This Couple Ignored the Common Wisdom of the Jewelry Industry, And Started Making $100 Million a Year Aditi and Agkur Daga were told that their founding concept would never work, and at first, they listened. But they took a risk, and reversed course.

Aditi and Ankur Daga had a daring idea for the jewelry industry: to own the online market for colored gemstones. Yes, De Beers had sold the culture on "a diamond is forever" since 1947, but by 2005, the Dagas felt people were ready for a change.

They weren't so sure, however, about investors. They worried VCs wouldn't appreciate the rainbow; they'd just want high sales and immediate returns. So the Dagas shelved their vision, and launched a business that mostly sold diamonds, called Angara.

They'd married and studied as grad students at Harvard, both from families in the jewelry space in India, and thought they understood the market. But the competition was stiff. They didn't get the revenue to attract investors. It took almost going bankrupt for them to learn how to build Angara into a company with 500-plus employees, 10 offices around the world, and annual revenue of $100 million.

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The first lesson was pivoting back to their original idea:

1. Go where competitors aren't.

When Angara launched in 2006, it was one of many companies selling diamonds online, all going after the same customers. "We ended up being a 'me also' player," says Ankur. In 2011, they were about to go under. That's when they totally revamped their inventory to 90% colored gems and only 10% diamonds. As a result, they were profitable within three months. "There was very little competition," says Ankur.

2. Hire the right talent for right now.

Angara had big ambitions and made hires to match — grabbing 30 industry experts from places like De Beers, LVHM, McKinsey, and MIT. It turned out to be the wrong move. "They were very bright but didn't have a startup mentality," says Ankur. "They were not the skill set we needed now." So as part of their 2011 pivot, the Dagas shifted operations overseas and replaced that initial team with a newer, scrappier, nimbler one in India.

3. Invest in speed.

Angara got shoppers to buy its sapphires and tanzanite, its ruby wedding bands and emerald cocktail rings and tourmaline necklaces, and much more, by allowing them to customize the jewelry by design, gemstone, and price. But complex orders could be costly and slow to fulfill. The Dagas wanted to solve both problems, which meant bringing the very fragmented supply chain in-house. They hired jewelry designers, people to negotiate rough gems in Africa, and cutters and polishers in India and Thailand; they also acquired a gemstone manufacturer. It took about seven years, but once in place, shoppers could get their orders in 72 hours — a huge competitive advantage — and Angara's profit margins skyrocketed. Since 2019, revenue has quadrupled.

4. Turn your team into BIZ Experiencess.

As part of their growth plan, the Dagas treat their employees like those diamonds that are forever. On top of performance incentives, Angara encourages BIZ Experiencesialism through an incubator program that gives each winner the resources to run their internal "startup" and a percentage of the proceeds. One winning idea was to sell lab-grown stones, which turned into 7% of Angara's business within five months.

Looking back, the Dagas are glad they never raised venture capital. Investors would have wanted fast growth and a speedy return, and that's not their goal. "This is a 50-year play for us," Ankur says. "We are trying to change an industry."

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