Legacy Beyond Wealth: Why I'm Building Luxara

What happens when immigrant determination meets cutting-edge AI? Vladlen Stark's journey from post-Soviet Ukraine to building Luxara, a company democratizing access to luxury vacation properties, offers a masterclass in turning barriers into opportunities.

The debut episode of "The Immigrant Hustle" podcast takes listeners deep into the foundation of what drives a first-generation immigrant to build something meaningful. Vladlen shares the pivotal moment that shaped his purpose - watching his grandfather, a respected university dean, silently take a paper route in retirement to help ease his family's financial burden in Canada. This humble act of service became Vladlen's North Star, cementing his understanding that true legacy isn't measured in wealth but in positive impact and community building.

From fighting for every opportunity without connections or networks to successfully navigating a career at PwC and beyond, Vladlen's path embodies the classic immigrant hustle. But the heart of this story lies in how a family vacation to Costa Rica sparked the idea for Luxara: a platform that transforms luxury property ownership from an impossible dream to an accessible reality through co-ownership. Most compelling is how Vladlen leverages artificial intelligence as a solo founder to accomplish what would typically require an entire team, fitting entrepreneurship between his full-time executive role and family responsibilities with young children.

This raw, unfiltered look at entrepreneurship in the AI age will resonate with anyone building something from scratch. Whether you're an immigrant navigating unfamiliar territory or simply someone with a dream that seems just out of reach, this podcast offers both inspiration and practical insights for your journey. Subscribe now and join a community of hustlers turning impossible dreams into reality.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Immigrant Hustle
• 1:37 Immigrant Journey from Ukraine to Canada
• 5:24 Grandfather's Paper Route Legacy
• 9:37 Fighting for Every Opportunity
• 12:55 Birth of Luxara in Costa Rica
• 17:24 Finding the Dream Villa
• 21:46 Building the business with AI
• 25:41 Next Episode Preview and Sign-Off

Transcript

Vladlen Stark: 0:11

Hello and welcome to the first ever episode of my new podcast, the Immigrant Hustle, an unfiltered CEO's playbook on building a business with AI. My name is Vladlen Stark, I am your host and in this show, I'll be pulling back the curtain on my journey. It's about the grind, the challenges and the incredible moments of discovery that come with building something from scratch. It's about the hustle. Today, we will examine how Luxara came to be the hustle. Today, we will examine how Luxara came to be, why I'm building it and highlight a few things that hopefully you find useful in your own journey. I wanted to make sure that the first season of the podcast is really all about the building of the business with AI. I want to save my life stories and my lessons for later seasons. I have accumulated some pretty incredible life stories along the way, some of which you couldn't write even if you tried, but this show I want to keep focused on the business and my journey of building it. That said, I think it's important to lay just a little bit of a foundation as to who I am, why I'm here, why, 20 years after moving to Canada, being an immigrant is still a central part of my identity and why I feel that in another 20 years from now, that's not going to change.

Vladlen Stark: 1:37

I was born and spent my early years in then-newly independent Western Ukraine. Most of the Soviet bloc countries in the 90s were a total mess. Ukraine was certainly no different, and my parents and grandparents really had to scramble and pivot to the new world order that came after the Soviet Union fell in 91. Unsurprisingly, growing up in that environment, I was always looking to the west, and when I was old enough to take matters into my own hands in the early 2000s, I applied and was given a spot in a US student exchange program, now unbeknownst to me. My parents were also of the similar mindset and they were working on a skilled migrant visa to Canada for a full year before I found out. So instead of going to the States solo, which would have taken my life on an entirely different path, I waited for about a year until all the paperwork was in order and in August of 2002, we made the life-changing decision and took the life-changing flight to Toronto, Ontario, and then a slight little drive to London, Ontario, Canada, where my new life began. Canada where my new life began. I started at a new school that fall, navigating new language, new culture, new life norms, new friends, new teachers. It was certainly a lot.

