Episode Details

Victor Chan bought a $2,000 engraving machine off Amazon to make his girlfriend Jess a necklace — a hand-engraved star map of the exact moment they met. She thought it was the most thoughtful gift she'd ever received, and two weeks later they had a store. Two years on, By Lumine is doing $30–40K a month and Jess has quit her accounting job to go all in.

A software engineer and a Big Four accountant — both with zero e-commerce or marketing experience — they started with $100 worth of blank pendants, cardboard packaging with a sticker logo, and a lot of figuring it out on evenings and weekends. What they built is a fully customisable, hand-assembled personalised jewellery brand where no two pieces are the same, consistently hitting 10x growth year on year.

In this episode, Jess and Victor get completely honest about what the first two years actually looked like — two weeks with zero sales after launch, wasted batches from engraving errors, influencer gifting that went nowhere, and how US tariffs hit them just as they were finding their feet.

What you'll learn in this interview:

• How a personal gift sparked a business idea — and the Etsy research that validated there was a real market for it
• Why starting with $100 worth of blank pendants and a $50 sticker logo is a legitimate launch strategy
• The early production mistakes that wasted entire batches — and the lesson on communicating with manufacturers down to the millimetre
• Why two weeks of zero sales nearly broke them — and what finally turned things around
• How Victor's software background became an unexpected competitive advantage — and the live preview tool that changed their conversion rate
• Why Meta ads outperformed every other channel for an emotional, personalised product — and how they learned it all from scratch
• The honest truth about influencer marketing: what they tried, what it cost, and why it didn't convert
• How they grew 10x in a single year while both still working full time jobs
• What getting hit by US tariffs mid-growth actually feels like — and how they kept going anyway
• Why Jess wishes she'd started earlier — and what she'd tell any founder sitting on the fence

If you're thinking about starting something with your partner, building a brand in a saturated market, or just trying to figure out whether the grind of evenings and weekends is actually worth it — this episode will change how you think about what a real start looks like. Jess and Victor prove that the scrappiest beginnings can lead somewhere genuinely remarkable.

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HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+ Start your $1 trial → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING? → Starting from scratch? Apply here → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ → Already have a store? Apply here → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONNECT WITH BY LUMINE Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/bylumine_/ Website →

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