of one stable family location.

Your experience: how to systematize a business?

For me, systematization is a continuous process, not a one-time action.

In a small team, it is solved through a basic organizational structure and clear distribution of responsibility. There are several key people with whom I am constantly in contact, and each is responsible for their own business block.

I do not use complex or unique approaches. Basic principles work: responsibility, regular communication, and transparency in tasks and finances.

Your experience: how to grow 2x in a year?

In practice, it is easiest to double a business at early stages.

First, you find a model with working economics, bring the first location to stability, and then open the next one, scaling what already works.

But the main condition for long-term growth is the team. Without strong people, 2x growth can happen, but it will be unstable or short-term because the system will not withstand the load.