“Everybody wants to get involved in something. It’s my responsibility as a brand, as the founder, to develop that community so it’s as easy for people to get involved.“
Aristotle Loumis – Founder & CEO of Ellison Eyewear; Building a company based on experiences; Customers as Investors; New rules of crowdfunding.
Segment 1: (Length :04:00) – General Updates; Introduction to Aristotle Loumis and his journey as an entrepreneur; Being an entrepreneur his entire life; Doing soul searching.
Aristotle’s finer points:
Obviously, it's a community effort and it's always nice to see other people in different industries work together, helping each other out, and supporting each other. One of the biggest mentors I ever had said that entrepreneurship is a community sport.
“I guess you could say I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I grew up on the outer sides of Chicago. Seven brothers, one sister, big family, single mother. We’ve always found innovative ways to make money any way we could.”
“I actually got my start from being the neighborhood pooper-scooper. I would go to some of the more affluent parts of the Chicago suburbs and I would offer seven dollars to pick up the dog doo-doo and then expanded my product offering and actually went into kitty litter as well and I charged five dollars for that.”
“I remember when I was ten years old having 40 accounts. I was bringing in like 400 a month. That’s where I got my start, but I guess you could say I’ve always been an entrepreneur. It wasn’t until I met my father in Greece when I was 18 that pushed me other the edge and really got me soul-searching and found my purpose in what I wanted to do today.'”
I didn't just fall into sunglasses. No one wakes up and says, 'Hey, I want to do sunglasses.' It was something that evolved and I worked myself into.
“Going back to the soul-searching. It was really impactful at 18 years old to meet my father for the first time. He’s an entrepreneur in Greece. To be exposed to my culture for the first time. First time being on an airplane, first time seeing the ocean, first time seeing my history. I guess travel … And this is something that is really, as a core value with Ellison is, really getting out there and getting lost and seeing the world.”
“The first time, like I said, on an airplane to see my father, being exposed to my culture, traveling around Europe, and that’s what lend me into what we’re doing today.”
I believe that the more traveling you do, the more you're one step closer to finding yourself. That's how my journey started.
Segment 2: (Length :08:00) – Talking with Aristotle Loumis; The concept behind Ellison Eyewear; Building on Community; Validating a product.
Aristotle’s finer points:
“It’s really around the entrepreneur, the visionary. We play around with the ‘see the world through a different lens’ the visionary, the pioneer.”
I was traveling, I was living life, I was seeing the world through a different lens. Really exploring myself. Losing myself in order to find my purpose, find myself, and find something in that process.
“In that experience, what did I lose a lot? Sunglasses. What started at 18 years old and grew to what I dropped out of college and started at 20, it was really dealing with my own personal pain points.'”
“It wasn’t until I launched the company in 2014 that I realized that everybody faced the same issues as well. After customer after customer going back to what you said regarding really selling this hands on.”
“I didn’t have a lot of distribution opportunity given the monopolization in the industry in which I operate, so I had to get creative on how I was going to reach my consumer. It was really selling out of the back of my car. In my backpack, going door to door, not only selling at that opportunity but getting to know how the industry operated and get a firsthand look on what the consumers wanted and what’s not going to be addressed.”
“What started off as, Case, we’re homies from Chicago. You would get a pair of sunglasses from me. Even at that event I did at your corporation, your office. I came in there and I’m selling at offices too. I go in there and out of those … I think we did 50 people that day. Out of the 50 people that have purchased a pair of sunglasses, I think within four months, I think about 20% of them have lost them, broke it, or someone stole it.”
“For me, he said, “I don’t want to drop another 150.” For me, I was like, thank you for supporting me, a start-up. I want to obviously value and reward you for coming back to me. I’ll give you the homie hook up and I’ll give you half off. What I realized, it started off as a friend that did that and then moved into a group of friends outside my family, and then ended up being, after two years, I had over 200 people in this secret club that I would just hook up. That’s when I realized that we were really onto something.”
Yeah, you lost a product. That sucks. I get it, but you are also doing some of the coolest things I've ever seen or heard through that story. THat's kind of what we do. We reward people for that behavior of getting lost versus punishing them.
Segment 3: (Length :10:00) – Developing a hard core relationship with the customer; New rules of crowdfunding; Having customers as their investors.
Aristotle’s finer points:
Essentially, you have to look at the industry. You have to look at how you're going to get to the distribution component. How are you going to get your product to that consumer?
