Show Notes
Tiffany Chao left an 11-year career to go all in on AURORO, the fine jewelry brand she started with $10,000. A year in, she couldn't pay herself, so she did what she thought a real brand was supposed to do. She hired a consultant, built a collection for retailers, and stepped back from social. Then the holidays, the biggest season of the year, never came.
So she threw out the playbook and went back to her own taste, her own stones, and her own camera. AURORO went from $550K in sales to $1M the next year, and today 67% of its customers come back to buy again, many of them sending thousands of dollars for pieces they've only ever seen on a screen.
Alex and Lee dig into how she built that kind of trust online, how she prices custom pieces when the price of gold changes every week, whether a couture trade show is worth the capital, and how she runs the business alongside her co-founder.
In this episode: - Why following a consultant's retail playbook stalled her first full year - How she earned enough trust for clients to pay $6,000 by Venmo - Pricing custom jewelry when gold moves every week, and why she now buys it by the kilo - What a 67% repeat rate means for customer acquisition - Couture trade show or direct to consumer: where the capital should go - Getting comfortable on camera as an extroverted introvert - Why she introduced lab-grown stones, and where she won't use them
This episode is brought to you by:
Structured Agency: Where strategic guidance meets strong execution. Structured is a growth agency for DTC e-commerce brands, bringing paid media, lifecycle marketing, creative strategy, and CRO together into one integrated system built for profitable growth. Learn more and request a free audit at structured.agency/unfinishedbusiness
Horatio: Horatio builds dedicated, AI-enabled customer support and back-office teams for fast-growing e-commerce, fintech, and healthtech brands. Every team is trained on your brand's voice and workflows, so you can scale support without sacrificing quality. Unfinished Business listeners get $2,000 in launch credits at hirehoratio.com/unfinishedbusiness
Subscribe for new episodes every week. Follow AURORO on all platforms: @auroroworld, auroroworld.com
Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Cold open 01:19 Leaving an 11-year career, then not paying herself 02:05 Hiring a jewelry business consultant 06:51 When the holidays didn't happen 08:51 Building a community on Instagram 10:05 How clients trust a $6,000 Venmo payment 11:56 Couture trade show or direct to consumer 17:35 Pricing when gold changes every week 20:43 From $550K to $1M 23:05 How many customers come back 26:34 Running the company with a co-founder 28:11 Showing the messy side on social 32:21 Designing new pieces, stone first 36:01 The icons and her bestsellers 38:08 Lab-grown stones
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