Just four years after graduating Kyriakos Eleftheriou and Raouf Yousfi (MSc Management 2017) have been named in the Forbes 30 under 30 Technology category in Europe, taken part in the one of the most renowned startup accelerators around and raised $2.8m in funding with investment of some of the most prestigious investors in the world. It’s hard not be impressed by the drive and success already achieved by these two alumni as they challenge the possibilities of health apps with their startup Terra. Kyriakos tells us more.
Tell us about Terra
Our Application Programming Interface (API) allows developers to tap into fitness and health data generated by software and hardware. Think wearables from manufacturers such as Fitbit, Garmin and Apple, which generate health data. Currently that data is inaccessible to developers. Terra makes it easy for developers to access that information through a single source.
How does this help the wearer? Imagine if Spotify could access your heart rate to create better song recommendations, or if Netflix could respond to your stress levels and create relevant movie suggestions. Terra will enable users to connect their health data to apps for enhanced user experience.
How it all began
The question I was always trying to answer was how I can create value on scale. About 10 years ago, I was serving in the special forces. During my service there, I needed to perform at an exceptional level, at the worst conditions. For that reason, I was looking for things that could give me an edge in understanding my physiology, and hence I started using a heart rate monitor. The data I was getting from it were so useful, that made me buy every wearable out there. However, I could see that my data were constantly held inside of these wearables, and they were inaccessible by other apps. At the same time, my cofounder Raouf, was a competitive swimmer, and one day while discussing, we realised that we needed to do something about it. That’s how Terra started.
Over the last 5 months we’ve been through the best startup accelerator in the world, Y-Combinator, where we had the support from some of the best founders in the world, such as the founders of Twitch, Yahoo and Scribd. We then raised $2.8m from General Catalyst, Samsung Next, Next Ventures and Lance Armstrong, and football players such as Kieran Gibbs, Ilkay Gundogan and Dele Ali.
It’s difficult to articulate how pivotal Imperial was in preparing me for the business world. For a start it is where we as co-founders met and started this journey.
The whole journey has been a big learning curve. During our fundraising cycle so many things needed to be done right, but there were so many things to learn. First of all, speed of execution in our product was critical, to follow the user growth. Then optimising the user experience to ensure that we are building a solution that users wanted. Because of the great early user acquisition, it really helped us create a compelling vision to the investors. There are so many negotiations with elite investors and we needed to learn how to plan, and act at the same time.
Achieving goals
Graduating from Imperial was a huge moment for me. And I remember discussing with my co-founder Raouf on the day, that the next goal was being on the list of Forbes 30 under 30 – something we have pursued since. So after being lucky enough to be named as such, it’s a great sense of accomplishment, and an honour to be listed.
Advice to other entrepreneurs
Learn how to learn fast, and persevere through the struggle. Building a business is extremely difficult. It has so many segments, from marketing, to strategy, to sales, to product, so it’s inevitable to have many unknown unknowns. Making mistakes is the default. So getting it right requires you to go through the struggle of mistakes, learn from them the fastest way possible, and persevere until things work out.
How did the Business School prepare you for setting up your own business?
It’s difficult to articulate how pivotal Imperial was in preparing me for the business world. For a start it is where we as co-founders met and started this journey.
During my time at Imperial I learned both theoretical and practical knowledge, including cutting-edge technologies and innovations. Many distinguished CEOs and professors that spent their careers leading companies in technology, consulting and finance end up teaching at the School.
I was privileged enough to study and learn from the best students worldwide, while connecting with a global network of experts who I contact on a daily basis. I consult with my fellow alumni for financial, strategic and entrepreneurial advice, plus insights into the multiple markets.
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