The Clear Lower workplaces sparkle on the sunny 14th flooring of twenty-two West forty eighth Avenue, the place married co-founders Olivia Landau and Kyle Simon have established a soft-hued, diamond-studded oasis match for the trendy fine-jewelry lover.
It’s extremely near New York Metropolis’s Diamond District, the business stretch alongside West forty seventh Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, which dates again to the Twenties.
But The Clear Lower stands worlds other than the world’s conventional previous: The corporate is simplifying the diamond-buying course of with an academic, curated strategy and e-shopping expertise because it goals to change into this technology’s “jeweler for all times.”
However neither Landau nor Simon got down to launch a fine-jewelry enterprise.
Though Landau is a fourth-generation diamond professional and the pair met whereas learning on the Gemological Institute of America, The Clear Lower wasn’t at all times a part of their plan. It started as Landau’s weblog, then side hustle, earlier than the co-founders’ strategic risk-taking and sheer pressure of will reworked it into the multimillion-dollar firm it’s immediately.
“I fell in love with diamonds and gems, and I assume it was in my blood all alongside.”
Landau’s path to the diamond business may need been written within the stars, but it surely wasn’t precisely linear.
Although Landau’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been diamond cutters or sellers, her dad and mom discouraged her from pursuing the enterprise herself, believing the business was in decline.
As a pupil at NYU, Landau thought of careers in style and media, however she finally wasn’t obsessed with both of them.
So she determined to enroll on the Gemological Institute of America, or GIA, after graduating from faculty in 2013. She figured that, if nothing else, the credential might assist her land a place at a company luxurious home.
However the six-month GIA course solely deepened Landau’s appreciation for high quality jewellery. “I fell in love with diamonds and gems,” she says, “and I assume it was in my blood all alongside.”
Landau additionally met Simon throughout their time on the GIA, and so they struck up a relationship.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of The Clear Lower
After graduating from faculty, Simon moved to Sierra Leone, the place he bought his begin in politics earlier than co-founding a fair-trade diamond-mining enterprise. The traders in Simon’s enterprise despatched him to the GIA, and as soon as he accomplished this system, he returned to Sierra Leone and stayed till the Ebola epidemic struck. He and Landau continued their long-distance relationship throughout that point.
In the meantime, post-GIA, Landau started working at Tiffany & Co.’s flagship retailer on the engagement flooring. “That is the place I actually fell in love with engagement rings and diamonds particularly,” Landau explains. “However I wished to be a little bit bit extra hands-on, so I left Tiffany to work at a big diamond wholesaler right here on forty seventh Avenue.”
“Strangers throughout the nation had been DMing me and sending me their life financial savings, and I’d create a hoop and ship it to them.”
Simon enrolled at Columbia Enterprise Faculty after transferring again to New York.
Unbeknownst to him and Landau, it might function an important stepping stone on The Clear Lower’s climb to a million-dollar firm. That is as a result of, when all of Simon’s mates at enterprise faculty started to get engaged, they turned to him for steerage realizing he had a connection to the diamond business.
“So that they’d be like, ‘Hey, know a man who can get me a deal on a hoop?'” Landau says. “And since I used to be the one engaged on wholesale, I used to be the man. So I’d educate everybody, select their diamonds, create their customized rings, and it changed into this enjoyable factor I did on the aspect.”
The rising curiosity impressed Landau to start out her weblog, The Clear Lower.
“I noticed that most individuals did not know the very first thing about shopping for a diamond,” Landau says. “There was data on-line, however nobody knew what to belief or consider. So I began The Clear Lower for our mates to learn in regards to the dos and don’ts, the 4 Cs.”
In diamond lingo, the 4 Cs stand for minimize, readability, colour and carat.
Landau additionally created an Instagram account to characteristic her designs. That social media presence actually helped issues take off: Folks had been discovering and liking her web page, then asking Landau to design their rings.
Between 2016 and 2018, Landau’s ardour undertaking reworked into a major aspect hustle. “Strangers throughout the nation had been DMing me and sending me their life financial savings, and I’d create a hoop and ship it to them,” she remembers.
It was throughout that point that Simon graduated from enterprise faculty — and realized that the speedy natural development of Landau’s endeavor meant there have to be white area available in the market.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of The Clear Lower
“The enterprise was self-sustaining instantly.”
Landau and Simon wished to offer The Clear Lower an actual shot at scalable success.
However many individuals, together with their very own households, discouraged them. “[Landau’s] dad and mom stated the business was dying,” Simon explains, “however Olivia realized that the business wasn’t dying — it was altering.”
Nonetheless, it was a major threat: To offer the try their all, Simon must flip down an attractive provide at an enormous financial institution, and Landau must depart her regular job.
“Transitioning to full-time was fairly intimidating,” Simon admits. “I had simply spent two years at enterprise faculty and racked up a good quantity of debt. And Olivia was promoting issues on the aspect, however the demand was very sporadic. So it was like, Is there sufficient right here to help [ourselves]?“
Though buying luxurious items on-line immediately is extra extensively accepted than ever earlier than, it was “extra hypothetical” even just some years in the past, Simon notes.
Happily, different folks additionally believed in Landau and Simon’s imaginative and prescient on the time. The Clear Lower was accepted into the Techstars accelerator program in 2018 — an admission that got here with $120,000 in funding. It meant that if issues did not go in accordance with plan, the co-founders would have a security web.
However The Clear Lower exceeded their expectations instantly.
“We by no means really touched that cash [from Techstars],” Simon says. “The enterprise was self-sustaining instantly.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of The Clear Lower
“We’re democratizing that non-public jewellery expertise that was as soon as solely [accessible to] celebrities or actually rich folks.”
