“A woman with a voice is by definition a powerful woman” with Priyanka Ghosh Murthy
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Priyanka Ghosh Murthy is the CEO and co-founder of Access79, a tech-enabled try-before-you-buy fine jewelry service that helps women discover pieces from today's most talented independent designers. She’s also the founder of Arya Esha, an award-winning and celebrity-favorite fine jewelry brand, which counts Jennifer Lawrence, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lopez, and Julia Roberts as fans. Priyanka holds a law and undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Northwestern University. She’s also a former Fulbright Scholar, which took her to Denmark to study European foreign and security policy. Before entrepreneurship chose her, Priyanka was a litigator, specializing in high-stakes and high-value cases.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I am a lawyer by training. By all accounts, I have an illustrious legal resume -- I went to a top-10 law school, was an editor on the Law Review, worked for two renowned federal judges, and litigated at white-shoe law firms. The longer I stayed in the law, the more I realized that I loved the law but I didn’t care for the practice of law because I wasn’t building anything. I come from a family of entrepreneurs and always had an interest in jewelry. So, as I was practicing law, I started a side hustle of designing and selling fine jewelry. I was pleasantly surprised to see my pieces sell and to learn I could make a living from this. The idea of being my own boss also appealed to me. So, I quit my day job as a lawyer and launched my own jewelry business. As an outsider in the jewelry industry, I found myself learning a lot and also questioning a lot of the way things are done. I skipped the wholesale route and went direct to the consumer early and this allowed me to learn a lot about my client and what she wanted. I learned that most women do not like the intimidating and drab jewelry shopping experience and were looking for a more relaxed and personalized way to shop. On the supply side, I learned that 80% of the fine jewelry produced were by small independent jewelry designers who didn’t always have the know-how, resources, and temperament to market and sell their jewelry in a way that could earn them a good living from their craft. Based on these learnings, I launched Access79, which is a tech-enabled, try-before-you-buy fine jewelry service that matches clients up with a personal jewelry stylist who curates pieces from independent designers based on each client’s individual taste and needs.
Then the client can try the pieces for seven days before she commits to purchase. We are giving independent jewelry designers a sales channel and giving our clients a tailored, convenient, and fun way to discover and purchase unique fine jewelry they wear every day. I think it is the analytical training that I have had as a lawyer along with the experience in and insight into the jewelry industry that makes me uniquely qualified to build and lead this company.
What inspired you to start your business?
I launched Access79 for three reasons:
One, I wanted to flip the antiquated, intimidating, and inequitable experience of luxury shopping on its head. Traditional luxury brands reserve the privilege of shopping from home for the uber-wealthy, who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with the brand. Access79 is democratizing the jewelry buying experience by giving all women the opportunity to try pieces at home before committing.
Two, I wanted our brand to support and promote the work of small-batch, independent designers and craftspeople, whose work represents eight percent of the jewelry produced yet it lacks access to the innovative retail channels dominated by a handful of deep-pocketed legacy brands. Our designers and craftspeople are small business owners in their own right and are either women, women of color, or members of the LGBTQ community. During Covid-19, our marketplace single-handedly kept our designers and craftspeople, otherwise hurt by physical retail closures, in business. We are extremely proud of this.
Three, I wanted to build a brand that attracts, validates and celebrates the multifaceted woman who is equal parts substance and style. In doing so, Access79 is tearing up the traditional playbook for legacy brands, which dictates a seemingly oblivious or neutral posture in relation to the heady civic and social issues of our time. Our team and community of clients, brand partners, and ambassadors are passionate about and deeply committed to making a difference in their world. Nowhere is our commitment more evident than in this quarter’s “ScienceWins'' campaign. We partnered with eleven female physician-scientist clients, many of whom were and still are on the frontlines of the pandemic, to design a limited edition S-C-I-E-N-C-E necklace. The goal of the campaign is to celebrate the win of science above all else in the last eighteen months and to give our community a way to show their belief in Science. Our campaign has caught the interest of Michelle Obama and Jessica Alba, and necklace sale proceeds are supporting ProjectHOPE’s vaccine and PPE distribution work.
Where is your business based?
My company is based in Jacksonville, FL.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
By helping my parents’ small jewelry business off and on for 20 years, I learned a ton about the jewelry industry. It’s a bittersweet industry to be in because, on the one hand, the jewelry industry is responsible for so much creativity and art in this world, yet it’s also dangerously dated and archaic. The industry is a microcosm of destructive stereotypes about the role and place of women in society in relation to men; it also mirrors society’s entrenched inequities and arbitrary delineations about who is “worthy” and who “belongs.'' The challenge of keeping the art and creativity, yet modernizing the industry is what inspired me to start Access79. Through our business model, we are dismantling two legacy pillars of the status quo fine jewelry industry: 1. an antiquated notion that fine jewelry is not something a woman chooses for herself, rather it is primarily chosen and bought for her by men; 2. a deeply held belief that for fine jewelry as a product category to be considered luxurious and desired, the industry needs to shroud it in opacity and pitch it as exclusive and attainable for only a handful of people.
At Access79, our proprietary digital curation technology is premised on the woman being the browser, the shopper, and the final decision maker regarding what piece(s) are purchased. 90% percent of our clients are women, and the other ten percent are men who are on our platform to execute purchases based on the explicit choices and preferences of the woman. We’re living in a social climate where much of women’s choices are constantly up for debate and often dictated by men. By building a business model and corresponding technology dependent on choice by women, we are taking a position on the large societal issue about the role and place of women.
