An Interview With Eden Gold
Being self-aware of your skill gaps is also crucial. You don’t necessarily want to waste time in trying to become an expert in everything — you’re better off honing your existing strengths and skills. But just having that self-awareness means that you’ll be ready to hire people that are more skilled or experienced than you in those areas. That’s what will really propel your business to success.
The entrepreneurial landscape is more vibrant and challenging than ever, with young entrepreneurs at the forefront, driving innovation and redefining the boundaries of success in the business world. These dynamic individuals are not only creating new products and services but also building sustainable business models that thrive in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven environment. Their journeys are filled with lessons of resilience, strategic innovation, and the relentless pursuit of growth. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Nina Evangeli.
Nina Evangeli is the 27 year old founder and CEO of Desyr — a prominent clothing reviews platform. Based in London, UK, Nina is an impact-driven entrepreneur, with the current aim of reducing the significant amounts of waste generated by online returns and keeping clothes out of landfills. Her brand-building talents have helped to attract a fast-growing highly engaged community around her brand and achieve viral success discussing controversial topics like how often women should wash their bras.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about cultural sensitivity, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Growing up, I was never set on a specific career path. I recall being 8 years old and talking with my father about what I wanted to be when I was older. We settled on anything “-ist”, like a journalist or scientist, but I also had my sights set on being an author. During my A-Levels — which was the qualification between school GCSEs and university Bachelor degrees in the UK at the time — I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I kept my options open by studying English Language and Literature, Maths, Biology, and Psychology. When the time came to choose which degree I wanted to study at university, I still didn’t know what career I wanted to pursue. Each subject seemed too confining, so I chose the one I enjoyed most and believed would offer professional versatility — English Literature.
I have always been one to work, having had several jobs during my teens as a Receptionist in a gym, a Temp Worker for various London businesses, and a Student Ambassador at university. An internship at a cutting-edge SEO and digital marketing agency called Distilled gave me an insight into the exciting worlds of marketing and startups. When graduation approached, I applied for an SEO specialist role at the same agency. I’d always gotten pretty much every job I’d applied for, and as I’d had a successful internship there and they didn’t require experience, I thought I had it in the bag. But based on the questions they asked in the interview, I got the feeling that they didn’t think I would actually enjoy the role. Not long after, I got the rejection email. As much as it felt like a bit of a blow at the time, they were right, it wasn’t a good path for me and I’m so glad they never gave me that job.
While my peers were applying to grad schemes, I couldn’t stop thinking about a business idea I’d had since the age of 15, when fashion e-commerce first started to really take off. Considering the idea had been bouncing around at the back of my mind for around 6 years, I decided that now was the time to pursue it. I headed into the Enterprise office at my university and had a sit down with the officers, just to talk about how it would work. These conversations sparked something within me and I knew that this is what I had to do. The thought of graduating and falling into a 9–5 job that I wasn’t passionate about made me feel suffocated, while the idea of working on this venture set my soul on fire.
I think it’s also important to note that around this time, I lost a good friend of mine to mental health issues. It was a difficult time, but that particular friend had truly believed in my potential and pushed me to believe that I was capable of achieving anything. Life is short, so why not try? I set off researching and crafting a business plan. I soon realised that I was entering a whole new territory and felt quite out of my depth. I had never studied business and didn’t even know what the word “equity” meant. I was told that I could rely on business advisors and mentors to guide me, but I knew that it was important for me to build my own foundations of knowledge and experience. So, I studied a Master’s in Enterprise and Business Creation. This allowed me to work on my business concept and learn what it takes to run a business from all angles.
Graduating with distinction, I delved into my business full-time, supplementing my income with freelance work in social media marketing and copywriting.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
It probably has to be the time that I went viral for talking about how my friend only washes her bra once a year… Here’s the story.
In a girls group chat, we somehow got on the topic of how often we wash our bras. It’s not something that’s normally discussed, so it was interesting to hear everyone’s opinions. Bras are a tricky one, because you wear them against your skin and around your armpits, but equally, structured bras are usually expensive and can be quite delicate, so you shouldn’t necessarily wash them after every single wear. However, one of my friends said that she washed her bra about once a year… which was a bombshell revelation. I mean if we’re all being completely honest, none of us probably wash them as often as we’d probably like to admit, but that was a shocker.
So, I took to the @desyr.reviews Instagram stories to open the topic of bra washing up to a wider group of women. I explained the conversation we’d had in the group chat and how one of my friends — who will remain anonymous — opted for an annual cleanse. It was one of our most highly engaged stories ever. Everyone wanted to chip in with how often they washed their bras, with some saying every wear (that’s actually not recommended guys!) to others confessing that they couldn’t remember the last time they actually washed it.
I decided to take the debate to TikTok. The comments went wild, with some women saying it depends on the bra, some saying never, and others saying they just waited until it smelled. The story got picked up by national news publications and my face was plastered all over the Daily Mail, Indy 100, Newsweek, the Sun — it was even played and discussed on E! News. One entertaining headline read, “WHAT A BOOB Woman horrified after finding out friend only washes bra once a YEAR — you should be cleaning it far more often”. Some headlines decided to omit the term “friend” which unfortunately made it seem like I was the bra non-washer.
