Astrid & Miyu: From a £500 Website to a £50M Jewellery Brand

0:00Connie Nam built Astrid and Miu in one of the most competitive consumer categories that there is. This episode explores how she found a gap in the jewellery industry, built a distinctive customer experience and learned that your USP may not always be what you think it is. So let's find out why she's a lady who launched.

0:28I'm so excited that you're here today. I've been such a fan of the brand. We have one down the road from us, the store now, which is incredible. But I want to talk about the moment that you first realized that you truly launched because you started Astrodome in 2012 from your flat in Notting Hill. But what was that real moment that you thought, okay, this has happened? Oh, gosh, I don't think we ever had that viral moment. We had like celebrity or a big influencer wearer things and go viral. But I would say when we opened our flagship in 2023. So it's quite recent when I felt like I felt really overwhelmed.

1:08And I was like, Oh, my God, like, I do have a legit brand. I saw people queuing outside of the store. It's carnaby and it's um people were queuing outside all the way down to regent street around liberty they were queuing since 6 30 for the 10 30 opening and that moment um i think i felt like oh i actually launched the brand whereas like before we still had like 20 stores leading up to it but it always felt like oh okay like i'm doing this like it everything was incremental yes i think that was like a big moment for me which i think is really nice to hear because like i just said you started it in 2012 and you know that's then 11 years later to really feel like okay this is this is happening now people are really understanding this when when we talk about that start your first i'm looking at these notes here your first website cost 500 pounds you started from your flat you were doing everything yourself from product design marketing to sending out orders what if you look back at sort of that version of the business so long ago now what do you think was really at that point what did you think was really gonna make the brand stand out in that market I think looking back I hadn't thought about it concretely at that time right I thought if I had the right products that I want to wear it will sell that was my naive belief but I think looking back I had designs that no other brands had at that time chunky jewelry acrylic and chunky like necklaces were in but I brought in demi fine jewelry which exists now but it didn't really exist at that time so they look like fine jewelry very dainty and it had like crystals and cubic zirconia but they were made out of silver base so it was much more affordable so I think you know people felt like it looked expensive but it was provide um it was at very good value and I think that's ultimately what made the brand and also the first thing I did was I um also like I invested 500 pounds for a website that crashed all the time but I made a big bet on PR right okay that's so interesting yeah so I knew um even if you had the right products if no one knows about it you can't sell it yeah like it doesn't matter.

3:27It's just sitting in your door. It could be fantastic, but people need to know it exists. Yeah. Yeah. So at that time, the biggest investment was hiring a PR firm. It was a two-man band, two-woman band. And I paid, I remember,£2 ,000 a month. And from my savings, that was a big amount to invest in. And did you tell yourself, okay, because like you say, it's a big amount, right? You're a startup. You're, you know, we always say the term scrappy startup. you're out here trying to do everything yourself did you say to yourself okay I'm gonna take on this PR team for a few grand a month or however that looks and I'm gonna give myself I don't know six months or a year or to really try and make this happen did you give yourself a little bit of a sort of line in the sand to say I'm gonna have to notice something by this point because if you say well you're funding it yourself it's it's no mean feat is it yeah yeah that's a really good question I think I had about a year right because I was thinking about the savings I had how much I need to survive and how much I'm willing to reinvest in the business so I think I had a bit of I had around the year to look at it and then after that first year is the moment I got an office went outside of my flat hired my first employee who's our CMO now amazing and what was that what was it bridging the gap for you because I always I'm really interested in when founders start in such a place which is most entrepreneurs and most founders you are literally doing everything yourself like at the front end what was the first hire for you and what was important like what was the thing that you were like if I can hire someone right now I would get them to take this off of my hands so right now and at that time it's the same but it's all about attitude so my first employee who's my CMO right now I wasn't looking for skills she was 24 at that time.