Vladlen Stark: 3:17

Bullying in the early 2000s was still a cool thing to do and I certainly got my fair share of that. I don't know if I'll ever share that in any of the podcasts, but let's just leave it there. And the one thing that you learn if you go through experience like that is that you really have to build a thick skin and build up your inner strength or you just won't make it. My struggle, however big or small bullying can be, was only a part of my family story. Unfortunately for myself and for my parents, we were living the classic immigrant stereotype. My dad, who was a chemist and an accountant and formerly a vice president at a bank in Ukraine, couldn't really get his experiences and his credentials transferred over, and his early jobs in Canada were all manual labor in factories. My mom, who was also a chemist and an accountant, didn't fare much better, and only a handful of years into our life in Canada was she able to actually find a job even remotely close to what she was doing back home and eventually get her accounting designation, which at the time was a CGA, here in Canada. Seeing them go through that experience and being old enough to understand that was the price to pay for the opportunity that was in front of us and that the real burden to capitalize on that opportunity was really on me and my younger brother. I really understood and felt the burden.

Vladlen Stark: 4:54

One of the most defining experiences of my early adulthood was a few years later. My parents had me exceptionally young by today's standards they were only 20 and 21 and still going through the university. My grandparents on my dad's side were always central parental figures, both in my early childhood and throughout my entire adult life, and I've always treated them as mom and dad. My grandfather was a pillar in his community wherever he was. As a retired university dean, throughout his tenure and even after he retired, he helped countless students and colleagues. When my grandparents came to Canada, he certainly saw the financial strain that we were all under.

Vladlen Stark: 5:46

So this respected academic and man of letters though, mind you, one of the hardest working people I've ever known, without telling any of us, signed up for a paper route. He didn't have a car or a bike for a paper route. He didn't have a car or a bike. All he had was a little trolley and he would walk around with his giant pile of newspapers that he would deliver on his route for a few bucks a day. Now, a little sidebar. For those of you watching, this is called a newspaper. Humans used to get news from these things back in the day. And for those of you listening, I am holding up a newspaper that I was honestly shocked to find in my house, and the only reason I have it is because my parents kept it from. I think it was 2011, when I was featured in a local paper in London, ontario, alongside my colleagues from PwC, for doing some volunteer work.

Vladlen Stark: 6:57

Now let's get us back into the story. This paper route, this single act of selflessness and humble contribution, tells you really everything you need to know about the man. His legacy was never about the money. It was always about making a positive impact on people and building a community and really just being a great human being. That is my North Star, that is the legacy I want to live up to, and that is a big reason why I'm here at 11pm on a Sunday night recording this podcast. 11 pm on a Sunday night recording this podcast. We've hit all the immigrant greatest hits the skilled migrants, working factories, the financial hardships, the pressure on the next generation to live up to the sacrifice.

Vladlen Stark: 8:00

Let's switch gears just a little bit. There's a famous book by Malcolm Gladwell called the Outliers, and the book argues that successful people often get there not only because of the incredible work ethic and the effort, but because of unique opportunities and lucky breaks that allow them to truly capitalize on their skill and their work. A similar concept is discussed in a book called Beyond Entrepreneurship by Jim Collins and Bill Lazier, which has become a bit of a gospel for me when building Luxara, and I recommend it to every entrepreneur out there. Sarah, and I recommend it to every entrepreneur out there. In that book, they discuss a concept of return on luck, which is something similar as the outliers in that it argues that different companies and different people, as a result of their planning and actions, have different outcomes when they experience luck or a particular trend in society or in their business cycle. It often feels like my life has been the exact opposite, though I've been trying to overcome the barriers that exist when you don't have these opportunities, when you don't have the introductions, when you don't have the people to help you along the way, and I think that's the part that many of the people with similar backgrounds wouldn't find relatable, and hopefully I can help you navigate some of that.

Vladlen Stark: 9:37

I had to will my opportunity at PwC or my first big boy job into existence. It was incredibly difficult for me, largely because I had no guidance of any kind of how to go about the process and how to succeed. Because I didn't have any good advice, I had to learn for myself. So I went through the university recruiting cycle twice. The first time I did it a year early. Usually the big firms whether it's accounting firms or consulting firms they come in your last year of university and they recruit you for when you're fresh out of school. So in my case I was there a year or two early. But I knew that I needed to learn and I needed to practice and I needed to understand how to succeed. Unsurprisingly, that first trial run was a complete disaster. I was unprepared, I had no confidence and naturally that resulted in exactly nothing. I've had no follow-ups to my emails. I've had no meaningful conversations after the fact. So that was a nice little lesson.

