We're Alex, Dev, and Jordan—the small team behind nocolor, a jewelry brand trying to take on an industry that, honestly, doesn’t really love change.
This journal is our way of sharing the real, messy journey as we build this thing. No polished PR, just us figuring it out as we go.
Right now, it’s just the three of us here in New York:
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Alex: Handles marketing and storytelling. She’s basically the voice behind our socials—if you’ve seen our Instagram, you’ve seen her work.
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Dev: The jewelry guy. Dev’s family has been in jewelry literally forever, so he’s obsessive about quality and sourcing. He genuinely couldn’t sleep at night if we compromised on either.
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Jordan: Keeps us sane and organized, juggling logistics, website stuff, and making sure we actually get things done.
So…Why Jewelry?
We knew we wanted to start a brand together, especially an e-commerce brand, since that’s what we all know best. But jewelry wasn't an obvious choice at first. We actually sat down and threw around a bunch of ideas. But we kept coming back to jewelry. Here's why:
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The industry is in the middle of a huge shift. Diamonds are quickly moving from mined to ethically cultivated, lab-grown diamonds. With lab diamonds, we realized we could offer the absolute best quality—only colorless D-E diamonds with VVS+ clarity—at a fraction of the price traditional jewelers charge (who often use lower-grade stones like SI clarity and F-G color).
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The margins in jewelry are mind-blowing. Seriously. It felt like we uncovered a secret everyone else was weirdly okay with. We had our “wait, how is this even real?” moment when we saw other brands selling lower-quality diamond studs for upwards of $600, while ours—better quality—could still profitably sell at $380. That Jeff Bezos quote, “Your margin is my opportunity,” suddenly made a lot of sense.
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We didn't have much startup cash. We’re bootstrapping with just about $20K of our savings, so a business with no upfront inventory was ideal. Jewelry, especially fine jewelry, is usually custom-made per order, which fits perfectly.
Honestly, it reminded us a lot of Warby Parker back in the day. They took eyewear and stripped away all the nonsense (insane prices, huge markups, confusing choices). We realized jewelry was in the exact same situation. Warby had written something when they first launched about listing every possible reason someone wouldn't buy from them, then addressing each one directly. So, we did the same thing:
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Too many jewelry options can be overwhelming: So we decided on launching one amazing new product each month, plus a small core collection.
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Diamonds have a bad rep environmentally: Easy fix—use only lab-grown diamonds.
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Insane markups: We’ll price our jewelry fairly, with specs so good it becomes a no-brainer.
Launching Quickly (and Getting Lucky)
We wanted to get this going fast. By November 2024, we’d researched enough to know we had something special. By December, we were ready to launch—even if it was just a minimal "beta" version. We focused first on classic diamond staples (earrings, bracelets, rings), because those don’t rely on a famous brand or designer—they rely on diamond quality alone. Our thinking: if these simple pieces worked, we’d eventually expand into unique designs.
We also took a tip from a successful e-commerce founder we’d read about: run Facebook ads before investing too much, just to gauge interest. Meanwhile, we asked our most stylish friends which jewelry piece they'd buy first. They chose emerald-cut diamond studs, specifically 2ct total weight—so we went with that.
And then…something wild happened. On just the second day, we got our first actual purchase—before we even properly launched. We’d planned on running some ads just to warm up our account, not drive people directly to our site yet. But someone clicked through from our Instagram (where we’d naively linked our unprotected site), found the studs, and bought them. We were all immediately texting each other: “Do you know this person?” (Turns out none of us did. Shout-out to Michelle!)
Oh, and we also got hit with our first cease-and-desist from a competitor during this time because one of our ads said they were “ripping people off.” We still believe it, but we quickly learned we’re way too small to get tangled up in legal battles. Welcome to the jewelry industry, right?
In our first official month (December 2024), we got seven orders, which honestly shocked us. We were aiming for five, but would’ve secretly celebrated even one. Those first few sales gave us enough confidence to double down.
Figuring Out "nocolor 2.0"
In December and January, we hunkered down and thought through what "nocolor 2.0" would actually look like. Initially, we liked the simplicity of launching just one product per month, but worried it would feel too limiting. So we found a balance: we’d still drop one new limited-edition product each month, but we’d also build a small, always-available "core collection"—timeless diamond pieces we genuinely think everyone should have.
This new structure let us:
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Keep excitement high with monthly drops.
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Offer staple pieces anyone can come back for anytime.
On February 26, we officially launched our new website with the expanded core collection. The hope is that having more products available leads to more sales—at least, that’s the theory. We'll see how it actually goes (and let you know).
This journal is our place to share this raw journey—mistakes, surprises, successes, and all. Stick around. It’ll be worth it.
— Alex, Dev, and Jordan (aka the nocolor team)