Ella Stein

Ella Stein sells real diamond jewellery starting at around $89, which sounds impossible until you understand where the stones come from. When an engagement ring is cut, a large share of the rough diamond is normally discarded. The brand sorts and uses those offcuts. Everything is made with certified recycled sterling silver and conflict-free stones, and the whole operation is vertically integrated, from design and raw materials through metalwork and handcrafting at their own facility in Mumbai. Since 2017, they've put over 500 women artisans into paid work there. The founder, Adi Choksi, grew up around his family's diamond manufacturing business. The brand is named after his daughter, with "Stein" meaning stone. They sell direct to consumers online and stock through independent jewellers across the US. The Shopify store is the centre of that, and a partner team has owned it since 2020. The full build, the ongoing development, and everything the store has needed since. What makes this one worth reading is the length of it. Six years is a long time to keep a retail client. Sale periods and festive seasons are where jewellery brands make their year, and each one means changes going onto a live store that's taking orders while the work happens. Getting that wrong on the wrong weekend is expensive. The relationship has held through six years of those weekends, and the same team is still handling new work on the account today. Closing line for the card: This is what I mean when I say I know which teams stick around. Six years with one client isn't a case study; it's a track record.