In 2016 I went to see the meeting with , co-founder of Hawkers Co. , a Spanish company that achieved worldwide success selling quality glasses with a wide variety of designs at an affordable price. They started selling online only, without intermediaries, and today I will tell you his story.
Davidto their 27 years old and with a company behind him that is a leader in its sector and a worldwide success story, presented himself as the representative of the company despite being shy, although we must admit that he made us all laugh with his anecdotes. He was able to convey how much fun they had on the road to success and how important was impulsiveness and snout at certain times to achieve surprising facts which we will explain later.
Let’s review the history of Hawkers.
Who were the founders of Hawkers Co
The founders of the Hawkers company were two brothers from Elche (David and Alexander) and two friends from Alicante (Pablo and Inaki). You will know the “rivalry” between both cities so be careful with saying the co-founders of Elche or Alicante; Let’s not generalize that we do not want to hurt sensitivities! They met working on a Banesto project.
The first thing that comes to mind is that they studied business or related careers, but to our surprise, quite the opposite. David studied Biology and Alejandro did not study any career. this second he was the most rebellious but at the same time they define him as the thinking head of the team. He studied an international trade module although it was only to satisfy his parents who insisted that he have studies to achieve a good future.
Of course, Alejandro was a self-taught and curious person who never left his computer aside. Regarding your familyhis grandparents had THE store in the town where they lived and his father was also an entrepreneur (creating his own hospitality business) so he did have roots from entrepreneurs.
History of Hawkers: from cups and dildos, to glasses
Before starting to sell glasses, there were failures that must also be counted. Initially, the founders of Hawkers created Saldum, a project that was based on boosting sales through . They failed to generate enough traffic and therefore did not bill as expected so they did not continue there. Next, Alejandro, a thinking head, researched on the Internet what they could start selling that could work and they began to test different products before starting with today’s famous glasses.
Cups and dildos were their first bets but they were unsuccessful. Later, they tried with the glasses that then yes, from the first day it worked. The rest of the products were falling and it was decided to focus on the star product that currently defines Hawkers. They were looking for a unisex product that did not involve complex logistics, and it fit and sold.
They started selling a third party brand but later, when it was no longer able to provide the necessary material due to a large increase in demand, they decided to start with their own brand with which they could have greater autonomy. They went to China for two months and managed everything there. They now have a delegation in Hong Kong, which helps them to have more direct control of production and check the quality of the products.
When Carlos Blanco asked him about the problems and difficulties they encountered at the beginning, David explained that it had been very “on the fly”. Organization was not the company’s strong point so the objective was that the pending tasks would come out but without really defining the positions and responsibilities well.
This had also led to tensions or a war of egos at some point, but they were resolved correctly. Anyway, One of the fronts of special interest to the company is motivating staff.
After having broken several records and having greatly enjoyed seeing the company rise, now at Hawkers they have to look for new goals and they want to provide their workers with facilities and comforts to retain talent and enjoy doing their job. Right now, only in Alicante there are already 130 workers.
History of Hawkers: a card from “Hacienda”
Hawkers Co did not start out operating in a completely legal way. To be honest, it started completely illegally: David confessed as well. They began to sell the glasses and the turnover obtained grew more and more. Such was the income they obtained that the mother of Pablo, co-founder, asked him to leave the business because he was going to have problems.
“In two months you have more money than your whole family put together, son” Said the worried mother. Trying to convince Pablo, she risked telling him that she would pay him whatever he was going to earn. Bearing in mind that Hawkers’ turnover is measured in tens of millions of euros, I think it wasn’t such a bad idea to go ahead. It would have cost the family a lot to compensate for this…
Of course, everyone was aware that they could not continue in that situation or one day they were going to have problems and very serious ones. It was then that they decided to form a Limited society and put everything in order. Just when they were in this process, received a letter from the Treasury, surprise! Bad roll, right?
You are right. It was a letter from the Treasury in which He said that they were aware that they were carrying out actions that did not comply with the law and that these were crimes that could even carry a prison sentence. That yes, and here comes the strange thing, the letter also added that if they ceased the activity that same week, the problem would be over.
