Quitting VC to Start a Brand at 24 – How It's Been Going

Long time lurker, first time OP.

My background: 

Based in Canada/Shanghai, internships including IB M&A, Pension PE, post grad joined a top returning VC for 1 year. I started working full time on this since Jan and launched my nail brand 1.5 months ago — artisanal, reusable press-ons nails for modern women who value aesthetic and quality. By no means am I successful or have solid traction yet, but just wanted to share what the journey’s felt like. I am in the game solo (I do have a team in the back end for supplier/inventory management) and have locked in some brand partnerships (more below)

Why Press-on Nails:

Press-ons at drugstores (and Amazon) are cheap — $5–$20, plastic-feeling, low-end SKUs. But the truly high-quality, artisanal ones aren’t scalable — they’re made by boutique nail techs, and don’t have manufacturing power behind them. I did what they couldn’t: paired premium design with scalable supply. Lucky enough, I partnered with the one and only supplier (they’re also new — launched 8 months ago, have supplied for multiple public CPG brands in China and have ties to the government). After seeing my designs, the founder offered to fly me out to meet in person (another story for another day - but i truly got lucky). 

The industry started to gain traction during Covid - 90% of the suppliers are concentrated in China's tier 4 little town (I visited - its real hood), talked to about 40 factories in person and found that all of them only do wholesale and low-quality (we're looking at cheap labours ~$0.5 labour cost per set, assembly line style factory labours). North America is lagging China for 3-5 years, and there's a clear gap we identified, but my take is that the window is shrinking and I have ~8-12 months of time to capture this.

Upcoming partnerships 1.5 months post-launch:

• Locked collabs with Equinox (dt flagship) in summer
• One of the most iconic nightclubs - still under discussion but high potential
• Signed an influencer (60k followers in Tiktok) for a co-branded drop - this is also more like a learning curve for me to learn how to execute a collab
• Developing NFC-chip embedded nails with location-sharing + contact exchange functionality (club use case), still in discussion. Seems like a fun project as I know a handful of top engineers, and it wouldn't be too hard to implement
• Have a few mentors in the space (>$100m DTC/Beauty founder) willing to hop on occasional calls

That said, still in the trenches:

• Meta ads/performance marketing launched too early - I relied on that too much and its not converting. Quickly moved in after 3 weeks realizing the seeding needs to happen thru in-person activation (I unfortunately have to live up to the PG quote " do things that don't scale"), thus all the brand partnerships listed above. I am trying to validate which ones convert the best then double down
• Budget is tight (~$10K)
• Should’ve pushed founder-led content earlier (TikTok/Reels) instead of hiding behind paid
• Ironically, I am a micro-influencer in China, landing brand deals with ease. But here in the startup/investor bubble, I hesitate with the fear of being cringe or “too much” when people know you IRL is very real. In China, no one knew me so I could be 100% myself.

Open questions:

• Has anyone built a premium consumer product that required market education? How did you crack the early GTM strategy?
• What’s your take on cold Meta ads for high-AOV products in a new category? Worth it, or a waste until brand story is in place?
• How would you approach community-building if you had 200 followers, no team, and 3 weeks to prove traction?
• Any feedback or strategic insights on fundraising is appreciated

If you’re in DTC, fashion, or beauty — or just curious — DM me. Always down to jam