Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
Vision Pros. I'm your host and coach, Fletcher
Ellingson, today on the show. I'm looking forward
to this conversation with Mr. Francesco Hayes,
who is living in the D .C. area. Francesco is
the founder and CTO at Luxera, and we're going
to get into what Luxera is in just a moment,
but first, welcome to the show, Francesco. Yeah,
yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. It's good,
I'm looking forward to the call. Like I told
you, we always like to start off with something
that's feeling good, that's going well in your
life because there's enough suffering out there.
We don't even have to look for that, but let's
practice focusing on something that's going well.
What's going well in your life? What's a win,
professionally or personally? I'd honestly probably
say this most recent project that I've taken
on here at Luxera. It was a big pivot from where
I was originally. career -wise and having this
opportunity come into my life and seeing the
change that's already taken effect has been a
huge win. Right on. So bring us up to speed then.
What is Luxera? I've not heard of it before my
conversation with you, so let's cue the listeners
in on what that is. Yeah, so Luxera is a healthcare
startup based out of the UK where we specialize
in connecting people with healthcare clinics
around the world. whether it be within your country
or without more oftentimes than not, it's likely
to be outside the country to receive more affordable
health care. And so right now, like Sarah, we're
starting off with cosmetic based procedures such
as like hair transplants, Botox, you know, beard
transplants, eyebrows, facelifts and dental.
OK, so how did you get involved with this? Yeah,
so that's a fun little story because before this,
I was, I mean, I worked with startups before
and I came on more with a contract role and would
kind of help clean up a lot of the nuances that
come with doing a rushed MVP. So I did a lot
of the cleanup work there with different development
teams. But this one was pre -development, so
it was a little bit new. I got to actually come
on full time, which was nice. So that made the
connection through my cousin of all people who
was talking to a friend of hers who is Nick.
Nick Weeks, he's the CEO of Luxera. And they'll
go on these trips and they were talking. They
recently lost their developer. He had to leave
on his own accord due to some emergencies. And
they were looking for another developer. And
she was just like, well, if you can convince
my cousin, I think he'd be the right fit. And
so we got into contact. Nick shared the vision
and shared kind of what this project was. And
I was just like, oh, my gosh. All right. Like,
what can I do to be a part of this? Because this
is something that I can see myself using later
down the line. And obviously, like, it's clearly
going to make an impact on a lot of people's
lives. Yeah, and because there's, as everybody
in the U .S. knows, there's a big problem with
the healthcare system being that it's out of
reach financially for most people, yeah? Yeah.
I mean, especially the type of procedures you're
talking about. You were talking to me pre -show,
like, you know, a hair transplant can be anywhere
between $30 ,000 and $60 ,000. Is that accurate?
Yeah. Yeah. So hair transplants here in the U
.S. will run you close to thirty sixty thousand
dollars to be done by like, you know, a reputable
clinic individual. And even then you're looking
at least at a minimum of thirty thousand dollars.
And that's just for the first time. You know,
like I was saying before the show, that's if,
you know, they get it right. You know, that's
not counting post care. That's not counting if
they did something wrong and they have to fix
it. A lot of these clinics will will charge you
twice and or have some other form of incentives
that you have to cover. And so what you're saying
is Luxera is a company that hears what your need
or desire is in the realm of health care. And
then it matches you with companies that can deliver
that outcome. And they may be in different parts
of the world. Is that accurate? Yeah. Yeah. So
the way the platform works is we we onboard you.
by asking you a number of questions to further
get a rough idea. You'll upload some pictures
of yourself. We'll take those, we'll scan them,
and then we'll recommend you the clinic that
specializes in based upon what phase of whatever
kind of procedure you're trying to get. Keep
consistency here with hair transplants being
one of the first ones that we're starting out
with. Depending on where your hairline is, different
what they call Norwood scale levels. maybe some
of your viewers might have seen it if they've
ever gone to like a different website or trying
to different hair loss products they'll ask you
like where your hairline is and based upon you
know the shape and progress will depend on where
you are on the norwood scale based upon that
and what type of hair curly you know thin straight
all determines what you know the what best fit
will be for you also depending on like Whether
you're able to travel or not and how far you're
willing to travel and what countries you're comfortable
with traveling to. All things that we try to
take into consideration and sharing because,
you know, we want our users to be comfortable
and we want them to feel safe. That's one of
the things that we are trying to tackle, you
know, being this knowledge base of informing
people of some of the risks that do come with
traveling outside the country, but also mitigating
a lot of that risk that comes with it. Um, and
making sure that like, you know, just because
they're a hair clinic doesn't mean that they
might specialize in every, you know, form of
hair, you know, there are different clinics that
are better than others. And, and we at Luxair,
you know, we have a team that, that goes out
and works with these clinics and figures things
out and make sure that, uh, they're being kept
up. And, uh, you know, we do our best to make
sure that what you're being recommended is the
best fit. Got it. So this show is called Vision
Pros, right? And I define a vision as a clarified
story in the mind with the intent of bringing
that into the physical realm. So what I want
to know from you is what is your vision? Yeah,
you know, when I first kind of started working,
I started my first business. My whole kind of
spiel was just like, I want to experience this
world and I want to see every end to it. I see
this world as like a gift and almost like if
I'm not doing my best to go and experience it,
it's almost like taking it for granted. And so
that's where kind of like where things really.