Does it sound weird to you? To them too. “In other countries I don’t know how it works but it seemed very strange to me that in Spain, just by ceasing the activity, they would forgive you for a crime like thatDavid recounted. They were scared but after reflecting on the subject, They went to the Treasury and asked if they had really sent that letter because it seemed a bit strange to them.
The answer was also not wasted: “we would have waited for the bubble to get bigger and bigger to really catch you”. Then? Months later, between drinks, a worker from a rival company confessed that it had been them.
History of Hawkers: 40,000 euros a day in Facebook Ads
The company’s data is really surprising. With more than 2 million glasses sold, they achieved a turnover of 70 million euros for 2016, being profitable. Regarding advertising, we all know that It is one of the companies that have been best known for its more than notable investment in social networks (especially in Facebook) and how well it works for them.
They prepare thousands of announcements daily. This channel generates a high percentage of Hawkers Co.’s sales. The million dollar question was “How much money do you invest in Facebook Ads per day?”. bets? The answer was “between 20,000 and 40,000 euros per day” although it increases considerably when there are promotions and flash sales.
In the history of Hawkers, on several occasions they have reached the daily budget limit. Yes friends, there is a limit, and they keep asking to be able to invest more because they could and it would continue to be profitable for them.
Without a doubt, the team Hawkers became an expert in Facebook Ads and today they work as alfatesters. In 2016 the team dedicated to carrying out these campaigns was about 20 people.
So much so that talking to Facebook because of the desire to be able to increase their investment and the impossibility of doing so, as well as other deficiencies and errors found by the team, were invited to the United States to meet with the engineers and expose the problems and difficulties they had found in the tool with the aim that they work to solve them. David explained, causing more than one laugh among the public, that Alejandro told them “You don’t want my money or what?”.
2016/2017: the momentum of the financing round
In October 2016, Hawkers made headlines by raising €50 million in a round Series A financing. Saldum Venturesmother company owner of Hawkers, was in charge of closing this roundwhich makes it one of the highest closed by a eCommerce in Europe till the date.
It was led by the founders of Tuenti, Felix Ruiz, from Jobandtalent and Hugo Arévalo that joins the team of Hawkers. They were also present O’Hara Financial, fund that has the main participation of Alexander Betancourt along with a group of independent investors and private. Arcane was the investment bank that gave the financial advice to Hawkers.
This operation made Hugo Arévalo president of the company, and Alejandro Betancourt the president of the Board. Francisco Pérez was still the General Director, and Alejandro Moreno the CEO of the company.
This is the first investment that Hawkers received after two years and a half of working alone… and it’s not that the company needed them, since, as their managers explained at the time, they had over 2 million glasses sold and they were profitable. In fact, they envisaged a billing for 2017 of nothing less than€150 million!
In fact, andhe 2017 goal for Hawkers was to sell 5 million units, which would make the company the third best-selling sunglasses brand in the world in number of units. For this, they did not hesitate to resort to commercial agreements with great stars of the level of Leo Messi.
We’ve designed a new collection of sunglasses from the greatest soccer player in history.
Shop: ⏩
—HAWKERS CO. (@HawkersCo)
Shortly after the close of the , Francis Perez, co-founder and CEO of Hawkers Co. explained the keys to the past, present and future of his brand in this interview.
Hawkers history: 2018 to present
Since then, many things have changed at Hawkers, both from a commercial point of view (with the opening that they complete their omnichannel approach) and from a financial point of view (with continuous rumors of serious losses) or organizational. Thus, in January 2018, O’Hara Capital, Alejandro Betancourt’s fund, injected twenty million more with which to promote the expansion of the company. This operation led to the departure of Álex Moreno, the founder of the brand, and Alejandro Sánchez, another of the promoters of the project.
After this operation, Betancourt further expanded his control in the company, controlling 50% of capital. The rest was in the hands of Félix and Hugo Arévalo, co-founders of the Tuenti social network and who attended the first round, and several founding partners of Hawkers and part of the management team, who were given a small package of shares. .
However, this management structure did not last long: a month later, Hugo Arévalo stepped down as CEO of Hawkers. At the end of 2018, Nacho Puig, CEO of Experience Group was appointed CEO of the Hawkers Group.
In that…
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