How D'IYANU Built a Multimillion-Dollar Brand While Staying True to West African Roots

0:00I can be sleeping and I'm making revenue overnight. It felt amazing. It was magical at that time.

0:33Ajayi built a$1 million fashion brand in just two years. Wow. Joining me now to share more about her incredible journey is Adi Ajayi, founder and CEO of Dianu. Welcome to the show, Adi. Thank you so much for having me, Serena. I'm happy to share my story with the audience. Very happy to have you here in your bold West African-inspired beautiful print putting me to shame in my black tank top. Well, we got you covered. If you ever want to add some color, check out theoutro.com. Yeah, I'm going directly there after this. I want to go back to the beginning. Can you tell me about the moment of inception for you?

1:16What was it that inspired you to want to bring these beautiful West African prints to the U.S. ready to wear market? Yes. So the journey starts back in 2013 when I was speaking to a friend of mine who made a comment that she noticed how African prints are become more and more popular. And maybe there was a print on a dress she saw at Macy's. And then her thought was to start sourcing the fabric and selling the fabric. And then I kind of took it a step further. And I'm like, you know, when I was looking online, I didn't really see any ready to wear African-inspired brands. And I just had this epiphany that like, you know, it would be a great idea.

2:00combine those bold, beautiful prints with trendy styles that, you know, anyone could wear, whether they have, you know, African heritage or not. It's just like, they just want something unique as vibrant and could make them stand out. So that's kind of where the idea came into fruition. And I just remember thinking, you know, I could create like the African inspired brand that's similar to Azara, you know, where we have men and women's clothing, kids, homeware or home goods. And I was really inspired like to start this brand. And then of course, me being Nigerian and growing up with the bold prints, I was really excited to be able to create something for myself, my friends who, you know, love bold fashion as well and share with the world with, you know, anyone who would be interested.

2:59Thank you for sharing that. I have to ask too, like on a personal level, as somebody who's generally always dressed in neutrals, like I would imagine that there's something that wearing print and wearing color like helps bring out of you? Have you found that? And have you found that with your customers that it allows them to like, feel a slightly different way? Yeah, absolutely. Like, I mean, we get reviews and feedback from customers all the time. They feel, you know, empowered, they feel like they're expressing themselves in a unique way. And then they always comment that they get compliments, because it's, you know, our clothing isn't readily available elsewhere.

3:40It's unique, it stands out. So they always give that feedback. People always comment on what they're wearing when they wear diana. That's a nice feeling. These are not blend-in clothes. Exactly. Meanwhile, when you first launched the business, you had a full-time corporate job that was largely unrelated to what you're doing now. So can you talk to me a little bit about how you were navigating that in the early phases? I mean, it seems like this is, you know, it's a typical founder story, but it's a lot of work to have to juggle a full-time role and then also trying to launch a business of your own.

4:19Yeah, you're absolutely right. When I came up with the idea to launch Deanna, it was probably around March of 2013. And I remember creating like a plan and action steps to make it happen. And I was also working full time. So I dedicated all my time after work to making plans and really strategizing on how to make this brand come to life. So because I didn't have a background in fashion, I had to find a fashion designer locally in Philly who could actually create the initial samples. And, you know, that was quite a process. And then, of course, sourcing fabric, finding a local factory to make the clothing.

5:05And it was very time consuming. You know, I would go to bed late and then have to go into work the next day. So for the rest of 2013, my goal was actually initially to launch Dianu in like August of 2013. But because of delays with getting manufacturing done, I ended up launching January of 2014. So that was the official launch date of Dianu. And I remember it was just a lot of solo work. It was just me. I had to handle all things involved with marketing, with the finances, with production, with customer service, website. I created the initial website on Shopify, actually. I started out on a different platform and then it was very clunky.

