Ethical Innovation: Lab-Created Diamonds – Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there, entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is the show where I interview successful e commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders and ask them questions about their business story and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Krish Himmatramka to the show. Krish is the founder of Do Amore. Do Amore offers ethical engagement and wedding rings that help people in need. And they also hold the title for its most ethical engagement, uh, rings in the world. And today I’m going to ask Krish a few questions about his entrepreneur journey and some of the strategies and tactics that he has used to start and grow his business.

So Krish, thank you so much for joining me today at Treptalks. Really, really appreciate your time.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Hey, Sushant. Thanks so much. It’s great to be here. Excited to chat.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, you know, I, I was watching your Shark Tank pitch and I know [00:01:00] you kind of disclosed your numbers there. So your business is definitely, um, quite successful, I would say.

I mean, not, not many businesses kind of reach, uh, you know, 10, 15 million kind of range. So can you share a little bit about yourself and Uh, I believe in, in the shark tank, which you said you got started with 18, 000 or something. So can you talk a little bit about your story and what really motivated you to start this business?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Yeah, for sure. So, um, I’m an engineer by background and in my first job out of college, um, as a mechanical engineer, um, I joined an oil and gas company and I was transferred to the middle of nowhere, um, uh, in the U S. In the U. S. and Louisiana, um, about an hour and a half from the, you know, from any, like, nearby city, um, where we’re drilling oil and gas wells.

And very quickly, um, I, like, learned that it’s [00:02:00] really hard to drill for oil. Like, we would drill for weeks and weeks and weeks to get to oil, but we would hit water within just a few minutes of drilling. And then we went to another well, and same thing, and then another well, and I was just really shocked.

Like, I never really understood, like, water is literally right there. Underneath, you know, all of us where we walk every day that I was just shocked that people are dying and, you know, developing countries from not having clean water when the water is literally just beneath where they’re walking every day.

They just don’t know how to get to it. So I thought, you know, I want to do something to help these people. And I didn’t really know how I didn’t really know what to do. So, um, around the same time, I was also looking for an engagement ring for my now wife. And anytime I was looking for a ring and I would talk to these different stores.

I would ask questions about sourcing and ethics and every single store told me the exact same scripted answer. Literally, you know, probably talked to eight or nine different stores. Every single one told me the same two sentence answer, which is, [00:03:00] um, just the scripted answer that people in the jewelry industry say.

And I’ve seen, I still see that scripted answer even today when I talk to folks. So I was just really shocked, like, you know, people were creating their ethics policies out of fear. Not really out of true desire to make things ethical. So I thought, you know, when I propose, I want to do it with a ring that I know doesn’t.

hurt the world. And I thought, well, what if it could actually help the world? And so that’s what I did. I wanted to, I wanted to propose the ring that helped the world instead of hurt the world. So I proposed with an engagement ring made of recycled gold. I, you know, I got a conflict free diamond from the country of Botswana.

Um, everything about it was as ethically made as possible. And then on top of that, the day I proposed, we brought clean water to people in And it just felt like so special, like this life changing moment. Is going to help change another life forever. And that was, you know, that’s how Doe Amore started where we make engaged rings and wedding rings that allow couples to change [00:04:00] a life forever on their own special day.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And, I mean, it seems like you, because your focus was such, uh, so much on ethics and social responsibility. It does seem to me if you’re sourcing materials or, you know, um, stones and recycled metals and so forth. I mean, what kind of planning and work involved in terms of, you know, getting started, uh, to launch this business?

Like, did you create a business plan? Did you think it through? How, what kind of research went into this process?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: I would say, um, it was pretty, it was well researched, but also like a lot of work in tandem. So, you know, while I was still like, you know, didn’t know anything about engagerings or diamonds yet, I was already starting to design the website because I was so excited about this.

You know, I was already designing the website already. You know, kind of like just designing the business model and also at the same time trying to learn everything about the industry, um, [00:05:00] you alluded it to it. You alluded to it in the beginning. So I had saved up about 18, 000 at the time. Um, and I just decided, you know what?

Like I’m just going to put all 18, 000 into a bank account and start this company. And you know, of course, I’m always going to, I know, I knew I was going to have to put more money in at some point or raise capital or something, but that 18, 000 is still the only investment we had ever made. When we pitched on shark team, that was the first time we ever tried to raise money up till then, like 18, 000 is still the only money ever invested into the company to start.