“There’s many ways you can do it, but depending on the barriers to entry, you might be limited. For me, the only way I could do it was, given your bootstrap limited funding, limited resources, so it was really why am I spending all my time trying to look at these things when I should just try and find the consumer?”
“Street markets, direct to consumer, Facebook and social media. Just telling people what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, telling my story. You have a lot of people that are very interested in just being a part of a movement.”
What I tried to do and what we continue to do is build a community so that you can be a part of that movement. Everybody wants to get involved in something. It's my responsibility as a brand, as the founder, to develop that community so it's as easy for people to get involved.
“That’s what we did. We created a community and we created a platform for people to get involved.'”
“I’m always talking about community and involvement, this tribe, this cult. What started as a bunch of story-tellers … You lose a pair, as a brand, all we ask is how you lost it. Give us the craziest story and then we’ll reward that story with a pair of shades at exclusive membership price.”
“For me, it was really how do I get my people, this tribe, this loyal following, to be as close to the company as possible? There’s platforms out there like kickstarter, Indiegogo that historically have been a great way to get a consumer attached to a customer, but has changed actually recently in May 2016, the government and FCC had changed the rules and regulations around equity crowd funding.”
“What that means is that now these opportunities to get involved in a high growth company is now not only for the 1% and the rich. They are now open to anybody, everybody.”
For Ellison, what we're doing today now is now we are one of the first companies in the country on one of the first platforms, which is Republic, to then do equity crowdfunding.
“What that means is that as low as 30 dollars, you could be a part of Ellison, not only as a consumer, but as an investor. I know it’s a unique and different, so I’m doing calls everyday from 30 dollar investors all the way up to 10,000 dollar investors. Just getting them used to the fact that, hey listen, the things that have changed have changed to our benefit, both as the consumer and both as the entrepreneur.”
“Now there is no excuse. The internet is the ultimate equalizer and there’s no excuse now that why anybody with an idea can’t go on and get funding that they need. If you have an idea, if you have a passion, and you have the ability, then you could go on, make a video or do whatever it is to pitch it, and pitch it to your neighbors.”
Republic equity crowdfunding platform is giving the people the ability to do that. We're advocating it and showcasing people that. People are sick and tired of the way the government has been run. People are sick and tired of the way these monopolies and businesses have been run, so now it really gives the people.
“It just allows me to turn that consumer relationship with the business to be more streamline and more efficient. Going back to where we were two or three years ago when it was not that way.”
“I went and I pitched to the consumer. The biggest thing with entrepreneurs is they’re like investors, investors, investors. Well, that’s great, and while I was having those conversations with investors, while I was raising capital both traditionally and untraditionally, the biggest and most important investor that I could get day in and day out was my consumer.”
“If you speak to ten people a day and give them a great experience, they’re going to come back. Not only are they going to come back, they’re going to tell their friends.”
If you have a company that is only dependent on the investment, then you might not have a company. You really need to be speaking with the investors day in and day out and if it wasn't for that opportunity, and if it wasn't for that hands on approach, we wouldn't be here today.
“The only reason we’ve innovated and been able to prove and to adapt what the pain points were that were not being addressed is because I personally, and my team had personally went on and actually spoke with the consumers.”
“It’s really having that one-on-one relationship with them so they could then give you all that valuable data to then improve and make an experience better for them.”
Segment 4: (Length :03:00) – Hustler Thought of the Day:
The consumer is the most important investor. - Aristotle Loumis
GENERAL NOTES:
Aristotle Loumis – Founder & CEO of Ellison Eyewear
- Aristotle Loumis is the founder and CEO of Ellison Eyewear, a socially driven, luxury eyewear brand – the first of its kind, providing lifetime coverage for loss, theft or damage for all purchases with our innovative Club Ellison membership program.
- Ellison has attracted A-list advisors and investors, and has been featured in INC, Business Insider, NY Post, Life & Style Magazine, CBS, Fox News, and many more for its novel approach to addressing global problems.
- Over four years in the eyewear sector, Aristotle has a deep knowledge in international trade/manufacturing, & known presence for his philanthropic endeavors gives him the expertise to lead Ellison.
- Aristotle is a Chicago entrepreneur uniting his passion for fashion and style with his love for Greece and concern for humanity via a sunglasses line he’s named Ellison, which takes its name from the Greek word for sun, Elios.
- Check Aristotle out at http://wearellison.com | Ellison Eyewear Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
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