Key Takeaways I have a company called Emilia George, a retail and lifestyle brand concept I developed two months after my doctorate and one month before my older son was born while I worked at the UN. I was the ultimate outsider. As a first-generation American living in Manhattan, I had neither a house in the Hamptons nor a family connection to the private school boards.
I never tried to lose my baby weight (times two), and I put on makeup less than five times a year. I did not have a business or fashion degree. Yet here I was — launching a brand in a market that's toughest for even the rich and the power to crack.
And just like that, we had almost half a million in revenue in the first year (and during Covid). We were profitable three out of the four years; the only year we were not profitable was when we had a lot of non-repeatable costs on branding agency, opening our first brick-and-mortar. I've built an incredible team that is with me day and night, and we successfully recruited multiple summer interns from Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School — all while bootstrapping the business.
Every business raises money for different reasons and deals with investors differently. I believed it was time to raise funds for my company only when we had developed a profitable model and were primed to scale our business innovation . I've done angel investing through SPVs and direct investment in six figures.
Now, speaking from the other side of the table, I have learn.
