Apr 20, 2017
An on-demand jewelry company, plus a sustainability segment for Earth Day! Ivka Adam is the Founder and CEO of Iconery. She’s mashing up 3D printing, ecommerce, manufacturing, and influencer marketing to create a unique platform to enable designers and influencers to create and sell their own jewelry lines. In a way, her company is a tool for non-experts to access the complex and sometimes bewildering jewelry supply chain. Being unfamiliar with the industry, I was curious about the trends making her new on-demand manufacturing model possible right now. It turns out the industry is ripe for innovation, and many entrepreneurs have tried. But with the high cost of materials, it’s really easy to get it wrong. Will Ivka succeed? She hasn’t completely democratized the supply chain yet, but she has had some big wins with influencers like Michelle Branch, who just launched her brand new line last week. She also has some thoughts about customer service, building a brand, and whether it’s a good idea to leave your team alone for 9 days while you go hike Kilimanjaro.
We start the episode with a short segment with Carolyn Casavan. She is best known as the founder of West Coast Environmental and Engineering, a very well respected sustainability and engineering firm. She has a wealth of knowledge from over 30 years helping companies improve their sustainability and businesses processes. So I was really excited to hear her advice for manufacturers and brands—especially startups who don’t have a lot of bandwidth for non-mission-critical things. In the process, I learned how sustainability isn’t just about compliance or branding or feeling good, but it actually makes really good business sense. Check out the upcoming event on April 26: http://makeitinla.org/events.
The views expressed on The Art of Manufacturing podcast are those of the guests, and not our sponsors or partners. For more information, photos, and links, check out the show notes at http://makeitinla.org/ivkaadam.