5:56It was horrible. And then I somehow stumbled on Shopify as a platform where it would be easier to configure and get things looking professional and more elevated. So when I stumbled on Shopify, it was around, I want to say September of 2014. and I transitioned on to Shopify and things kind of became easier. And it kind of was aligned with when I also started doing like digital marketing with Facebook ads. And it kind of was a beautiful synergy where things took off after that. It's like such a wonderful unlock, I think, for founders to hear, you know, you decide to launch a business because you have a passion and you have an idea that you think is going to work.

6:45And it's a little bit like you don't know what you don't know, right? And then all of a sudden you're doing it, you're wearing 10 ,000 hats and you're like, oh God, and like 9 ,000 of these are things that I don't really know how to do and I have to figure out. So then when things come along like Shopify, that can just ease the process a little bit. I'm sure it must feel like a lot of like weight off of your shoulders. Yes, it was definitely a lot easier once I started using Shopify. It made presenting my products a lot better. it made it look more professional. It kind of elevated the brand quickly from where it started off.

7:23And then part of my story is like, before I focused on online, I was kind of doing a lot of physical dend in events. And I figured that was really time consuming because, you know, you're spending so much time at a given location, you prep to get there. And then you only have access to so many people. It's like, you know, maybe 50 to 100 people depend on the event. And then I figured like there was definitely a better way to reach my target audience across the U.S. online. So that's when I really started focusing on online digital marketing and then obviously leveraging Shopify to, you know, get things off the ground.

8:07And, you know, the rest this history. Your move to social media marketing was a big pivot point for you, right? It sounds like that's when things really took off in a different kind of way. Do you remember thinking back to 2014, what it was, where the light turned on and you thought these sort of trade shows are not it? And you had the idea to turn to Facebook marketing at the time? You know, launching the beginning of 2014, I quit my full-time job May of that year. And then because I figured to myself, like it's sink or swim. It's either you make it work or you go back to nine to five. So I think that pressure forced me to find a solution that would make my business succeed.

8:55So I saw an ad for a course where you can learn about Facebook marketing. And when I took what I learned from that course and implemented it, and I saw almost immediately the results of like driving more traffic, driving more sales. And almost overnight, it became a success where prior to that was a struggled to break even or even to like sustain myself in terms of being able to pay my bills and also manage the business. So by the time I was able to succeed with Facebook ads, things kind of started flowing in the right direction. I think like November, October, I think I hit like 10 ,000 and then 15 ,000 next month.

9:50And then it kind of just increased thereafter. And by March of 2015, I was able to move out of my apartment and actually rent an office space and hire my first full-time employee. Wow. That's like a pretty fast trajectory, actually. Is it? I mean, you started it in January of 2014 and you left your job by May. Yeah. And it sounds like when you left your job that at the time it wasn't necessarily so much based off of it having been successful enough in that moment that you were like, I can afford to do this. It was more like an act of courage. You're like, okay, I got to have faith in this thing.

10:32Yeah, absolutely. I got to go all in. Yeah. I was like, you know, I didn't want it to just be a side business or a side hustle. And I knew like if I really wanted to succeed, I needed to focus all my attention on it, especially I felt like I was wasting my time on my full time job. Like that's how I could be invested into my business. So that's kind of what made me take that leap. And I was really excited. I actually wasn't really afraid, per se. But at that time, it was just me taking care of myself. So I was like, if anything happens, I can always move in with my dad. if like I can't, you know, make my business successful.

11:15But I was excited to see how to make Deanna grow and focus all my attention on making that happen. And I didn't want to be stuck at a job I didn't like. And I just wanted to focus all my attention on my brand and making it successful. Bringing Facebook ads into the mix was really the thing that allowed it to take off, right? It was, yeah. And that happened when? That was around October of 2014. October of 2014. Okay, wow. And do you remember how it felt in that moment to have been in a state of like some degree of struggle and toil and you believe in this thing and you're not really seeing the numbers and then all of a sudden there's this transition.

