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How Katerina Borodich Built DrinkIt by Treating the App as the Business
In this episode, Ashish Tulsian speaks with Katerina Borodich, CEO of DrinkIt, about launching a fully digitalized specialty coffee chain in the UAE from scratch, navigating a hyper-competitive market, and why 97% of her customers order without ever speaking to a barista. They discuss consumer research, franchise growth, the journey from electrical engineering to F&B, and the discipline behind building a brand people trust.
Katerina Borodich
CEO, DrinkIt
Katerina Borodich is the CEO of DrinkIt MENA, the fast-growing digitally-native specialty coffee chain from Dodo Brands, the Russian F&B group also behind Dodo Pizza. An electrical engineer by training, she has spent over a decade in marketing, operations, and brand-building across Russia, the UK, and the UAE. She launched DrinkIt in Dubai in January 2023 and has since grown the brand to eight locations, with franchise expansion underway across the region and a planned launch in Los Angeles.
In this episode, Ashish Tulsian sits down with Katerina Borodich, CEO of DrinkIt MENA, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it takes to build a technology-first F&B brand in one of the world's most competitive markets — from zero presence, zero legal entity, and two suitcases.
Katerina shares her unlikely path from electrical engineering and academic publishing in Russia to running marketing for Dodo Pizza in Europe, launching a new pizza concept in the UK during the pandemic, and ultimately being tapped to bring DrinkIt to the UAE. She breaks down what makes DrinkIt different — 97% of orders placed through the app, smart takeaway displays, and a model designed to eliminate friction without removing the human element — and why she still believes the revolution in coffee is just beginning.
The episode goes deep on her approach to consumer research: living with Airbnb hosts to understand British culture, standing in competitors' queues to collect insights, and asking 100 customers directly what they want on the menu. It also covers the real challenges of entering Dubai — getting first locations, building trust with developers, and using public sales transparency as a franchise tool.
Katerina also reflects on building her own community from scratch in a new country, the mental demands of scaling from small to mid-size business, and why she now believes mental stability and the right people matter more than any hard skill.