Tom Munday’s business life started out going door-to-door near his home in Chester offering odd jobs and pet sitting. Even then, he knew he wanted something more – he had been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug at an early age.

Now Tom (BSc Management and IT, 2018) is living his dream. Earlier this year, Lux Rewards, the company he helped to co-found, was sold for an eight-figure sum to global rewards platform Enigmatic Smile.

“From the age of about eight, I always wanted to start a business, and it's always the absolute dream of an entrepreneurial person to get to the point where you make something and someone is willing to buy it off you for more money than it cost to make,” says Tom, who played a pivotal role in scaling Lux’s business, securing partnerships with major brands such as Just Eat and Acer Computers, and taking it from 1,000 card holders to more than 100 million.

“It is just amazing to be able go through the full journey. We're a recognised brand, we work with amazing banks, airlines and big businesses, and someone willingly paid us money to purchase the business. It’s all I could ever ask for.”

Tom joined Lux Rewards in 2020, when it was a struggling start-up. He had already been part of one start-up straight out of university – Pyro, a loyalty rewards business for nightclubs and nightlife – which was devised during his final year entrepreneurship module at Lancaster under Professor Magnus George.

That business closed after co-founder and fellow Lancaster alumnus Philipp Kuschnir returned to Austria for National Service. After a spell working with an experienced entrepreneur in London – working on a care home, a pharmacy, a chain of pizza shops, and a tech start-up (‘a very interesting 12 months’, says Tom) – Tom spotted his chance at Lux, whose rewards app with restaurants in London bore a resemblance to Pyro.

Through relentless sales efforts, he helped transform the firm to a high-growth platform. The major breakthrough came in 2021 and a deal with Barclaycard. Further partnerships to supply British Airways and Mastercard cardholders propelled the business even higher.

“The major pivot which completely transformed the business was going to banks and airlines that already had millions of members,” says Tom of Lux’s success. “They wanted to better engage their members. We had hundreds of restaurant partners in London that could provide cashback offers to their members when they spend. Our first partnership with Barclays took us from 1,000 card holders to 600,000 overnight. Now we're at 105 million.”

Tom’s successful move into entrepreneurship came after a late decision to study at Lancaster. An open day in the Management School persuaded him to switch from his previously-intended path of studying engineering.

“One of the things I noticed on the open day was it was attracting a lot of people who seemed like me, very entrepreneurial and very interested in the business world,” Tom recalls. “It’s something that I hadn’t really been around much with my school friends. I really was super excited. I think on that day, I changed my mind.”

Tom (second right) with his friends enjoying Roses during his time at Lancaster

The campus made an immediate impression – his parents amazed by having everything all in one place – and provided Tom with the chance to meet and talk with people daily who always had at least one thing in common: being part of the university.

Tom has a fond memory of the college extravs, of working on open days and honing his communication and presentation skills – while also making connections with parents who were themselves entrepreneurs – of the Boat Club (including rowing in competition back home in Chester), and of the Entrepreneurship Society.

“I remember with the Entrepreneur Society, I went to Manchester for a one-day conference,” recalls Tom. “There were 70 or so of us and we met all these other students doing entrepreneurship. I remember being surrounded by so many people who were interested in start-ups.

“On that day, I felt so in awe of all these really interesting people around me, and it really gave me a lot of motivation to continue in that world.”

His programme too shaped his ultimate career path, not just meeting his Pyro co-founder, but also coming across students from across the world with different attitudes and perspectives, and inspiring him to want to start his own business.

“My main influence was probably my final year entrepreneurship module with Professor Magnus George,” Tom says. “The main crux of it was in a group of 3-5 people coming up with a business plan. You would pitch it to investors at the end of the year, very much like Dragon’s Den.

“It gave me time to essentially start a business, which was incredible. Magnus’s energy and passion for the subject as well, was amazing. He really made us question everything. Ultimately, that was the class that made me turn down my graduate consultant job offer at IBM and start a tech start-up.

“I definitely took the approach straight after university that you should make big, bold decisions. I could throw myself into something high risk and learn a lot. The worst that can happen is that I learn lots of new skills, and I eventually go to the corporate world. But that has not happened, and I don't think it will happen now.”

That is one lesson Tom takes from his career so far, but there are others too.

“Network, network, network, and stay memorable,” is his main message to those following in his footsteps.

“The world is so small, and no-one should ever make enemies. I think it's a really bad thing to do because it will eventually come round and bite you.

“One thing I try to do very regularly is just keep in touch with people, because far too often you find people reach out to you only once they need something. It’s really obvious when it happens.

“Instead, I am constantly either congratulating people or saying, ‘oh, I saw this that you might be interested in’. I’m constantly keeping my address book warm, so that as and when you do need to work with that person or need some advice, they will be more likely to help you.”

So, what comes next? Tom has been travelling but is not – as a lot of people expected – sitting on the beach drinking mojitos. His share of the eight-figure Lux Rewards takeover sum – an amount distributed among the co-founders and numerous other investors – means he is more comfortable in his life, but he has not lost the entrepreneurial zeal.

“Day-to-day, not a massive amount has changed,” he says. “I think what this has done is it has definitely allowed me to relax: if I want to go on a trip somewhere or to pay for something that makes my life a bit more convenient and comfortable, I can do that.

“The sums of money that we've taken out of this are not what I would say are life changing in any way. It has given me a comfortable amount of money; it repays all the years of doing this where we were hardly paying ourselves anything, all those years where I was seeing some friends working in finance on six-figure salaries. And it gives me a bit more of a comfortable life. The main thing is just having that security behind you.

“What this does allow me to do is put down a house deposit. I think every young person dreams of doing that at some point, and it's getting harder and harder and harder.

He adds: “Right now, we're continuing to scale the business almost as if nothing has changed. I love what I do. I've got some of my best friends working with me and we have a team that I really get on with and enjoy working with. Of course, I'm an entrepreneur, so I have lots of ideas, but for now we are sticking with this business and with the vision our acquirer has.”