11:59Like what was it like for you? It was exciting. I was like, I don't know, it was surreal because like you said, it was, you know, what is that? Almost nine plus months of like struggle. And then all of a sudden, like I learned this skill to like leverage Facebook ads to actually grow and get sales for my business. And it works overnight, you know, like I don't have to be out on the street selling. Like I can be sleeping and I'm making revenue overnight. Like it felt amazing. It was magical at that time. It's nice that you can still connect with that feeling. Have you had other moments in the business since then that have been like that?

12:48Sort of big transition points or unlocks? Or has it been more of a steady, steady ascent since then? I feel like we have been more steady. But I will say like when COVID occurred in 2020, really scary time for most businesses when everything shut down. And we also experienced a significant decline in sales. And we were kind of in a state of panic, right? Because you're like, we don't know how long everything will be locked down. We don't know how that's going to impact sales for the year or long term. and we decided to start making face masks because we had our fabric. And looking back now, it seems like a very easy decision to start making cloth masks because when we decided to do that, not everyone was necessarily doing it, but we were doing it.

13:41We wanted to do it kind of like as a fashion statement, but it could also be helpful. But that was a pivotal moment because when we did like our pre-sales for the masks, that was our first day of hitting$100 ,000 in sales in a day, which is insane. I think we've only ever reached that one other time. But to find a solution that helped us make it through that difficult time was a really great feeling. Yeah. And that you had the foresight to get into the game quickly. Because of course, then, you know, within a matter of weeks or a month, all these other companies followed suit, but you were quick to it.

14:24Yeah. So that was, so end up flipping 2020 to be an actually really successful year for us because of that. So it was Facebook, it was Facebook ads initially in 2014. Does that still make up the lion's share of your social media marketing strategy or what does your mix look like now? Yes. Meta ads is still the majority of our monthly ad spend. It makes up about, I want to say like 70 % or so of our spend. The other is like Google and Pinterest. Okay. And how are those bearing out for you? We do really well with Google ads as well. we started using Google Ads probably in 2018, at least seriously.

15:11And then over the year, we've increased our spend and it's really performed. Some years it was actually outperforming Facebook in terms of ROAS. But right now we've in-housed our meta ads management with our marketing director and he uses a contractor to help him like do the day-to-day management. But since then, we've seen a tremendous growth in ROAS for meta ads. But both are doing really well for us right now. You are and have been entirely direct to consumer. Are you looking to, do you have an eye toward wanting to be in retailers as well? Yes, we are interested in doing large retail, like maybe Nordstrom.

16:05We were planning to do a Tracell this year, but due to a lot of uncertainties with tariffs and et cetera, we kind of paused that and we'll revisit that next year. But it is something we are still interested in. And we are also looking to open up our own retail spaces in the next maybe like three years in our major locations. That will be something really great for us to see, you know, happen. Although we know like online is still like our main channel, but we like the idea of coming offline to have customers experience us in person and also solidifying like the legitimacy of the brand because you know sometimes when you're mainly online based customers kind of um they question you know if you're a legit brand um because we still get those questions with customers who are unsure because there's so many things online that are fraudulent so like they want to make sure like we're legit and i mean we've been around for this out 12 years.

17:14So we've kind of created a following and looking to grow our fan base more and more. It's interesting. You know, it's like we're in this increasingly and overwhelmingly digital landscape. And yet there still is power to just like being able to see and deal with something physically. And the notion of a brick and mortar, I mean, it feels so old school and quaint. And yet I totally hear you when you're saying like, yeah, there's a component to like brand building that this can feel important for. Exactly. Yeah. And with that in mind, you know, we're planning to do our pop-up shop in Brooklyn, New York.

17:53And that's just an effort to, you know, have people experience us in person and they are able to feel, touch and experience the brand. and further solidify like who we are and let everyone know like we are here and like and they can actually shop us in person if they wanted to. That's exciting. And I would imagine like especially because the line is so vibrant, there is something really powerful about being able to like see all of the patterns and the fabrics and the designs in person in a space. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And Brooklyn is actually our top location. So we wanted to bring the brand to them and have them get that personal experience.