And so all of our sales have come from that. 18 K only. Um, and I think that that was super helpful, like getting started because I think if we just kept planning and planning and planning, we would have eaten through that 18, 000 very quickly instead was kind of just like, you know, I was planning, but I was also doing.

And I think that’s like, that’s so important because, you know, I actually think if I hadn’t done that, I don’t think don’t worry, I would have ever became a [00:06:00] company because I think I would have seen like how complicated this industry is and how crazy it is. And the planning just wasn’t working. And I feel like I would have probably not done it.

But because I had already started it and I was already launching a website while learning everything. Um, It was just kind of up there, you know, like I had to, I had to just keep going. So I’m, I’m very appreciative that I didn’t over plan and I started working on it, um, and just started, you know, really getting into the, the roots of it from the start.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So in terms of your business model, are you. So you’re sourcing different, so you’re sourcing, uh, stones from different places that are, you know, you’ve ensured that are ethically sourced and socially responsible. You’re getting metals from different places. And, um, are you putting it together yourself?

Like, are you working with, uh, some sort of a shop that is putting it together? Who’s creating the designs? So can you talk through the [00:07:00] process of your kind of how you, how, how does your business bring value to the product?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Yeah, for sure. So, um, so we work with like some of the best, you know, for, for example, with this type of purchase, like an engagement quality was really key.

We wanted our product, not just to be ethical and beautiful and also, you know, make this amazing impact. We wanted it to, you know, really be one of the best products out there. Um, like I always kind of, Around the time, like, people didn’t really know about Tesla much when I was starting Domore, but like, at the time, like, I knew about it as an engineer, and it just kind of always stood with me.

Like, you know, they’re making, they’re trying to make, a totally different model. Um, a totally different business model. And they were trying to make the best cars out there, the fastest cars out there. And I think that was kind of like, uh, inspirational to me, like I wanted to make the best rings, the best, most beautiful rings, rings that helped the world rings that were, you know, not making a negative impact on [00:08:00] the world.

And on top of that, they were also the highest quality, like all of that was very important to me. So yes, we work with some of the best manufacturing, um, jewelry manufacturers all around the country. Um, And what we bring to it is we require certain metals. We require the gold to be recycled. We require, you know, that the, the diamonds that we source, like they have, we’re very strict about that.

And, um, of course, when I started doing where I lab diamonds were like a very new thing at the time, and now lab created diamonds have really started to take over the market, which is amazing. We were one of the first companies that were embracing lab diamonds and, um, really, you know, talking about lab diamonds and how great they were.

And at the time, like most. Most, uh, engagement companies were kind of bashing LabDiamonds and now all of those companies, of course, are like talking about LabDiamonds and all of their ads because they know it’s the future now, right? So we kind of embraced it from the start, which was really cool. So I think we kind of had a head start by, you know, being ahead of being ahead there.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: You [00:09:00] know, I have, I have thought about LabDiamonds. Uh, a little bit just from a consumer perspective, not, not, I mean, I don’t know how they’re created and everything, but when I think about, like, from a consumer perspective, the reason why a diamond is so expensive is because it’s considered a rare stone right now, there may be some, some controversy there because, you know, I think a lot of the companies that mine diamonds, they’re kind of, you know, Keep the supply low and, you know, have the, and, and then when I think about like a lab based or lab grown diamond, um, what is, what makes it, why is it expensive at all?

Like you, you basically, if you have the right process and right machines, you can create as many, uh, stones as possible. Yeah, for

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: sure. Great question. So, um, So when I started doing worry, lab diamonds at the time were almost the same cost as natural diamonds because, um, you know, that’s just how it was like there [00:10:00] weren’t that many leather was not much lab diamond supply and about, you know, a year or two and it was about 10 20 percent cheaper.

And now we’re talking about lab diamonds being 80 percent cheaper than natural diamonds, right? Significant. Um, but I think we’ve kind of hit this point now where I don’t yeah. You know, I’m of course, you know, making like an educated guess here. I don’t think we can get much cheaper than we are now with lab diamonds, because the thing is, like, even though, um, you know, of course, diamond is a car is carbon at the end of the day, nothing crazy expensive, right?

It’s just the crystal structure of how it’s arranged. And I don’t think That, um, even like creating a lab created diamonds, it takes time. It doesn’t, it doesn’t happen over a few minutes or a few hours. It, you know, it can take months and months and that’s a lot of energy use at the time. So there’s two processes, high pressure, high temperature, or a chemical vapor deposition.

