5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder
Written by Shelby Montel
Editor's Note: This article is adapted from Ayushi Mehta's interview, originally published by Authority Magazine on Medium as part of the 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder series. We've highlighted some of our favorite insights below, and you can read the full interview at the end of this article.
Our founder, Ayushi Mehta, was recently featured in Authority Magazine's 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder series, where she spoke with Gabriel Borden, Managing Partner at Arrow Fund, about the journey of building Friendly Diamonds.
Starting a brand of your own is never a straight line. Just have faith and leap; you either ride the waves or the waves ride you. When Ayushi, our founder, started, she knew nothing about performance marketing, e-commerce, or selling jewellery online. “I was genuinely learning everything as I went”, recalls Ayushi. Six years in, she has learned some valuable lessons through her mistakes, and she wishes someone had shared them with her before she became a founder.
Below are some of our favorite insights from the conversation. You can read the full interview at the end of this article.
Table of Content
- The Beginning
- The Journey from Grit to Growth
- Thriving Without Burning Out
- The 5 Lessons
- The Journey Goes On…
The Beginning
Starting Friendly Diamonds wasn’t a grand plan or a passion project. Her brother’s trademarked name, Friendly Diamonds, was just sitting unused. When someone suggested she could build something with the name. It seemed like a good idea, so she took a chance.
She noticed that the diamond industry looks glamorous from the outside. However, on the inside, it is a rather complicated world. Technical jargon, limited transparency, and a fragmented purchasing process can turn what should be one of life's most joyful moments into an anxiety-filled experience.
“That gap between the joy people expect and the anxiety they actually feel after buying a diamond piece — that became the problem I decided to solve. And that’s when a business became something I genuinely cared about.”
Closing that gap between expectation and reality became the driving force behind Friendly Diamonds. Every decision since has been guided by a simple goal: to make buying diamonds easier, more transparent, and more trustworthy.
The Journey from Grit to Growth
The success of a business is often measured by its revenue. But what if most revenue is dependent on one marketplace?
There came a point in the journey of Friendly Diamonds when we almost shut down. The marketplace that we were working with was our main source of sales. When that collaboration ended, it felt like it was over. But sometimes we underestimate what a small team can make happen if they put their minds together.
Thereon, Friendly Diamonds was built slowly but consistently. No shortcuts, no marketplaces, but with patience and stubbornness.
“The grit showed up in the way we rebuilt — properly. We stopped outsourcing our growth to a marketplace and started owning our customers, our brand, our story. The resilience meant we didn’t take shortcuts on the things that mattered: the experience, the trust, the design. That’s what people come back for now. And they do come back.”
Today, Friendly Diamonds has served more than 15,000 customers while continuing to build a technology-first jewelry buying experience.
Thriving Without Burning Out
When asked for tips to share with colleagues to avoid burnout, Ayushi recommends stopping trying to do everything yourself.
In the early days, she was present in every team meeting, every decision, every email thread. She didn’t really trust the process of letting go. As a result, she was stressed most of the time. In addition, it also slowed brand growth.
“Real scale only started when I stopped asking ‘what’s happening’ and started asking ‘who owns this.”
Ayushi enjoys gardening and making tea. “When I’m doing those things, I’m not escaping the business — I’m coming back to myself.” It is the activity that restores her outside of business.
Finding something that is slow, sensory, and unrelated to business helps one become better at their work. This is something that you don’t understand overnight; you learn from experience.
The 5 Lessons
There is no manual for building a successful brand. Looking back on her journey, Ayushi reflects on five lessons that truly shaped the way she built Friendly Diamonds. From investing in brand and people to creating better systems and putting customers first, these are the insights she wishes she'd known from the very beginning.
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Don’t underestimate the brand.
When she started, all her focus was on the product and the price. Making the best product and giving the best price should bring in customers, right? Wrong. The market doesn’t buy a product; they buy an experience, they buy a story, a feeling, a belief. Build the brand, not just the product.
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Quality over quantity
Hire 1 expert in the field rather than 10 freshers. “I held on too long, restructured too late, and kept delaying hiring one exceptional Creative Director who could actually own our brand storytelling end to end,” says Ayushi. The time that it takes to correct the mistakes is better spent building a competent team.
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Build a system early on.
During the initial years, Ayushi remembers spending most of her time on the performance marketing dashboard when, really, she should have focused on inventory management, order management, and supply chain systems. You think you have time, you don’t.
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Customer experience
To quote Ayushi directly, “What I learnt the hard way is that your hero product isn’t what you’re selling — it’s the experience of buying it.” The customer should feel confident with the buying process. Invest in tech like UI, touchpoints, and the key elements that make customer experience better.
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Use your data
Stop the guesswork and start using the data. From competitor pricing to customer needs, study the market. This data is going to help you make decisions that actually contribute to your business’s growth. When you have the most useful resource to your disposal, you use it.
The Journey Goes On…
Today, Friendly Diamonds is a digital-first, technology-driven brand that’s fully intentional. Every Friendly Diamond policy written, every tool built, every customer interaction is designed with one goal in mind, leave people feeling more confident, not less.
Today, Friendly Diamonds has served more than 15,000 customers and offers access to over 500,000 diamonds. But the company's greatest measure of success is staying true to the vision that started it all.
As Ayushi puts it, "I think there's real goodness in an industry simply choosing to be straight with people."
Want to keep reading? Find the original blog posted by Authority Magazine at this link: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder By Ayushi Mehta.