18:42Fabric choice is, of course, super critical for any fashion brand and probably even more so for yours. Can you talk a little bit about where you're sourcing your fabric from and also what your supply chain process looks like? Yes, absolutely. So fabric is currently being sourced from Asia. We have a few products that were sourced from Ghana and Nigeria, but to streamline our process, because all our prints are made now made in-house by us. So we create our prints. We get the factory to make it according to our colors and all those details. So finding a factory that is flexible enough to work with us with sometimes smaller quantities can be a challenge.

19:26So right now we are sourcing most of our fabric from China and it's been working out really well because we also have access to many variety of fabric content because we initially started using what we call Ankara fabric, which is 100 % cotton. And the way it's dyed, the print shows on both sides. And the fabric doesn't have much stretch. So we've had to kind of diversify our fabric content to like fabric that includes cotton and spandex. We also use what we refer to as stretch woven for our women's wear. So it's similar to the Ankara in terms of the look of it. but it has a lot of stress for like our pants, our dresses, things that are more fitted.

20:20So as we're online based, like, you know, making sure things fit correctly and it can accommodate different like measurements is really important and key. So we've had to kind of be more intentional with the fabric choice because of that. And I'm proud to say like with some of our fabric options, we are, from what I understand, And we are the only like Afghans buyer brands using some of this fabric for our designs. So we really are unique for that. Like we really prioritize making sure our items are comfortable and it can fit, you know, our customers, even as they may fluctuate maybe a little bit in size.

21:05Yeah, super key. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to have something that you can't wear if you go up or down four pounds or something, right? Which happens to us all. How did you come to the decision to make that fabric swap? Was that based on customer feedback or something that you were sort of intuiting internally? Yeah, I would say it's probably both. When we were making garments with 100 % cotton with no stretch, we tend to have more maybe returns and feedback that it doesn't fit well. And of course, everyone is shaped slightly differently. So we needed some fabric that would accommodate, you know, if you were made larger off top and then smaller at the bottom or vice versa.

21:48So it was a bit of both. Like we knew that there could be a better solution and then also feedback from customers. not every print or item or collection is a hit of course as I'm sure you've experienced like have you had moments like that where you really thought something was going to work and it didn't or vice versa you had lower expectations and something really took off yeah that happens all the time I mean it's fashion right and um I will say like with our clothing, it is print driven. So if a print is really popular, the style tends to do really well. If it's not, even though if it's a great style, if they don't like the print, they don't like the print.

22:37It's just one of those things that, so now like we're trying to be more intentional about how we come up with our prints by doing kind of putting into a process to do a survey for the prints before we go into production. And we've done that a little bit in the past, but this year is when we're being more intentional about making it part of our process. And yes, absolutely. Like last holiday collection was a flop and it was primarily because they didn't love the print, you know, the same way we felt about it. And we definitely didn't ask the audience beforehand So no one really gave us the feedback, but we liked it, but our customers did not.

23:23And then this summer with some of our summer styles, we had some of our best-selling items ever launched this summer. There's this print called Gold Cream Tribal, and it's in this maxi dress. And we launched it on May 16th. And within like a week or and a half, we sold out like 500 units. so then we're like really scrambling to replenish it. But yeah, when you have a hit, like it's a hit and then a flop will be a flop. That was the breaks. Yeah. Has that customer feedback process made its way into your design process now? Yes. We have implemented it for, I think it really kind of started off with summer and then we've done it for fall coming up.

24:16And then we're going to make it an ongoing thing where we get that feedback before we commit to our fabric production and then making the styles. Is that advice that you would offer to other entrepreneurs as well, particularly people who are in the fashion sphere of things, to get that customer feedback and utilize it in the design process? Or like to what extent do you think it's like focus for a while on like your own sensibilities and what you think will work and be good? Yeah, that's a great question because it is something that, you know, has come up for us where, you know, we don't necessarily want to share too much up front with the customers.