And those three, two processes, they’re very time consuming, they’re [00:11:00] energy consuming. So like when you start to think about all of the time that’s going into it, all Energy that’s going into it and cost associated. I don’t think they can get much cheaper than they are now. Personally, I think we’ve hit that now, of course, with our love diamonds because their energy intense, like we really cared about making sure that our suppliers were actually switching or using renewable energy.

So a lot of our suppliers are using solar energy, hydro energy, different, you know, renewable energies and That, of course, helps with the cost a little bit. Of course, there’s a big upfront investment, but then once you have solar energy, it’s not, um, but I just think the time, the time commitment is going to make it tough.

It’s kind of like, it’s kind of like, you know, if you, if you sell trees and you sell flowers, you know, uh, selling flowers that grow within a few days. Those flowers will be cheap, but those trees that take six months to grow, those are going to be more expensive. And I think, I think lab created diamonds kind of are a little bit more like those trees that take a little bit of time to [00:12:00] grow.

And you know, when you’re trying to grow a tree, you’re having to give it more water. You’re having to give it more fertilizer. You’re having to do more things which add up the cost. So that’s why I don’t think lab diamonds can get too much cheaper than they are now.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I do want to ask you about your customers.

Uh, I mean, I think a lot of people who buy diamonds, you know, I think there’s a special meaning behind it because diamonds are considered more expensive. And so, you know, if somebody is gifting their, let’s say, you know, girlfriend or fiance a diamond in a ring format, like there’s this, that, you know, I’m making a commitment to you because it’s a monetary commitment as well.

Um, have, I mean, it’s the culture of. You know, giving diamonds to your significant other or, you know, um, is it, are you seeing like this trend kind of, um, continuing to increase? Like, do you see this growing more and more or do you think there is a shift away? Because I think [00:13:00] also consumers nowadays are becoming more and more, uh, you know, socially conscious, eco conscious and things like that.

And are you seeing a shift? Away from like, you know, diamond giving towards like, you know, some more sustainable items and so forth.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Sure. Um, I would say yes, there is a shift for sure, but I think there’s brands like ours and others that are there now that are satisfying that need. So, um, I feel like if we were, if every brand and every, you know, engagering company out there, you know, Um, was where we were in the world 20 years ago, I think engaging sales would be way down, but because, because everyone has kind of shifted with the times, um, I think that’s why they still are in demand.

And, um, and also about the cost part, like even the lab created diamonds are cheaper. They’re still like expensive. Like it’s still, it’s still not like cheap, right. It’s still, it’s still a, it’s still a [00:14:00] relatively expensive purchase. Even now, um, You know, when people are buying an engagement ring, it’s still one of the most expensive things that they’ve ever bought up till that point in their life.

So it’s still expensive. Also, what we’re seeing is instead of people just, you know, um, taking a, but like slashing their budget because now with the lab diamond, they can get away with less. And instead of people are kind of spending the same amount they would have, they’re just getting larger diamonds.

So that average order price isn’t really shifting down that much. People are just getting nicer and nicer. higher quality, bigger diamonds instead.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Is there a resale value to lab grown diamonds? It’s a good question. I think,

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: I think that it’s kind of, I think like we’re at a point again, this is all my own educated guess.

I think we’re at a point now where it’s just what the energy use and everything that goes into a diamond. I don’t think that diamonds can increase, decrease much more in price. So I have a feeling that there will be like this balance now. [00:15:00] Um, At the same time, I kind of like to think of it like this, because we also do sell natural diamonds.

When we sell a natural diamond, we only source it from countries that, you know, we feel strongly about. So such as Canada, Botswana, those are two countries where we embrace diamonds from, um, what I would kind of say is that if someone really is looking at the engage ring as a purchase, like, you know what, I want to make sure in 50 years or 20 years, whatever it is, that engage ring has to You know has the same value or has appreciated Then because we have decades and decades of pricing history.

I think the natural diamond makes more sense But if you’re really just trying to get something that looks beautiful and gorgeous And you don’t really you’re not really thinking like what’s the price of this going to be in 30 40 50 years then I think lab diamonds makes sense and The other thing, too, is like what I kind of like to say is I, and this is my own industry, and I’m going to say this, but I don’t necessarily think natural diamonds are like the best [00:16:00] investment in the world.

