From her soft voice and understated stylishness, you might not suspect fashion entrepreneur Avid Larizadeh of being a techie. But before co-founding online jewelry boutique Boticca, Larizadeh majored in telecommunications engineering at Stanford. She created the major herself. "It combines electrical, industrial and aeronautical engineering," she explains in her offices above London's bustling Covent Garden, where bags and bangles decorate the shelves. "I didn't want to do something too theoretical."
Boticca, launched in October 2010, provides a practical way for individual designers all over the world to sell their work. "They make beautiful things, but they can't distribute them," she says. Larizadeh's team seeks out designers and connects them to customers looking for unique jewelry and accessories. The site sells high-end pieces by more than 200 artists from countries as disparate as Finland and Korea. Though the objects—Belgian gypsy handbags, necklaces of sailing cord made in Milan, feathered ear cuffs from an Estonian designer—are diverse, they share one characteristic: "If you're wearing that piece, you can tell the story behind it," says Larizadeh, picking up a fantastical bead-encrusted bracelet inspired by the dreams of London-based designer Algis Abromaitis of Jolita Jewellery.
Larizadeh herself has quite a story. Her parents fled the 1979 Iranian Revolution and joined relatives in Texas, where Avid was born. The family then relocated to France to be near her grandparents. Avid grew up in Paris, aware of how fates can shift. "My family had to leave Iran and start everything from scratch because of the revolution. In order to survive you have to create."
She studied high-tech entrepreneurship as a Mayfield fellow at Stanford, while taking art and photography classes, too. After earning a master's in management science and engineering from Stanford, attending Harvard Business School and honing her investing skills at Accel Partners in London, Larizadeh founded Boticca with Kiyan Foroughi. The startup rapidly caught the attention of investors; this past May, Boticca secured $2.5 million in funding.
At its core, Boticca is a way to help people become mini-entrepreneurs themselves. She cites Estonian designer Krista Raak, who makes embroidered jewelry. In three months of selling on Boticca, she made $10,000 and sold to 12 different countries, Larizadeh says. "To see that happen to someone, especially because the things she creates are so beautiful, is really rewarding."
Sonia Van Gilder Cooke is a London-based journalist who writes for Slate.
