How Alex Ikonn launched, grew and sold Luxy Hair

How Alex Ikonn launched, grew and sold Luxy Hair

 

IG: @alexikonn

YT: Alex Ikonn

Podcast: The Ikonns

 

What you’ll learn from this interview:

 

• How Alex launched, grew and sold a 7 figure business selling hair extensions
• Why he started to get depressed despite living the literal 4 hour work week, traveling the world and buying his dream car, and what he learned from this experience
• Why money doesn’t solve all our problems, it just creates different problems and what we really need to find fulfilment
• Why we’re currently living through the biggest shift in commerce and capitalism ever, and how to take advantage of that

 

My guest today is Alex Ikonn, an entrepreneur and investor based in London UK.

 

In 2008 Alex was on track to become an investment banker at one of Canada's big 4 banks, but a series of events changed this trajectory and he ended up unemployed, broke, surviving on Government benefits.

 

Inspired by the 4 hour work week and wanting to build a lifestyle business, Alex saw a gap in the hair extension market and founded Luxy Hair with his now wife Mimi and her sister Leyla

 

What started as a $20k investment from a personal line of credit grew over the next 8 years to a premium beauty lifestyle company with over 250 thousand customers in 165+ countries. Luxy Hair grew largely from social media including their YouTube channel which has 3.2+ million subscribers, half a billion views, and is the world’s largest hair channel. Luxy Hair has also been ranked in the top 2% of the best places to work in Canada.   In late 2018 Alex successfully exited from this business when it was acquired by Beauty Industry Group

 

Alex is also the co founder of Intelligent Change which is the company behind the Five Minute Journal and Productivity Planner, and he’s also an angel investor in many startups including the meditation app Calm

 

I wanted to bring Alex on the show to find out how he started and grew Luxy Hair, what he’s learned from starting and building numerous successful companies, and what’s next for him now that he has exited Luxy Hair