Editor’s note: This article spotlights Arkady Kovalev, founder and CEO of Heroes INN, a winner of the 2023 Upgrade with Wix contest. Winners were announced in January 2024 and won a business update, courtesy of Wix.
If we asked you to name a sport that has survived multiple generations and cultures, you’d probably think of baseball or soccer. Trading cards probably never came to mind.
But, as it turns out, trading card games (“TCGs”) have bred a new type of athlete over the years. From the rise of Pokémon cards to the materialization of One Piece cards, TCGs have rapidly grown in popularity.
TCG tournaments now attract players from all around the globe. And in a small, unassuming card shop nestled in the heart of Mönchengladbach, Germany, players congregate weekly to compete in Magic: The Gathering matches.
The owner of that shop? Arkady Kovalev. A long-time collector and player himself, Arkady is the local hero of trading cards and comic books. Heroes INN now exists to bring card enthusiasts together, providing a space for players young and old to share their love for comics, manga and trading cards.
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For the love of trading cards
Before venturing into entrepreneurship, Arkady never had big dreams of starting a business. The idea came up rather organically.
“I have played a lot of trading cards as a child and visited some stores like the Heroes INN,” he recalls. “But then all the stores closed here.”
“There were no opportunities anymore for people to engage in playing cards, and there were no real stores selling comic books and mangas anymore…I wanted to give people the same experience I had as a child playing card games.”
“And yeah, that's why I created the store,” he says matter-of-factly.
Heroes INN opened its doors in 2014. At the time, Arkady was a freelancing software developer and a once-aspiring writer. His new business was a slow burn. For 10 years, it was a “slow but steady process,” with the first year being devoted entirely to research (“I thought, ‘Hey, maybe there's a reason why there's no store anymore in our city’”).
But things came together: First came the realization that Mönchengladbach, a city of more than 260,000 residents, was home to comic fans yet lacked a store that truly understood their preferences. Then came the credit line (“I needed to buy so much stuff”). Then came his online store—and eventually, the people.
Today, Heroes INN serves around 200 regulars, plus hundreds more on-foot visitors at its tournaments. Magic: The Gathering matches happen twice a week alongside other games, though the inn is open for players to meet whenever they’d like.
“[We deliberately called the store an inn] because it's like a tavern or someplace where people stay,” says Arkady. “Heroes is also referring to comic books because you have some heroes in comic books…and I wanted people to be their own heroes in some way…[I thought] maybe if you become a very, very skilled player, you could be a hero for others.”
Conquering a global quarantine period
But no hero’s journey is without hiccups. One of Arkady’s greatest conquests involved COVID-19.
“We were at the store but we weren’t allowed to let people in,” recalls Arkady. “[So,] we sold them stuff at the door. People could come to the store and say, ‘Hey, I need the new issue from One Piece,’ and we gave them it at the door.”
“We were, more or less, the only social interactions for many people…[they weren’t] allowed to see other people but they could get their books and chat a little bit.”
At this time, the Heroes INN site served as a portal for seeing what was in stock. Customers could reserve certain items for pickup before venturing outdoors. It became, as Arkady describes, a “dedicated database of products,” allowing both his staff and customers to keep an eye on the latest inventory.
“[By having a dedicated online shop for presales, people could] preorder stuff from their home, from their couch [while] watching TV or watching Netflix or something else,” Arkady adds.
The enduring magic of presales
Even now, presales play a pivotal role in the business. In one sense, the strategy doesn’t work as you’d imagine in the comic world: retailers like Arkady must preorder new comics and manga months in advance. By the time customers inquire about them (usually a few weeks before their release), it’s too late for retailers to change their orders.
“But we can at least see, ‘Hey, this product sells well and maybe we should make it a bit more expensive or cheaper depending on presales,’” says Arkady. “Or we can try to order more of the same product.”
This is particularly useful for hits like One Piece. One Piece, a Japanese manga series that has taken the world by storm, exists in book form, card form and collectible statue form within the store. Of these, the trading cards are in hot demand.
“People are buying like there's no tomorrow for One Piece…we are already selling products for One Piece that are coming out in September,” Arkady told us in an interview in April.
The legacy of Heroes INN
The magic of Heroes INN is that it has always been more than a shop. Arkady himself is an emblem of community, embodying the kindness, passion and hospitality that make visitors feel at home.
He enthusiastically shares about the couple who drove from the Netherlands to play Magic at his store. He talks about the couple from the Eurozone who met at the inn and had their first child 22 weeks ago.
“It was never my dream but I built something I can be proud of,” he says. “You have so many people who were lonely before—who spent their time sitting in front of the PC or TV or monitors at home just playing video games or watching shows. They didn't have social interactions, but then they came here and found friends.”
When asked about his own experience becoming an entrepreneur, he shares that building Heroes INN was like “seeing a child grow.” And as the saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child,” Arkady found himself in a fortunate spot. “We have also made friends along the way.”
“It’s beautiful because [Heroes INN] is like a shop that you open but now it's become a center of some people's lives.”
Lessons from Arkady
Much can be said about becoming an entrepreneur in this day and age. Arkady shares some wisdom he has gathered over the years that can be applied to any type of business.
Seek help when you need it: “[When] I had to create a website…Wix was very helpful because I'm not a programmer, I'm not a web developer. I don't know how to do stuff like that…[Wix had] a lot of features that I wanted to use. Especially, for example, the calendar function where I can put my events and people can book events…[my Wix site] was easy to create. Just a few clicks and we had an online shop.”
Don’t just rely on gut instinct: “Do your research. [Many people] just have an idea and are trying to achieve it somehow…[and] a lot of advice will say, ‘Hey, just do it. You can do it.’ But [in reality,] you have to do the calculations and research first and find out how to do it.”
Don’t get discouraged early on: “Things won't work from the beginning. It's just the nature of starting a business…I worked [on Heroes INN for] nearly 10 years. And even before I opened it, I did about a year of research…but it was a fun journey and I hope that it will keep on going.”
Follow your dreams: “I think other people should also follow their dreams. If they have something they want to accomplish, just try it…the worst thing that could happen is that it doesn't work and then you return to your everyday life again.”
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