“We thought that we were on a rocket ship”: How July co-founders bounced back after 95% loss in revenue

You’ve likely heard of the up-and-coming Aussie luggage brand July by now, or at least seen the often-personalised suitcases in the hands of the nation’s top athletes. 

For founders, Richard Li and Athan Didaskalou, the aim is to see at least 10 July products every time they’re in an airport. 

If they don’t, then they “haven’t sold enough”, Didaskalou jokes when I sat down to chat with them both in their Collingwood store-office hybrid. 

But it’s the opposite that’s true. 

July sells ‘tens of thousands’ a products a month, which has seen the startup grow 1000% in sales over the last year; employs more than 20 staff in Melbourne, along with contractors overseas to help with its growing international interest; has raised more than $10 million in funding; and is about to open its third retail store in Australia. 

While the co-founders can’t share current revenue figures, they do say that in 2019, July was on target to record $5 million in revenue, before that pesky thing called the COVID-19 pandemic came along. 

Yet through resilience, strong leadership and the ability to adapt, the July team turned it all around.

The founder relationship

Li and Didaskalou had known each other for years through the e-commerce and startup scene in Collingwood, Victoria. They were often both working out of the same co-working spaces, or would run into each other at local startup scene events. 

Didaskalou was a bit of a serial entrepreneur, starting a coffee subscription business and a co-working venue, while Li had co-founded a data-safe furniture business. 

The pair always said that it would be great if they found something to do together and, in 2018, decided they should “tackle some opportunities”. 

Their focus turned to luggage, where “once you scratch the surface”, you recognise it’s all dominated by one player: Samsonite — and the multiple other brands it owns, Didaskalou explains. 

“Everything we’ve both done in the past, it’s always been about making stuff and owning the stuff that we make. 

“So we thought we could probably come in here [to the luggage scene] and do something.” 

And do something they did. The pair started reading reviews of other luggage companies and, essentially, “just saw what everyone else did wrong”, Didaskalou says. 

“That started the journey,” with the company officially being registered on July 7, 2018. 

Li and Didaskalou received early support from angel investors — one being Li’s good mates — who gave the co-founders $250,000 before the company registration even actually took place. 

After that initial funding came in, “we put ourselves into a room for six months and got it done. And we didn’t come out until it was,” Didaskalou says, explaining the design process for the first set of cases. 

“Then we pre-sold our first container [of luggage] in December that year for Christmas.

“It was the beginning of a great journey.” 

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‘First-year arrogance’

That first container had 1000 of the original July suitcases, with a big chunk of such, Li says, being purchased by family and friends to give the co-founders early support. 

After the success of the first case, July kept growing through word of mouth. The co-founders saw a huge amount of sales in 2019, and knew they were “onto something really, really big”. 

“We opened our first retail store mid-2019,” Didaskalou said, reminiscing with Li about how they used to throw parties at the store in the middle of a popular Melbourne shopping centre as though they were millionaires. 

“We thought that we were on a rocket ship,” Didaskalou admitted, acknowledging that “there’s a level of arrogance and stupidity in the first year of being a founder”. 

In 2020, that rocket ship swiftly came back down to Earth. 

From the $5 million in revenue that July was on target to hit in 2019, the company experienced a 95% loss of revenue in 2020. Some days, Didaskalou and Li were even recording negative numbers, with people returning cases (July has a 100-day return guarantee) considering they couldn’t travel. 

“We had to make some really, really quick decisions,” Li said. 

Those decisions included finding countries that weren’t experiencing lockdowns — such as China — to start shipping products to as domestic travel remained popular. Then, once the rest of the world slowly started opening up ahead of Melbourne, the team shifted the focus to the US market, too. 

Throughout it all, the local July team never stopped developing products, knowing there were greener pastures ahead. 

“If you could brand 2020 in a word, it was resilience,” Didaskalou said. 

Along with resilience, the pair also put the brand’s strength down to their ability to ‘lead from the front’. 

And there’s a clear level of transparency at the July office. The co-founders sit with the rest of the team at desks that are in sight of the retail space, with product design thinkboards and roadmaps to partnerships on view in the kitchen space. 

Plus, when a consumer comes into the store to buy a product, “there’s a one in 10 chance you’ll be talking to one of the founders”, Didaskalou says. 

“The product is fantastic, but we’re so committed to [the business],” Didaskalou added, explaining that both himself and Li are still answering customer tickets themselves and finding out “more and more” about their community every day. 

“There are all these little bits and pieces that add up to what July means.” 

A great product, versus a great Aussie product Aussie

Consumer attitudes undoubtedly shifted during the pandemic and some may even be for the better. In particular, COVID-19 saw an uptick in ‘shop local’ and ‘support small’ campaigns, urging Australians to keep supporting the SMEs struggling during the pandemic. 

As a luggage startup trying to grow while the travel industry was in dire straits, it’s hard to deny that July was struggling. 

That’s not the case anymore, and Li does acknowledge that a lot of July’s popularity probably comes down to being Australian-owned, and this growing consumer-shift to understanding where your products come from. 

But he also says it’s about being a great quality product, first. 

The brand has even secured the tick of approval from some of Australia’s top athletes who use — and promote — July. 

The Winter Olympics was first major partnership that July took on — the co-founders say they had done a little bit in the past with local brands — although Li says it was “a bit of a fluke, more than anything else” with the team needing something quick, and July being able to fill those needs. 

“We had feedback from the athletes saying it was the best swag they ever received,” Didaskalou said. 

Such high praise has seen July score an ongoing deal, with the team to now supply customised luggage for the Paris Olympics, alongside its partnership with the Commonwealth Games.

July Carry On suitcase with the 2022 Commonwealth Games symbol. Source: supplied

July next year? Australia’s largest export

Thanks to these partnerships, the US launch, and its, Aussie-made product, July is currently seeing a 50% increase in sales month on month — “which makes us one of the fastest growing businesses,” Li says. 

And that’s not just on Australian shores, but on a global scale. 

Now, the two co-founders see themselves very much in the Aussie export category, and that’s where they want their brand to be: an iconic Australian export. 

Coincidentally, all of the team’s big moves seem to happen in the month of July. Last year, the brand launched in the US in July, and so by July 1 next year, the UK is the goal, Didaskalou says. 

“And we could do it. We’ve got the products that are already getting traction [overseas]. People love them.

“We just need to find some more great staff, and hiring at the moment is quite hard.”

The growth opportunities, says Didaskalou, are exciting. 

“A business is always your baby, but now you’re seeing it like ‘oh, they’re at school now’. And it’s nice, right?”

“It’s nice to see the baby grow up a bit. That’s what we’re excited about.”