HOPIE STOCKMAN NEVER met a craft she didn't like. Growing up in New Jersey, Stockman, and her three sisters would spend hours painting, knitting, and sewing. During the summer, they went to weaving camp together. "We were always obsessed with highly specific artistic processes," says Stockman, 38.
In 2013, Stockman and her sister Lily turned their passion for crafts into a business by partnering with a co-op of block printers Lily had met in India. The sisters launched Block Shop Textiles in Los Angeles, specializing in home goods and hand-block-printed apparel made using centuries-old methods. Today, the eight-person company works with small textile mills, printers, and weavers in India, Italy, and the U.S. to create everything from robes and scarves to curtains and table linens. And though Stockman spent five years as a consultant at the investment firm Cambridge Associates in Boston, she decided against raising capital to fund her business.
Kendra Scott, for her part, knows a thing or two about being bootstrapped. A college dropout who began working in retail when she was 14, Scott founded her eponymous jewelry company in Austin in 2002 and waited a decade before raising capital. In 2016, she sold a minority stake to a private equity firm in a deal that valued the company at $1 billion. Scott transitioned from CEO to executive chair in 2021, but continues to be hands-on at the company, while also investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs.
"I love mentoring, especially at this stage of my career," says the 48-year-old Scott, who has backed small businesses as a guest on ABC's Shark Tank.
Both founders have made their mark through style and in style-so Inc. recently brought Scott and Stockman together at Block Shop's new showroom in Los Angeles to talk about customer service, work-life balance, and the art of keeping products fresh.
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