The Clear Lower was resonating with patrons, significantly younger ones, who more and more anticipate a unique form of fine-jewelry expertise — one which goes past deciding on a pre-made design in-store or on-line.
That holds very true in relation to choosing out what, for a lot of, might be their largest luxurious buy up to now: an engagement ring.
“These days, younger folks at that age that they are going to get engaged have all regarded on Instagram and TikTok for inspiration for his or her rings,” Landau says. “They know precisely what they need, and so they do not need to compromise the standard, what it seems to be like, or spend an excessive amount of for it both.”
Landau and Simon knew precisely what that was like.
“After we started, we had been the purchasers, so we actually understood these wants and tried to fulfill folks the place they had been,” Landau explains. “We’re democratizing that non-public jewellery expertise that was as soon as solely [accessible to] celebrities or actually rich folks, [and we’re] making it at an inexpensive worth level, for anybody, anyplace.”
One other factor this technology of knickknack patrons values? Complete transparency.
“We at all times [prioritized] schooling first,” Landau says, “which appears fairly simple lately, however this business could be very opaque and historically likes to protect a variety of secrets and techniques and never be tremendous clear — that is the way it at all times operated.”
It is such a departure from the business’s standard strategy that Landau’s dad and mom did not initially perceive why the co-founders had been giving a lot data to their clients, Simon notes.
The Clear Lower’s social media presence on Instagram and TikTok performs a major function in that education-first mentality. On Wednesdays, Landau hosts Instagram Q&As that elicit “lots of and lots of” of questions, which permit her to offer folks the solutions they want and, in flip, study which developments are attracting probably the most consideration.
“We at all times knew that folks had been going to purchase jewellery remotely, and we had perfected a really unscalable course of to do it.”
By 2019, The Clear Lower had secured a gentle stream of repeat clients, a lot of whom had bought engagement rings and had been following up about marriage ceremony bands or different high quality jewellery.
So The Clear Lower launched its fine-jewelry line that very same 12 months, increasing into traditional items like pendants and tennis bracelets. Since then, that line has change into the corporate’s fastest-growing sector — serving to it double its development 12 months over 12 months. That momentum continued into 2020, when Landau and Simon made the Forbes 30 Beneath 30 checklist.
The co-founders had been reaching heights they’d solely dreamed of, however additionally they realized that their present mannequin would not permit for environment friendly development. At that time, they had been nonetheless working with clients over electronic mail, sending pictures backwards and forwards from their telephones.
“We at all times knew that folks had been going to purchase jewellery remotely, and we had perfected a really unscalable course of to do it,” Simon explains. “However we at all times had a imaginative and prescient of the way it must be carried out.”
Landau had conceptualized a know-how that will simplify that course of. In 2020, The Clear Lower started to roll out its proprietary software program, gem., launching a front-end expertise tailor-made to its bespoke engagement ring clients. It is since change into an integral a part of the corporate’s digital strategy.
All of it begins with a 15-minute telephone session with Landau or one other gemologist on workers. From there, clients have entry to their profile, which permits them to see a number of diamonds hand-picked for his or her perusal and provides suggestions as a part of The Clear Lower’s collaborative course of.
As soon as they’re proud of the design, the shopper pays the deposit, and the ring will go into manufacturing. When the piece is full, the shopper can see the ultimate product, give any crucial suggestions, ship the steadiness and choose their ship date. The portal additionally provides them entry to their appraisal, GIA certificates and even an non-compulsory NFT for buy.
And the software program is simply as essential on the again finish too. It tracks information — like why a buyer stated sure or no to a specific diamond — and fluctuations available in the market, making it straightforward to regulate costs internally.
Moreover, the know-how generates a QR code for every stone, monitoring the jewellery manufacturing course of from begin to end — and digitizing a system that has remained stubbornly pen-and-carbon-copy-paper, “like a parking ticket,” for years.
The Clear Lower additionally has a GIA API that pulls diamond data instantly from GIA’s database. “As a substitute of writing issues out, I can simply enter a GIA quantity,” Simon explains.
The corporate’s assortment is linked to its Shopify orders with the same course of, so each time a purchase order takes place on the web site, it is also tracked by the software program.
All the know-how helps the corporate in its aim of creating buyer relationships that final a lifetime.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of The Clear Lower
“Trying ahead to this new economic system, we could also be getting into a recession, [but] we’re battle-tested and disciplined.”
Endurance and flexibility have been important all through The Clear Lower’s startup journey. (That proprietary software program was an thought for 10 years earlier than it grew to become a actuality).
Beginning with out elevating a lot capital introduced apparent challenges, Simon says, forcing the co-founders to be “extra even handed” with their cash day-to-day. However that very same discerning mentality made it potential to scale over time.
“We had been capable of put money into tech and construct a really scalable, resilient firm,” Simon explains. “So no matter what the previous 4 years have thrown at us, we have at all times been capable of succeed, and we could also be getting into a recession, [but] we’re battle-tested and disciplined.”
The co-founders’ means to adapt shortly was additionally invaluable. Landau cites Covid-19 for instance — the corporate was ready for slumping gross sales, however as a substitute needed to meet skyrocketing demand.
Accepting they’ve “finite assets” — and that there are solely so many hours in a day — has been one other essential lesson.
“You at all times need to go to mattress realizing that one thing is not carried out and be okay with that,” Simon says. “We might by no means cease working, and there would at all times be one thing to do.”
One other factor is definite too: As The Clear Lower approaches its seventh birthday, its future is shining shiny.