came to and eventually that developed into just
like you know as i started to explore and travel
more um as my business grew and i was able to
afford such uh luxuries um i found myself like
all right how can i make this a better place
like what can i do and there's so many different
ways to go about it you know different levels
of service different different forms of products
there's there's so many problems um and not always
are they just like right in front of your face
you know However, you want to consider it as
making the world a better place. That's that's
I think is very much on a personal level. But,
you know, with the kind of teams and projects
that I was given, I always made sure that they
had some form of making the world a better place,
you know, depending on whatever they were building.
Currently, my vision now is just to with this
project coming on full time that giving everything
to it is to help. change our way of thinking
for healthcare. You know, I feel like here in
the US, we're very much under the impression
that, you know, US is like the number one. I
don't want to go anywhere else. Like, it's not
safe. Healthcare isn't the same kind of deal.
And there's part of that. that it can be true
for different countries, but there's a lot of
countries out there where the healthcare level
is the same, if not better. And that was something
that I realized as I was traveling and meeting
with different clinics around the world. You
know, the big eye -opening part was when we went
to Turkey, obviously. Turkey is very much known
for their hair transplants, people traveling
out there. my perception as an American to going
to Turkey was, you know, I wasn't really sure
what it was going to be like, let alone the hospitals
and some of the clinics there. And when I went
into one of these clinics, I was just like, oh
my gosh, this is so nice. I feel like I'm in
like a sci -fi movie or something. They had like,
you know, one of them had like a holographic
display. It was insane. And it was very clean,
very nice. The customer care was top of the line.
it just blew me away and so um when i saw that
i was just like people need to know about this
and you know there's no reason for us especially
like as we become more and more of a connected
world for us to feel like the sense of being
married to just one location when there are plenty
of other locations that can offer you know depending
on where you are in life you know financially
or whatever affordable if not better care for
you yeah got it okay so so I'm going to go back
to this question, what's your vision? What I
heard you say a couple times between the lines
was you want to make the world a better place.
Yeah. And that can be something that you can
focus on no matter what you're doing, right?
Yeah. Whether you're building a startup, whether
it's in your marriage, whether it's as a parent,
whether it's as a traveler of the world, we can
all seek. to make the the world a better place
and that's what sounds like you're saying part
of your vision is just yeah yeah i'd say you
know as cliche as it is i definitely believe
that's what my vision is you know obviously right
now the luxer is with my vision right now it's
with luxer to help make the world a better place
by providing more affordable health care options
you know outside of outside and through the world
by connecting individuals through that um 10
years down the line that could change yeah in
the end the the commonality and uh recurring
thing will definitely be like what's going to
help what's going to help people what's going
to help make this place better so so there might
be some people listening out here they're like
hey this sounds kind of cool like i've been thinking
about hair transplants right or i know somebody
who is thinking about it um this is a very common
thing um in our world uh but what they may not
have considered is going outside of their country
in order to do that so in a nutshell what does
it look like to work with you all i mean and
where might you be connecting to what other countries
might you be connecting these people yeah so
right now um you know this is very early startup
phase so most the clinics that we've onboarded
are strictly in greece we have a couple in turkey
uh that we will refer people to but for the most
part uh greek the greek clinics is where we'll
be sending people um you know the journey you
know with us is going to be very much different
to where some of these individuals might have
seen if they've looked for hair transplants right
now You know, the form of getting a hair transplant
is one by either catching them on TikTok or Instagram
Reels or whatever and connecting via messaging
and then communicating through WhatsApp. All
the process is pretty much done through WhatsApp.
And that's when we kind of saw it's like, OK,
like this can be fixed. This can be streamlined.
And this can, you know, one, this will help.
the patients. And this can also help the clinics.
One, they're just not having to go through WhatsApp.
