Kendra Scott has a lot to celebrate.
Her Kendra Scott jewelry business continues to open new stores and expand strategically, including collabs with Dolly Parton and the creation of Kendra Scott eyewear. The mom of three also launched Yellow Rose, a lifestyle brand that sells Texas-inspired fashion, including western-style jewelry, cowboy hats, and boots.
Plus, her personal life now has its own share of sparkle: she recently got engaged to country superstar Zac Brown.
A Year of Change and Surprises
Kendra Scott has kept her company private and retained majority control since its beginnings nearly 23 years ago. She served as CEO until 2021, when she assumed the role of executive chairwoman. But earlier this year, a few key C-suite executives left the company, and Scott has stepped back in as interim CEO.
“We’re taking it day by day,” Scott says of the change. “Even though I was chairwoman, I was really engaged and involved day-to-day in the business. And so, really, not a lot has changed being back right now in the CEO seat.”
“Our company right now is in such a great place. Morale is at an all-time high. Everyone is so excited about where we’re headed.”
Morale is also high in Scott’s personal life. After three marriages that ended in divorce, this new chapter was unexpected.
“I think I started thinking that maybe I would never find love again. And that changed this year, meeting Zac. And that it’s never too late and, you know, to not give up hope of finding that love, that one true love.”
How Kendra Scott, A College Drop Out, Charted Her Own Path
When Kendra Scott launched her jewelry business in 2002, she wasn’t thinking about building a namesake empire. “I was in my extra bedroom in my house, and I made a business card that was my name, Kendra Scott, jewelry designer,” she recalls.
“And people just started referring to it as Kendra Scott Jewelry. And I was like, ‘well that kind of has stuck’.”
Scott started in 2002 with $500 in materials, focusing on creating affordable jewelry with semi-precious stones that had a more high-end feel. She was in her late 20s, newly married, and her son Cade was just a few months old.
Previously, she had dropped out of college at 19 and opened a brick-and-mortar hat store inspired by her stepfather and his battle with cancer. That business shut down after five years, and she decided to approach this next venture a bit differently.
“I wasn’t out there promoting it because I thought people would laugh at me.”
This time, she was determined to do everything possible to make it work.
“Each sale led to another one. And I would be in those stores, doing trunk shows and making sure the product was successful. If a product wasn’t working, I was going to switch it out for them.”
The Slow, Bumpy Beginning
Today, nearly 170 Kendra Scott jewelry stores can be found in malls across the country. But at first, Scott was only selling to wholesalers and retail partners. “My first Nordstrom order, we shipped off of my dining room table. They had no idea how little I still was.”
From there, things moved quickly. Scott transitioned the business from her home to a studio. In 2004, she welcomed a second son, Beck. Two years later, Scott and her first husband divorced.
“I was a single mom for much of their life… I had the pack-and-play in my design studio with them. When they would go to preschool, I would just work my tail off until I picked them up, and then I’d bring them back to the design studio with me.“
For the first ten years of the business, she struggled to get outside investors. “If you weren’t a tech startup, venture capital funds or angel investors really just didn’t have any interest… There were just so many doors that slammed.”
During this time, one mentor gave her crucial advice: “Build the best business you can build, keep your head down, and reinvest every dollar you can. Make it count. And when you build the right business, they will come.”
From The Recession To a One Billion Dollar Valuation
The 2008 recession forced Scott to look at her business differently.
“I realized that all my eggs were in these other baskets where I had no control. The power of having that interaction direct to my customer, I had given to everybody else,” Scott recalls. “And so we opened our first retail store.”
“The recession actually was the greatest gift Kendra Scott, the brand, ever got… I call ’em shake-the-snow-globe moments. It shakes everything up. And for me, when I look in the rear view mirror of my business, every time that’s happened, the business has gone to a bigger place.”
Scott landed her first outside investor in 2012. She continued to grow the business, opening more retail stores. In 2016, a private equity firm invested in Kendra Scott, valuing the company at $1 billion.
Kendra Scott: Passing Along What She’s Learned
Along with family and fashion, philanthropy is one of the pillars of Scott’s business. Her philosophy, inspired by her stepfather, is clear: “Do good first. Sell jewelry second.”
In 2019, she helped create the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at The University of Texas, creating opportunities for the next generation of female entrepreneurs. While she doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree, she completed a rigorous entrepreneurial master’s program at MIT and occasionally teaches at her institute at the University of Texas.
But her most important students now are her three sons: Cade, 23, Beck, 21, and Grey, 12.
Scott is determined to give each of her sons a healthy work ethic and understanding of money. As teenagers, she insisted that her two older sons get jobs. They worked at a local car wash.
“They’d come home covered in sweat and suds, but they were so proud of themselves because they had their own money,” she says. “And if they wanted something, I was like, well, you can, you can work for that.”
She has also made it clear that even though their mom is a successful businesswoman, they will need to build their own career and earn their own money.
She has told them, “I will be here as your biggest fan and your biggest cheerleader. I’ll be here to help you think things through and give you as much support as I can. But you’ve got to do this on your own, and you’re going to be so proud of what you achieve when you do that on your own.”
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