Ruslan Kogan is now estimated to be worth over $400 million, owning to the success of his online retail business, Kogan.com.
But before his empire began, before he applied for as many credit cards as he could to start his business, he was clearly fascinated in the value being offered by Australian telcos in their various customer plans.
Emails obtained by Business Insider from 2006 show Kogan analysing mobile phone plans down to fractions of a cent for him and his mates to make sure they had the best mobile plan possible. The subject line was: “Mobile phone plans… which one is LESS full of shit!!”
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Kogan explains he made the table because, “all the telcos have created a pricing illusion through all their caps and ‘pay $40 and get $40000 worth of calls’ crap”.
He also takes a dig at Telstra, which Kogan ended up using as his network when launching Kogan Mobile in 2012.
“I haven’t taken Telstra into account during all this or checked their call rates as I’m sure they’ll be twice as expensive as others, ” he wrote.
Kogan’s Telstra arrangement fell apart but he now runs Kogan Mobile with Vodafone.
Here’s his spreadsheet made which outlines the plan pricing. It reveals the fanatical level of detail and curiosity about value in the mind of a guy who would become one of Australia’s most successful internet entrepreneurs.
This srity was first publishes at Business Insider Australia, by Harry Tacker