Years ago, John Graham Harper was a competitive boxer dealing with chronic knee inflammation, the kind that made sitting unbearable. His wife bought him a red light therapy lamp, and despite his skepticism, the pain vanished in a week. That experience, alongside a life-altering brain tumor diagnosis caused by repeated impact to the head, pushed him out of athletics and into wellness. Today, he runs Lumaflex, a red light therapy company with products distributed across Europe, used in ambulances, tested in sand and snow, and now expanding into the Gulf and Asia. The company just marked its second year in market, and while the growth is real, so are the bruises of manufacturing, hiring, and global logistics. “You caught me on a high,” John said during the interview. “But definitely, there are some days when it hurts.”

“We don't compete against other light therapy brands. We compete against pharmaceuticals.”

John’s approach to Lumaflex is deeply operational. His team spent nearly three years developing their first product before launch, iterating through designs until they landed on the BodyPro—a flexible, waterproof, silicone-based panel that molds to joints and muscles. “It had to be gym-bag durable,” he said. “You throw it in with your creatine and it doesn’t break.” That durability wasn’t just for athletes. A friend injured during military service inspired John to design for tougher environments, leading to interest from the armed forces.

The company’s go-to-market strategy started with B2B, not e-commerce. “I’m not an e-com guy,” John admitted. “I’m a handshake guy.” He built a distribution network first, which now spans Europe, the U.S., and parts of Australia, and is eyeing expansion into Saudi Arabia, China, and Singapore. E-commerce is growing in the U.S., but it’s still secondary to his partner-first sales model. John’s day-to-day isn’t spent optimizing funnels—it’s spent supporting his distributors and managing production runs from China to Europe. “One retailer sold out during a live stream. They messaged me asking for more stock next week, and I had to stop and think—we need to renegotiate.”

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Education isn’t a side project—it’s part of the product

While the physical products drive most of the business, Lumaflex’s educational layer is tightly integrated. Lumify Academy, their in-house training platform, was originally created to help resellers explain the science behind photobiomodulation. “They’d say, ‘This is great, but how do we sell it?’ So we made the course.” It’s filmed seminar-style and used to onboard partners, with future modules covering pet health, equine care, and medical use cases. Though it generates some direct revenue, John sees it more as an enabler. “People have told me it’s a miracle. That sticks with you.”

Currently, Lumaflex employs around twelve people, with more joining soon. They’re on track to ship 5,000 units this year. But hiring remains the toughest battle. “If I’m honest, that’s what keeps me up at night,” John said. “You want people who aren’t just here for a job—they believe in what we’re doing.” Finding candidates who meet that bar has proven difficult, and until the right ones come along, the team is holding steady—focused on staying lean, shipping product, and supporting existing partners.

There’s no big exit plan, no abstract mission—just hard-earned focus and a clear next step. “We’re building five new products, but I had to pull back. We’ll launch two this year. It’s not what you can make—it’s what you can sell.” That discipline, he says, comes from failure. “My track record of failures is insane,” John added with a laugh. His personal mindset now rests on a framework he calls three levels: acceptance of pain, appreciation of the lesson, and finally, learning to seek out challenge. “We have to look for hard things,” he said. “That’s how we grow.”

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