25:02It works well with prints. I honestly feel like if you have a customer base and they are loyal, you can even maybe just send to a segment of your customers to get that feedback from them. I think it would be helpful to any business, to be honest. Yeah, more data, more insight. Exactly. It's no surprises or I mean, there might still be surprises, but at least it gives you more confidence in your decision making. Okay, I'm fascinated by this because I also work with my husband sometimes. You brought your brother on as president in 2016. So A, you're making the switch from being a solo founder to now having somebody else like in the C-suite with you.

25:52And then two, it's your brother. So how did you navigate that transition and how does it work between the two of you? Yeah, so back in 2016, my brother saw what I was doing and he was like, I could probably help her. And at the time I brought him on board and it was a challenge trying to navigate because he's my older brother and me being the boss, right? And being used to being the boss and calling the shots, like I had to learn how to work with him and also talk to him in a way that it wasn't in a respectful, more respectful manner. And like, we kind of just had to figure out how to work together over the years.

26:42And we've managed to make it happen. And it's gotten a lot better and easier. Obviously, we're still working together. Um, but yeah, it's been a blessing having someone I can trust and who is stable, who's seen the journey of the, of the company from earlier days. Um, you know, cause over the years we've had, obviously had employee turnovers and like, it's been challenging retaining some talent and keeping that continuity in certain roles. So having someone who's been there to help us grow and who's seen a lot and who understands the business has been really helpful. And, you know, so we had to learn how to work together, essentially.

27:34It's like, it's like there's such power in having somebody on your team who knows you so intimately. And also there's difficulties with having somebody on your team who knows you so intimately, you know? It's like both sides of the coin. You talked about some challenges around finding and hanging on to talent. Like, what does your team look like right now? And has your process for recruiting and retaining employees shifted? What does it look like right now? Yes. So I think over the years, I had to learn how to prioritize and invest in the team because at the beginning, I feel like I was so caught up in making sure we're profitable and we were focused on the bottom line that I didn't realize that part of long-term investment is actually investing in the team.

28:29And it's sad that it took me a while to understand that because it would make my life easier if I had taken the steps to hire managers and experienced people and pay them well, at least market rate or higher, so that they would want to stay. So I think that's the shift that I had to learn over the years to understand investing in the team is critical for the long-term growth of the business. Right. Because it's also really expensive from a financial perspective, but also just from an energetic and a time perspective when you lose people and you have to go through the process of trying to replace that headcount, right?

29:12Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. And, you know, looking back, it's like, it sounds silly that I didn't know that or prioritize that, but that's the name of the game. It's a learning, it's a journey, but I mean, that's definitely one key advice I give to other entrepreneurs to make sure you're investing in your team because it is a long-term investment. Are there other things, you know, hindsight is 20-20, right? And the role of being a first-time founder, especially, I think is just like paved with making mistakes. You like, there's no way around it. You kind of have to make the mistakes to figure out how to do it the right way.

29:52It's like the name of the game, like you said. Are there other things when you look back that you think, oh, if I were to do it again or other pieces of advice, like this is what I would do differently? Well, we tried to implement like this ERP system back in 2018, I want to say, but it was too early for the team. And it ended up being like a waste of money because it wasn't the right tool for us. I guess understanding where you are in your team structure and dynamic and being able to find the right tools for where you're at and not overspending on something that is not going to be helpful. So obviously we have to go through that process and waste the money.

30:35And here we are, but mistakes happen and you make decisions and you just got to bounce back from it. Kind of a philosophical question, but are you able to let that stuff go? Oh, yeah, you have to, especially, you know, with business. You know, everything is a cycle in terms of you have your highs, you have your lows and being able to just keep your eyes on the prize. And like, especially what has helped me is like my eyes on my initial vision for the brand. When I first thought about it, I still feel like we're nowhere close to where I want us to be. I still feel like we still have, you know, some work to do to reach what I wanted to create for the brand.