Entrepreneur of the Year - Retail

Diamondere, Inc. is an online-only, custom fine jewelry brand. Customers can work directly with the designers to customize any jewelry piece, which is then manufactured and shipped directly to their doorstep. Diamondere has aggressively relied on technology such as CAD and 3D Printing to completely rethink the online shopping experience from the ground up.

The nominee is responsible spearheading the fantastic rise of the business. Heading the digital marketing of the company and working with partners globally, the nominee is responsible for guiding the business through profitability. Having been self-funded and bootstrapped, balancing profitability with growth was amongst the most essential factors of the business to ensure its continued survival. The way this was managed was by bringing the most essential components of the business' marketing in-house, being managed by the nominee directly, rather than being outsourced to contractors. This helped cut costs charged by the contractors, but more importantly delivered far superior results than were possible earlier. Typically, high growth startups are known for unprofitability, however, Diamondere is amongst the select few businesses that has been able to achieve a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 55% over the past 3 years, and is currently profitable!