Four friends in Spain started with $300 and a straightforward pitch: trendy sunglasses sold online at a fraction of what Ray-Ban charged. Hawkers launched in 2013, targeting young consumers through social media before Instagram ads became expensive and saturated. Revenue hit €15 million in 2014, then €40 million in 2015. Growth looked unstoppable. Then came the cash crunch. Despite surging sales, the company’s aggressive expansion had outpaced its internal financing capabilities. Operational losses mounted. The founders considered shutting down. That’s when Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López entered the picture, leading a €50 million funding round in October 2016—one of the largest startup financings in Spanish history at that time. One month later, the board appointed him president.
What followed offers a case study in how capital deployment, operational discipline, and calculated reinvestment can transform a promising startup into a durable business.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López had built his career identifying opportunities others overlooked—in energy infrastructure, ride-hailing, and African banking. Hawkers represented something different: a consumer brand with proven traction but serious structural challenges. The company projected €70 million in revenue for 2016 but was burning cash faster than it could generate sustainable profits.
“There are 10,000 good ideas out there,” Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López observed. “But not all of them come to be a successful venture because there are many factors that make them successful. The most critical one is the people.”
The founding team had demonstrated creativity and hustle. They had cracked the code on Facebook advertising early, becoming one of the first companies to exploit the platform’s algorithmic targeting for cost-efficient customer acquisition. They understood their demographic—average customer age was 27—and had built genuine brand affinity through influencer partnerships and limited-edition collaborations.
What they lacked was operational infrastructure to support scale. Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López saw his role not as replacing the founders’ vision but as providing the systems and capital discipline needed to sustain it. “When I hire people, I take a hard look at their experience. I want to know that they know more than me, that they’re better than me, that they have deeper knowledge than me in that industry,” he explained.
Most startups that raise big funding rounds immediately pour money into customer acquisition. Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López did something different. Rather than accelerating marketing spend, he focused first on the operational foundation that would allow Hawkers to scale without breaking.
The initial priority was manufacturing. Hawkers had outsourced production, which limited control over quality, margins, and delivery timelines. Under new leadership, the company brought manufacturing capabilities in-house, establishing production facilities in Spain, Italy, and China. The geographic spread served multiple purposes: European plants enabled faster delivery to core markets while maintaining quality standards, and Chinese production kept costs competitive for price-sensitive customers.
“Sustainability and profitability are two different things,” Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López noted. “Profitability is tough, but is something easier to achieve than sustainability, because in any industry, it’s very hard to predict where the market is shifting.”
Fashion brands face particular challenges on this front. Consumer preferences change quickly, and yesterday’s hot product becomes tomorrow’s clearance item. Hawkers addressed this by maintaining tight inventory controls and rapid production cycles. The company could respond to emerging trends within weeks rather than months, reducing the risk of being stuck with unsold merchandise.
The direct-to-consumer model remained central to the approach. Even as Hawkers expanded, roughly 90% of sales continued flowing through the company’s own online channels rather than third-party retailers. This preserved margins that would otherwise flow to distributors and gave the company direct relationships with customers—valuable data for predicting demand and refining product offerings.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López brought a different lens to performance measurement than the founders had used during their hypergrowth phase. Revenue growth, while important, mattered less than unit economics and customer acquisition efficiency.
“You have to use all the tools you have in marketing, creativity, reinvent yourself constantly,” he said. “It’s a very competitive market, and sustainability is something that you have to be on top of your game all the time to make sure your head is above water.”
Facebook featured Hawkers as one of its marketing success stories, noting an 86% increase in engagement and a 51% return on ad spend. Those numbers reflected a disciplined approach to paid acquisition—testing campaigns rigorously, cutting underperformers quickly, and reinvesting in channels that delivered measurable returns.
The company also built a Campus Representative Program with over 5,000 college students promoting Hawkers products at universities across target markets. Rather than paying wages, ambassadors received concert tickets, travel opportunities, and free products—keeping customer acquisition costs low while generating authentic word-of-mouth among the core demographic.
With operational foundations solid, Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López turned attention to expanding Hawkers’ footprint. The company opened physical retail locations—a move that seemed counterintuitive for a digital-native brand but served specific purposes. Brick-and-mortar stores in high-traffic locations functioned as marketing assets, building brand awareness among consumers who might later purchase online. By 2023, Hawkers operated approximately 70 stores across Spain and Portugal.
The retail expansion came with guardrails. Stores needed to justify their existence through direct sales and measurable brand lift, not just foot traffic. Underperforming locations closed. “Nobody has a perfect upper line,” Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López acknowledged. “People do get downturns and then get up and do better, or people don’t get up and do better. It’s really hard.”
International growth followed a similar pattern of disciplined experimentation. Mexico became a major market, eventually accounting for 35-40% of sales, boosted by sponsorship deals with Mexican Formula 1 driver Sergio Pérez. The company established offices in Hong Kong, Barcelona, Los Angeles, and Mexico City to support operations across more than 50 countries.
Celebrity partnerships and brand collaborations provided marketing leverage without proportional cost increases. Hawkers signed promotional deals with the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, PlayStation, Mercedes-Benz, and musicians including Usher and DJ Steve Aoki. Each partnership extended reach into new audience segments while reinforcing the brand’s positioning as accessible luxury.
The numbers tell the story of transformation. Hawkers grew from €70 million in projected 2016 revenue to more than $100 million in annual sales, with presence in over 50 countries and more than 4.5 million sunglasses sold. The company employed over 200 people across its global offices.
More importantly, the business achieved durability. Where many direct-to-consumer brands flamed out as Facebook advertising costs rose and competition intensified, Hawkers adapted. The company reported €55 million in turnover for 2023, with 12% year-over-year growth and projections of €65 million for 2024.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López continues pushing for reinvention. Recent initiatives include expansion into prescription eyewear and franchise models for international markets—moves designed to diversify revenue streams beyond the core sunglasses business. “Once I start something, I just don’t stop,” he has said. “I try to see every single option that could turn negative and try to mitigate it beforehand.”
The Hawkers story validates a particular theory of startup investing: that capital alone rarely creates lasting value. What matters is pairing funding with operational expertise, disciplined execution, and willingness to build infrastructure before chasing growth. Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López bet €50 million on that thesis. The returns suggest he was right.
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