When someone taps you on the shoulder to lead a start-up as CEO, what do you do? According to Simone Kendle, this moment was a clear sign from God that she was ready for the next level of growth in her career, so she was up for the challenge. Simone joined the digital custom jewelry start-up, Wove, in October 2023. While currently in the seed stage, Wove is already seeing rapid growth under Simone’s leadership.
A graduate of the highly prestigious business school, Wharton, Simone is the epitome of a girl’s girl with a serial entrepreneurial spirit. Throughout most of her career, she worked in financial services while simultaneously co-founding and scaling Venita Hair Boutique and beauty-tech start-up Parfait. Simone is what many would consider an “OG” beauty influencer and guru. Women all over the world found their confidence through her brand, so when she left the beauty industry to become CEO of a custom jewelry start-up, I had to find out why.
What led to your transition from the beauty industry to custom jewelry? How are you adjusting to the new role?
Simone: When presented with the opportunity to join and lead Wove, it was this moment of like, okay, God. This is the next step up. The impetus of the move was that God said, “This is next,” and I obeyed. The business was doing well but had room to grow. I was excited to take on the new challenge.
I joined the business last October (2023). It has been a really interesting and crazy seven months. The first three months were the standard understanding of the team and business—what’s going well, what’s not going well, and what’s next—so I spent the first three months doing that and also learning jewelry terms, which was a new thing for me.
In adjusting to the role and when researching the business before I joined, I noticed so many synergies between what I was doing at Parfait and what I’d be doing at Wove. Both businesses offer custom-made items that have to source materials from global markets, bring them to the U.S. to be manufactured, manage an e-commerce experience in the U.S., and then build a brand that disrupts an industry. At Parfait, I learned a lot of those ins and outs, so I brought those lessons to Wove. I was actually able to pick up on things really quickly because I had those transferable skills from Parfait and Capital One. This role allows me to tap into a lot of my experiences. It has been a great transition!
What do you enjoy most about being the CEO of Wove?
Simone: I love my team. I love leading teams. I love coaching people. The most enjoyable parts of my day are helping them think through ideas, pushing the needle on what’s possible, and celebrating wins together.
This is the first time I can block my calendar and actually say that I’m getting my hair braided. Little moments like that happen with this team all the time. I want them to take time for themselves and let me know when they’re getting close to burnout. I am so happy to be in a space where I can create an environment of psychological safety but also a results-driven environment.
There’s no judgment around failures, so everyone is so much more open to being creative and thinking outside the box. I do think a lot of the great things that are happening are because everyone has an owner’s mindset and everyone feels safe and secure to speak their mind and bring their entire selves to work.
We love how you keep it real in your #ADayInTheLifeOfAStartUpCEO posts on Instagram. Tell us more about what your day-to-day as CEO looks like.
Simone: During the day, it’s a ton of context-switching. There are a lot of meetings and check-ins. I could have an interview like this at 9 a.m., then have a call with an investor about quarterly projections, and then I could have a call with my operations manager about manufacturing or redesigning a piece. There are so many different things.
There’s a bit of travel. I live in Dallas. My workshop is in Lancaster, PA, where we have three employees, and then I have a set of employees who work remotely, so I’m managing a remote team, and I try to visit Lancaster at least once a month.
As a CEO, you are fundamentally responsible for every single part of your business. You don’t need to know everything, but you do need to know enough to question and give advice.
In the midst of it all, how are you maintaining a work-life balance?
Simone: Having routines and understanding how you individually cope with stress is so important. While I was at Parfait, I never turned off my brain, and that sucked out every single ounce of joy with my family. Even when I was physically there, mentally, I was not. You cannot handle stress like that. How does stress impact you as an individual, and then how are you going to create routines around what works for you?
My thing is being very present and aware of my pace all the time, making sure I’m checking in, and being self-aware about where I’m going. My natural state is very fast-paced, thinking about 10 things at once, but that is not a good way to lead, communicate, and make decisions, so I started to slow down and be thoughtful about my mornings.
When I have my daughter, Kaia, I try not to have meetings while spending time with her. I don’t double-book Kaia time. It helps me disconnect and reminds me that there is more to life than whatever is on that spreadsheet.
I started recognizing the Sabbath, focused on not double booking Kaia’s time, and removed the guilt from not working till 10 or 11 o’clock at night. Those are my go-to methodologies around how to operate in my day, which gets me to the mindset of being the overproducer that I know I can be and who I strive to be every single day.
Once you close your laptop, what are some things you do to decompress and wind down after a long day of responsibilities as CEO?
Simone: I death scroll on TikTok just like everybody else! My TikTok feed is full of beautiful black beauty influencers, lots of affirmation content, a little bit of marketing content to keep me fresh, and cooking content. When I’m death scrolling, I think about why it feels so nice, and it’s because no one is asking Simone something. I’m now the consumer. I don’t have to think about orchestrating or making a decision. Now I get to sit back, like, and laugh, which cuts through my stress.
On Kaia’s days, I just love doing girly things with her. We’ll go get our nails done, we’ll go out to eat, and we just talk and kee kee. I love the decompression time with her. I’m excited to see how she grows and develops. It’s not easy all the time, but I love it.
I no longer isolate myself to the work. At Parfait, I was the one with the laptop at Christmas dinner. Now, I really prioritize friendships that live outside of “mommy” me or “CEO” me. Even if I can’t get to dinner with a girlfriend, I will do FaceTime dates with them, grab a glass of wine, and talk about life. I have one tonight. We’re all busy, so I’m bringing FaceTime dates back from the pandemic. I’m a huge fan of FaceTime dates with the people you care about. It’s truly a distresser.
Women (especially women of color) are often underrepresented and underfunded when it comes to launching a start-up or business. What advice would you give to these women?
Simone: Step 1: Define your own destiny, and that can come in a few different forms. For example, you can launch a brand pre-product by creating a community online around a particular topic, problem, or necessity. Build traction around who cares, what they like, and what they don’t like. Use them as your beta testers to understand what you should build to begin with. They will give you so much data. That takes zero dollars. All it takes is your time and dedication. Now you know the problem and have the information you need to build the solution.
Step 2: You’ve got the audience and the problem, and you know that you can build the solution, but you need dollars to build the solution. Seek out non-dilutive capital such as grants, pitch competitions, money from family, donations, or small business accelerators while working your 9-to-5 to fund your life until you can make enough money with your business to move forward.
Step 3: Take your community and non-dilutive capital and sell the f out of a product. Sell it to a specific type of person, a big client, or a mini version at a discounted rate. Show traction and show that people are willing to give you money. The best thing you can do is hit a revenue milestone with the resources you have to show that there is potential for exponential growth. Quite frankly, all of that should be done before taking on any traditional VC (venture capital) or institutional capital. You don’t even have to move to the next step of VC. You can just do steps one to three. I’m a fan of steps one through three, especially for women of color right now.
Step 4: Be really honest about what it’s going to take, the resources, and the network you need to make it happen. Be really thoughtful about why you’re raising venture capital and ask yourself if you really need it. Being profitable in a start-up is extremely rare and difficult, especially in the first few years of business.
Conclusion. To keep up with Simone, check her out on Instagram, where she gives sneak peeks into her life as a mom, beauty lover, and start-up CEO. For your high-quality custom jewelry needs, visit Wove.
