How Meg Strachan Bootstrapped Her Profitable Jewelry Brand Dorsey
Photo: Meg Strachan
Watch the full conversation between Meg Strachan and Editor in Chief Dhani Mau on The Fashionista Network.
On a business trip to Paris several years ago, Meg Strachan, then an executive at Anine Bing, rushed into a secondhand shop.
"I picked up a pair of earrings, and the back fell off," she told Fashionista Editor in Chief Dhani Mau live on the Fashionista Network. Strachan would have given the earrings to her jewelery-loving grandmother, Dorsey, if they hadn't broken in her hands.
At that moment, she realized the untapped potential of affordable, high-quality, vintage-inspired jewelry in the modern market. "I had no background in jewelry, but I thought, 'I'm going to build this company,'" she recalled.
Strachan started Dorsey (named after her grandmother) in her garage like many entrepreneurial greats before her. Less than five years later, the brand has achieved eight-figure revenue and seven-figure profitability and is a leader in the lab-grown diamond and gem industry.
Before founding Dorsey, Strachan spent 12 years at DTC companies and held several impressive titles including Chief Marketing and E-Commerce Officer at Anine Bing, Brand Marketing and Growth Advisor at Goop and VP of Growth at Girlfriend Collective.
She revealed that she started the business with between $600 and $1,000 (she can't remember the exact amount), and ran it as a one-woman show for the first year. She was her own buyer, marketer and warehouse manager. She shot all of the brand's imagery and packed its first $1 million worth of orders (all while working full-time at The Girlfriend Collective) before hiring her first employee.
"I'm really thankful for that grit," Strachan said. "Now, I feel like there's a lot that I know I can do."
Strachan also funded the company independently for a year before accepting her first investment. She attributes its financial success to her initial self-reliance. "It taught [me] to be profitable," she said.
When Dorsey was founded in 2019, lab-grown diamonds were a new concept for most consumers, but using them was a no-brainer for Strachan. She was attracted to the quality and affordability of lab-grown gems, as they are molecularly identical to their mined counterparts, and believes they are the future of the industry.
While Strachan may have benefited from her extensive experience in marketing — and growing up seeing her father run his own business, she noted that every company is different. "I got to see a lot of what worked and what didn't work," she said during the interview. (Watch it here!) "It was a lot harder than [my dad] made it look. There's a lot of times I don't know why I kept moving forward."
Despite many doubts along the way, her innovative products and DIY Instagram marketing strategy proved successful. "There were [early] signs that there was a lot of interest in the brand," Strachan told Mau, including orders from high-profile celebrity and fashion-industry clients in its first few months. "Those moments keep you goin."
Entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs. As to her advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs, Strachan said it's okay to "put your blinders on" sometimes and drown out the noise of nonbelievers. "It's been the most rewarding thing that I've ever done," Strachan said. "It's been an incredible ride and one that has come with a lot of learning, but I think that's just life."
Strachan also discussed fundraising challenges, dealing with self-doubt and upcoming expansion plans. Watch the full interview here.
This conversation was hosted on The Fashionista Network powered by interactive media platform Fireside, where viewers get the chance to participate and speak directly with industry figures. Learn more about The Fashionista Network here.
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