$100 Million Annually, 100% Founder-Owned

This married couple's plans to raise VC money never panned out. Now they say it was the best thing to happen to their jewelry company.

- By Liz Brody

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.

The first lesson was pivoting back to their original idea:

1/ Go where competitors aren't.