The Jewelry Business Making $1 Million a Month: Olivia Landau, The Clear Cut

Olivia Landau is a New Yorker, fourth generation diamond expert, and blogger-turned-ecommerce entrepreneur. Olivia built The Clear Cut from a side hustle selling engagement rings over Instagram DM into a tech-powered jewelry destination making more than $1M in sales every month.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do after college. My dad’s side of the family has been in the diamond business for a few generations, so I decided to go to GIA (the Gemological Institute of America).

I started helping friends source engagement rings, and then in 2016 created a blog. People started ordering engagement rings through Instagram DM. Then I knew there must be some white space in the market.

In 2016, we got into Techstars. I really never thought we would get in because we were definitely not a tech company at that time. We were an Instagram account and blog!

Today, we are definitely a tech-enabled company—we built a proprietary software where all clients have unique portals to work directly with gemologists.

We raised about $750,000 after Techstars and have been profitable since.

We built trust through educational content. The goal has always been to throw out as much educational material as possible for free. You build this community and relationship with your followers, so they feel empowered that when it comes time to make this big purchase, they’re in good hands and know if they come to you, you’re going to do right by them and get them a diamond you would want to wear yourself.”