So I would advise if you care about that is maybe buy a lab diamond, save money and invest that extra money you’re saving and something else. And I think you’ll come out more ahead than buying a natural diamond and seeing if that appreciates over time. So that’s what I kind of. Personally think I would do at this point is save money, buy a lab, create a diamond, invest that extra savings in something that will perform better than a natural diamond would over the next, you know, two, three decades.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Very interesting. Yeah. So, so you started out with 18, 000 and um, of course, you know, if you are even buying, I mean, what can you buy to sell in 18, 000? So how did you get, like, did you start off with like, you know, just a few kind of rings, uh, and how did you get your, like, first customer?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Sure. So we started off with wedding rings, actually not engagering.

So just wedding bands, right. Which is more just like simple pieces of, um, you know, rounded, rounded gold, right, gold that’s [00:17:00] been made into a round shape. Um, so those are always a little bit less expensive than an engagering. Um, a lot of the money initially went into like, you know, website development and, um, getting some samples and photography and things like that.

Um, and then we put, you know, we, once we had. Supplier that was going to use recycled gold. We put up some wedding rings and, um, early on, I didn’t have money for advertising, obviously. So it was really just like, what can I actually control? And at the time, I was like, okay, there’s two things I can control.

I can control search engine optimization. So I really focused on search engine optimization and making sure That we were, you know, targeting proper keywords for customers that will look for us. Ethical engage rings, conflict free wedding bands, like those types of keywords. So I really focused on that.

And then, um, the second thing I could kind of control was just making sure that, um, like making sure that whatever we did, we were like very, very Just get customers the best [00:18:00] customer service ever. Like when customers called us or talked to me or emailed me, they should feel like, wow, like I’ve never had a customer service experience like that.

Those are the two things I could control. So, um, The very first customer ever, I still remember a customer called our phone number, um, which forwarded to my cell phone, of course, and just had some questions about wedding rings. And I answered them. And then I remember like the next morning there was like an order.

And I still, of course, remember that order email. I still remember my second order email. I still remember these customers names, like the first 15 customers, I remember everyone’s names and what they bought. And it was just this like remarkable feeling. Right. And, um, and what was so cool, it was like this double feeling, this feeling of like, okay, amazing.

Someone just bought a ring from us. That’s great. And this other feeling of like, wow, like people are going to get clean water from this. Like it was this really cool feeling. So yeah, so we started off by not selling the most expensive products. And then the third thing we did was we did not make anything until the customer ordered it.

So on our shipping timelines, it said straight up, like, [00:19:00] This is going to take about three weeks to be delivered because two and a half weeks of that was going to go into making the item. And luckily with our product engagement rings, wedding rings, generally, those are not like impulse buys. So generally people do start looking, you know, no, they don’t, they don’t need like two day delivery.

So fortunately for our product line, like that worked, like people are, we’re okay with three weeks because. You know, their wedding wasn’t for two months, so it worked for us. So we would get the money, we could pay the supplier to make the product, and because of that, it wasn’t like a very capital intense process.

process because we weren’t doing any inventory at all.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And what, I mean, I’m assuming that there are competitors who are doing similar things, who are selling, you know, uh, lab, uh, created diamonds and ring format and jewelry and so forth. So what, what really is Um, the differentiating factor, is it really, [00:20:00] does it really just come down to marketing, branding, and, you know, as you said, you’re providing the great customer experience.

Um, yeah, I mean, what, what, what, what differentiates your, uh, Product or business from anyone else was doing. Yeah.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Yeah. So there definitely are other companies like that that exists now. Um, I would say there’s 2 things. 1, um, this isn’t just to do with any engagement company, but per product sold. I’m not talking like total because we’re still a small company, but per product sold.

Uh, Doa Mori has the largest social impact of any company in the world. So, you know, giving someone access to clean water with a single product being sold and changing that person’s life forever, that’s the largest social impact of any company in the world per product sold. And then secondly, um, I would also say like, yes, we have like the cleanest supply chain of any engagering company in the world as well.

And, um, [00:21:00] I think like, so for us, I think what stands out about us is just the fact that we exist. Not to make money. Like we exist in this world to improve the world and to help the world and to make sure that that person’s once in a lifetime purchase of an engagement or wedding ring is going to make massive difference to someone.