5:16So you can figure out how old she is now. She just had the most amazing attitude. She was very smart, but she was just willing to go that step further. She treated this like her own business. And I've kind of observed her from the side because she was at another jewelry brand and we happened to share the same PR firm. So I had touch points with her. And I initially thought she was the founder because she was so confident and she was just running with things and taking her initiative and when I found out that she's the employee I was thinking I need to bring her over when I could afford her yeah yeah yeah and I think that is such a good point that you make because it's really hard in business to expect your team to be as passionate about your mission as you are right of course like you're going to connect with people and have the energy and you know how in they are but for for your team to love it in the way that you do and have them sleepless nights in the way that you do it's very rare it's very rare to find that yeah it's very very rare and if you find them you need to keep them hold on hold on to them exactly that I want to go back to sort of identifying I think a lot of founders early founders sort of struggle with this they might be something they're extremely passionate about but when it comes to sort of identifying the gap in the market like you said when you started there's probably always a bit of and I think it's necessary to have that bit of naivety and that bit of kind of like delulu positivity that I love this so people are going to love this but that sort of identifying that gap in the market at the time there were those heritage brands there were high street brands and luxury brands but sort of you having this passion for that demi fine jewelry what how did you go about making sure that I suppose you were really going to define that space in the category because it's a it's a hard thing to do isn't it particularly like you say people wearing acrylics and chunky jewelry and you're like no look over here this is what we're doing how did you was that sort of done well through PR or what was your strategy with that I'm not sure I had a strategy it wasn't that sophisticated um I guess I'd be arrogant to say I had a strategy but I think I had a very good feel of what the market wants and what's cool at the time and or what's going to be cool yes and a lot of my friends always ask me where I get my things my clothes and my jewelry so I kind of had this confidence in style and the stuff that people will like I guess because I think often like entrepreneurs get told not to build for themselves and I always I'm with you I kind of disagree slightly I'm like if I feel this and I'm like why hasn't this happened yet or what or maybe it has happened but you know none of us ever completely reinventing the wheel but why is it not being approached like this or seen like this but a lot of people get told not to build for themselves so would you feel really strong that your own frustration or that your own need would be something that other women would relate to too yeah I think so and I always tell founders that I meet younger founders or new founders I meet it needs to be very true to you so I think like the advice that whoever gave you and I've heard those kind of advice as well I think unless you feel passionate about it and you can feel it you can't really build a true brand out of it I agree because how can you when problems happen and the days get long and it gets really hard without that passion and that fire we wouldn't all do it right you need that to push us along when yeah things go a little bit sketchy for a period of time exactly and I think you need to in like I guess instinctually just get it and having the clarity on like what you do differently did that sort of was that always there at the birth of the brand or did that become clearer to you as a founder as the business grew I think it became clearer as I went so the demi fine was very new I found out at that time as we went along I knew I couldn't find anything that I liked in the market but it just became I guess a defining feature.

9:26I knew that. And as we grew, we became very well known for our ear curation. And we still are. And we were the first ones to do that non-piercing ear cuff. That looks like a conch piercing. And we just became very well known for our ear jewelry, although we do other categories. So when we first opened our shops, people are asking whether we do piercing. And that became a constant feedback. And that's how we launched piercing off the back of our customers saying do you do piercing because it just felt natural and I suppose people having that trust in you like you say if they're already trusting what you do and what you're building that's I suppose that's the natural next step and that's kind of I suppose what every business hopes for that you can make those sort of next phases of growth based on what your consumer wants and what they're telling you and you can fully sort of facilitate that and support that um I want to to talk about competitors because at the time when you launch obviously like we know jewelry is a like in the same way skincare is right there's lots of different brands and at different levels and you know peers and how that looks was did you learn anything from your competitors before launching without sort of becoming a version of them because I think we all sort of Emma Greed actually sat on the podcast before and said when she launched Good America which I find so interesting.

10:45And I also find really honest that when she launched Good American, you know, which is obviously now a huge denim brand, she knew everything about Levi's. She was like, I knew their pricing structure. I knew when they'd go on promo. I knew, you know, how it looked for e-com. I knew what they did at retail. And I became obsessed. And her advice was like being obsessed with your competitor, which is so interesting because I've never seen it like that. I've always thought, do you know what? There might be outside noise here, but this is what I'm doing. I'm going to focus on my route in. How was that for you?

