Intro: ALUX is an online tech luxury media company known in the media industry worldwide with a mission to change the world by educating over 1+ billion enthusiasts on what it takes to live a truly good life. This is why ALUX has been recognized and awarded by the experts at Luxury Lifestyle Awards in the category of Best Luxury Online Media in USA 2021. We spoke with Emil Anton, Founder and CEO of ALUX about his company’s journey and the successes that have allowed him to expand and continuously grow, globally.

Luxury Lifestyle Awards: Emil, give us an introduction about yourself. What journey were you on before you launched ALUX?

Emil Anton: Hello and thanks for having me. Born and raised in Eastern-Europe in a low-income family I have always had a fascination with people who are able to overcome their condition which lead to a continuously developing journey of bettering myself. After graduating from University and sampling the high tech & finance world, I decided it wasn’t for me and launched ALUX, which became one of the largest digital publications in the luxury and fine living space, in the world.

With my personal journey evolving, the platform evolved as well, from a luxury-centered outlet to a movement encompassing everything that contributes to living a fine life. I started documenting the things I’ve learned and shared it with our community in what is known today as the Sunday Motivational Video.

LLA: Tell us about your journey as the founder of the company? How much has changed from launching it in 2013 to now in 2021?

Emil Anton: In the beginning, our focus was on pure luxury: expensive lifestyle, premium hotels, luxury cars and we became the go-to portal for that, but we wanted more.

Being digitally native and connected to the internet culture, I was able to foresee the fall of blogs and the rise of video as the preferred medium for content consumption so we took the radical decision to switch all our efforts to video.

If 10 years ago you read several blog posts before you made a decision, now in 2022 the audience is more impulsive, you see a vlog or a TikTok with a destination and it prompts your future choices.

If in 2010 everything was long-form, a decade later we that attention-span and decision making time has been drastically reduced.

Not to mention that with the rise of cheap smartphones and mass internet adoption, everyone is more connected than ever, and has more access to information and opportunities than ever before. Although the purchasing power of the money is going down, there’s never been more wealth entering the market in all sectors.

LLA: What sectors of the online market did you explore prior to launching ALUX?

Emil Anton: Once we decided on the transition from a traditional blog to a full-on technology company we also looked at community-driven social media platforms. We’ve been toying around with the idea of having Alux as a portal that allows people with the same values and a shared desire to improve themselves, to connect with each other.

Competing with the likes of Facebook, Snapchat or Reddit required a much bigger financial commitment, building high-performance teams as well as a variety of skills we didn’t have at the time.

So we decided to build an organic marketing avenue first through our YouTube channel. Since we can’t compete, head to head in a war of customer acquisition, we started building a community first.

LLA: Please tell us – how accessible were luxury lifestyle materials and financial courses online, and in general, before ALUX was launched?

Emil Anton: short answer is: little to none. Everyone was scared of sharing intellectual property online because they saw it as diminishing their financial rewards. On YouTube, you barely saw snippets of authors doing interviews promoting their books but without sharing anything substantial. They made their money in selling tickets to live events. If you wanted quality & transformative information you had to pay a premium to access it, and we wanted a different kind of resource.

Because there wasn’t anything like that out there, we built it ourselves and that’s how Alux came to be.

We wanted a place where no matter where you are in the world, no matter at what your starting point you’re at, you could get access to the same kind of top-quality information only the privileged had access to. Alux ended up becoming the resource we wished we had when we were starting out and it has only grown and evolved since.

LLA: Do you have many competitors or are you in a more niche sector?

Emil Anton: Our mission at Alux is to improve the lives of over 1 billion people through education on what it means to live a good life. This is why we don’t see anyone in our space as “competitors” because our mission is not a zero-sum game. If we win that means they lose or the other way around. We are all helping humanity improve by being curators of knowledge.

Sure, with the launch of our new Alux app, we’re competing for attention in the same demographic with colossal players such as Calm & Headspace, but the underdog position is where we thrive in as it allows us to be more aligned with our community and be a lot more agile in our decisions.

LLA: What inspired you to create such a unique and diverse company?

Emil Anton: Growing up poor I saw my parents work non-stop to get us into the middle class and they have done so through discipline, hard work and a focused plan. When you grow up with that hunger, that fire burning inside of you, you don’t take it for granted and you get busy.

As time changes, more and more tools become available to the masses, so the game shifts from one where only a few people were allowed to play in, to one where everyone has access to the same opportunities and the winner is the one who wants it more.

We’ve been competing with the big boys since the beginning so we wanted to reflect that in our company.

Everyone in our team has been on a self-improving journey of their own and that drove our development, irrespective of geography.

Instead of having everyone in our company work in a single office, we’ve been pioneers of work from how years before covid. That has allowed us to source high-level talent from multiple parts of the world and all our contributors are free to travel the world as they work for Alux.

In order to maintain company culture, we have regular meetings online and once in a while, we all meet in one of the big capitals of the world to discuss our next steps. So far, it has proven both effective and cost-efficient.

LLA: How do you accomplish such a high-ranking level of service at ALUX and how do you and your staff members stay motivated during challenging times, such as COVID?

Emil Anton: We’ve always known what Alux stands for and the fact that we wanted to measure our success based on the impact we could have.

Because of the way we built the company from the start, when the entire world entered the lock-down phase, from a day-to-day perspective, for us it was business-as-usual.

What we wanted to make sure is that everyone working for or with us is safe, healthy from both a physical and mental perspective. Maintaining a sense of belonging and connection was crucial + a basket with all kinds of goodies always helps.

Once we were allowed to travel again, we made it a priority to see each other in person in order to pick up that momentum.

LLA: What modifications and developments in the luxury online tech market have you witnessed in the last few years?

Emil Anton: Brands are waking up and realizing they no longer need the middle man. You can talk directly to your customer. 10 years ago you’d never thought Gucci or Louis Vuitton would sell directly to the customer online, or that these brands might be on platforms like TikTok. Luxury products used to focus on an older demographic because they were the only ones that could afford them.

Times have changed and we’re seeing a new generation hungry for status and social approval that’s taking over and setting trends for consumer behavior.

We’re living through a unique time in history where people are belonging to digital communities first, so Alux is building to support a certain type of individual that’s looking to leverage today’s tools and historical wisdom to improve the quality of the life they live.

LLA: What projections do you see for the company’s development, and do you have any exciting plans set out for the future?

Emil Anton: March 2022, we’re bringing to market our biggest and most exciting product yet: the Alux App.

It’s like a performance coach in your pocket.

Daily bite-sized nuggets of gold, delivered to you in a voice that you know and love.

The Alux app is our flagship product and it has been under development for the past 2 years. It’s a continuously evolving app that has a single goal: that of making your life better.

Depending on which aspects of your life you seek improvement in, be it financial, relationships, emotional or physical health, the app was designed to be your number one tool in the process of self-mastery.

For only $99 per year (11.99 per month), you’re getting the absolute best of Alux, tailored to your specific needs, straight to your phone. It’s the game-changer for the entire self-help industry.

LLA: Lastly, how do you feel about winning a Luxury Lifestyle Award in the category of Best Luxury Online Media in USA 2021?

Emil Anton: We are humbled and grateful to be in this position. We’ve been so focused on building the best possible tools and content for our community that we never had the time to do press releases or media appearances. Having the industry and a prestigious outlet such as Luxury Lifestyle Awards notice our efforts is a clear indication we’re doing something right and now we’re more committed than ever! Let’s see how far we can take this!

Thank you!