So I think like that’s what shows through. I think there are definitely other companies. Now that are doing lab diamonds. A lot of them actually, um, which is great. But I think like for us, I think it’s just what’s different. It’s like, that’s the reason we exist. So it’s like a little bit more of a brand type experience rather than, you know, just like buying a lot of diamond from anywhere.

And even within there, there are some companies that also are, are looking at recycled metal and stuff, which we embrace, like we actually had a competitor call us like a year ago. Um, actually right before Christmas last year. So a year ago, almost exactly. And they were just like, Hey, like. How do we do recycled gold?

We have a customer wanting recycled gold. We [00:22:00] saw you offer it. Like we literally emailed them our supplier’s name. We’re like, Hey, get recyclable from here. Right? Like we’re here to try to improve jewelry industry for everyone. Um, so I think like some, some customers just really like that. Secondly, like for me, it’s always been this thing, like being ethical should not cost more.

Um, and gold is gold, like whether it’s recycled or whether it’s mine, like there’s not a difference in price. And so, um, like, you know, Like for that reason, like I, I don’t, I’ve always like tried to make sure that our products are extremely competitive. And just because we have like more strict supply chain, like it shouldn’t be a cost added thing.

It should cost the same as any place. So we’re very competitive on pricing. Um, I think that customer service thing I mentioned at the beginning that has stayed with our team. I think when people give. You know, give us a call or email us. I truly believe that they’ll probably have one of the best customer experiences they’ve ever had that entire year of anything they’ve purchased.

So I [00:23:00] think these are the things that kind of matter. Um, and, and we’re a small company, we’re a team of seven people and, um, So I think like having the small team has really helped because, um, you know, people are constantly learning from me and I’m constantly learning from them and all of these things that really, uh, make up Delamore.

Like it’s in every single one of our team members, every single one of our team members is here because they want to improve the world. And yeah, so I would say that’s what sets us apart.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you think that any entrepreneur who’s trying to create a business, right? Um, so I mean, diamonds and rings, they’re very traditional.

I mean, this is not a new business, but your angle really is the social responsibility aspect of it, right? Do you, in your experience now, do you think that, uh, an entrepreneur who’s trying to start a new business, not in the same category, but you know, just taking an existing category and kind of You know, creating an angle on that.

Do you think [00:24:00] by having a social responsibility angle, making a difference in the world? Do you think this is a good general strategy in the world that we are living in today where, you know, people are more conscious of, you know, social responsibility and ethics and, you know, environment and so forth? Do you think that that is a legitimate or a good strategy to kind of differentiate yourself?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Yeah, great question. I think that

I’m gonna almost say I’m not, I’m not sure, honestly, because I think for us, it makes sense because we have this once in a lifetime purchase. Like people do not buy an engaged ring once a year, right? It’s a once in a lifetime purchase. A wedding ring is a once in a lifetime purchase. I think like those products have a lot of meaning to a consumer.

So it makes a lot of sense. Um, I don’t know. And again, we’re not charging any more than anyone else. So, and the reason for that is because [00:25:00] whatever we spend on making this life changing impact. Like we also have a lot more word of mouth because of that. So it’s almost like we spend less on marketing than other jewelry companies.

So that’s why we don’t have to charge the customer anymore for this. I think that, um, for a while it was like very popular and fashionable to do it. And I think personally that consumers are kind of over it. I don’t think like consumers seeing like, Oh, this company, if I buy this, you know, t shirt, this is going to help these.

I don’t, I don’t think like that’s really that appealing anymore. Um, And so what I think is important is like to do something that’s really close to your heart. That will do something. So the reason that like if we were just selling engaged earrings that were bringing people water and that was it, I don’t think it would be enough.

I don’t think we would be successful. I think why we are successful is because we’re constantly thinking about quality. We’re constantly thinking about designs and, you know, Most aesthetic designs with constantly thinking about comfort and customer service [00:26:00] and all these things like I believe, like even without our social mission, we would probably still be existing.

We could still be successful, but having our social mission is what like energized me and energized our team to do the best we can. And we also have the fact that it’s like this once in a lifetime purchase, which matters. So I would almost say, um, not necessarily needed. Anymore, but I do think like consumers can see through like true Desire for a brand that’s trying to improve the world versus a brand that’s just doing it for marketing So like that’s like one thing we did this year like we don’t actually like we don’t really write like how Are you know that we’re ethical and we’re the most ethical like we don’t really write that in many places anymore , we don’t really talk about it.

