Founder Stephanie Gottlieb: ‘To get to the next level, you need to change your strategies’

On the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast, Gottlieb — who serves as her company’s CEO and designer — discusses those marketing strategies and others the brand is tackling, including collaborations. She also shares how her company, which has remained loyal to natural diamonds, is navigating the rise of lab-grown options and how it’s been hitting the gas on growth over the past two years. Highlights from the conversation, below, have been lightly edited for clarity. 

A maturing business

“For the first eight years, everything was done extremely organically, through social media. And we are so lucky that it took us that far, especially for a new business, and that we didn’t need to spend $1 on marketing for that many years. It’s pretty unique and rare, and we’re very lucky and fortunate that we were able to build that way. But to get to the next level, you need to change your strategies. And the first part of that, in 2023-2024, was focused on rebuilding our team. I brought in my brand president almost two years ago. She restructured the entire org chart and brought in some new talent at more senior levels, and that’s been very rewarding — to walk into a room with other extremely educated, experienced people who know what they’re doing, who have a vision, who understand your vision and who want to help you get there. So, that’s been amazing. And the next year is really about focusing on creative and product — and that’s my wheelhouse and falls on my shoulders, so there’s lots of pressure. But I’m ready for it. We have a very clear vision of where we see this thing going. I’m excited for everyone to see that roll out — it’s as minute as new packaging and as large-scale as these beautiful campaigns that we’re starting to create.” 

On remaining loyal to natural diamonds 

“[The rise of lab-grown diamonds] is a hot topic. … Lab-grown diamonds have definitely impacted the industry — they have confused the customer in a huge way, which is really unfortunate. But our brand is fully committed to working exclusively with natural diamonds. So, we educate our clients on their unique value, and we really emphasize the emotional and symbolic significance of owning a natural diamond and having this piece of nature’s history. 

[Another challenge] is the rising cost of materials. Gold is, right now, at an all-time high, so this is directly impacting production costs. And we’re committed to creating things in fine materials and maintaining quality in our stones and metals. This has created some pricing challenges. The entire market is facing the same challenge — but some companies are getting creative with using different materials and lab-grown [diamonds] to bring pricing down. … Our collection is 14-karat gold, for the most part, and diamonds., so we just have to mitigate those unforeseen circumstances.”

The Taylor Swift effect

“At about this time last year, … everybody was seeing Taylor on the screen at every Chiefs game. And I had in my pipeline this Varsity lettering collection — personalization has always been a huge part of what we do, with lots of names and initials, and Varsity was going to be my new font. … Our brand president looked at me at some point in mid-December and said, ‘If you want to do this Varsity collection, move it up, get it done quicker, and let’s get one on Taylor.’ And so we did. Three weeks before the Super Bowl, we reached out to her team through our PR and got the signoff to make the piece. There was no guarantee she would be wearing it, but there was an opportunity to get it to her and let her decide if she loved it — and she and her stylist agreed that it was perfect for that moment. I didn’t know, actually, until 2:00 when I saw a blurry screenshot of her walking through the tunnel, that she was actually wearing it. And it was just this surreal moment to see your piece on such an icon at one of the most highly watched televised moments of the year. What was really amazing was that, even before I said something, other people were messaging me, saying, ‘Is that [necklace] yours?’ There was this immediate recognition that we do personalization well and that is something we would do. … Of course, there was a halo effect. One of the biggest takeaways was that we had a huge uptick in interest from London — and I can only attribute that to Taylor. We do have an international business, but not at the level we do now. Just having that international celebrity wearing our pieces really brought awareness to a new market, and that was exciting.”