Female Founders: Grace Wong of Jewels & Aces On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Doug Noll
You are not your business. — If a launch doesn’t go as smoothly as planned, or you have a bad day of sales or something you thought was going to work out doesn’t, it helps to separate yourself from your business. It helps give you perspective, move forward and avoid burnout.
As a part of our series about Women Founders, we had the pleasure of interviewing Grace Wong.
Grace Wong is the Founder & CEO of Jewels & Aces, a modern jewelry company shaking up the traditional jewelry industry through its essential collection of modular earrings. A self-taught designer, her mission is to celebrate the power of personal style through jewelry. After struggling with the amount of pieces in her closet, Grace set out to create a solution that pared down her jewelry box to only a few essentials that were interchangeable and could result in several different looks. It was then Jewels & Aces original concept: The Earring Capsule® was born. The Earring Capsule® offers a core set of interchangeable earrings that can be mixed and matched for endless looks. Each 4 piece capsule set creates 10+ looks.
Prior to founding Jewels & Aces in 2018, Grace spent 15 years working as a Chartered Professional Accountant with companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust. She’s passionate about mentoring and supporting other female founders, especially those of color, through Jewels & Aces Office Hours program. Grace lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I have always been passionate about jewelry and after I had my first son in 2014, I started leaning into a capsule wardrobe. I thought, “If I could do this with clothes, why can’t I do the same with jewelry?” That was my lightbulb moment for The Earring Capsule®. Just like a capsule wardrobe, each of our four-piece sets creates over 10 different looks.
Prior to starting my jewelry brand, I was a CPA and I studied commerce at Queen’s University and worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers. When I had the idea for The Earring Capsule, I knew it was the perfect time to combine my analytical skills with my creative side and start Jewels & Aces.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
When I first started the brand, a costume stylist reached out to pull our earrings for an upcoming movie. I knew her work and she had styled some movies I loved. My initial thought was “This can’t be real. How did she even find us?”. We were so small back then and I almost didn’t respond thinking it was a dupe but I’m so glad I did. She ended up styling Uma Thurman in The Earring Capsule and she loved them!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I designed our first packaging, I created these jewelry boxes that looked beautiful but functionally they only had these shallow slits to slip the earrings in and nothing else to secure them in the box. Our team meticulously packed our orders making sure it looked perfect in the box but we didn’t consider shipping and the turbulence it would go through. Although our earrings arrived with no issues, when our customers unboxed them, it was a mess, like we just haphazardly threw all the earrings in. It wasn’t the special unboxing experience we wanted our customers to have. We’ve improved our packaging and I can look back and laugh at such a silly mistake but in the moment, I was gutted that we had disappointed a few customers.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mom. She was an entrepreneur and started her business right after I was born. Growing up in the family business, I joke that I got a “Kid MBA”. I saw what it took to build her company while raising a family. So much of why Jewels & Aces has been successful is because I learned from her experience. I’m lucky that she always champions me.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I don’t think there’s anything holding women back from founding companies. We know we can do it and there are plenty of women-founded companies out there. The reason only 20% of funded companies have women founders is because we’re not getting the funding.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
The solution is simple: the more we invest in women-owned businesses, the more that % goes up.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
The question is why shouldn’t we. Women are multidimensional and each of us bring our individual and unique capabilities to the table.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There’s a myth about entrepreneurship that because you’re your own boss, you get to set your hours and have an abundance of leisure time.
The reality is that you’re always on as a founder. When you’re an employee you have the luxury of going home at the end of the day and shut off from work but when it’s your business, you’re ultimately the one responsible for everything and that comes with a lot of pressure. I do get to set my hours and prioritize time with my family but the challenge is disconnecting from work so I can make sure it’s quality time that we’re spending together.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Everyone can be a founder with the right mindset. It’s about finding your why and building your business around that.
Being innovative can increase your likelihood for success as a founder, where you don’t accept the status quo and you’re constantly raising the bar for your business.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
1 . Start with your purpose, the rest will follow.
There’s no blueprint for growing a business. Find your why, it will be your north star. In the beginning I looked to other brands I thought were successful as a path for what I should be doing, thinking that somehow they knew something that I didn’t but it never worked out for me. It wasn’t until I honed in on my why — why did I start my business, what kind of business did I want to create, why does this exist that I unlocked what made my business special. Consumers have so many options, the way to break through the noise is to come at them with authenticity and give them a meaningful reason to connect with your brand.
2 . Focus on profitability.
Revenue is often a KPI for business success but as an independent brand, profitability is our most important metric. Growth is important but not at the sake of profitability.
3 . You can’t do everything, focus on the things that move the needle.
Our brand has continued to grow and weathered the ups and downs of a pandemic and unstable economy because we stayed focused and honed in on the parts of the business that made the most impact towards achieving our goals.
4 . Trust your instinct and validate it with experience.
The decisions I’ve regretted making were the ones where I didn’t trust my gut. Have the confidence to know that you can roll with whatever comes your way and recover from mistakes and move forward. We get smarter with experience. You built this business, you know what’s right for it.
5 . You are not your business.
If a launch doesn’t go as smoothly as planned, or you have a bad day of sales or something you thought was going to work out doesn’t, it helps to separate yourself from your business. It helps give you perspective, move forward and avoid burnout.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
In its third year, I’m proud of our Office Hours mentorship initiative to support women founders as they build, scale and grow their businesses. I volunteer my time and offer mentorship sessions with female founders.
I was inspired to create this initiative because when I first started Jewels & Aces, I had the support of other female founders, some of them were founders of brands that I admired who answered my cold emails.
Their willingness to help empowered me to keep going, especially in the early days when entrepreneurship felt anything but transparent. And I wanted to pay it forward and do the same for other women in their entrepreneurial journey too, and that’s how Office Hours was born.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’d love to inspire more founders to start their own Office Hours. There’s more than enough room for everyone and when we share knowledge and exchange ideas, it uplifts our community.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About the Interviewer: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA was born nearly blind, crippled with club feet, partially deaf, and left-handed. He overcame all of these obstacles to become a successful civil trial lawyer. In 2000, he abandoned his law practice to become a peacemaker. His calling is to serve humanity, and he executes his calling at many levels. He is an award-winning author, teacher, and trainer. He is a highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. Doug teaches his innovative de-escalation skill that calms any angry person in 90 seconds or less. With Laurel Kaufer, Doug founded Prison of Peace in 2009. The Prison of Peace project trains life and long terms incarcerated people to be powerful peacemakers and mediators. He has been deeply moved by inmates who have learned and applied deep, empathic listening skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills to reduce violence in their prison communities. Their dedication to learning, improving, and serving their communities motivates him to expand the principles of Prison of Peace so that every human wanting to learn the skills of peace may do so. Doug’s awards include California Lawyer Magazine Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year, Purpose Prize Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Syd Leezak Award of Excellence, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year. His four books have won a number of awards and commendations. Doug’s podcast, Listen With Leaders, is now accepting guests. Click on this link to learn more and apply.
