How These French Founders Built A Warby Parker Competitor That’s Even More Affordable

Forbes

Childhood friends Xavier Aguera, Charles Brun and Quentin Couturier started selling chic, inexpensive reading glasses in banks fifteen years ago. Today, Izipizi is in 85 countries, brings in $60 million a year, and is finally ready to conquer America.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonemelvin/2025/07/06/how-izipizi-built-a-warby-parker-competitor-thats-even-more-affordable/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, how these French founders built a Warby Parker competitor that's even

00:05more affordable.

00:08The three founders of Easy Peasy, a French eyewear company founded in 2010, are staring

00:13at a decades-old photo of themselves on an iPad in an office in New York.

00:18Now in their late 30s, Xavier Aguera, Charles Brun, and Quentin Couturier are 17 years old

00:24in the image, taken six years before the lifelong friends launched the brand that now brings

00:29in nearly $60 million in annual revenue.

00:33Founded in Paris in 2010 as C Concept, the affordable luxury brand, also known as Mastige, was launched

00:39a few months after and an ocean away from Warby Parker, but the companies have distinctly

00:44different visions.

00:46Both sell premium readers, sunglasses, and blue light glasses for less to chic customers

00:51who don't want to spend a fortune to see and be seen.

00:55Easy Peasy's prices range from about $50 to $75, while Warby Parker starts at $95 and

01:01goes up.

01:02But Warby Parker famously launched with a direct-to-consumer strategy, while C Concept opted for a brick-and-mortar

01:09approach.

01:10Both brands understood their customer.

01:12American consumers wanted the convenience of trying on glasses at home, while the French

01:17valued the in-store experience.

01:20Warby Parker has obviously been the more successful of the two.

01:24Its revenue last year was $770 million, but the brand has never expanded beyond the United

01:29States and Canada.

01:31Easy Peasy saw itself more in the mold of Swatch, the inexpensive Swiss watch company founded

01:36in the early 1980s that is now ubiquitous and includes such luxury brands as Omega, Breguet,

01:43and Blanc Pan.

01:45But that was not the dream when the three friends met as teenagers in Lyon, France.

01:48They each went to business school in Paris and all left wanting to be entrepreneurs.

01:53They reunited at 23 to start a business initially offering self-service reading glasses in places

01:59like banks and hotels, similar to a communal pen attached to a chain at a post office.

02:05Couturier, who oversees sales in European, Asian, and South American markets, says, quote,

02:10I had the idea at the beginning because my mom was always looking for her glasses in restaurants

02:15and banks.

02:16She would say, could you help me read?

02:18Give me your eyes.

02:20Our tagline was clear vision at your fingertips.

02:24They each invested around $6,500 each to get the business off the ground.

02:29And Aguera and Brunn had also just won a prize from their business school, which gave them

02:33access to bank loans.

02:35They borrowed an additional $260,000 in loans to launch and earned slightly more than that

02:40in sales in their first year.

02:43They doubled their revenue in 2011 and then grew again to around $850,000 in sales in 2012.

02:50Despite the consistent growth, it was not the success the trio had hoped it would be.

02:55Brunn, who focuses on the company's sales in North America, recalls, quote, We thought

03:00we could sell these all around the world to millions of places.

03:03The product was useful, but it was hard for people to understand the need and to convince

03:07places like banks and post offices.

03:10The first two years in the eyewear business showed the trio that there was also untapped

03:14potential in the more traditional market of reading glasses.

03:18So they pivoted in an effort to, as Brunn says, quote, reinvent reading glasses from conventional

03:24products to a sexy lifestyle and fashion product.

03:28They raised nearly $800,000 between two fundraising rounds in 2012 and 2013 from friends and family

03:34to support the new vision, which initially gave a minority equity share to two lead investors.

03:40Now working with a manufacturing company in Taiwan, they began selling their new glasses

03:45at trade shows to meet buyers and retailers from around the world.

03:49Their big break came when they launched in the luxury Parisian boutique Colette.

03:54C-Concept earned just under $4 million in revenue in 2013, also making a net profit for the first

04:00time.

04:01From then, the founders understood how to scale the brand.

04:05They started launching the product across Europe's most fashionable department stores

04:08and neighborhoods.

04:10The following year, the company expanded their product line into sunglasses and soon added

04:14kids and sports eyewear.

04:16C-Concept was still growing fast and the founders made another big decision – to rebrand with

04:22a new memorable name that's a play on Easy Peasy.

04:27For full coverage, check out Simone Melvin's piece on Forbes.com.

04:32This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.

04:46Read the screen in.

04:48Be done.

04:49I want to stay content.

04:50It's my favorite.

04:54Yeah.

04:55We're here at the top of the top of the top of the top of the bottom.

05:00Found a great question.

05:03I want to stay on the top of the bottom.

05:05I want to stay on the bottom.

05:07You can go on the bottom.

05:08I'm going on the top of the top.

05:10I want to stay on the top of the top of the bottom.

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