How Recovering from Addiction and a Chance Meeting Led to a $50 Million Business From a personal and financial freefall to an eight-figure online luxury resale empire, Christos Garkinos turned his life around.
By Anna David
Key Takeaways
- A chance encounter with a fellow recovering addict opened the door to unexpected opportunities.
- Pivoting quickly to an online live-streaming model during the pandemic allowed Garkinos to scale his business.
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Between 2014 and 2017, Christos Garkinos had pretty much lost everything.
His best friend had died. His finances had dwindled. "I got into a really fast crowd and a really fast marriage," he says. "I basically fell into a relationship and drug spiral for two-and-a-half years."
On May 1, 2016, he'd finally had enough. He committed to getting sober—and has remained so since—but he was still stuck with his debt and problems. At a chance meeting with the head of marketing at a Detroit hotel, "I said to her, 'I'm just trying to trudge my way through life,'" he recalls. "She looked at me and asked, 'Are you sober?' I realized then that 'trudging' is a big word in recovery. I told her I was, and she told me she was, too, and then asked, 'How can I help?'"
That encounter would lead to a series of unexpected opportunities that would turn Garkinos's life around, from rock bottom to launching an 8-figure business.
Related: We Have a Substance Abuse Crisis in The Workplace. Here's How — and Why — Employers Need To Act Now.
An obsession with HSN
Before he lost everything, Garkinos had worked for decades—starting at the age of four—taking orders at his parents' Greek restaurant.
Despite his working-class lifestyle, he was attracted to high style. He was also obsessed with the Home Shopping Network and working hard at school.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, he ended up being one of two undergrads to be hired as a brand assistant at the Clorox company.
From Clorox to Disney to Virgin to fashion
The next decade saw Garkinos opening Disney stores in Europe and working as head of marketing for his idol Richard Branson at Virgin. But when Napster brought the music business to its knees, Garkinos fell into what might have been considered inevitable: a career in fashion. He bought into a vintage store in Los Angeles that quickly became such a bastion of who's who that he was soon offered a reality TV show on Bravo.
Still, all he wanted was to be on the Home Shopping Network. And so, when the Bravo show wasn't renewed, his agent was able to get him on HSN, where he sold clothing inspired by pieces he recreated from celebrity's closets. It was an instant hit and for three years, he thrived. "But with HSN, you're great until you're not great," he says.
And then the downfall hit. Garkinos was climbing out of the dumps when the chance meeting in Detroit happened.
The woman set him up with a trunk show in the hotel lobby in March 2018, which led to shows in other cities. By February 2020, the business was generating $200,000 a month in revenue.
Covid took the trunk show online
When a global pandemic put an abrupt end to traveling luxury trunk show sales, Garkinos knew he needed to pivot. He logged onto Instagram, where he had only around 3000 followers and saw a DJ performing an IG set that 100,000 people were watching. It suddenly hit him: he could launch his own version of HSN for luxury goods by going live.
The first IG show gathered around eight people, but he started bringing fashionable friends on, and the crowds began to gather. More relevantly, the crowds began to buy, making offers in the comments. Late in 2020, when that vintage dealer reached out and asked him how much commission he charged for other people to come on and run their own auction shows, he realized he didn't have to go live himself for two hours a day anymore. He had created, on Instagram, his own Home Shopping Network for luxury goods.
Unimaginable growth and the future
With 225 hours of livestream programming a month across different platforms and sales categories as diverse as vintage luxury, home beauty, and celebrity closets (hello, Jennifer Aniston!), @covetbychristos has now crossed $100 million in sales since its inception. It's now on track to hit revenue of up to $50 million alone in 2024.
With that sort of success, it's not surprising that the company is now receiving acquisition offers. Even though Garkinos is crucial to the network's success—he meets up with clients (known as #stossquad) in European cities for an event they've coined Christos Con—he swears it will be able to thrive without him.
"I used to be 100 percent of all shows, and now I'm down to 25 percent," he says. You've got to admit it: a kid who started working at four deserves a break.