It was really exciting and helped to dramatically raise the profile of Desyr.
You are a successful individual. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I think that the trait most instrumental to my story so far has been resilience. I don’t believe this is something that you can get through reading books or taking a course, but something earned through life experience. Life isn’t easy, in fact it’s very hard. Through the knocks and setbacks that life inevitably delivers, I’ve learned that you just have to keep pushing through. For instance, being able to take negative feedback without allowing it to completely destroy your confidence or knock you down. Of course, it might not feel good when you first hear it, or even for a few days or weeks after, but that doesn’t mean you get off the horse. It means you get up, brush yourself off, and keep going.
Similarly to that is perseverance. The easiest thing in the world to do is to give up. But when you truly believe in yourself and the vision you have for your business, then you have to persevere. I often recall a cartoon of a man digging a tunnel in search of treasure. Discouraged by the lack of immediate results, he gives up, unaware that the treasure lay just ahead. He just had to keep digging for a little longer, but now he’ll never know just how close he was. A Jay-Z quote that I once read has also stuck with me, “The genius thing that we did was, we didn’t give up.” Sometimes, not giving up is the key to success.
Finally, I would say curiosity has a huge part to play. I am what you would call the jack of all trades, master of none. I love to experiment with new things and am constantly learning, whether it’s taking an intro to coding course, a masterclass in digital advertising, or listening to a podcast about entrepreneurship — I’m in a constant pursuit of self-improvement. Acknowledging that I may not always be the smartest person in the room is not a deterrent but a source of motivation, because it means I’m putting myself in the position to learn something that could help to make me a success.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview about young entrepreneurs secrets to rapid growth and success. To start, how would you define success?
That’s a tricky one. I don’t think that success is easily defined at all. For me, there isn’t a goal or end point that I’ll reach in which I’ll be “successful”. If anything, I think that success is a constant journey, where you may never truly arrive at a destination, and yet it’s the taking of that journey in the first place that makes you a success — does that make sense?
If I had to summarise it, success is being true to yourself, following your dreams and passions and just doing it. Starting and doing is what makes you a success, not necessarily finishing.
What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly contributed to your startup’s growth, and why do you think it was so effective?
When I started posting content on our socials that wasn’t just focused around promoting Desyr, we saw huge leaps in growth. This wasn’t just in terms of our following count, but also how many people clicked through to Desyr and signed up. Some examples of this would include the viral bra washing debate that I mentioned earlier, videos of me seeking help on how to style difficult-to-style items, as well as me poking fun at some of the wacky Zara campaigns.
The reason I think it worked is because people don’t always want to be sold to, especially on social media. People want to be educated or entertained and if they’re not getting that kind of value from your content, then they’re less likely to engage. Think about the Duolingo marketing strategy on TikTok, or the Beyond Meat strategy on Threads, they’re just having fun with their content in a way that engages followers with their brand without forcing sales down their throats. As a consumer, once you build a solid relationship with a brand, you’re far more likely to actually want to try their products or services.
With our viral content, people enjoyed the videos, clicked on our profile and saw that we were in fact a business, headed to our website and thought it was a brilliant idea — naturally — then decided to sign up. Though it might seem counter productive to create content that isn’t actually about your product or service, it’s actually a more organic way of driving traffic to your website and far more effective, in my experience.
Can you share a critical pivot point in your startup’s journey and how you navigated the decision-making process?
During my master’s in Enterprise and Business Creation, when I first started working on my original business concept, I went through a major pivot. The original idea was to create a sort of universal shopping cart, where you could check out from several websites all at once. Having conducted some thorough market research, I came to the conclusion that it probably wouldn’t work.
However, during this research, I realised just how many fashion e-commerce websites were lacking in reviews. I also knew that a lot of my friends liked to use reviews to check what the product looked like on a real customer and read their thoughts. So, rather than rely on fashion websites to have reviews — helpful reviews, at that — I decided to create an independent, community-driven platform that would be valuable to us as shoppers.
How do you balance the need for rapid growth with maintaining a sustainable and healthy company culture?
I believe that people are the most important asset to any company. I’m therefore very careful and selective about who I work with and who I invite to join the Desyr team. There are a few key traits I look out for, including a personal drive to succeed, a genuine belief in Desyr’s vision and purpose, and someone that takes initiative. I don’t want to be the kind of leader that dictates what everyone else is doing. I want our team to have autonomy over their work and the freedom to be creative in coming up with ideas and solutions to problems they encounter.
I also think that it’s incredibly important for them to fit into Desyr’s culture. They have to have the right attitude, mindset, and a shared set of values. They should be someone that can uplift the rest of the team and help to propel Desyr forward.
These traits aren’t so clear cut as a list of skills and experiences you’d typically get on a CV. It’s often just down to speaking with someone a few times and listening to your gut instinct.
In what ways has your personal definition of success evolved since the inception of your startup?
Great question! When I first set out, my idea of success was to be leading a company that was well-known and was having a positive impact on the world. It was still a pretty hazy concept, but I could envision myself in that leadership role, with a great team and product, I had “made it”.
