How do you accidentally launch a global luxury jewellery brand?

Just ask Liam Whittaker, the man with a knack for spotting industries rife for disruption.

Liam launched Heirest just 4 weeks ago as a partner with Revved. But before he’d even finalised the brand or website, he’d secured over $500,000 in organic bespoke jewellery sales. We’re following his founder journey over the next 12-months, starting with this Q&A below asking the tough questions.

1. "You call yourself an unlikely jewellery founder, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to start HEIREST?"
    After studying Law & Business Management I found myself at ZURU, as the fourth employee in their newly developed FMCG-subsidiary, ZURU Edge.  Over my seven years there, we developed and launched over 20 brands in over 35 countries, with the likes of Walmart, Target, Costco, and Tesco.  Whilst there, I built my skillset in the innovation/product development and operational sides of the business, learning how to identify categories ripe for disruption, how to build high-quality products at more accessible prices with globally scalable supply chains.  This set of skills is very evident in how I've approached building HEIREST!  
   

2. ”Can you tell us a bit about HEIREST's business model? 
   What makes it so competitive?" My fundamental thesis for building the brand was: 'but for price, more people would buy fine jewellery'.  Everyone quickly understands that premise (feeling like they've been overcharged), and I think it highlights how non-customer-centric the conventional shopping experience is.  In my opinion, no one has really challenged the conventional model which is inherently very expensive: high-street rent for expensive boutiques, millions of dollars in showroom inventory, insurance for that stock, and educated staff.  All of those costs ultimately mean the customer pays more.  I felt like in this day and age, I could build a digital-first technology experience that cut out the need for all those costs and pass those savings onto the customer (~10-40% depending on the product type) whilst also delivering a substantially better customer experience (invested 30x on packaging/unboxing vs. any other jeweller).  Our best-in-class rendering technology means customers can design over 250,000 products as of today with complete transparency in every single design choice they make - that is truly complex to deliver, and I think sybmolic of our commitment to disrupt the category.  
   

3. "You're really disrupting a market here, how do you think this will impact the diamond and fine jewellery industry?" 
   I think a few things.  Firstly, we have a structural advantage vs. all the legacy jewellers who have invested in their showrooms/boutiques.  They may see our success and start to invest in their digital experience, but fundamentally they will always be incentivised to drive performance back to their stores.  Our commitment to truly be customer-first is also pretty innovative, so I hope that by setting the standard, we encourage the industry to bring more choice and transparency to the shopping experience.  
   

4. We asked this question of every leader in the room at Revved: what is the one change you're going to leave this room and engineer before Revved 2027 - what's yours?" For me, and this is something I learnt from the owners at ZURU, is the power of thinking big.  I think New Zealander's chronically underestimate themselves, but we have some of the most talented, innovative, and hard working people. I believe that with the right support network, we can achieve great things on a global scale.  If I can continue to build a brand that has global ambition and serve as an inspiration for others to do the same thing, that'd be pretty special!  
   

5. "What's one book, one podcast and one conversation that's shaped your thinking as a founder?"
   Book has to be Range by David Epstein.  I read this while at ZURU during the wave when everyone believed the way forward was hyper-specialisation.  This book sought to dispel that belief and highlighted the value of generalist skillsets (something I personally believe in).  I'm also a massive advocate for Dale Carneige's How to Win Friends And Influence Them, Bounce by Matthew Syed and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.  Podcast-wise, I'm just a MASSIVE fan of anything from Acquired.  The LVMH episode, in particular, gave me a great insight into how scale can play a role in luxury goods.