Vladlen Stark: 11:05

So for the next 12 months I was in my own little training camp. I had my friends interview me. I practiced interview lines and small talk lines in the mirror. I tried to read and talk to anybody who successfully went through the process in the past to give me any sort of tips and advice on how to succeed.

Vladlen Stark: 11:30

Now, the second time around, things looked a lot differently. Was it luck, was it hard work? Or was it that return on luck that Jim and Bill talk about in their book? Regardless, I was looking at three out of the big four firms offering me a job, and also a handful of small regional firms with similar competing offers. I learned from that experience, and many others along the way, that hard work was not an option. It was the only path forward for me. I wasn't getting anything because of an introduction or a favor. I had to earn everything I got. And that cycle continued proving itself when I moved with the firm to New Zealand and then again when I returned to Canada a handful of years later and started my new career within JL Supply in the energy sector.

Vladlen Stark: 12:37

Throughout my entire personal and professional career, I had to fight for every single inch, for every little advancement, for every little change. That fight is ultimately what led me to where I am today, the turning point for Luxara and really where the idea was first born came a handful of years ago, when a few friends of mine and I were having a conversation about wouldn't it be nice to have a vacation home somewhere warm. Now the problem was obvious. For most people, it's an impossible dream. The upfront cost is astronomical. The place you're looking at is likely sitting empty most of the year. If it is somewhere warm, you're not there a lot of the time and you can be flying down to fix a broken toilet even if you wanted to. So I looked at the existing models, and I realized that a lot of them were deeply flawed, especially the timeshare model. Now, I did get a free cruise out of a timeshare offering in Fiji, and that was one hell of a time, but I digress, timeshares suck. You're paying for a right of use beautiful villa, in my case in Costa Rica. What if you could share the costs, the burdens, with other like-minded owners? That is really the idea of co-ownership, and I know what some of you are thinking. You didn't just invent co ownership, of course I didn't. It's been around forever. Friends and families co-own boats and cottages and all kinds of things. The issue for me, though, was that, because of my background and how I was growing up. I didn't have affluent friends, and my new friends were in the same position as I was, in that they were still relatively early in their careers and they didn't necessarily have the resources to pull something like this off.

Vladlen Stark: 15:23

My wife and I went to Costa Rica for the second time in 2021. Our first trip was solo, no kids in 2018. We had an absolutely phenomenal time traveling around the countryside. The second time went to the Guanacaste province, which is on the western coast, where the beaches are. It's close to the airport. This time, we were traveling with our then one-year-old son and my wife's parents. They lived in Ontario at the time we were already living in Calgary, alberta and they are a very close family. They like to spend holidays together, so we had an option of either flying to Ontario or having them fly out to stay with us here in Calgary and, knowing the cost of Canadian flights courtesy of Air Canada and WestJet, it was almost the same to fly down to Costa Rica, minus the accommodation that we had to pay for, so the decision was pretty easy. We decided to spend our Christmas and my son's first birthday in Costa Rica, which was a wonderful decision that led to really some life-changing events and one of the big reasons why I'm sitting here on a Sunday evening recording this.

Vladlen Stark: 16:53

Costa Rica is one of the most stable and investor-friendly countries in Latin America and Central America specifically, and alongside with its strong investor rates for foreigners and the truly incredible pura vida lifestyle that the locals live, it's a perfect market for investment and for us in particular, it was a perfect market to find that dream home. So when we were there with our family, we thought it wouldn't hurt. We can find a realtor, take a look around, see what's available, what is the real price tag for one of these homes. So we found this American guy who was there for 20 years at the time and was ultra successful because he got there so early and was able to become a the guy selling real estate in that particular market. So he took us around a handful of homes and we really fell in love with a few that we looked at and really just with an idea of owning this piece of paradise in Costa Rica. But, as I'm sure you can imagine, for a young family like ours, with a one-year-old my wife was still on mad leave it was a dream a little far out of reach.