11:20Yeah, when I first started, I definitely had a couple of benchmarks that are much bigger brands thinking, oh, this is what they do in their customer services or this is the assortment. So I did follow them closely. Now I don't as much because sometimes competitors copy us and that used to really annoy me. So I just started on following all the competitors. Now I think I take it as a compliment that people are inspired by us. How did you sort of flip the dial on that? Because I think it's so interesting. I've really in the past suffered with that, seeing people doing similar things and thinking, oh my gosh, hang on, this is what we do.

11:56And of course, someone does something similar. And, you know, we take inspiration is probably the nicest way to put it. but then they add their source on it too and their flair and it can really get in your head at times how did you sort of change that narrative for yourself and think okay it's annoying to be copied and this is what we do and this is our usp but actually imitation is sometimes the biggest form of flattery yeah it is i mean ultimately if they're taking inspiration or if they're copying they don't really know what the future holds um in my head or the company's strategy deck unless there's a spy in the company so I think we always like go separate ways anyways because nobody knows the future so the best thing to fend off the competitors or people that take inspiration from you is to constantly get moving and constantly innovate and always think how do we do things differently rather than resting on our laurels yeah of course and like you say if they're if people are basing their formula on what you've done previously they're always going to be behind in terms of you know that creativity or how that looks because they haven't got access to what's going on up here right so it's it's trusting that isn't it and like you say moving because I think some people I've spoke to a lot of founders about this and that can really affect them when I suppose they see people in a similar space doing a similar thing like they did it becomes noisy right it's a really sort of unwelcome noise when you're trying to yeah it's very unhealthy and then i used to i um went to a period where i was so obsessed with it like whenever i spotted something that like one particular brand copied i'd be like so irritated yeah and you know like those things shouldn't occupy your headspace or let you know your emotions get controlled yeah and it's a flattery it's so right you're so right and you have to sort of see it like that or you'd go crazy and you're doing the right thing because if people didn't sort of want to take inspo from you you wouldn't you wouldn't be right yeah absolutely that's that is how it looks yeah so with my kids yeah I always give them the advice that somebody should have given me so they always fight saying and always tell on me oh like sky's copying me summer's copying me and I always tell them if that if she's copying you it means it's a good idea exactly that yeah that's the advice that we want to listen we have to remember that ourselves um I want to I want to discuss kind of the I suppose the term steady growth and I think that is something that I think we now see online when businesses launch and I think now which I love and we do it here that founder-led content and founders really speaking out about big milestones and business moves and you know big wins and also the lows that come with it too but I think now we see someone launch a business which feels like overnight and then a few months later they're like the fastest growing in the category and this that and the other and I think for some founders that are just deciding to press go on that idea it can be really overwhelming right because you don't you feel as if you're not growing at this rapid pace that perhaps success isn't happening to you when actually that's not true at all and of course that a lot of them are really rare situations but we have access to everything now because we see these stories online.

15:17I want to talk about, because I think going back to what you said before, you know, starting the business in 2012, you feeling like that big moment for you was in 2023 or that moment that it really landed to you personally. I want to talk about that bit in the middle. So once you've launched, once you've identified your USP, of course, other brands are going to come along and have a go at your USP too. because as we've said it's flattery and you're doing the right thing but when you get to that moment and we call it like the sort of the scrappy start but that like messy bit in the middle we are trying to figure out what's next how you keep sort of evolving when it comes to really trying to then stand out again how did that look for you because oh I mean we should speak about the piercing element because we sort of blazed over that slightly but that then become the the thing that people then trusted you for and the thing that really I suppose took over the business right so how do you what would your advice be to someone listening that's like I'm in this bit in the middle and now I need to figure out what's next yeah so really delve deep into what the USP of the business is um it doesn't need to be specific like piercing because for us piercing is a USP from a business point of view because they sell um and that's what people know us for but the vibe of the stores I think is another USP so when people walk into the store I want them to feel like they belong and they don't feel pressure to buy they're coming in to see their best friend yes this is how I want people to feel and I think a lot of people can feel that um and that's what people tell me anyways so um aside from the tangibles just really think what that intangible usp is as well and double down on that bit but that's um what i tell the founders yeah because it's it's so interesting isn't it particularly as i said if you've launched and you're you know and then there are other people that have sort of followed suit and then that sort of that that category and that space is ramping up with other businesses which of course it always does when something when there's a market that's booming that's how the cookie crumbles it's hard to then say when we launched this was our usp but now lots of people are offering the same yeah the same sort of opportunity it's quite difficult to find what that is you know yeah and i guess the usp for it to be a usp the entry barrier needs to be very high so piercing um on the first bid it's very technical so it's very hard for other brands to catch up with the product assortment because it's completely different construction to regular jewelry and also So getting that trust with the piercing services, getting all the regulatory approval and knowing where to recruit piercers and manage piercers and, you know, get those standards up.

