Some people are born entrepreneurs. And if there ever was one who fits that description, it is Christo Demetriades. He has spent most of his life and certainly his career in business for himself. It’s been a life of risks and rewards, highs and lows, challenge and achievement. As Demetriades says, that’s par for the course.
But Demetriades’s entrepreneurial life is anything but par. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Demetriades, even as a child, had an entrepreneurial edge. Before he graduated from WITS University, he started his first business with $20,000, a lifetime of savings. The company was Cosmotrade International, and for a solid year this fledgling import-export business was draining Demetriades dry. “There were many days when we struggled to make a payroll,“ Demetriades relates. “I didn’t know what I was doing but, after a year, I knew what not to do, which was persisting and expecting a different outcome.
That’s when Demetriades decided to pivot and import polyethylene for the growing South African plastics industry. The first of many achievements, Cosmotrade quickly became one of the largest importers of polyethylene in the country by spotting a growing need and finding reliable partners that could scale.
“While the business generated a lot of cash, I knew that wealth-building took acquiring appreciating assets, so I decided to expand into investment banking.” Demetriades acquired his first restaurant, Bourbon Street Café, then Flame Burgers, creating FoodGro, a multi-concept franchise company. More business acquisitions under the name LeisureNet followed, including Health&Racquet Club, a 25-unit mega health and fitness concept. When LeisureNet went public, the value was $75 million. With all that achievement, in 1994 Demetriades won Young Businessman of the Year.
Demetriades’s success allowed him to see the world. He could have lived anywhere but chose Arizona as his new home because he felt it offered the best entrepreneurial opportunity. By using his abilities to find deals (this time in real estate), assemble investors and negotiate win-win agreements, he was able to repeat his success.
Christo and his family immigrated to the United States from South Africa in 2001, landing in Scottsdale, a new frontier that would bring fresh entrepreneurial challenges. Despite his many business achievements, nothing came close to the challenge of moving a world away. Terrifying, heart-stopping, exciting, a new beginning in the land of opportunity, riding the commercial real estate wave. “My family put their hopes and dreams in my hands and that was a huge responsibility.”
Then came the Great Recession of 2008. But, as real estate values everywhere plummeted, Demetriades decided to chase the trend down. “No banks were lending money, and investors had dried up, so I began selling assets at a dramatic loss or borrowing against them just to stay afloat. I was prepared to do whatever it took to save my name, my investors, and my business.”
With virtually nothing left, Demetriades faced the prospect of starting over. Additional turmoil came in 2013, when his sister’s visa renewal was denied and she was forced to leave the U.S. Demetriades’s parents decided they needed to follow her. “Not only was my financial world in ruins, now my family life was falling apart, too. Everything I had worked so hard to achieve was gone.”
It’s hard to believe that getting a family dog could spark a turnaround, but that is what happened. “In August of 2016, I woke up and said to my wife Leighanne, ‘We are getting our son Michael a dog for his birthday, and this dog is going to change our lives.’” Soon after, Georgie took up residence and, surprisingly, life took on renewed positivity and energy.
First, Demetriades partnered with Trefethen Advisors a boutique investment banking firm, which gave him a platform, purpose and capital. He was doing deals again, felt part of the business world, and was getting back on his feet. “Getting into the deal flow again brought me back to life,” he recalls. That charged his entrepreneurial spirit, so, in 2017 he opened Taphouse Kitchen — and he was back in the food business. A year later, LunchboxWax landed on his desk and, with an abundance of wisdom and energy, he put an investor group together in 24 hours and closed the deal. Two years later, they doubled the size of the business, and a year later sold it for a profit.
“When you’re doing something you’re born to do, you have to keep going.” By being transparent with investors, putting them first, and striking new partnerships that benefited everyone involved, Demetriades began to reclaim his footing. People believed in him because the opportunities he brought forward made financial sense and had significant upside.
Most recently, Demetriades, along with franchising veteran Heather Elrod, started Conscious Capital Growth, an acquisition and investment growth accelerator firm focused on the franchise business sector, which he believes has the potential to be a billion-dollar company. Demetriades’s direct and transparent communication style inspires belief, then his actions and results affirm it. His motto is, “Surround yourself with the best people. Say what you’re going to do and do what you say.”
In 2023, Demetriades was honored by Entrepreneur’s Organization as Entrepreneur of the Year. “This award symbolized far more than the businessman of the year award I had won 28 years earlier. It was more poignant because of what I had lived through,” he says. It is a testament to his philosophy: “If you were successful once, you can be successful again, no matter the circumstances. Use your smarts, use your wisdom, and do the work.”
