Sviatoslav Budzak and Diego Delli Veneri are 2020 graduates of the Bachelor in Global Hospitality Management at Les Roches Marbella who partnered to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions together through Lifechanging.
While 2020 was a truly challenging year for new entrepreneurs, these two Les Roches Marbella alumni have high hopes for the near future. 2021 will be about recovery, about hope, and about Lifechanging. Sviatoslav Budzak and Diego Delli Veneri graduated in January 2020 and shortly thereafter their initial plans were put on hold when much of the world entered into a lockdown. However, the downtime provided Diego and Sviatoslav an opportunity to pursue their entrepreneurial passion and from it was born Lifechanging.
The aim of Lifechanging is to offer students on the Costa del Sol a service that leads them to develop an understanding of their personal psychology and use the knowledge gained to their benefit when making future career and lifestyle choices. Making major decisions with awareness requires the right tools and Lifechanging is an innovative approach to making these valuable instruments for students conveniently available. Based in Marbella, Lifechanging will focus on the Costa del Sol as a primary market, however, in the near future, the startup intends to expand into other regions around Europe.
“It was the inevitable outcome of studying the psychology behind career decisions, as well as observing and evaluating our own lives.“
Speaking about how Lifechanging came to be, Diego says “it was the inevitable outcome of studying the psychology behind career decisions, as well as observing and evaluating our own lives. This made us realize that important life decisions should not be taken lightly. Instead, they must be taken with consciousness and, ideally, with the help of professionals.” This insight combined with their innate passion to help others has provided them with the motivation to create a service exclusively geared towards helping students to make career decisions with consciousness.
Different backgrounds lead to a common vision
Coming from different cultural backgrounds, Ukraine and Italy, these two innovators have a broader perception on various subjects thanks to their different points of view growing up. This led to a more open and comprehensive way of dealing with the development and implementation of the business idea. Sviatoslav states that, “the vision of Lifechanging is to have a positive impact on teenagers by directing them in their future lifestyle choices. We recognize that society nowadays is facing a significant problem. While people get richer and technology advances at a rapid pace, life satisfaction levels have been dropping over the past years. Youngsters often don’t have a complete understanding of their passions and interests and, as a result, struggle to choose a path in life that will allow them to fully realize their potential.” Diego continues with this thought, by stating that “the opportunity to enhance the lives of others and, consequently, change the direction in which society is going, motivates us to invest our time and energy in pursuing this important dream. Transforming an idea into reality and enjoying all the ups and downs throughout the process is of great inspiration for us.”
Lifechanging is built on the premise that many people make career decisions without fully understanding the lifestyle they will achieve and choosing the wrong path oftentimes leads to a series of problems that eventually put a strain on the personal lives of people. For example, when deciding what university course to undertake, high school students are often overwhelmed by preparing for their final exams and they end up putting very little thought into their ultimate decision. Accordingly, Lifechanging will target students between 14-18 years old to lead and support them when making these tough decisions in a way that does not distract from immediate responsibilities of studying for exams and advancing in courses. Sviatoslav highlights how “Lifechanging provides its customers with an experience throughout which they are guided by professional psychologists who acknowledge unique personality traits and show them how to use these to their advantage. The key is to narrow down the career selection by learning through experience. This way, our students will have a clear picture of what professional path to follow.”
Before graduating, both students had a solid vision of their near future in the hospitality industry. However, they managed to adapt to the rapid changes that occurred in 2020 and make the best out of the circumstances. Moving back to Marbella in September of 2020 was the first step on the way to finalizing the business plans for Lifechanging.
Lifechanging presents its concept at the launch of Spark Innovation Sphere by Les Roches
Now, as alumni of Les Roches Marbella, the two partners understand that building a solid network is crucial for developing a business. Diego says, “we highly recommend you to get out of your comfort zone and start meeting new people from day one of your studies at Les Roches. The school provides you with a great opportunity to study in a multicultural environment, creating the optimal conditions for your self-growth.” Sviatoslav furthers Diego’s advice by pointing out that “our Les Roches experience has been an enlightening one and it made us grow both personally and professionally. Being in contact with students from different cultures made us open our minds and think differently.”
As a part of the Les Roches Marbella alumni network, they are able to benefit from the recently launched preincubation program, the Spark Innovation Sphere, being offered to innovative business startups. The Spark Innovation Sphere by Les Roches assists young entrepreneurs who are creating their first business. Chosen to participate in the pre-incubation program, Lifechanging will be offered the advice of experts in the field and their contribution to the development of the company will be invaluable as they strive to establish their market position in the future.
In addition to pre-incubation market exposure, Lifechanging will allow them to test and evaluate the developments directly with students in an educational context. This precise moment in history may be remembered as a turning point in the sector for future generations and, without a doubt, Lifechanging will be part of it.
