Grana founder shares his story and talks about staying true to the original vision

(Fourth from left) Luke Grana.

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Luke Grana runs Grana, a Hong Kong startup that raised a US$10 million round from Alibaba Entrepreneurship Fund last year, only two years after they started operations.

I had the pleasure of visiting their beautiful 18,000 sq ft warehouse in the south of Hong Kong. I met up with him and also met a bunch of his team. Here’s his story as an entrepreneur.

Who is Luke Grana and what do you do for a living?

I’m Luke Grana and I’m the CEO and founder of Grana.com. It’s a new ecommerce fashion brand. We’re based in Hong Kong and we’ve been here growing for the past two and a half years. We’re still developing as a brand.

Tell us about your background and what led you to start Grana.

I was born in Sydney, Australia. I’m 33 years old now. I just had my birthday a few weeks ago.

Growing up, I always loved businesses and the idea of starting a business. I studied marketing at McCoy University. In my last year in university, I set up my first coffee shop in the campus. I set it up for almost US$16,000 and within nine months, I was able to sell it for over US$150,000. It’s a really good introduction to doing business.

During my first couple of years in university, I was working in different coffee shops and I saved up US$16,000 in two years. That’s what I invested in my first cafe.

Then, after university, I did two more cafes in Sydney. I set them up, built a small team, and sold them pretty quickly after opening them.

Then, from 2008 to 2012, I built a business called ChargePoint. We installed electric vehicle charging stations. I worked on that business for a few years, built a small team again, and raised a bit of capital.

But my biggest learning here was about market timing. When I was talking about electric vehicles, it was still the very early days. We were about 10 years ahead of the curve. I was able to sell ChargePoint to Latens, which is quite a big infrastructure company. Not a great exit, but it was good to have that experience.

In 2003, I was looking at new business opportunities. I looked at the fashion industry and realized that it’s being disrupted right now. There’s a very big legacy of fashion businesses, with thousands of retail shops with local warehouses and middlemen, and I just thought it’s time to change that with the growth of online.

In 2013, I had a trip to Peru to visit my brother and I learned about Peruvian Pima cotton. I realized that it is a beautiful luxurious soft fabric and a great product for selling T-shirts. So, I started working with some fabric mills in Peru.

But I realized I was not from the fashion world. I didn’t know much about fashion. So, I got a job at Zara in Sydney for three months. I was on the floor selling, speaking to customers in the changing rooms, learning about price points and styles. And then, I got a job for another three months at French Connection. I really had good on-the-ground experience, learning about fashion.

Which parts of the traditional process did you cut out to bring the costs down?

What was the rationale behind the pop-ups?

What were some of the challenges that you faced when you decided to move to Hong Kong?

What are your goals for 2017 and in the next 18 months?

Where does Grana stand 10 years from now?

What advice can you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?