Now when I look back, I know that success was starting. Success was doing. Success was going to every meeting. Success was pushing forward even when I didn’t feel like it. Success was hearing “no” and facing rejection, then carrying on anyway. Success is actually failing, believe it or not, because every time I fail at something, no matter how small, I learn something that means I can do better next time.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Things You Need to Succeed as a Young Person in Business?”
1 . Resilience
I mentioned it before as a character trait that I think has helped me in business and I really believe that it’s something every young person needs if they want to succeed in business. You are going to be rejected, you are going to be told no, you are going to hear constructive criticism. If you can’t handle that and listen to the feedback you’re given, then you won’t get very far. You don’t need to take on all feedback, because everyone is going to have different perspectives that may contradict one another. It’s your responsibility to sort through and decide what to take on, and what to move on from. However, you need to acknowledge that you have an ego and that it needs to be put aside.
2 . Self-awareness
Self-awareness is key to succeeding in business, as being able to reflect on your character, strengths, weaknesses, words, and actions will help you to grow as a leader and entrepreneur. For example, if you were to get into a disagreement with somebody, are you able to own up to and take responsibility for your own part to play? If you are, great. It means that next time you’ll be less likely to make the same mistakes. Being self-aware of your own weaknesses as a leader means that you can work on them.
Being self-aware of your skill gaps is also crucial. You don’t necessarily want to waste time in trying to become an expert in everything — you’re better off honing your existing strengths and skills. But just having that self-awareness means that you’ll be ready to hire people that are more skilled or experienced than you in those areas. That’s what will really propel your business to success.
3 . Good leadership qualities
As much as we’d like to believe that our leaders have the answers to everything, they don’t. I truly believe that leaders aren’t there to just dictate to a passive and receptive team. If anything, I believe that a leader should open up the floor to hear from everybody, to get a diverse set of ideas and perspectives. A good leader will take all of this into consideration, then be able to sift through and determine the best path to take for the best possible outcome.
4 . Empathy
In today’s world, having empathy is one of the most important things you’ll need to succeed in business. It’s simply about being able to put yourself into someone else’s shoes to see things from their perspective. This will help you to build strong and lasting relationships, as well as high-functioning teams that can communicate effectively with one another. Empathy also plays a role in sales and marketing, because it allows you to understand your customers’ pain points. With a true and genuine level of empathy towards them, you’ll know the right solution and be able to speak directly to the issues you’re solving for them.
5 . A network
I have come to learn that the age old saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is true. I graduated from my master’s degree and before I knew it, the world went into lockdown during a global pandemic. I thought this would be a great time to get my head down and work away on the business, and while we did make excellent progress with the product and traction, I found that my lack of network was a huge limitation.
I had virtually no professional contacts, and of those I had made, they weren’t necessarily in the right industries. Since then, I’ve learned to push myself out of my comfort zone and attend networking events to meet new people. I’ve found it to be a really cathartic experience and it has been so inspiring to meet so many people from all walks of life, succeeding in what they do. Knowing the right people does make a world of difference.
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring entrepreneur that you wish someone had given you at the start of your journey?
Stop caring what other people think. In fact, I did have people telling me that, from people on business podcasts, to my own friends, but it took me a while to truly learn and understand. I held myself back for quite some time from the fear of what others would think of me. People I hadn’t even spoken to in years!
Once you can get over the fear of judgement of others, you’ll start that business, you’ll start that social media page, you’ll start posting on LinkedIn — then that’s when your growth truly begins. It might not happen overnight, but every small step that you take to overcome the ‘cringe’ of just doing it will be a step in the right direction. Before you know it, you’ll be getting customers, followers, or whatever metric it is that you’re measuring, and it will no longer be ‘cringe’. The same people who ‘cringed’ at you will be the ones coming to congratulate you and tell you how cool your business is, now that it’s a success. Just believe in yourself, because that’s all that actually matters.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would love to see far more women entrepreneurs receiving funding from investors. In 2023, female-founded US companies received just 2% of VC funding. There are still so many investor biases against female founders that we need to unlearn, whether they’re conscious or subconscious. I don’t have the answers, but it’s definitely an area I’d love to see us band together for change.
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can follow:
My personal Instagram — @ninaevangeli
My personal TikTok — @ninaevangeli
My personal LinkedIn
Desyr’s Instagram — @desyr.reviews
Desyr’s TikTok — @desyr.reviews
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Eden Gold, is a youth speaker, keynote speaker, founder of the online program Life After High School, and host of the Real Life Adulting Podcast. Being America’s rising force for positive change, Eden is a catalyst for change in shaping the future of education. With a lifelong mission of impacting the lives of 1 billion young adults, Eden serves as a practical guide, aiding young adults in honing their self-confidence, challenging societal conventions, and crafting a strategic roadmap towards the fulfilling lives they envision.
Do you need a dynamic speaker, or want to learn more about Eden’s programs? Click here: https://bit.ly/EdenGold
Startup Savvy: Nina Evangeli Of Desyr Shares Their Secrets For Rapid Growth and Success was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.