And instead, like on all of our products, customers can like just click on a little arrow and they’ll be like, oh, this ring was made here. Oh cool. This gold is recycled here. Like they can just see it. If they want to see it, they can like click on a few things and they can see the sourcing, but we’re not like openly advertising [00:27:00] it or stating it anymore because I just feel like a lot of, it’s like hard for consumers to believe when every single company is claiming that they’re this, this and this now.

Yeah. So that’s kind of what I think is gonna be the tough thing for 2024.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I think, I think a lot of this has become marketing and, you know, just like, just like wordplay, wordplay. Um, and

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: like, I think even on Shark Tank, like Mark Cuban said that same thing to me, like anyone can do what you’re doing.

And I was like, um, and I was like, disagreed, like, no, I don’t think so. Like I, and I, they, you know, it’s a 15 minute, I was out there for 15 minutes. They cut it down into an eight minute show, but like we, me and, uh, Mark talked a lot about this, discussing this. And I think I, You know, I felt very confident in telling him that, you know, consumers can tell the difference between a brand that actually has a studio girl to do good in the world versus a brand that’s just trying to market themselves as good.

Um, I think consumers can tell the difference these, these days, especially.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. [00:28:00] Yeah. Speaking of Shark Tank, um, I mean, when you went into Shark Tank, I mean, your numbers looked pretty decent to begin with. So what was your kind of motivation? Like, did you apply? Did they kind of contact you? And, um, question, what, was it mostly marketing or?

Sure.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Good question. So I think when I originally applied, it was, um, not for Shark Tank. that reason. It was because I wanted to have, you know, an expert, an advisor that, that can grow a business like we’ve seen all of the sharks do. Um, and I had tried for a few years and, um, I think I’d kind of given up because I had always gotten like pretty far in the process, but at the end I would get cut.

And it’s like an extremely competitive process. Like, Massively competitive. Like, I don’t know exactly, but probably I want to say like a hundred times harder than getting into Harvard or MIT. Like, [00:29:00] like I think of those are like a 10 percent success rate. These are like a 10th of a percent success rate.

Very, very challenging. Um, so I think after a few tries I had just given up and then something in me, I think was just like, Hey, I gotta give it one more shot. And, um, and it worked out that time. And I think the reason for me wanting to go on to shark tank was two reasons. One. Um, I wanted, and yeah, the mentorship aspect is still there.

I wanted a mentor that could help us, you know, um, grow this business to be as big as it can be, because I still believe Del Mar can be one of the largest jewelry companies in the world. Um, and then the second thing was, Um, even though we might not be as small as like some of the companies on Shark Tank for what my goals are, we’re, we’re like still minuscule.

So, um, I still feel like it was the accurate, the right thing to do because, um, again, I want to go up against the largest jewelers in the world that have been around for decades. You know, a decade, a decade, a century, and so on. So, [00:30:00] um, because of that, I still think it was the right move to make. I, saying that, like, I understand we’re not, uh, you know, a company that has, you know, you know, a few hundred dollars like some shark tank companies, but, um, for what I want to do, it was the right move.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, in terms of your marketing, I mean, you, you talked a little bit about it, but, um, um, what is working right now in, in terms of, uh, as you said, I mean, it’s, it’s like a one in a lifetime kind of a purchase. So there isn’t really a funnel where, you know, you can acquire a customer and then make the money in the back.

Yeah. Yeah. What is the

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: lifetime value? Yeah. What, what,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: uh, what is working in terms of customer equity? Like, do you do a lot of paid ads and does that, I mean, it is. I would assume it’s a multi touchpoint kind of a purchase because, you know, people are doing research and so forth. So,

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: yeah, it’s a massive purchase cycle, um, extremely lengthy.

In fact, it makes marketing hard because a lot of times the cookies will expire by the time the [00:31:00] customer will purchase. Right. So it’s a very, very lengthy, uh, customer journey. Um, I think what’s working for us and of course we, we can always even do better, but I think what’s working for us is. Um, really like focusing in on what the customer who’s buying an engagement ring probably cares about, and there’s probably five things.

One is like, um, how do I know the ring is going to be good quality? Two is like, how do I know that the ring is going to be like, Affordable and number three is like, how do I make sure I’m not getting ripped off, which is like a big thing within jewelry, as you can imagine, and then we add in this fourth thing, like, how do we make sure the ring can be ethical?