Additionally, we are flipping the antiquated and inequitable experience of luxury shopping on its head. From the ark and drab wood-lined stores, jewelry locked inside showcases, armed guards following you, and pushy white-haired salesmen peddling last season’s designs -- the status quo luxury fine jewelry shopping experience is stressful and high-pressure. We believe the fine jewelry shopping experience can and should be more inclusive. Access79 is democratizing the jewelry buying experience by giving everyone the opportunity to try pieces at home before committing. We intend to private label our proprietary technology, which facilitates the complex logistics of our try-before-you-buy service at scale. In doing so, we will encourage other luxury brands to incorporate our try-before-you-buy model into their business, thereby making the shopping experience accessible to many.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
The most effective strategy for raising awareness for my business has been to treat existing clients and the community of fans like superstars first and foremost because they deserve it and they organically spread the word and word of mouth is the most powerful and long-lasting marketing tactic.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
We are a marketplace that supports the work of independent craftspeople. The biggest challenge I and my company have had to overcome this year is trying to fulfill our orders in light of the supply chain issues faced by the fine jewelry craftspeople we support. All of them work with only ethically sourced gemstones and diamonds as well as recycled gold. Their discerning and honorable methodology regarding the chain of custody meant that they were limited to only certain materials and thus couldn’t use other more readily available substitutes. So we had the challenge of educating our clients about why the supply chain issues experienced by our craftspeople, and in turn, our company were even more acute than those experienced by other brands. It was challenging and we did lose some business, however, it also allowed us to lean into our values more publicly. Ultimately, we gained more clients and 2.5X’d our revenue and were able to attract mission-driven people for our startup team.
How do you stay focused?
I stay focused by exercising and making sure I turn off the wifi on my phone.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
I’m the co-founder and CEO of Access79. Access79 is challenging traditional fine jewelry retail experiences, which are geared toward men buying women's jewelry as gifts and overlooking the nuanced needs of the main wearer of fine jewelry -- the woman. Our mission is to help women feel confident and educated in their choices, including how and where they shop for fine jewelry. Founded and led by female, AAPI luxury industry veterans, Access79 is a tech-enabled marketplace and try-before-you-buy service that introduces women to ethically sourced and produced fine jewelry pieces created by independent, small-batch designers and craftspeople who prioritize uniqueness of design with everyday versatility. Our platform empowers women to discover fine jewelry curated for their specific needs, from the comfort of their own homes.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
A mentor of mine, who’s a startup investor and runs an accelerator, has a quote that he always shares. In fact, it’s on the wall of the building his accelerator operates out of: Think big, start small. I’ve really embraced this advice. I keep reminding myself of the big picture and the big goal for the company I’m trying to build because it’s easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day grind and details of running a startup. On the flip side, sometimes a big goal -- like disrupting the $80B jewelry industry for both the consumer and the designer -- can seem really daunting, so it’s helpful to remember that several small steps, i.e. starting small and doing things nimbly and lean fashion will provide us with a sustainable foundation to grow.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
I’m really inspired by the NPR radio show/segment This I Believe. It was a modern reboot of Edward R Murrow’s show from the 1950s, where notable and everyday people read personal essays about what they believe. These essays, read aloud by the authors, are so poignant, powerful, and instructive. I’m a deeply analytical person -- I’m great with logic, data, and science but it’s not natural for me to be spiritual or pay attention to the soul of something. Listening to This I Believe is amazing because a person’s belief system is an amalgamation of what they think in their mind AND feel in their soul. One essay that had an impact on me was from a NASA scientist -- he talked about how he got to the heights of his career and was mesmerized by the science of outer space only to be equally mesmerized by love and kindness and even god, things that, to him and other people of science, are inexplicable. His essay implored me to also pay attention to and give credence to the inexplicable, and I think this has made me a better leader and parent.
What is your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
I like Slack because it keeps all communication in one place without the hassle of email.
Who is your business model to follow? Why?
I'd like to say Sara Blakely because she built and cultivated a mission-driven brand without receiving outside funding.
How do you balance work and life?
I want to start by noting that I don’t think I’ve achieved the ultimate balance or equilibrium. I do believe that this is a constant work in progress and I’m not sure there will ever be a time where I can say “okay, I’m totally balanced.” With that out of the way, I’ll say that the first step for me was becoming a mother. My child didn’t radically change who I am, rather it added to my identity. The pure joy I experience daily from being a mom and molding someone else’s life has made me want to assess my work priorities to spend time with my family and have more of a balance, so to speak.
Second, I consciously redefined what balance means, specifically and personally to me. I’m exceedingly ambitious, and I’ve learned not to be bashful about it. I have big goals for my professional and personal lives and I want to achieve them all. Not only do I want to grow a multimillion-dollar, innovative, mission-driven business, but I also want to teach my five-year-old long division and take him on a multi-leg trip to the islands of Indonesia. My aspirations mean that what balance looks like for my neighbor may not look the same for me. I work on vacation, but I also take time off in the middle of the day to go to my kid’s school to teach his class about Diwali. This is atypical of most people around me, so the best thing I’ve done is acknowledge to myself out loud the big goals I have and give myself permission to choose the atypical method of achieving it. Once I did that, I felt closer to achieving equilibrium.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
I would definitely say running.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
For the next six months, I have innovative ideas planned and in addition to our tech stack, an exciting brand partnership.
How can our readers connect with you?
@access.79 on Instagram for my company
@aryaesha on Instagram for me personally