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What does it take to go from a small village in eastern Kazakhstan, speaking only Kazakh, to building one of the country's largest non-bank lenders? We sat down with our dear friend Dulat Tastekey, Jam's classmate at Harvard, and we loved every minute of it. It's honest, funny and full of lessons you can take straight into your own life and work.
Dulat grew up loving maths and dreaming of running a bank one day. He finally landed a job at the bank he'd always wanted to work for, took a lower salary to get there, and drove a taxi after hours to make ends meet, only to leave within a couple of months because the culture wasn't what he'd hoped for. With 50,000 US dollars in savings, he bought an unprofitable pawn shop branch in Almaty, and 16 years later TAS Credit has more than 600 employees and branches right across Kazakhstan. Dulat opens up about scaling, the culture lessons that came with growth, and why speed, not money, is what his business really sells. He also shares his work on the Almaty City Council, his Assyltas Foundation, and the values he's trying to pass on to his four children.
In this episode, we cover:
- Why Dulat defines success across every area of life, not just business
- Learning English as his third language, and the cost of going back to Harvard, Stanford and Oxford
- Moving from his village to Almaty and changing schools four times, and how it taught him to adapt
- Taking a pay cut for his dream bank job, then walking away to build his own
- Starting with 50,000 US dollars and an unprofitable pawn shop branch he still runs today
- Why culture keeps breaking at 50, 100 and 500 people, and the five values that hold his team together
- The one minute late rule: miss the 9am meeting and learn a poem by Abai by heart
- Getting money to clients in 30 minutes, and why 40% of new clients come through recommendations
- Kazakhstan's opportunities, its Soviet legacy, and living "between the dragon and the bear"
- Giving back through his foundation, and why "your starting point doesn't decide your finish"
Connect with Dulat:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dulat-tastekey-3a832354
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dulat_tastekey/
TAS Group: https://tasgroup.kz/en/
Assyltas Foundation: https://assyltas.kz/
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Dulat's background
02:14 What success means to Dulat
05:27 Learning English and personal growth
06:46 Early life and childhood in Kazakhstan
11:12 From student to entrepreneur
18:31 Milestones in scaling the business
23:55 Building organisational culture
32:16 Digital transformation and innovation
38:05 Kazakhstan's business landscape and opportunities
44:50 Challenges and limitations in Kazakhstan
53:15 Philanthropy and giving back
1:00:45 Values and lessons for the next generation
1:08:05 Reflections on learning and future plans
1:09:14 Success and ongoing growth
#Kazakhstan #Loans #TASCredit
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