Monica Vinader Discusses Jewelry, Fundraising And The Power Of Influencers

On motivation for founding the business I always wanted to have my own business We were a minority partner in the hospitality business and it was always my ambition to steer my own destiny and create a company with my own values My parents had their own business too and were entrepreneurial.

In 2008 funding was hard to come by and despite doing everything right and writing our business plan, we had to re-mortgage our family house to cover the stock that we wanted to buy for Christmas On the fundraising history of the business and advice for others seeking capital We have done three rounds of funding with private investors, a VC and the third with private equity Each round has been quite different but each time we have gone into the funding process with a specific goal as to what we want to do with the funding - all supporting the direct to consumer business and expanding globally.

On scaling distribution from online, bricks and mortar and wholesale When we started our distribution, the strategy was very different because we didn't have the funding to open our own stores, so we concentrated on our direct to consumer web business and opening with a few key wholesale partners. . Source