There's not many Americans I know that have a
WhatsApp anyways. And also when you do these,
when you go on these ventures, a lot of times
they will have you travel with cash. Not everyone
may feel comfortable with traveling with cash.
A bunch of red flags here. She's like, all right,
we can fix this. We can do this. Right. And so
when it comes to like working with Luxera, you
know, you'll be on board to the platform. You'll
be recommended, you know, depending on the questions,
the set of clinics, you'll be able to view the
before and afters from their patients, see their,
the reviews as the reviews grow and develop on
the platform. Cause we're doing our best to make
sure like, you know, obviously we're, we're doing
our best to make sure that we're finding these
top and clean clinics. Um, but obviously there
are tons of clinics out there who will make reviews
as we see with any small business, you know,
they'll just make fake reviews. And so, um, you
know, we're having that set of controls where
like, all right, you know, verified reviews from
the platform kind of deal before and afters,
they can provide a different about what's their
procedure. Cause their process. It can vary depending
on where you're at with whatever, depending on
the procedure for hair transplant, depending
on how far back your hair is or how much you've
lost. But the consistent part is, you know, you
go on, you'll message them. They'll give you
a quote. You'll be able to pay that quote online
through our platform. We'll hold on to the funds
for security. And then you'll book your ticket.
A lot of times they have different packages to
where they'll offer. Sometimes they'll include
flights other times. But for the most part, they'll
often include a hotel and, you know, picking
you up from the airport, taking you to and fro.
A lot of times it's all included in these packages.
So you'll send them your ticket if you're buying
the ticket or if they're buying it. And then
it's just a matter of then going up to the flight,
flying over. They pick you up in this nice van
or. car whatever it may be they take you they
walk you through the process you go through it
all um when you arrive there's normally some
forms that you have to sign all those are scanned
over to us that way we're tracking the process
seeing how far you are there are multiple checkpoints
throughout to where you the user uh and patient
will be able to be like all right this is where
i'm at like have you signed the consent forms
you can hit check we'll be notified that okay
they're at this phase there's like all right
it's surgery day you know the clinic will be
sending in updates to the platform also so you'll
be with someone every step of the way got it
um and then once the procedure is done they will
send us the pictures you'll confirm that they're
it's obviously you and once we've confirmed that
the procedure was successful and everything was
good then we release the funds to the clinic
they get their paid and you fly on back and everything's
good to go thanks for taking the time to walk
us through that but i think all over no no sorry
uh what i my takeaway my biggest takeaway with
what your company is doing besides just actually
connecting the client to the clinic is what you're
doing is providing a high level of certainty
yes right i mean that's that's really what you
guys are doing we're making a connection and
we're helping you feel certain that this is all
legitimate and it's going to go well, which is
huge, right? Because when people don't have a
high level of certainty, they're not going to
follow through with the action. So just the way
you were able to stair -step us through that,
make sure that they know that there are all these
checkpoints in place, the funds aren't released
until the deliverables occur, all that kind of
stuff, right? creates a sense of certainty for
the client and they're like, oh yeah, okay, let's
do it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that level of certainty.
And also one of our biggest missions too, is
really just to be a, be a knowledge base to inform
potential patients and users, just like what
this entails. Because you may find that like,
Hey, this is not something for me and that's
okay. In the end, we want you to be comfortable
as a user. um as a patient as you're traveling
outside because that's a lot of people aren't
maybe familiar and or comfortable doing that
let alone having a health procedure done a surgery
maybe even so we want to make sure we do our
part in educating the user and also um you know
mitigating as much risk as we realistically can
yeah right on um so if somebody's interested
in this so like yeah i want to talk to these
people about this how do they how do they reach
out to you yeah so right now we are we're in
our early stage of setting up so if you're someone
who's wanting to do this uh you're very fortunate
because for our first handful of our first like
a couple 50 to 100 users we will be joining you
on board so we'll have some part of the team
with you throughout the entire process you can
either reach out to me on my social platform
or also just through the actual website um there
should be yeah it's luxera .com l -u -x -x -e
-r -a .com you can sign up or fill out the email
form um like i said this is very much you know
you're being It's an early startup, so you get
to be a part of this journey and help kind of
flesh things out in the beginning for the future
set of users. So it's an exciting time to join
us. And that again, that website is LUXXERA .com,
Luxera .com. All right. Hey, Francesco, we're
out of time here, but thanks so much for joining
me today. Really intriguing what you're what
you all are doing here. And I wish you all the
best. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. It's been a pleasure.
Thanks. All right. Take care. Thank you for being
here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in
to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing
your reactions as these episodes continue to
move forward. This is going to get more and more
fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.