Sydney man makes $4 million in 18 months from Georgiemane hair mask idea

He went from making $60,000 a year at his local gym to becoming a multi-millionaire after launching his own company.

A former gym employee from Western Sydney on a $60,000-a-year salary has raked in a staggering $4 million in 18 months after launching a hugely popular hair product.

George Papura, 31, from Liverpool, launched Georgiemane in January last year.

The whole business premise was built around an idea he had for a 10-minute “hair mask” – which works similar to a face mask by “slathering” conditioner-like product onto your hair and leaving it there for a period of time. 

“I’ve been around hair my whole life,” Mr Papura said of his idea.

“Mum was a hairdresser. I’ve always been interested in business and marketing.”

Mr Papura performed so poorly at school that he received a mystery mark for his ATAR and had to wait until he was a mature age student to enter university where he studied exercise science.

Despite that, he’s made seven figures in nearly as many months, with his best day bringing in a whopping $80,000 in revenue.

By pure chance, Georgiemane launched just three months before the Covid-19 pandemic when hairdressers were shut – causing demand for his product to soar.

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George Papura is a former gym employee, now multi-millionaire.

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Mr Papura’s business was going OK for a start-up, selling about one or two products a day.

“We sold two units the first day. (We had) a couple of days with zero, then we got one,” he said.

“If you average it out we got one or two products a day. That slowly grew. Now we do about 400 a day.

“It was gradual – that makes it a very, very safe business.”

The Sydney man thinks his business still would have survived without the pandemic, but admits it may have played a part in accelerating his success.

“Would we be where we are now without Covid? I would say yes,” he said.

“People just love our product, they love pampering ourselves. They still go to a salon, we’re not trying to take away hair salons.

“But Covid has given [Georgiemane] a little nudge.”

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The hair mask is similar to conditioner, designed to moisturise the hair.

The hair mask launched in January last year.

Georgiemane started from scratch as a one-man operation but now seven people work under Mr Papura.

He planned to spend $60,000 out of his own pocket to start to business.

“It ended up costing $66,000 just to get the product, nothing else, still had branding and marketing [to do],” he said.

Altogether, he forked out $200,000 to get the enterprise off the ground.

He launched the hair product by sending out 500 packages to influencers around Australia and the rest is history.

On Georgiemane’s biggest hour to date, he made $26,000. The company’s biggest month was July 2020, when it made $415,000.

There have been around 50,000 customers with 100,000 orders between them.

Mr Papura has since added a hair growth spray and shampoo to the collection.

The product ships internationally, with Australians being its biggest buyers, followed by New Zealand and then the US.

Mr Papura flunked high school but is now making more money than most Australians.

Mr Papura credits some of Georgiemane’s success to a previous business venture, which gave him the capital and the skill set to execute his idea.

In 2017, he co-founded his own business, Happy Skin Co, with a DIY hair removal device being its main selling point.

He said that was a $20,000 investment that made $14 million.

“I had zero dollars when we launched Happy Skin. It was all out of my pocket,” he said.

“I was making $60,000 a year as a gym manager.

“Imagine going from working in a gym, to quitting in three weeks’ time, giving three days’ notice.”

That was exactly what he did.

However, he sold his stake in Happy Skin Co in 2019 and turned his attention to Georgiemane.

“In terms of success in how to run a business, I’m self-taught,” he said.

“You can’t teach that academically.

“It takes courage. Most people are scared.”

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