18:07Right. It takes a very long time. It took us around three years to get that perfected. So that becomes a USP because it's very hard for people to enter. Yes. The vibe, you can't create that overnight. It comes from the culture. It comes from training. It comes from hiring the right people. but also getting rid of assholes as well very quickly. Yes, I'm so pleased you said that. It's so true. And I think we overlook, I always, my mum always had this saying and I know lots of people use it. My mum always said to me, one bad apple spoils the car. And it's so true. You have one rotten apple in a team, in a business and it just, it just builds us through.

18:45And that's kind of the way it is. And it's important to identify the assholes. Because it takes hundreds of people to build an amazing culture, but it takes one to ruin it. Yes, that is, you need to put that in your bio on Instagram. That's a strong soundbite. Yeah, because we're willing to wait for incompetency because I think as long as people have the attitude, there will always be a place within Astrid Mew. But if you're an asshole, like you can't be helped. Get out, there's the door. Yeah, exactly that. I want to just touch on this piercings because I'm just reading the notes here. I mean, this is incredible.

19:19your team tells us that last year you carried out 115 well over 115 ,000 piercings on almost 60 ,000 people roughly two piercings per person I mean we can definitely say you've learned the trust now can't we at that point that when you listen to numbers like that how does that make you feel it makes me very proud but it still doesn't register it's not real for me because it's just numbers yes yeah but it's not numbered when you of course it's just numbers but it's that's people yeah that's people that like are invested in you and what you do and trust you for those moments which is bloody incredible I want to touch on your first US expansion and sort of you know like you say you dream this idea in your flat in Notting Hill and then things happen and everything snowballs and then okay let's conquer some different territories how how was that for you and what did it teach you how was that for me it was wobbly a lot of trial and error so back in 2019 right before covid we hosted a couple of pop-ups in new york and they went incredibly well because we already had a big following in the u.s and our second biggest market was u.s already on e-com and we decided to open a store permanent store immediately, but then COVID.

20:42So we had a bit of roadblock. And when everything reopened, we opened at the same spot as where we held the pop ups. And this is where it went wrong, because this is this was in Nolita. So it's kind of on the off street of Soho, where you're kind of relying on tourists and also office workers. Okay, so traffic was significantly, which we haven't properly due diligence, which is stupid in hindsight. But we had such incredible rent at that time because all the units were empty. And I went in confidently because our pop ups did so well. But that was a disaster. Firstly, traffic was low, but also it was very hard to get the team right because there was no senior leader.

21:29And I thought, oh, oh, this is how I ran it here in the UK. When I first started, I hired loads of junior people and we just ran with it and it worked. But I guess in hindsight, I was here holding it together and everyone was close to Vision and they got excited because I was excited. Whereas we were kind of leaving the store manager out there

21:51Connie Nam: on their own. So it was very difficult. So we had a very high turnover of staff and we had somebody in the UK managing that. but you know like she can't travel all the time no of course and yeah and one day we had very small sales it was just um ridiculous and i was um saying to shani who was head of international at that time shani i don't think they're opening the store you should just go there and see what's happening and she went and the store door was closed lights were off no because this is this i mean that's like a founder's worst nightmare right and i think you the idea of it goes back to what we were saying earlier of have of being able to trust somebody to love your baby in the way that that you do is a really hard thing but doing that when you can't be there on the ground and you know having those situations happen that you felt it that the store wasn't open and i guess to be fair to that team they didn't have that vision being fed back all the time right and i guess they didn't have that like energy and presence on the ground to be fair to them yes but Now we have a senior hire out in the US and the US is doing very well.

