One business at a time – How Roman Grigoriev take on the investment of the UK’s leading gift card company?
Entrepreneurship is in Roman Grigoriev’s DNA. Roman can never switch off his creative mind and broad vision for businesses. When being asked about business advice, Roman always shares his vision of focusing on one business at a time and never stop connecting the dots. That key to success has led him to have co-founded 7 companies until now.
Everything begins with an idea and Roman Grigoriev is a man of ideas. Roman sees huge potential in Boomf and is embarking on a business transformation, one of his first moves was to connect Boomf with one of his other businesses, Splento, which specialises in photography and videography.
Connecting the dots – one business at a time
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future” – Steve Jobs.
Taking inspiration from the legendary Steve Jobs, Roman Grigoriev has never stopped looking for business connections in life – from the first dot when pitching the investment opportunity to BBC Dragons Tej Lalvani and Nick Jenkins, and winning the backing of Tej, to the dot when going back and buying Boomf, a company backed by Nick three years later. Those backward dots have connected Roman to his future as the new CEO of Boomf.
2021 proved to be a challenging time for Boomf when Covid-19 took its toll on the company. When the opportunity presented itself to buy Boomf, a group of investors led by two Estonian entrepreneurs – Stepan Galaev and Roman Grigoriev – acquired Boomf with a view to growing the company into the world’s leading player in the card-attached gifting business.
Investment in Boomf
In only a three month timespan, Boomf returned to making profits, winning the hearts and orders not only from the customers in the UK but also the US which Roman sees as “the land of opportunity” for expansion. Despite the challenges in 2021, the story of gifts and gift cards in the United States remains strong. The United States gift card market is predicted to increase exponentially from $155,616 million in 2020 to $238 billion by 2025.
Commenting on his investment, Roman said:
“I jumped on this opportunity because it’s such an amazing brand. I’ve honestly never known a brand that’s more loved by its customers in this industry. Now, we are integrating the business and its processes and making it more stable. Already within three months, we’ve seen substantial growth, which will continue as we begin to scale beyond the UK, refreshing our US market and entering other territories.”
Roman’s entrepreneurial vision has always been focused on bringing joy to his customers. The joy of surprising people, making people happy, connecting friends and families and encouraging people to live the moment is right at the heart of his business. Amongst many others, one of Roman’s earlier ventures was a mobile games studio. Splento is the company where he wants to capture the joy in life and Boomf gives him a reason to celebrate and share it with millions of people around the world.
Roman’s expansion plans for Boomf will take the company beyond 4 million happy customers on the journey to becoming the leading brand in the gift card industry. The synergy between Splento and Boomf will unquestionably bring more happiness to the world.
This is just the beginning of Boomf’s story. Boomf is turning the page, writing a brand new chapter creating moments of joy and fun, making life more interesting with surprises and putting the ‘Boom’ back into Boomf.
Recently, the scaling business launched a unique Boris Johnson Wild Card sent to all UK’s MPs from both sides of the House, allowing all to either ‘Love Him or Hate Him’; The Trump Wild Card will follow shortly. Boomf’s greeting cards, sweet boxes and gifts are available here.
About Boomf
Boomf, a personalised greetings company, founded by Kate Middleton’s younger brother, James Middleton, has been acquired by a consortium of investors, led by the founder of Galaev & Grierson venture capital firm, Stepan Galaev, and the founder of the global photography company Splento, Roman Grigoriev.
About Roman Grigoriev
Having co-founded 7 companies, Roman attracted global leaders to his companies as investors, board members, and advisers (such as Tej Lalvani of Vitabiotics and Dragons Den amongst many others), Roman is now the new CEO of Boomf bringing both businesses, Boomf and Splento, to the next stage of growth. Fluent in three languages, with over 17 years of entrepreneurship under his belt, Roman is always searching for new ideas to make the world a happier place.
