Alexey and Oksana Chebenenko: “Valles is a challenge to the status of KVO classic routine work”

“If social entrepreneurship is not based on experiment, it will not be able to change this world.” Jacqueline Novogratz.

Who are social entrepreneurs, how do they build their business and who are their Clients, we talked about all this with a married couple, Alexei and Oksana Chebenenko, co-founders of the Valles social business.

Guys, what is social entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is a business that does not make money by promoting ideas, but earns to promote their ideas. Social entrepreneurship primarily cares about the sustainability of its goals and how to achieve them in every sense. Of course, as is clear from the definition, social business has a social goal, that is, it sets itself an important task – to benefit the society where it operates. In particular, our business invests 10% of its profits in development projects in rural schools.

What is Valles?

Valles for us is freedom, it is an opportunity to be more efficient, it is an opportunity for everyone involved in this name to radically change their lives. Valles is a challenge to the KVO status of the classic chore. And finally, Valles is the philosophy of the new microcosm that we are trying to build.

Alexey, how did the idea of creating a station for standing work come about?

I have been looking for a product that would reflect the values of our company for a long time. And I found it quite by accident, when my relative asked me to make a stand for standing behind a laptop. But I did a little more than a stand. For myself, the station is a discovery, because the effect of working on it exceeded all my expectations.

Where do you get ideas and inspiration?

It comes by itself when we do what we came into this world for.

What difficulties do you face when promoting your product?

When you sincerely believe in what you are doing, difficulties fade into the background. People believe in us, and the only thing left is to tell about yourself to as many people as possible.

Oksana, you have a family business. Tell us about the pros and cons of a family contract in work))

I try not to consider my business in terms of pros and cons, because I think that there is something that absolutely suits and brings pleasure, but there are processes that have not yet settled down and they need a little more time and attention. I love what we do and look at activities holistically, trying to understand if there is harmony in the processes or if something is going wrong.

I think that when working in a family business there is only one risk – to go headlong into work and forget about rest, because everyone in the family is “in the know” and everyone loves the “topic”, so we can talk about business for hours on end, come up with new schemes, develop plans. And rest and disconnection is extremely important for the family and for each person personally.

What is your biggest goal and idea in the company?

We are building the microcosm of our dreams. We create around ourselves the environment and community where it is pleasant and comfortable to be.

Who are your Clients?

Our clients are people who want to become more successful, they are companies that plan to bring their employees to a new level of productivity. Perhaps these are already free people who do not limit themselves to work in the office, but want to work where they get more inspiration.

Oksana, is mentoring, coaching a calling?

I think that it is possible to say so. After all, I didn’t dream of being a mentor as a child, then they didn’t even hear about such a profession, many still haven’t heard of it 🙂

But in the process of development, training, I “felt” this topic and began to master it through work with young people, it captured me very much, I feel comfortable in it, and many things turned out initially intuitively. 10 years ago, at my first training in mentoring, my colleagues and I could only imagine how this direction could develop in Ukraine, but now many companies are trying and it turns out very effectively. This makes me very happy, I dream that this will enter into education firmly and professionally, I try to do as much as possible in this direction myself.

The interview was prepared as part of the “Interview with our Clients” project. If you are our Client, and we still have not talked about your project in the blog, contact us in any convenient way to prepare for publication.