To my dearest DiAi family,

This letter is about our 3 year journey, the inception, the struggles, the accomplishments and the countless favours and support I have received from my family, friends, team and all of you to get us where we are today.

We embarked on this journey with the mission to provide sustainable and modern fine jewellery to today’s woman. We wanted to make it affordable enough for her to purchase herself but stylish enough for her to flaunt every day. I was doing a 9-5 job when I first discovered about lab-grown diamonds, so I called up my best friend Aishwarya and told her about it. We met for a cup of coffee and decided we had to start this soon, to leverage on being the ‘first’ in India. From there, we quit our jobs and started off! Since my family business is from the same industry, the procurement of diamonds and manufacturing of the pieces took off smoothly. We saw a major gap in the market and realized that most jewellery in India was heavy on gold & looked quite traditional.

Once the initial pieces, photo shoots and online store was ready, we thought our job there was done. Then reality hit and we had no idea how to get traffic on our page, with a low marketing budget. Hence, we decided to do a couple of offline exhibitions and pop-ups, where almost everyone loved our designs but sales didn’t come through. We struggled with sales for the first 6-8 months and almost gave up a year after. Aishwarya took a step back for personal reasons, but I knew in my gut, that I couldn’t give this up. Soon after, sales started picking up, but then the pandemic hit. Honestly it was a hit for us in terms of revenue, but our online family grew like never before!

Being the owner, founder and boss of a small business, sounds great, but you are actually a stylist, photographer, accountant, creative director, content writer, HR and purchase manager, all in one. I realized early on that I couldn’t micro-manage and hired a small team. I don’t know what I’d do without them! They are my OG DiAi fam and deserve all the shout-outs possible for being there, through our highs and lows. Whether it is about increasing sales, or tackling a negative customer review, we brainstorm together and implement strategies to do better.

The struggles of a small business never stops, even whilst I write this letter, we are juggling between the DiAi 3 Year Surprise Gift launch, the website functionalities, orders and inquiries. However, when we pack the orders and receive love from you guys, it makes it all worth it!

I would like to thank you all for taking your time out and reading this letter, for being there when we needed you the most and helping us grow, by allowing us to leave a little bit of sparkle in your everyday lives. Let us hustle and hope to create more magic by adding a smile on someone’s face, whilst preserving our world, one jewellery piece at a time.

Much Love,

Di