23:03Yes, it's booming. And I love it. It's important that we touch on those moments because, right, because that is, you know, I always say that it's never failure. It's always a lesson, right, and how you're going to pivot and do that differently next time. Like you say, now you're on fire in the US. But it's interesting to be honest because I think from the outside, it can always feel like everything is going incredibly well and even just the idea of people seeing online that you've got this store in new york you'd never know those moments but it's really nice for founders together actually guess what sometimes yeah oh my god it was a disaster just don't work out and that's okay yeah we underestimated the importance of people and complications of people and operations yeah yeah yeah it's so different like i think the culture is very different um the way we have to manage is still very different salaries expectations are also very different yeah it's and like you say i think the naivety we launched in the middle east and i had the same sort of idea of you know this is how it works and here we you know we tell in boots it does really well but in the middle east people don't use boots in the same way that they do here and they shop at pharmacies so pharmacy was the strategy and i would it was just really naive of me when we launched to think that the consumer stops in the same way there might be a big expat community there but actually the customer is completely different so it's really honing in on that they're so neons yeah yeah so it's really honing in on that and saying actually i can't do the same thing that i did here because that isn't just going to work um i want to sort of talk about what founders can take from your journey when when when i look at this here and i know it sometimes feels uncomfortable because but let me do it because i can pick you up you know like when you say it yourself you're like we've done this you've done that it just always feels a little bit weird but I'm gonna do it for you so you started with 500 pounds on a website in an already crowded market these are your notes here um more than 30 stores now internationally turnover reached a reported because I'll say that 50 million in 2025 and was projected to reach 65 million this year and yet after all this growth you know and it's important like I said it's important that we touch on what we did things aren't always simple and things don't always work out I mean that is real incredible growth but I would say steady like you know you talk about starting it in 2012 we're now at 26 it's incredible what you've achieved but when we speak about sort of founders being able to take something from it what do you think founders get wrong when they try too hard to sort of differentiate themselves from others you mean the brand um what founders get yeah like what do founders get wrong like what mistakes do you think that they make when they try too hard to do a certain thing like you say sometimes I remember talking to Amy Smale of Oddmuse and she was saying she sort of it was doing incredibly well here when she first launched and then again her econ was getting a lot of fights stateside and she went over there and through this big event where she invited these big influences to and sort of blew a budget on something that looked great on the outside but she really wasn't ready for you know we've all sort of had those moments where we make mistakes and we chuck some you know everything at one thing that just doesn't work out so where do you think founders go wrong yeah I think just based on people around me because I have a lot of friends who are founders taking investment when they don't needed I think is something that I would really dissuade people from if you're profitable and you can grow at a steady pace um really think about why you started this business right because for me it was independence obviously I have I love that I have I have amazing investors behind me but they're like they kind of let me do what I do yes and you found the right partner yes yes they gave me a lot of they give me a lot of space um so just really digging deep into why you started this in the first place if it was control and freedom like me be really careful who you take on either find the right partner or don't go for them because I see so many founders who got in bed with the wrong investors and they're now like their life is miserable we were saying it's like a marriage almost like you know be careful who you choose to marry because it's when you're in business together in that way it's for the long haul and you need if you're creative and like you say you're searching for independence and freedom you're still going to want that on the other side of it all yeah because you need to understand the motivation of investors and you need to be able to swallow that pill because obviously everyone's trying to do their job right like they're trying to push for growth and push for an exit and if that's not what you want just don't go for it and all of these years later what are you most excited about now for the future for yourself and for the business yeah I mean for myself I've got such a strong team now so I can take for instance I took all of Augusta spent time with family so being able to do more of that is what excites me and expanding internationally so U.S.

28:19is like on the strong pipeline right now but I'd love to go back to Asia I'm from Seoul and Seoul is where a lot of cultural moments are happening at the moment so I'd love to go back there and open a store there as well that would be amazing that would be a big milestone for you and your family right that would be incredible um thank you so much i've loved talking to you it's honestly incredible what you've what you've built and i love how honest you are and you know it's not always easy that we know but on the outside it looks like you're absolutely smashing it oh thank you so much very kind of you Thank you.

28:54Love that. Don't forget to follow us on Apple and Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts to make sure that you don't miss out because next time I'm going to be talking to another incredible lady who launched. If like me, you're a watcher, then please follow us on YouTube and don't forget to like and subscribe.