Meet Gerry Lianos, co-founder of Raffolux
I’m Gerry Lianos - the co-founder of Raffolux, an online raffling platform that gives people the chance to win amazing prizes for a low cost and support charities close to their hearts.
There’s always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?
I’ve always held giving back close to my heart and spent a lot of time volunteering in charity shops as a kid, where I learned bits and pieces about how the not-for-profit sector worked. I was, at the same time, hugely interested in the world of business and it was my dream to run a company of my own one day.
So, when my co-founder and I were exploring the idea of an online raffling platform (our initial idea was to create an eBay-style platform, operated by raffles rather than auctions), we realised that there was a huge opportunity to integrate charitable giving into the mix. We could create a space where people could enter for the chance to win incredible prizes... all while supporting charities of their choice every time they played. We had, as such, landed upon a really powerful way to encourage giving; donations would surely skyrocket if people received a chance to win something amazing alongside. And, in contrast with the lottery, they’d be able to choose exactly where their money went. Raffolux was born around a year later, and I haven’t looked back since!
What are your thoughts on failure?
That it’s an important part of getting things right. It’s so important, especially at an early stage of a start-up, to try new ideas and iterate constantly, and you are guaranteed to get it wrong a lot of the time. We have made hundreds of changes to Raffolux’s product over the last four years - and at least half haven’t worked - but it’s all about finding the right recipe for the long term and learning from each error. Generally, my feeling is that the less fearful you are of failing, the more likely you are to eventually succeed.
What does your business offer its target audience?
With Raffolux, we give our customers the chance to win amazing prizes for a low cost, while supporting charities of their choice. Whilst the national lottery raises an incredible amount of money for good causes, its players have two key frustrations; one, it’s almost impossible to win; and two, they have no control over which charities they support. Raffolux generates over a thousand winners every single week and allows people the chance to donate to a cause that they care about, and we’ve grown rapidly over the last few years as a result.
What are your thoughts on ‘no sleep’ culture as an entrepreneur?
That it’s more than a little ridiculous! Don’t get me wrong – you have to work exceptionally hard when you’re a founder or a key employee of a start-up or scale-up company, as the velocity at which your business evolves is a huge determinant of its success. Having said that, cutting your sleep short is rarely (if ever) worth it, and setting aside time to rest and recover is critical. Sleep-deprived people can make really bad decisions, and I’m glad that the no-sleep / permanent hustle culture gurus are on their way out of fashion.
What are your top three tips to hire and develop new talent?
To hire based on attitude and a willingness to learn rather than experience. Skills can be taught, whereas a poor mentality is much harder to deal with.
Be very careful when making all-star hires (they often don’t work out in small companies) and try to look internally to promote first if you can.
Always put in place an option scheme if you can! Employee buy-in is essential to any company’s success, and anything you can do to bring your staff closer to that mission is a big plus.
What would be your top marketing tip, to grow a business that is niche?
To find a niche within that niche and create the perfect product for that market first! If you can identify markets on a granular level and adjust your product to serve them exceptionally well, you can start to develop really powerful pockets of engaged customers that often come with huge positive externalities.
What was the journey like when you decided to raise funding for your startup? And what tips would you give to early-stage founders getting ready to take the same path?
The first round of funding is likely to be your hardest for a number of reasons; among the most important being a lack of third-party validation as to the quality of your product. We managed to raise our first formal round around 1 year after we began trading, but it wasn’t an easy process, and we got around twenty “no’s” for every one “maybe”. Clearly, all companies have different cost requirements to get going, but if you can operate on a very lean model, then my advice would be to do so and gain as much traction as you can before going to market and start investor conversations early – in a ‘keep tabs on our progress’ sort of way. Referring to progress against milestones you’ve made potential investors aware of in advance is a very powerful pitch, and they’ll grow more excited to join your journey over time.
In any case, raising a round of funding isn’t the be-all and end-all – I think it’s critical to focus on your product first and fundraising second, whatever stage you’re at.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as an entrepreneur?
The most important lesson I've learned is what it means to be optimistic. I always used to think that optimism was a personality trait - that some people simply wake up with the feeling that things are going to work out - but I now see it as a skill before anything else and one that you can only ever really develop when you're going through a difficult time. It's so important to consistently distil every negative situation into a set of positive options that you can take to resolve it, and to voice this approach to your team; negativity doesn't just impact your own ability to seek out creative solutions, but your co-workers' ability to do so as well.
Tell us about your journey into this market.
At the time of launching, we were entrants into a digital raffling industry that didn't really exist; our closest competitors were various prize competitions run by magazines and TV broadcasters, and the idea of a purpose-built raffle website was completely unique. As such, we not only had to navigate a particularly grey and unexplored area of the law but also write the playbook on what drives customer behaviour in this sector.
What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?
We created Raffolux with two goals in mind; 1) to disrupt the traditional lottery model by allowing people to win a world of prizes outside of just cash, with a guaranteed winner for each draw; and 2) to make donating to your favourite charity more fun. The end goal for us is to make Raffolux the first mass-market online raffle platform in the UK and to raise £1M a month for charity.
How much time do you spend on things that don’t add customer value?
In an ideal world, zero, although clearly, not every business function is customer related. Having said that, we do try as a company to take a customer-centric approach – if we think through the customer’s eyes first, it forces us to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points, and align our product in a way that suits them rather than us. It’s critical for all B2C businesses to think in this way, and distil this attitude across our entire team.
