At the age of 31, her entrepreneurial journey already featured experiences that take decades for many, from settling in the Silicon Valley and rapidly growing Grabr to fighting for survival of the business during the pandemic.

Today, no more than 5,000 people live in the town. Lack of work is the main problem. The coal mines are abandoned. The local population hopes to preserve the town and villages. Not by the reanimation of industry, but with tourism.

After completing her master’s degree, Yusupova had two choices: either to continue working at an international organisation such as the UNDP or start her own business. She chose the latter.

Mikita Mikado is one of the most successful Belarusian entrepreneurs. He achieved recognition with his most recent project, PandaDoc.

Although the city of Turkestan was always a popular destination for internal tourism, it was more widely associated with pilgrimage, not entertainment. The city is one of the most ancient settlements within the borders of what is modern Kazakhstan.

A former MP, she was appointed Ukraine’s International Ambassador for Renewable Energy in 2018. Her house is reportedly equipped with wind power plants, solar panels and solar collectors.

The straw house home to David Chachanidze and Tina Samadashvili is reachable after a two-kilometre hike uphill from the village of Bakurtsikhe, amid the wine country of eastern Georgia’s Kakheti region.

It seemed that the development of club stand-up in Armenia was postponed indefinitely. In post-war Armenia, no one was in the mood to laugh. However, after the war, about six months later, the stand-up returned.

The need to ensure women are given the tools to fulfil their potential is not just the key to a healthy society, Kozinchenko argues, but to economic success. While most Western countries, however imperfectly, offer women some chance to balance career and family life, it is an area in which emerging economies fall far behind.