Now, not every consumer across the globe cares about that, but but a lot do, you know, so we’re, we’re, we’re trying to work with the ones that do care about that. And then, and then the fifth thing is, um, How do I make sure that, like, I’m going to be covered in case the ring doesn’t fit her or something goes wrong with the [00:32:00] ring?

So, like, we really try in our marketing to talk about all five of those things. The fifth one is really important because, um, like, we want to make sure That the customer is going to be wearing this ring the rest of their life. We want to make sure that like, they can wear their ring the rest of their life.

So like a lot of companies will have like free resizing and then you’d read the fine print. It’s like free resizing only for like the first two weeks or 30 days. So we’re like, no, like let’s do free resizing for like a year. And then we’re like, no, no scratch out a year. I do it for life. So like we do free resizing for life, like for the rest of the life of the ring, like, And I think mentioning this to customers through marketing is important.

And when I say marketing, I don’t just mean paid ads. I mean, just, just even on organic social, even on customer service emails, just like making sure customers know that. So that’s what I would say our five focal points are.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um, I was going to, a question came to my mind when you were talking about it.

I [00:33:00] Okay, so you talked about your team. Um, I guess one curiosity that I have, of course, you know, you have an engineering background, um, and now you’re in business. Um, did you always want to be in business or, you know, how did that transition? Okay. Yeah, no, no. Are you, are you satisfied that you’re not in engineering profession?

Good

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: question. What’s cool about. Doing engaging wedding rings and like caring so much about quality and caring so much about comfort is like I actually feel like there’s a lot of engineering in it, which is really awesome. But, and then even like in the water projects, even though we’re not, you know, like, I like love talking to our partners about the water drilling and how it’s working so it is really fulfilling in that sense but no like I always thought I was going to become an engineer.

I was going to go work at a company after a few years, I’m going to go get an MBA and I’m just going to stay at that company. I’m going to climb up the ladder. And one day I’m going to become an executive at a company. Like that was always [00:34:00] what I thought. Um, it was always like a goal to, you know, be become a, you know, a C C suite member, a CEO or something at a longterm company like Procter and Gamble or something that was always a dream.

So no, um, that this was not the plan, but I think, um, at some point there was just so much, Like passion and momentum in my head that like, this was just something I had to do. Um, and I’m glad I did, like, you know, we’ve brought over 21, 000 people access to clean water now. And what’s, what’s like very fulfilling, um, is like, if Domore didn’t exist and those customers could not come and purchase from Domore, that would be 21, 000 people less in the world without water.

You know, you know, that’d be many, many communities around the country. Sorry, um, there’d be many, many communities around the world that just wouldn’t have water, and they would still be, you know, using dirty water. [00:35:00] And like, I think like keeping that in mind is just really, really, um, truly great for us.

Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, I, I remember what I was going to ask you as you were talking about, you know, the fitting and fighting and those kinds of things. Like, do you think about, you know, More of a retail experience like opening retail stores and like big cities because you know, of course that that gives people opportunity to try things out and

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: sure.

Yeah, I think, um, I think trans transparently for like what we want to do, which is to allow people from all over the world. You know, use these special milestones like an engagement, a wedding anniversary to make change in the world. I don’t think we can do it like one store at a time. I think I think we have to just continue to embrace digital.

Um, know what we are trying to do is make it easier for people to shop digitally and You know, always looking into different augmented reality, different technologies we can do to make it easy as possible. But I don’t think [00:36:00] we’ve embraced the store concept yet because I think going store to store to store will be just too time consuming and, um, when we can grow faster this way.

Um, in every thing about that, Sushant is like this price thing really does matter. Like we really want to make sure that people are not paying extra to shop at Delamore to make a difference. And I think going the retail route, it requires a little bit more of that. It really requires a lot more of that capital expense, which ends up meaning a more expensive product.

So by being online, it just allows us to be very competitive. Yes.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think that’s a very important point for sure. Uh, in every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned, failures. Um, what has been, I’m sure, you know, there were times or circumstances where you felt, you know, there was some failure or, you know, you could have done some without something, or there was a lesson learned.

