Best friends and business partners Daniella Yacobovsky and Amy Jain founded the popular jewelry and accessories brand BaubleBar back in 2011.
The direct-to-consumer (DTC) company is known for cheeky jewelry items, ranging from earrings to customizable charm bracelets, featuring charms like martini glasses to charcuterie boards. In recent years, BaubleBar has extended its assortment of stock-keeping units (SKUs) to include products like phone cases, hair brushes, and blankets.
In addition to the company’s site, BaubleBar has over 7,500 points of distribution across 25 countries. In the US, it has partnerships with several major big-box retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, and Target, which carries an exclusive Sugarfix by BaubleBar line.
Twelve years post-launch, BaubleBar’s co-founders have maintained a strong professional and personal relationship and have built up the brand to unprecedented heights.
From baubles to baseball
In addition to the brand’s accessibility via multiple vendors and its versatile price points, BaubleBar has another unique point differentiation that helps it stand out from other accessory companies in the market – its licensing partnerships.
BaubleBar has created multiple lines of themed products with entertainment studios including Disney and Warner Brothers and sports corporations like the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the Women’s National Basketball Association.
Accessories for female sports fans were an underrepresented market for both sports merchandise and the jewelry industries. Both longtime BaubleBar fans and those unfamiliar with the brand were delighted to finally find earrings and other baubles that represented the support they had for their teams.
In 2023, licensed products accounted for approximately 15 per cent of BaubleBar’s total sales. Data from the brand also showed that over 65 per cent of customers who purchased a licensed product added on at least one or more items from the company’s non-licensed collections.
Best friends turned business partners
Yacobovsky and Jain met while working their first job post-college as analysts at the investment banking company UBS. A colleague introduced the two to one another, noting that they shared the same birth date.
Upon meeting, the would-be entrepreneurs immediately formed a close connection and would later discover many more similarities with one another, including a drive to run their own business.
Yacobovsky and Jain ended up going to Harvard Business School together and, as Yacobovsky recalled, it was “while we were in business school that we came up with the idea for BaubleBar. We were two people who loved accessories and felt that there was an opportunity to design an incredible assortment [of products] that was data-driven and truly brought joy and optimism to the forefront.”
At the same time, as they looked at the market, the co-founders realized there were few, if any companies, that created non-corporate, accessible jewelry designs for the young, professional woman. They wanted to fill the white space in the market and while in business school, Yacobovsky and Jain built up their brand-building acumen through multiple field studies and formed connections with their peers, some of whom would end up working with them at BaubleBar.
Upon graduating, Yacobovsky said, “We packed up a U-haul and moved back to New York and started the company in earnest together.”
The co-founder noted how rare it is to find a business partner with whom you can build a strong personal relationship and continue running a company over a decade after launching.
Yacobovsky recounted, “When we started Bauble Bar, we were in very different places in our lives. We were in our twenties, we did not have children, and we weren’t married.”
Settling down and starting their own families while running a business has not only changed their lifestyles, she said, but also their personal aesthetics and approach to product design and development.
Yacobovsky pointed to BaubleBar’s popular engagement-themed pieces like “Bride” hoop earrings, kids’ hair and jewelry items for wearers like Jain’s own daughters, and blankets for consumers like Yacobovsky’s own boys who aren’t the quintessential BaubleBar enthusiast.
Having a diverse range of product offerings for consumers of varying aesthetics and ages who are experiencing different stages of life, from college to motherhood and more, is key to the brand’s success, Yacobovsky mused.
Moving forward into 2024, the co-founder hinted that there will be more new category launches as well as more experiential shopping events for consumers to try out products and interact with fellow bauble enthusiasts.