Vladlen Stark: 18:22

Now to those of you listening who know me, and also to those of you who, hopefully, will stick around for a few more episodes to get to know me. One of my biggest strengths is that once I get my mind on something, I will stop at nothing to make it a reality. This was certainly no exception, was certainly no exception. After we got home a few days later, I dove into headfirst into months long effort to try and find some investors to buy this beautiful home with us in Costa Rica. I will do a deeper dive into that story and into that experience later on, because it was a truly fascinating, really outside the comfort zone type experience for me that I'm very grateful for because it gave birth to what today is this entire business that I'm building. But it's too long of a story to tell here, so all I'll say is that, after months of headache and heartache and late nights and hundreds of phone calls and emails, in May of 2022, I was a proud co-owner of Villa Vista Bahia in Costa Rica. Now this would be impossible without my investors and now, years later, friends who put up the capital to make it a reality, and I am forever grateful for their trust in me as an individual and certainly in them seeing the opportunity and the idea for what it was.

Vladlen Stark: 20:01

Now you fast forward to April of 2025, when I had a meeting with my partners in another Costa Rican venture and we started wondering if this by now proven idea of co-ownership that has been a success story for me and for my investors and friends, whether that's something that we could actually turn into a business. Now the idea is the simple part, of course Executing, especially executing as a solo founder, especially executing as a solo founder with a full-time job. That is quite demanding. With a full-time job that is quite demanding. Two little kids at home under the age of five, a working wife with a successful career and quite ambitious career aspirations, I might add. That seemed completely impossible and, if I'm being honest, I think it would have been impossible even a few years before.

Vladlen Stark: 21:18

But we live in the age of AI and in this age I started to experiment. I started doing incredible amounts of research on international tax law, on securities regulations in Canada and the US, researching different ways to structure this with multiple investors in international markets, taking the offering to the public, which is a much different ballgame for those of you who know what it is to issue securities on the open market. So AI became my legal researcher, it became my executive assistant, it became my copywriter, it became my friend some evenings when it was 11 o'clock at night and I was trying to not pull my hair out over something that was happening in the last handful of months. But it really allowed one person to have the resources and the output of an entire team, in my opinion, and it really gave me and Luxara a fighting chance. Now the episode is called why I'm Building a Luxara, and I don't know if I quite answered that. So let's get to it.

Vladlen Stark: 22:31

Some of you might be guessing why that is, and the simple answer certainly is for the last while, ai has been a lot of hype and in my roles at MGL and also in my role as chair of technology forum for FEI Canada, I've had a lot of exposure, a lot of conversations about AI and I always wondered how does it really live up to the hype? Could I really be that solopreneur utilizing AI at such a level that would actually allow me to build a business with a handful of hours of overtime, working between 7 and 11 o'clock at night or on the weekends? So that's certainly part of it when I think about my grandfather that paper route, walking in rain or snow. It wasn't really about the few dollars that he was making to help us out. It was about his contribution. It was about him trying to remove the burden from his family and trying to give all of us time, opportunity, inspiration to do something better. And, as I said before, his legacy was never about building wealth. It was about building a community and making a positive impact on people.

Vladlen Stark: 24:10

I've recorded this half a dozen different times and half a dozen different times I cried right about here, but I'm going to leave. One of these takes in because I promised an unfiltered story. I'm not going to hide facts or feelings that come with my journey and that come with a business journey. Luxara, at its heart, is fundamentally about the same principles of removing burdens and providing opportunity. Whether they're financial barriers, legal complexity, logistical nightmares all of which keep people from achieving that dream that always seems just a little too far out of reach. So we're building this technology and the platform around it really to democratize access to these incredible assets and these incredible opportunities for people who dream big enough. We're creating a community of co-owners, turning what was once an impossible financial burden into a smart, accessible asset that brings you and your family joy and builds memories. So, with Luxara, I want to deliver this piece of paradise, this legacy that families can enjoy and build upon for generations.

Vladlen Stark: 25:38

That is the hustle. That is the why. Thank you for joining me on this first step. Next week we're going to get tactical. We're going to look at exactly how I structure my day, fitting in that 40-hour work week, 40-hour plus work week at NGO Supply, and also trying to be a good father to two amazing little kids under five years old, and also building a company. This journey is just getting started. I'm building this in public for all of us to hopefully enjoy along the way. The best way to support the hustle is to share it with someone you know who might be just like me in the trenches trying to build something out of their dream right now. If this episode gave you an idea or motivation, I ask you that you pay that forward. Share it with one other person who is on their own immigrant hustle or even, if they're not immigrant, if they're just on their hustle, whatever it may be. I hope that this can be exactly what they need to hear today. Let's build this community together. Thank you for listening and I'll see you next week.