Um, [00:37:00] what is like a one or, you know, a big lesson that you learned and that other entrepreneurs can benefit from?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Yeah, for sure. I think, um, a few things. One, like, I think like early on, um, we had a few manufacturing partners, which are, you know, really great, but they always said no to everything. Like anytime we had a question, like a customization, anything, the answer was always no, but we kept working with them because it’s like, well, you know what?

They’re one of the best, one of the best. And, but what happened is like, we started having to say no to customers and it just became like this cultural thing, which I didn’t like. Um, it’s kind of like, do you know how, uh, Like I always hear this thing, like when you’re growing up, like you are going to become you’re a mixture of your closest five friends.

Like your closest five friends is what, who you’re going to become. And I think that’s how it is for business. Like you will become your closest five suppliers or vendors or manufacturers. And once we had these one or two manufacturers that were constantly saying no, it started becoming part of our identity is we started saying [00:38:00] no.

So we realized that we quickly like made shifts and we, we did things to. To be with people that say yes and to be with people that care about our customers as much as we do, and that like really made a shift. So I would say that, like, even your manufacturer, even your vendor, your supplier, whoever it is, there has to be like a cultural connection.

When I say culture, I don’t mean like, I mean, culture in terms of like values. There has to be like that connection. Otherwise it’ll end up hurting you in the long run. So that was something like very key to me. And, um, like even now, like it really does matter. And it’s like the same thing with a customer.

Like if a customer is only coming to us because they want something as fast as possible because they want to propose tomorrow, we will see what we can do. But like, we’re probably not the right fit. Like if they don’t care about the ethics, they don’t care about the impacts and all they care about is getting something tomorrow.

We’re probably not the right cultural fit for them. And I think like it works like that with, you know, your own suppliers, vendors, and so on.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, I don’t know what I would think about a person who [00:39:00] like woke up today. Yeah. Okay. I’m going to propose to more. I need.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Yeah. I mean, I think there’s been like one or two instances.

Um, and that’s where it made sense because the customer bought a ring from somewhere and they lost the ring the day before the proposal and that like made sense. Um, but yeah, like generally with our purchase, what’s great is people do have some planning and things going in for, for reasons.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment in this segment.

I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a word or two or a sentence. The first one is a book recommendation for entrepreneurs.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Uh, built to sell, uh, built to sell great.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Uh, an innovative product or idea in current e commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Oh, i’m gonna get people won’t like that. I’m gonna say the cyber truck.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay Hey, it’s it’s it’s definitely innovative. And yeah, yeah, you can’t shoot through [00:40:00] it No, that’s true. Yeah a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: trello I know it’s old, but Trello, yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Trello is a good, good piece of software for sure. Another startup or business that you think is currently doing great things?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Uh, there’s a company named Sheets Laundry Club. They are making, uh, instead of using, you know, soap in your washing machine, you can put sheets in there and it’s a lot more eco friendly and it washes your clothes really, really well. Um, I like them a lot. They’re a shark tank company as well.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Well, yeah, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: I’m going to say Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Bars.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Final question, [00:41:00] best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: I’m going to go back to the book Built to Sell. Um, and I feel like in that book, there’s just so much wisdom. But the main concept of the book is you should build a business In order, like you’d like, you’re trying to sell it, even if you’re not wanting to sell it, but like everything you do in your business, it should be about preparing it for a sale for an acquisition, because when you do that, it becomes extremely efficient.

You’re profitable, like you do all these things correctly, and you’re doing things to make sure you as an entrepreneur are focusing on the right things. It’s very focused on, you know, the entrepreneur should not be doing every day. Tasks because you’re never going to get acquired then because people don’t want to buy a business that’s all about this CEO, like it needs to exist without the founder.

And so the book built to sell is just filled with so much wisdom. Even if you’re not trying to build a business [00:42:00] to sell it, it’s, it’s an amazing book. Uh, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Uh, yeah, Harry Potter and Built to Sell is my favorite two books. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. No, those are definitely great books.

Well, Chris, those were all the questions that I had. Um, thank you so much again for joining me today, for sharing your story, for, you know, uh, inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs, uh, and a little bit about your successes and failures as well. So thank you so much again. If anybody wants to check out your products, what’s the best way to do that?

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: Yeah, the best is dohomore. com, D O A M O R E. com. It’s like do more with an A between the two words. Um, so yeah, please check us out. And yeah, Sushant, thanks so much, man. I really enjoyed it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Krish, and I wish you all the very best.

Krish Himmatramka of Do Amore: You too, man. Take care.