Alejandro Betancourt has established Hawkers Sunglasses as a major player that can compete with the sunglasses industry’s biggest names.
Hawkers Sunglasses Grows Under Alejandro Betancourt’s Leadership
In a few years, Betancourt has taken Hawkers from a $300 startup to a multimillion-dollar company that continues to grow.
Alejandro Betancourt Invested in Hawkers Sunglasses Early On
Hawkers Sunglasses initially began as a small startup that had no niche, but the company found its market within a few years.
Shortly after determining that designer-style sunglasses would be the company’s primary product, Hawkers received a sizable investment from Alejandro Betancourt.
Betancourt’s investment in Hawkers Sunglasses didn’t just provide the capital that was needed to begin aggressively growing the company, but Betancourt himself was a strategic partnership.
Betancourt knew how to scale businesses quickly and had done so with many other companies. This expertise would prove essential to Hawkers’ next major growth stage.
Hawkers Sunglasses Secures €50 million in Series A Funding
Within three years of the company’s initial founding, Alejandro Betancourt was leading Hawkers Sunglasses through its Series A financing round.
The successful capital raise garnered €50 million (~$56 million at the time), providing the funds necessary to take the company to its next level.
While not a comprehensive overview of all the company’s operations, this capital raise is emblematic of how aggressively Hawkers Sunglasses was growing at the time.
Betancourt completed the Series A financing round in less than a month, which is an impressive time frame for any financing round.
Revenues, profits, and market share were all being increased with a similarly aggressive attitude.
Upon the successful completion of the Series A financing, Betancourt was named the President of Hawkers Sunglasses. In his new role, Betancourt was enabled to utilize the capital raised as Hawkers further developed operations for future growth.
The Hawkers Sunglasses Brand is Launched
In order to reach this point, Hawkers Sunglasses launched its own brand of sunglasses. Designs were based on popular styles, and manufacturing was largely outsourced.
Today, the company’s manufacturing operations are located in China, Italy, and Spain — making Hawkers a truly international entity.
Before launching the Hawkers Sunglasses brand, the company resold Knockaround and Miss Hamptons sunglasses.
Seeing the success of these two sunglasses products was what led the leadership team to create an in-house brand.
By creating an in-house brand and outsourcing the manufacturing, Hawkers increased revenue, decreased costs, and grew overall net profits.
The company reached revenue of €15 million in 2014, €40 million in 2015, and approximately €70 million in 2016 — which is when Betancourt completed the Series A funding and became president.
Hawkers Sunglasses Sells Direct-to-Consumer
To continue keeping the company as efficient as possible. Alejandro Betancourt and his leadership team have always maintained a direct-to-consumer sales focus.
Even with the brand’s success and popularity, the company only used direct online sales so that its costs would be kept as low as possible and profit margins would remain high.
Going into traditional retail would’ve negatively impacted both of these figures.
Social Media Marketing Drives Hawkers Sunglasses
No matter how successful capital raises go, no company grows without good marketing. For Hawkers Sunglasses, good marketing has come in the form of influencers, celebrities, and sponsorships.
The celebrity and sponsorship efforts have helped establish Hawkers Sunglasses as a prestigious brand that’s now considered alongside major names in the industry. With the likes of A-list celebrities and NBA players wearing the glasses, there’s no question as to the prestige the shades carry.
With the major celebrities and sponsorships cementing Hawkers as a well-respected name, the company simultaneously invested heavily in influencer and social media marketing.
The company primarily uses Facebook to run ads targeted at influencers and ads that promote the sunglasses themselves. In total, the company spends tens of thousands of dollars each day on influencer and social media efforts.
Alejandro Betancourt Continues to Create a Bright Future for Hawkers
Hawkers have already reached $100 million in annual sales. The company has a strong sales presence in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe, including Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Moving forward, Betancourt has outlined plans for Hawkers to continue expanding into new markets, invest more in research and development, and make strategic acquisitions. The primary goal of the acquisitions is to bring more processes in-house and thereby further increase profit margins.
Hawkers Sunglasses Is an Exemplary Success Story
The history of Hawkers Sunglasses is the story of a small startup that began with only $300 and grew to be a $100 million company within less than a decade.
There are numerous lessons for other startups, but the most significant is the importance of a strategic partner like Alejandro Betancourt. Without his expertise in capital raising, growth, and marketing, the company would be only a shadow of what it’s achieved.
