For This Young Entrepreneur, The Fate Of Engagement Rings Rests In Lab-Grown Diamonds

(forbes.com) - Vanessa Stofenmacher is accustomed to feeling like an outsider. When she launched her Los Angeles-based startup Vrai & Oro in April 2014, she was a twenty-something soft-spoken blonde with no background in jewelry. The FORBES 30 Under 30 honoree was trying to break into an industry where most business owners have a network of connections and many generations of experience behind them. With merely $8,000 in seed money from her husband, who works in real estate, Stofenmacher and cofounder Chelsea Nicholson turned Vrai & Oro into a $3 million business in 2016. Last month, Stofenmacher launched VOW (Vrai & Oro Weddings), a line of engagement rings, wedding bands and promise rings that are consistent with Vrai & Oro’s minimalist design perspective and Warby Parker-esque business model. The rings are traditional–round, emerald and oval-cut solitaires, some with side stones and others with pavé bands–with one big exception: the diamonds aren’t mined from the earth, but instead are grown in California labs. This innovation makes Stofenmacher a disruptor in a powerful heritage industry.